Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration, motivation, and a pinch of creativity. The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails. Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.

If you don't create change, change will create you. Change starts when someone sees the next step and the first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance. Many fine things can be done in a day if you don't always make that day tomorrow. You see, in life, lots of people know what to do, but few people actually do what they know. Knowing is not enough! You must take action.

Sometimes it's the smallest decisions with larger aims that can change the lives of many. If our attempts can at least become a spark. We are really grateful and the TEAM can proudly proclaim ‘MISSION ACCOMPLISHED’.

If you can LEND A HELPING HAND for the advancement of our country and its people be part of our ENDEAVOR.


Saturday, July 10, 2010

Why History keeps repeating itself ?


The ill crafted legacy of deprivation and resentment



By: Arjun.R. Shankar & Jacob Oommen Arikupuram


Wise says that chronologically and geographically ‘History repeats itself’, this seems to us like an old age adage. The veracity and authenticity is well proved with the passage of time. Again in the public domain of India as a threat, history repeats itself making all the prophecies true.

Prime minister of India terms this as the ‘biggest internal security threat’ that the country is facing. This has really affected the whole internal domain of India. The situation has really gone out of all reasonable levels of tolerance and limits. These misguided ideologues are obsessed with their so called ultra left romantic notion of violence to smash the system.


Changing nomenclature of the Maoist has raised serious concerns among the people of this country.

Week after week they are unleashing violence killing civilians and officers of the paramilitary. Repeated attacks of such magnitude bears the testimony of their wanton disregard to human lives flouting the country’s guiding principles.


The ideology and the movement have spread rampantly at an alarming rate across different states. The area under operation has increased tremendously.

This is nothing but the real reflection of the truth that millions of people across our country are exploited. In all these places what happens is ‘collective mobilization of inequality’.

As of June 2010 The Indian Govt. has identified 83 districts our country as the most Naxal sensitive areas spanning the different states of Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Andhra Pradesh making it the Compact Revolutionary Zone (CRZ).

Since 2005, 1441 Naxalites have been killed, 1647 civilians and 189 security causalities have been reported.

The main scapegoats of all these sponsored crimes are the poor tribal’s of the land who have been ruthlessly exploited and deprived of their basic life and livelihoods. The story revolves around them. This is not the first incident in history that the tribal’s are displaced and exploited. This has the historical element and has the ill crafted legacy of deprivation and resentment.


HISTORICAL RECONSTRUCTION

Tribals have been here around us since the origin of society. They always had a central role in this, though some of them were socially excluded. Since time immemorial they had been subjected to gross exploitation. Since then they had learned to rise against these forces. Tribal uprisings and resentments are not new in our soil. That has happened and is still continuing. They were oppressed during the period of King Siddharaja Jayasimha and of course during the British regime.

History tells us that since 1770’s they had been fighting relentlessly against injustice. The Sanyasis, Kuka, kukis, Santhals, Pahariyas, Khasis are all examples of calibrated uprisings against the oppressors. With the passage of time the socio political climate has considerably changed, but the victims at the receiving end remains the same. Only the oppressors have changed.

Their virtual privation has always helped them to garner unparalleled energy, will and endurance to fight until the last.


Success Component:


In almost all the rebellions and uprisings the success factor rested with an iconic and towering leader who could muster the support and mobilize people to wreak havoc and tremors at the door of the oppressors.

When we flip the coin of history we see leaders who had fought for the tribal’s as well as for their individual gains.

In one sense it is clear that, those who fought for their grievances exploited the poor tribal’s. History proves this well beyond doubt. The iconic king of kottayam

‘ kerala varma Pazhassi Raja’ fought against the British to settle the score of his personal grievance. He used the deprived tribals as his fuel. But at the end The great king definitely had the greater colour of patriotism.

Similarly the Maoists craft their agendas with precision by using the poor deprived tribal’s by ill motivating and indoctrinating them.

N.B: never confuse the Naxals with the tribal’s. Both their aspirations and needs are different.




Political hostility

Weaknesses of the concerned state institutions, abuse of power, gross negligence, utter discontent, structural inequalities and commercial exploitation in these CRZ Compact Revolutionary Areas , has caused aggravated the conditions of the tribals.


Social and Administrative angle

Social discontent was indeed the prime reason along with the corrupt actions and atrocities committed by the officials, police, Forest Dept., timber mafia, money lenders etc.

The formation of Salwa Judum enabling the civilians to fight for the state lies completely outside the realm of legal and constitutional methods.

Large scale mining is one of the biggest reason. The CRZ forest belts are extremely rich in minerals like Bauxite, Limestone, Coal etc.

A recent report says that 1% of the mining contribution to GDP displaces three to four times more people than all development projects put together.

Maoist extremism in many areas is due to this large scale ravaging of natural resources.

