BASTAR DEVELOPMENT AND DEMOCRACY

Item

Title: BASTAR DEVELOPMENT AND DEMOCRACY
extracted text: PEOPLE'S UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES / MADHYA PRADESH / JULY 1989

Bastar, located on the south eastern comer of Madhya Pradesh, is India's third largest
district. It Is larger than the state of Kerala. More than 1000 of Its villages have less
than 200 population. Altogether there are 3388 villages and 7033 sub villages and
hamlets that are spread across the district In 32 development blocks or 42 police
station areas, which are grouped Into eight tahslM identified above.

BASTAR
DEVELOPMENT AND DEMOCRACY

PEOPLE'S UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES
MADHYA PRADESH
July,1989

Bastar neatly fits into any one of the many caricatures that are built about
adivasis living in the interior forests of ourcountry. To the elite of the society they
are 'savages’, yet to be brought into the folds of civilization. To the liberal
critiques, they along with their forests are to be ‘protected from any effects of
development’. To many anthropologists the area is ‘an unblemished tribal
heaven' that needs to be retained as a living museum. To progressive civil
servants, serving or retired, what the adivasis need is government officials who
can serve ‘as models of rectitude
as lonely sentinels of the forests’. But to the
authors of one of the Madhya Pradesh Five Year Perspective Plans the Bastar
adivasis are ‘habitual to drink and remain idle. They do not want to work to raise
their living standards’. And to the Madhya Pradesh State Forest Development
Corporation Bastar is ‘the El Dorado of modern times
the Ruhr of the East’.
These inherited images acquired over years of mystification are now con
founded by the rise of the Naxalite Movement in Bastar. Isolated and somewhat
sensational accounts of their activities are appearing in the media with regular
frequency in recent times. State violence, where policemen are taking the law
into their own hands, is also increasing to alarming proportions. Currently the
district with the lowest density of population in the state is also the one with the
highest density of armed police. Concerned with this situation, the Madhya
Pradesh unit of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (MPPUCL) appointed a
team to investigate specific allegations of state violence in the context of the
social origins of current tensions in the area. Hence this report on Development
and Democracy in Bastar.

The team consisted of Dr. Anjan Ghosh (Centre for Study of Social Sciences,
Calcutta), Dr. Urjit Yajnik (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay), Dr.
Rajiv Lochan Sharma (Gandhi Medical College, Indore), Ms. Renu Mittal (Indore
University, Indore), C.V.Subbarao (Delhi University, Delhi), Ms. Sadhna Saxena
(Kishore Bharati, Bankhedi) and Joydeep Gupta (Statesman, Delhi). ,

I. BACKGROUND
The popular images of Bastar are rooted in the unique coexistence of a wide range of
agrarian technologies that came to prevail from time to time in the history of the region and
the country. For instance, in Abhujhmar (see map), a natural division of irregular hills and
valleys, people are still engaged in producing kodo-kutki (coarse millets) by shifting cultivation
(11% of the total area under cultivation, and only 0.00018% of the total area is under
irrigation). For most of the yearthey sustain themselves with food gathered in the forests. Just
to the north of them lie pockets of Kanker and Narayanpur tahsils where the most modern
farming techniques can be seen in operation. In these undulating plains, drained by the river
Mahanadi, lies much of the two percent irrigated area of the district. A part of it also falls under
the Dandakaranya Development Authority (DDA) where displaced refugees from East
Bengal, known for their farming techniques, were settled. Here 67% of the area is under
cultivation, of which 17% is under irrigation. If today even Bastar can boast of consumption
of chemical fertilizers (1.4 kg per hectare), tractors (87 in the district) and oil and power
operated pumpsets (1275 in the district), it is mostly because of these small pockets. But to
the north and east of these pockets you will find people engaged in settled agriculture without
the use of ploughs. South of the river I ndravati, in the interior of Bijapur, Konta and Dantewada
tahsils, people cultivate just one crop in an area drained by two perennial rivers Sabari and
Indravati. They depend upon the vagaries of rainfall. The community maintained tanks, once
the pride of the region, have gone into disrepair after the state took them over. Yet the tanks
and ponds are the only sources of water for their fields (in the district as a whole about 3500
tanks and ponds cover 82% of the irrigated area). People use the plough here, but it is the
wooden and not the iron plough (there are 2610 wooden ploughs for every iron plough in use
in the district). Perhaps in no other district of the country do such a wide range of technologies
coexist, with or without peace.

