Ramachandra Guha: Don't romanticise the Maoists

Urging the audience not to romanticise the Maoists, Dr. Ramachandra Guha remarked that Operation Greenhunt will only escalate violence in the tribal areas of Chattisgarh. Dr. Guha, emminent sociologist and historian, was addressing a jam packed Satish Dhawan auditorium on the convention “The war within: the Maoists, the tribals and the State”, organised by Concern on November 7, 2009. Himanshu Kumar, a Gandhian activist and Sudeep Chakravarti, author of ‘Red Sun: Travels in Naxalite Country’ were the other speakers of the convention. Prof. Sanjay Biswas, Dean, Faculty of Engineering, IISc moderated the discussion.

Himanshu Kumar, who had set up the Vanavasi Chetna Ashram in 1992, spoke about how the fight between Maoists and Salwa Judum (a state sponsored civilian armed movement against naxalites) are affecting the livelihood of the tribals in the Bastar region. He spoke about Dr. Manmohan Singh's comment on the need for taking action against Maoists in Bastar as it was affecting the inflow of investments in the country. But, according to him, the main aim of the Government is to clear the villages for the MNCs (Bastar is a mineral rich area). He mainly spoke about the alleged attrocities that Salwa Judum commits against the tribals in the region. After the creation of the Salwa Judum, there has been more than 30% increase in Maoists voilence and more than 20% increase in the Maoist population. Himanshu Kumar claimed, where there is injustice, there cannot be peace. The need is sustainable development with some equality in the distribution of wealth.

Sudeep Chakravarti, writer cum journalist, remarked that Mao is just another 'ism' and not the real deal. In the modern world, where Mao Zedong gets reduced to the status of a commercial icon even in the China, Sudeep feels that naxalism is the corrupt way of capturing power. Out of the 28 states in India, 14 are Naxal affected. Sudip, who has travelled extensively in the maoist affected areas including Lalgarh, felt that we are living in a state of denial. We should realise the way we are ill treating our own people (tribals and local population in the insurgency prone north-east).

Dr. Ramachandra Guha, also an ex-faculty at the institute, felt that the tribals are just the “sacrificial goats” in the fight between politicians (“thugs and murderes”) and the maoists. There is a middle path between the views of Gurcharan Das (pro-globalisation) and Arundhati Roy (anti-globalisation). There should be equality of opportunity. The solution to this problem involves dialogue between the State and Maoists. In Orissa, it is the fight for the souls of the tribals by three parties – Maoists (who have guns), RSS (who have political backing) and the church groups (who have neither). Dr. Guha concluded his talk by saying that it is now too late to accomodate the interests of the tribals and that 100-150 years from now, when Indian history is written, it will be similar to how the Americans and Australians silenced their aborgines.

Concern also screened two documentaries before the begining of the convention. The first one was an interview of Dr. K. Balagopal, human right activist, who passed away recently. The second one was a footage by some IISc students of their visit to Vanavasi Chetna Ashram and the devastation witnessed during the demolition of the ashram (For reasons behind the demolition of the Vanavasi Chetna Ashram, read Prathamesh's At Vanavasi Chetna Ashram which appeared in the June 2009 issue of Voices).