Genocidal war against the Tribal people in India – Int’l program in London

Posted by Ram Kumar Shrestha on June 4, 2011

 

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In September 2009, the Indian state, the “largest democracy in the world” openly launched a genocidal war against thepeople of India. Deploying over 200,000 paramilitary forces and other Special Forces supported by the Indian Army, Indian Air Force and various intelligence agencies in the forest regions of eastern and central India have unleashed an unprecedented military offensive — code named Operation Green Hunt (OGH). The war is being aided by the US, Israel and many European governments because the corporations of many of these countries are setting up multi-million dollar industries in this region. This is where millions of adivasis (tribal peoples), the poorest of India’s poor, live. While the government claims that this war is solely aimed at the Maoists, in reality its objective is to grab the rich minerals and natural resources of these areas and hand them over to multinational corporations who will exploit them for their own super profits.

Rising popular resistance against this outrageous anti-people offensive by the Indian state has already engulfed the largestsections of the masses in these regions and across the rest of sub-continent. There is fierce resistance against OGH and people are getting better organised in the defence of their land, habitat and livelihood while at the same time getting wide support across the urban spaces all across.

The government has intensified the clamp down on the media, civil liberties activists and other democratic minded citizens. Flagrant violations of the democratic rights of the people are on the rise. The number of political prisoners and those waiting to be tried is on a steep the rise. Ever new draconian laws are being promulgated by the Indian Parliament and various provincial legislatures to curb all voices of dissent, and to exterminate the people with impunity. Already, the Indian state has armed itself with a plethora of notorious legislations such as the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), Disturbed Areas Act, Chhattisgarh Special Public Safety Act, etc., which are in direct contravention of the basic rights of citizens in any country that claims itself to be democratic.

The media in the west has largely remained silent on this state sponsored terror launched by the Indian rulers against the citizens. This silence becomes all the more alarming at a time when we witness attempts to further escalate the war by unleashing the Indian Army in direct combat role. The fact that a macabre measure such as the proposed take-over of 600 square kilometres (130,000 acres) of adivasi-land by the Indian Army to set up a base in central India has escaped media attention speaks a lot about this deafening silence. What has been billed as a mere ‘army training camp’ by the Indian state – inspired of course by the tactics of mass deception deployed by its master, US imperialism – is nothing but a step towards full-scale military deployment.

The aim of the Indian state in establishing this military base in the Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh is to accomplish what its police and paramilitary forces have so far failed to achieve – to permanently clear the forests and hills off the adivasis so as to hand them over to the mining corporations and extractive industries. The failure of the Indian state has been ensured by the success of the adivasis in their resistance. The Indian state therefore seems to assume that only by bringing the full force of Indian Army and Air Force to bear upon the adivasis, and not the police, paramilitary and vigilante forces alone, will it be able to turn the war decisively to its favour. Given the ongoing worldwide economic crisis – described as the Second Great Depression – the Indian state’s desperation for facilitating super-profits to the crisis-ridden corporations is understandable. For the oppressed people of India, however, this development brings ominous signs of the unfolding of a new and bloody phase of civil war.

This civil war situation in the heartland of the South Asian subcontinent is compounded by the increasing intervention and exploitation of the region by the US and European imperialist forces for geopolitical interests. The attempts to suppress the peoples’ movements in Nepal, Kashmir, Northeastern regions, Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka and other regions in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and other countries through military might has been met with unlimited resistance. For example, the Nepali people’s movement in the past one decade challenged the Indian ruling classes’ expansionism in junior partnership with the Western imperialists. In nutshell, the people’s movements in South Asia have began to show the world how they can fight shoulder-to-shoulder with their counterparts, the wretched of the earth, elsewhere in Asia, Africa and South American continents.

The International Campaign against War on People in India (ICAWPI) was initiated in December 2009, to help bring news of the resistance to the world. It will be hosting an event in London on June 12, 2011, co-organised and supported by a number of local and international organisations to discuss the escalating war on the people and to gather solidarity and support for the just struggle of the tribal people in India.

For the detail information please click here.