BASTAR : AGRICULTURE

Area under cultivation :
802556 ha
Percentage under irrigation :
2%
Cropping intensity :
103
Main crops :
Rice, kodo, kutki, maize
Breakup of working population Cultivators :
72% (80%)
Agricultural labourers :
17% (15%)
Olhers:
11% (5%)

(The figures in brackets relate to
scheduled tribes)

2

But then these are not merely different technologies but also different social arrange
ments, different cultural systems and in fact different communities. Bastar remains an
ethnological enigma for many. To the outsiders the people belong to just one stock, called the
scheduled tribes, who constitute 68% of the district's population. But within them, there are
a range of communities. In the north are Halbis, to the east are Bhattra and Dhurwa and in
the south are Dorias. All the rest are Gonds, who are the majority. The names given to them
by the earlier generations of civil servants and anthropologists stuck to them. And the various
Gond groups are now called Raj Gonds (KoiturGond), living mostly in Jagdalpur, Konta and
Dantewada tahsils; Bison-horn
Marias (Dandami Maria) in Bijapur
and other parts of the south; Hill
Marias (Mota Kitoo), an identified
primitive tribe in Abhujhmar and
Murias in most parts of north Bastar.

BASTAR AND ITS PEOPLE

Area:
Population :
Density per sq km :
Females per 1000 males :

39060 sq km

1.85 million

If these adivasis have re
47
mained as they have it is because
< 1002
there are no options available to
68%
Scheduled Tribes:
them. Each time a new system is
36%
< Gondi seeking:
imposed or a new technology is
24%
Halbi speaking :
unleashed, it has closed the options
40%
■ Others:
for another set of people in another
area. For instance, during the colo
nial period, people in Kutru and
Bhopalpatnam Zamindaries had to abandon their fields due to the Zamindari oppression.
They fled to neighbouring areas. After Independence and Zamindari abolition, they returned
to find that their fields were now notified as forests, under the newly introduced Forest Act.
Development projects in the present period have also restricted their access to the land and
forests. In addition these projects have degraded and depleted the forest cover. The practices
and customs of these people, which they were initially allowed to continue as ‘priviledges’ and
'concessions' granted by the state, are now treated as ‘crimes', to be punished. (The common
people refer to them as POR jurmana, a reference to the fines levied on the basis of
Preliminary Offence Reports under the Forest Act.) But having been left with no other option,
they 'encroach' upon the forest, bringing it under cultivation with the help of their axes, or they
just go hunting in the lean season. Thus, these people, along with their techniques, social
relations, and culture, frozen due to the process of development, came to be termed as
primitive. In a village inside the Abhyaranya Tiger Reserve, for instance, we found that the
Telugu-speaking weaver caste, Netakanis, and the Marathi speaking dalit caste, Mahars,
now go once in a while with their Maria bretheren on hunting expeditions!! If the development
process becomes predatory, then primitivity becomes their only means of survival, their form
of development.
The technological and economic developments also have a cultural and political
dimension on the basis of which the administration regulates their lives. Physiographically,
Bastar is part of the larger Dandakaranya region. In the colonial period the region was under

3

a range of administrations. Direct colonial rule existed in the Central Province (Chandrapur)
and the Agency areas of the Madras Presidency (East Godavari and Koraput). Hyderabad,
the largest Indian state, governed parts (Adilabad, Karimnagar, Warangal and Khammam)
while the Gajpat states of Orissa governed the rest (Kalahandi). Bastar itself was under
Bastar (Jagdalpur) and Kanker states. Historically, however, the movements of people were
never governed by these divisions. The cultural enmeshment of different adivasi communi
ties thus remains an enigma. In the region as a whole 72 identified dialects are now in vogue.