Many successive policies and programmes for the tribals are not properly implemented due to malign actions of the bureaucrats.


Foreign interest and patronage

The meticulous planning and audacious executions by the Maoists reflects the genius of their system. These people have access to latest weapons and technologies which is corroborated by the magnitude of various attacks. They have access to sophisticated weapons and technologies which can’t be handled by the illiterate tribal’s. There is certainly a foreign patronage.

Changing Targets-------South India under the scanner



The targets have changed. As the ground realities suggest Gujarat has high chance to absorb this menace.

South India is definitely under the scanner. Kerala for example witnessed a heavy migration of workers from West Bengal, Bihar, Chhattisgarh etc at a cheaper wage in the recent times.

This can be an attempt to spread their ideologies and prepare for a future uprising.

Or this can be positive sign as they are the people who have broken the deadlock of stigma, poverty by working and earning money for their family.

These people should be brought under the scanner to avert a future crisis.


POSSIBLE SOUTIONS AND THEIR SCOPE

Always aim for a long term and permanent solution rather going for a short term solution. India as a country took many haste and abrupt decisions to meet many problems.

We need a long term and sustainable solution. But people are very cynical about these as they perceive such solutions as impractical and insensitive.


  • Bring them to the negotiating Table: India’s Home Minister Mr. P. Chidambaram has asked them to abjure violence to create the necessary atmosphere to discuss their problem. But their violent and brutal killings never qualify them for that.

They had proved that violence is centre to their ideology. Such a move should be viewed critically as they could use this tactic to buy time or divert the attention of the state to reinforce them.

  • Giving them development ?

Many of the people and even the govt. of this country in its two pronged strategy aims to give them development. But the larger question is whether it is feasible to give them development at such a vulnerable stage.

That would be the failure of the govt. and democracy by succumbing to the pressure of a group. This would definitely send wrong signals and set a wrong standard. It will prove that armed rebellions are the good way to achieve demands. We cannot deter other groups as they will also resort to violent and aggressive methods. Jharkhand was carved out after a series of hue and cry by armed pressure. But till now the state has not achieved stability.

These people should be brought to the mainstream the social condition and background doesn’t seem to be favorable for them to reap the benefits of development.


  • Should we give them Infrastructure facilities ?

It is a ground reality that there are no doctors, hospitals, schools, roads for the people.

The moot question is “can the problem be solved by giving all this?”

Here comes the clash of ideologies. The wants and aspirations of the Maoists and the tribal’s are different. The biggest irony is that innumerable schools, hospitals roads have been destroyed by these people.

They kill the doctors, blast the roads, and make the schools as their camps.

The real aspirations and wants of the people cannot be met unless the Maoists are isolated from them.

TOUGHEST THING is to separate the ill motivated and the indoctrinated tribal’s from the blood thirsty revolutionaries and win the confidence of the tribal’s.


Game changing equations---- conditionally feasible

  • The magic bullet solution is to separate the ill motivated and the indoctrinated tribal’s from the blood thirsty revolutionaries and win the confidence of the tribal’s.

The people should stop seeing the govt. as tyrant and oppressor.

For this the govt. should do its maximum.

The tribal’s are inputs and fuel of the Maoists. That should be severed.

The govt. should effectively implement the Surrender cum rehabilitation programme along with Effective rehabilitation to people displaced by mining and other activities.

Encourage them to come forward and avail govt. help. Only then the option of developmental activities can proceed as there will be a conducive atmosphere.


  • Give them EDUCATION---- or else no development schemes can give them benefits as long as they remain illiterate. If they are not empowered more and more exploitation will take place and will lead to other future uprisings.

This becomes a paradox to the statement of District Magistrate of Dantewada Reena Kangale who said “what they need is state support to their traditional livelihood and not roads and electricity for that matter education”. Without education nothing is possible for them. Unless and until they don’t get empowered nothing is going to happen.

· Ensure effective implementation of Forest Act 2009, Scheduled Tribes and Other forest dwellers Act, 2006 and policies like Integrated Tribal Development Programme, Gram Sampark Yojana etc.

Institutionalize the panchayati raj system with more people centric programmes.

This is an internal threat emanating from our own soil and is dangerous than the external threat. The whole issue is a reflection of the fury and sense of outrage that the tribal’s carry in their heart.

This definitely underscores the pathetic situations of the tribal’s and the hiatus that exist between the govt.

The whole issue presents the living manifestation of disastrous negligence.

Convincing is a slow and gradual process and the need of the hour is to make a conducive atmosphere by maintaining strict law and order in the infested areas.

The CRPF should be strengthened to meet the standards to avert any future attack.

We should continuously foil their dreaded plots.