Onto this was imposed the linguistic reorganisation of the states in the fifties, and the
region was distributed between Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, and Maharash
tra. But these linguistic divisions have no relevance here. In Bastar, for instance, according
to the 1981 Census, 60 percent of the people do not speak any of these four languages: Hindi,
Telegu, Marathi, or Oriya! Yet these serve as the basis to understand the current tensions.
The most common refrain about the Naxalite movement is that it is alien, an offshoot of the
'Andhra' Naxalite.movement The counter insurgency operations rest on the premise that the
Naxalites are a 'gang of dacoits moved into Bastar from the border beyond', in the words of
the District Magistrate (DM) whom we interviewed. But to the adivasis of South Bastar,
Kursum Rajakka, the 24 year old Naxalite woman who was killed in an encounter at Mukabelli
on 4 March this year, is just a fellow Doria tribal woman, even though she hails from Vajhed
mandal (Khammam) which is now part of Andhra Pradesh. Bala Ramanna, killed along with
another person, Ramesh, in the forests between Badma and Durgaon, Kaiskal range,
Narayanpur on 7 June this year, is a Halbi speaking tribal even though he was not from North
Bastar where most of them live, but from Sandra, Konta on the southern border!
The post independence developments also have important implications for adivasi
jurisprudence. The adivasis have their own legal system to which some of the offences,
although listed in the Penal Code, were delegated from the colonial period. Presently, the
adivasi panchayat has hardly any legal sanction, although local policemen take its help in
investigation and prosecution. The distinctive feature of their system is that in it no offence
is treated as private in character. All offences are adjudicated by the community and the guilty
are identified by the panchayat. Although the Indian Penal Code came into effect in Bastar
almost 70 years ago, its penetration is still incomplete. The adivasis are still attached to their
own ethical and penal system and regulate their lives by their own codes.
But these days activities of the adivasi panchayats get branded as Naxalite activities.
For example, in March this year the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) tabled a call attention motion
in the state assembly on a Naxalite attack in Geedam in which their local leader Tiwari was
hit. Our investigation reveals a different story. An adivasi, Sonkuram, from village Marsegaon
10 km from Geedam, was involved in an argument with the wife of Harun Seth, a powerful
trader and a local BJP leader, in the weekly Sunday market at Geedam. The son of the Seth
came to the market and beat up Sonkuram. In adivasi tradition if any of them gets beaten up
by a non-adivasi, then the entire village has to be treated to a feast of meat and drink, the cost
of which is to be borne by the non-adivasi who beat him up. So Sonkuram, in accordance with
the decision of his village panchayat, treated his entire village to the feast. Next Sunday, at
the weekly market, the adivasi leaders called the Seth and asked him to pay. He refused. Not

4

only that, but Vijay Pratap Tiwari, President of the BJP, South Bastar and Joshi, SHO,
Geedam, intervened on his behalf. Tiwari was reported to have slapped Sonkuram. Enraged,
the adivasis beat up both Tiwari and Joshi. The following Sunday hundreds of adivasis, armed
with bows, arrows and axes, laid a siege of Geedam. The situation was diffused without any
untoward incident but without any redressal either. The adivasis remained sore about the
whole affair. Three months after the incident, when we visited Geedam,a local journalist
informed us that ever since this incident neither Tiwari nor Joshi can go into the villages for
fear of repraissals. But Mr. Joshi was still in charge of the police station in whose jurisdiction
he was forbidden to enter. It was this incident that was described by the BJP leader in the state
assembly as a 'Naxalite attack’, a version duly picked up by the Bhopal-Indore media. The
gap between this perception and the actual incident needs no further comment.
The gap is not merely a communication gap. Nor is it, in all cases, a willful distortion.
It is located in the very nature of the development process whose interface with the adivasi
society has now become the arena of violent social tensions.

II. DEVELOPMENT AND DEGRADATION

Bastar contains one of the most deciduous forests of the country, consisting of sal, teak
and mixed forests. The first attempt to bring its forests under direct state administration was
in 1896. Later, in 1908, the Bastar Forest Manual came into effect. A year later the first
commercial exploitation began with a lease given to Beckett and Co. for extraction of 25,000
railway sleepers from sal trees. The Second World War increased the scale of operations.
After independence when Bastar and Kanker states were merged with the Indian Union, the
old Forest Act (1927) and the new Forest policy (1950) were brought into force in Bastar.

1

In the period 1956-81, a total of 1,25,483 hectares of forest was transferred to various
development projects. Notable among them was the Dandakaranya Displaced People's
Project where initially 7330 Bengali refugees were allotted 60,000 hectares of forest land.
They soon brought 40,000 hectares of this into cultivation. The other major project was the
National Mineral Development Corporation’s iron ore mining project at Bailadila. Bastar has
about 10 per cent of the country’s iron ore reserves. Located south of the river Indravati, in
Dantewada tahsil, the mines started operating in 1968. They also led to the establishment of
the district’s first and only railway line from the port city on the east coast, Vishakhapatnam,
to the mining township, Kirandul. Twenty five years ago, when the construction work started,
Kirandul was one of the two villages from where about 40 Dandami Maria families were
displaced. Today Kirandul has just about two percent tribal population. Almost all of the output
from these mines is exported to Japan and the unit is now India's largest foreign exchange
earning unit. Currently the annual production is in the range of five million tonnes.

5

FORESTS IN BASTAR

Area :

54%

Reserved :

55%

Protected :

30%

Others:

15%

In addition to iron ore, the area contains a number of other reserves like limestone,
dolomite, bauxite, manganese, and tin. Limestone mines, with an average annual production
of 1.5 million tonnes, feed the two cement factories on the outskirts of Jagdalpur town. In the
early eighties large scale illegal tin mining was reported in Sukma and Dantewada region of
South Bastar. Big traders and mining officials were reportedly involved in buying tin from the
tribals, who smelted it and sold it in their weekly markets. Press reports and criticism led the
government to initiate measures to stop this. In 1983, about 112 cases involving 141 people,
mostly adivasis, were launched under the Mining and Minerals Regulation and Development
Act.
In the early seventies, following the recommendations of the National Commission on
Agriculture, an ambitious plan was drawn up to develop industrial forestry in Bastar.
Jagdalpur, Barsur and parts of Bijapur tahsil areas, constituting 25% of the district, were
identified as the industrial catchment areas. It was in this framework that the famous World
Bank financed pine plantation scheme came into existence. Known as the MP Forestry
Technical Assistance Project, it led to the establishment of the M P State Forest Development
Corporation (MPSFDC). In July, 1975,3100 hectares of forest in Kurundi, near Jagdalpur,
was cleared and replanted with pine. But stiff opposition from various quarters resulted in the
termination of the project in 1981. Some of the planted pine was destroyed in a fire, suspected
to have been set by some of the adivasis under the leadership of Baba Bihari Das. Baba, who
campaigned for some sort of Hindu revivalist ideas was an influential figure in politics in
Bastar. Later he was externed from the district. In any case much of the remaining pine was
attacked by an epidemic of fungus in 1984-85. NM DC took over the office sites and quarters
of the pine plantation project and prepared a plan for dolomite mining in a different forest area
(about 2450 hectares). But again it was dropped due to resistance. Independently a larger
scheme of establishing a series of eight or nine hydel projects on Indravati was proposed. The
total submergence area of the scheme is around 31,000 hectares and the total power
generating capacity is around 1500 MW. Starting from Ichampalli, Gadchiroli, these projects

6

were opposed by a wide range of forces. For the present they are not under active
consideration by the government, except for the one at Bodhghat, which is under way.