There should be a clarion call for modernization and speedy legislations of the concerned strategic systems in accordance with the changing gravity of the problem. Or else the causalities will keep increasing. It’s better to take speedy decisions

Rather than taking a dawdling step making the issue catastrophic resulting in loss of many more lives.

It’s high time to adopt confidence building measures rather than just paying lip service.

We need positive action and an amicable solution. As this has become cancerous, bloodless solutions are difficult.

The priority is to minimize the causalities….

Development is always the first priority. The larger question that pop’s up is “why are the poor and the tribal’s paying the social cost while the affluent are virtually given a clean chit”?

Wasn’t the Socialist Democratic India set up by ‘we the people of India’ to protect the interest of its people ? ……



13 comments:

  1. Intelligent article,tries to get somewhere instead of just bringing the issue up and mourning about it.
    However,I am of the opinion that building trust is a long term process. The immeadiate thing to do now would be to focus on military action and prompt crackdowns..

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  2. @ akash

    building trust is indeed an issue lying in the cards. definitely its a long term process and is a feasible solution.
    but exterminating them from their soil will definitely invite international condemnation and it will evolve as a humanitarian crisis.
    even deploying the army would question the credibility of India and will send strong signals to the international community. then India will get reduced to the position of countries like Pakistan who are using their army to tackle their law and order problems.
    we need a massive transformation and a reorientation of ethos in the CRPF to tackle the Blood thirsty attacks. this will be front channel approach. In the mean while we can restore the trust and think of the tribal's upliftment and development through the Back channel.

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  3. Just for argument's sake, let's consider the Maoists' point of view. Our current government can be seen as something similar to the British regime because of policy measures favouring the rich (and I don't just mean the incumbent one). Proof? Increasing number of dollar billionaires and poor people. Peaceful methods have been employed numerous times before but were of no avail. Suppose then they can actually be seen as "Gandhians With Guns". If people have a problem accepting that term, then would the same people call Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, et al terrorists?

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  4. dear friend Gandhian were never with guns that whole term is absurd. even in the case of bhagat singh an sukhdev the were never against the common people we cant see them never derailing a train!"violence cant achieve a thing my dear a thing,what we get through violence would be lost soon in another act f violence ...."
    And here, who ever is helping the Maoist be it ISI or China(its no longer just a resistance f the exploited) ,its against the long term interest f the country be it ruled by democratic govt or Maoist .they have less interest in the welfare f India than our current govt,no doubt.
    Of course here government was not that a success as it cant improve the conditions f the poorest f the poor as desired .. but rise in the number of billionaires aren't a measure dear..how can you find greater the number f billionaires from a country more failure the government???( till now i thought there was a direct relation)....

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  5. The Maoists are not against the common people either, but there are civilian casualities in the same way 'Chauri-Chaura' happened. True, they could come to the table with the issues at hand, but knowing that all discussions have a verdict even before they actually happen, they are unable to abjure violence. Salwa Judum is not exactly a peaceful force either. So Chidambram calling for peace and still rendering Salwa active is ineffective and unjust...

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  6. good article......i think number of districts is not 650...building trust is a long term process.before that immediate actions should be taken to retain the natural livelihood of tribal.only after that we will be able to implement developmental activities effectively...use of military forces cannot root out naxalism completely.no time lag will be there for future developmental activities.

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  7. we regret that error.....
    As of June 2010, Indian Government has identified 83 districts in 9 states as "Naxal-hit"

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  8. friend, i think i have an opposition to that, chauri-chaura was not by trained men with sophisticated weapons and well planned strategy for when an how to strike(Indian judiciary is ready to see such an action in that spirit even a murder committed on such circumstances but not actions like these which are planned and chalked out),it was just an action when people lost temper it didn't last more than a day. we had paid its price too there.no one ever achieved nothing through violence.its not a good excuse what ever the reason.(with all the respect to what our fellow brothers are facing there, i cant find it a viable solution)
    As for salwa judum i would rather like to see it something like the divide and rule strategy or like creating a group tribal's in colour and race and exploiters in mind like Macaulay plan rather than a movement for welfare of the tribals...i think as it was done well in British India its workIng there ,it either is not for the best of interest of OUR UNIFIED INDIA.

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  9. Best of luck, young engines. Ur article explores the root cause of the Maoist problem. The result of long years of neglect, bearing its fruits. The tentacles have spread all over the country, the roots harder to remove if they are allowed to grow.

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  10. very good attempt.happy to know that u ppl r not jus muggin up text books. like the layout also, though a bit too colourful!
    but,

    1. u need to get ur facts right first. the no. of maoist affected districts in India is neither 650 nor 83. its 220.

    2.'towering leaders' as 'success component'? isn't it natural for movements to have leaders? any leaderless movement in world history? n can u name a 'towering leader' in the current maoist uprising?