The first survey of the project was undertaken in 1962. The foundation stone was laid
seventeenyears later in 1979. Initial clearing, construction of the office site, the quarters and
an impressive bridge on the river Indravati, near Barasur, was undertaken in 1984.
Throughout the two decades when it was under consideration no one really bothered to
inform, let alone involve the people whose villages are to be submerged in the project. In
recent years organised resistance has begun. The lands here, located along the river bed,
have high productivity. A variety of pulses, millets and high quality rice like badshahbhog are
produced, which sustains the villagers for most of the year. In the lean season they depend
on the sal rich forest. The villagers, mostly Marias, do not want to leave the area. The manner
in which they have been treated has generated complete mistrust of all institutions among
them. They even made an abortive bid to manhandle their MP, Mankuram Sodhi ('mushkil
se ek bar aaya tha, prashasan ko leke"). Faced with their resistance, the government is
coming out with more and more attractive promises of rehabilitation. The scheme was made
in accordance with the MP Rehabilitation Act, 1985 and modelled along the lines of a similar
scheme of the other controversial project of the state, the Narmada Sagar Project. It has a
nineteen point programme which promises, among other things, land, houses, and jobs in
MPEB. The compensation, which was only Rs.1000 per acre in the six hundred acres already
cleared at Barsur, is now raised to Rs.4000. A model rehabilitation village at Bodhli (Kundri),
about 45 km from their place, was built to convince them. But they remain unconvinced. Their
agitation is supported by Jai Kishore Sharma, a dissident secretary of DCC-I and also
environmentalist pressure groups based in Jagdalpur, Bhopal and Delhi. The Naxalites have
also announced their formal opposition. But all major political parties, including Congress-I,
BJP, and CPI are involved in an agitation in favour of the project. The people allege that

INDIRA SAGAR HYDRO-ELECTRIC PROJECT
Bodhghat

Location :

Barsur, Geedam, Dantewada
M.P. Electricity Board

Organisation :

500 MW

Production :

Rs.475.8 crores (1983 prices)
Projected Cost:
Area of Submergence :
13,783 hectares

Affected villages :
Affected population :

42
27000 (officially 9000 )

\ Of which Scheduled Tribe :

70% M

7

officials of MPEB, in connivance with the thekedars, have bought all the leading political
parties and personalities. In fact Mr. Sharma told us that he himself was offered Rs. 2 crores
by the Chief Engineer, on behalf of the contractors! For the present, due to the pressure, the
government has suspended work on the project. But the prospects still remain grim. When
asked what will happen, the President of the Bodhghat Sangharsh Samiti replied, ‘vo goli
chalayenge, ham teer chalayenge (They will fire bullets, we will reply with arrows)’.
The social tensions being generated by the displacement of people in the project areas
is only part of the story. The environmental degradation affects people in far flung areas also.
The ore fines from Bailadila, for instance, are being dumped into Sankhini river every day for
the last twenty years. The river joins Dankhini at Dantewada and from there flows further
south, under a different name. Now the mass of red slime is spreading through the southern
river system. Some 40,000 people living in about 51 villages are its immediate victims,
deprived of even drinking water.

More than the development projects, the major source of degradation of forests is the
commercial forestry. Timber feeds 40 odd small scale saw mills and 62 wood based factories
in the district. But more of it serves the national market. Any day one can see a number of
trucks carrying logs on the Jagdalpur-Konta-Hyderabad highway. The bamboo, among other
things, feeds the paper factories in Andhra. Much of the felling is also illegal felling. One of
the ingenious methods adopted by the timber traders in Bastar was through the Malik
Makbuja system. A precursor of the present day social forestry programmes, in this system,
the tribals were given ownership rights over identified and specified trees. They alone had
right to fell or sell their trees, after taking due consent from the concerned forest officer. They
were also protected by the MP Protection of Aboriginals (Interest of Trees) Act, 1959. The
traders, in collusion with the officials, got the relevant papers signed (thumb impressions) by
the tribals and felled a large number of trees. After more than two decades of this kind of
organised brigandage, finally the government abolished the system in late 1975. In another
infamous instance the entire Sitram forest (Bandey range, Kanker circle) was reported to
have been lost in fire in April, 1980. But the fire was not brought to the notice of the DFO until
fourteen months later, in June, 1981. The government has ordered an enquiry whose report
is yet to see the light of the day. It is believed that the entire forest was cleared through illegal
felling. Altogether, in the last two decades, the official and legal felling alone increased by five
times in the case of timber and fuelwood and fifty times in the case of bamboo. The forests
of Bastar contribute approximately 10 percent of the total non-tax revenue of the state.