    3.negotiation- have u gone through the conditions put forward by the CEO of 'Op. GreenHunt',Mr.Chidambaram, for entering in to dialogue? they're silly.

    4.'seperate maoists from tribals', good idea. but how??

    5.surrender cum rehabilitation- but y? the maoists r calling the shots, y would they surrender? the gov. surrendering would be easier!!

    6. wat do u mean by 'succumbing to the pressure of a group'? a group? in 220 districts?its a population, friends, n they need urgent attention of the state.

    the general tone of ur article reflects typical middle class views n fears. its not that the middle class view is bad, but u need to c the realities. read a bit more on this issue. am sure u'll have other perceptions then. A.Roy's Walking with the comrades', to start with.

    am writing on the same issue in this yr's Mar Ivanios Clg. magazine n have tried to c things in a different perspective.. hope u'll have a look at it.

    kudos for ur attempt, once again. kep writing. all the best.
    my blog: http://ramlipin.blogspot.com/search/label/Article

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  11. Dear friend,its not that we have got the facts wrong.let me make it very clear to you about this,actually Maoist influence spread form 56 districts in 2001 to 227 in 2009(means,its not 220 as you said, anyway i understand ur love for numbers) according to the resources of home ministry .it rated 83 as worse affected or among them 40 districts in the 11 mapped areas as the most sensitive its about this 83 we said!!

    “In nearly 165 of the 602 Indian districts the Naxalites have influence – that is nearly thirty percent of the Indian territory”, states Sudeep Chakravati in his book published in 2008 "Red Sun. Travels in Naxalite country"(Penguin/Viking has in January 2008 published Red Sun, a book of narrative non-fiction on India’s armed Maoists, a travelogue through revolutionary India). The Minister of Domestic Affairs Shivraj Patil replied to this with his own arithmetic. According to Patil, indeed 180 districts suffer Naxalite influence, however only 14,000 villages out of 6,500,000 see actual violence taking place.But of course the numbers are fast changing.but luckily most sensitive is not yet 220.....,hope now you have got a better picture..

    any way i welcome you with ur new version of arithmetic....

    2).'towering' or not leaders are necessary, of course u got it right,but the point is that,what we are talking is about leaders with genuine interests,and not those with selfish motive of spreading a impractical ideology and hunger for power.as in the case here....(don't confuse that we are talking this about the tribal their needs and demands are genuine but they are now acting on the command of some invisible elements who will come before the curtain once this is over.its quite obvious that they also have very little interest in the well being of the tribal.the tribal is here,again being used as it have been ....)

    3).they are silly or not that depends on your personal view.but as of now its the only possible solution,they should understand that they are not going to achieve anything through violence...

    4).there s a story about wolf wearing skin f sheep.....the same is happening here....Maoist in the midst f tribal....its difficult ...but is possible as it was in the earlier case....

    5).state of India surrendering???no doubt their life and interest is better protected in current India than a state they rule.a state created by violence wont consider its people ahead of itself...if you are talking about India,which was created by non violence and that it couldn't do it, how can we hope one created through violence could ensure the same??its fair for you to demand a better working of our system but not a surrender of it after a coup .....

    6).have already answered it....,its just a group of vested interest at the top it,we said about the surrender of their demand f a separate state and as for the population they just need some basic amenities which are justified in itself,.but it would be possible to provide them only when they are ready to take it??how can we set up more hospitals if the are killing the doctors who are serving there meantime....(of course govt should have done it a long time before,but they should be allowed to correct that wrong....)

    7).dear this is a work done after preparations,its not a product of a night.of course after reading A. Roy's "walk with comrade's"..its after reading both version f the story and have tried our maximum to take the middle way not favoring or opposing either sides...without any earlier perceptions or prejudice.what we said is what we believe in the best of interest of India and Indians which include the tribal India..........

    any way hope you understood what we meant..
    we are waiting for this year's Mar Ivanios Clg. magazine to come out so that we could read your writing on the issue ...
    believe u would try not to see any issue with a bias next time you read...
    thank you for your concern and keep reading our blog and comment on it.....

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  12. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  13. good work...your stress on educating them is a very relevant point.. as far as i have heard there is no education to the people of such areas..and the that could be the root cause why they dont know about their rights and responsibilities...the government might be trying to provide them but unfortunately they are not reaching them!! i met with a person who encountered with some maoists recently,he was unharmed just because he was not a government official..infact they treated him respectfully..and he filled his petrol tank from the maoists petrol pump(that was the only pump in that area).They are trying to develop themselves..for the development was snatched away from them..i do not agree with their strategy but a lot of maoist areas have developed to great extend now(not all though)..as u rightly pointed out the government needs to build trust and assure them that their resources would reach them whatsoever may happen!!


    I appreciate your attempt to go in depth of the issue..

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