To compensate for the depletion of the forests the government began encouraging'
plantations. Thus centuries old sal trees and mixed forests came to be replaced with
Eucalyptus (10,000 hectares in the fourth plan period alone), Caribbean pine (on an
experimental basis in 1968-69), pines (3100 hectares under the World Bank project), teak
(over 1,25,000 hectares peryear in recent period), and others. The replacement of rich mixed
forests by monocultural plantations had disastrous implications both tor the environment and
the people. The forces generated by the large scale commercial forestry and plantations
control the politics and even a section of the administration in Bastar.

8

officials of MPEB, in connivance with the thekedars, have bought all the leading political
parties and personalities. In fact Mr. Sharma told us that he himself was offered Rs. 2 crores
by the Chief Engineer, on behalf of the contractors! For the present, due to the pressure, the
government has suspended work on the project. But the prospects still remain grim. When
asked what will happen, the President of the Bodhghat Sangharsh Samiti replied, ‘vo goli
chalayenge, ham tear chalayenge (They will fire bullets, we will reply with arrows)’.
The social tensions being generated by the displacement of people in the project areas
is only part of the story. The environmental degradation affects people in farflung areas also.
The ore fines from Bailadila, for instance, are being dumped into Sankhini river every day for
the last twenty years. The river joins Dankhini at Dantewada and from there flows further
south, under a different name. Now the mass of red slime is spreading through the southern
river system. Some 40,000 people living in about 51 villages are its immediate victims,
deprived of even drinking water.
More than the development projects, the major source of degradation of forests is the
commercial forestry. Timber feeds 40 odd small scale saw mills and 62 wood based factories
in the district. But more of it serves the national market. Any day one can see a number of
trucks carrying logs on the Jagdalpur-Konta-Hyderabad highway. The bamboo, among other
things, feeds the paper factories in Andhra. Much of the felling is also illegal felling. One of
the ingenious methods adopted by the timber traders in Bastar was through the Malik
Makbuja system. A precursor of the present day social forestry programmes, in this system,
the tribals were given ownership rights over identified and specified trees. They alone had
right to fell or sell their trees, after taking due consent from the concerned forest officer. They
were also protected by the MP Protection of Aboriginals (Interest of Trees) Act, 1959. The
traders, in collusion with the officials, got the relevant papers signed (thumb impressions) by
the tribals and felled a large number of trees. After more than two decades of this kind of
organised brigandage, finally the government abolished the system in late 1975. In another
infamous instance the entire Sitram forest (Bandey range, Kanker circle) was reported to
have been lost in fire in April, 1980. But the fire was not brought to the notice of the DFO until
fourteen months later, in June, 1981. The government has ordered an enquiry whose report
is yet to see the light of the day. It is believed that the entire forest was cleared through illegal
felling. Altogether, in the last two decades, the official and legal felling alone increased by five
times in the case of timber and fuelwood and fifty times in the case of bamboo. The forests
of Bastar contribute approximately 10 percent of the total non-tax revenue of the state.

To compensate for the depletion of the forests the government began encouraging'
plantations. Thus centuries old sal trees and mixed forests came to be replaced with
Eucalyptus (10,000 hectares in the fourth plan period alone), Caribbean pine (on an
experimental basis in 1968-69), pines (3100 hectares under the World Bank project), teak
(over 1,25,000 hectares per year in recent period), and others. The replacement of rich mixed
forests by monocultural plantations had disastrous implications both for the environment and
the people. The forces generated by the large scale commercial forestry and plantations
control the politics and even a section of the administration in Bastar.

8

From about the time of the sixth plan onwards, the government initiated a variety of
social forestry programmes in Bastar. Some of them are funded by the Swedish International
Development Authority (SIDA). Presently they include three schemes; bund forestry, farm
forestry, and agro-forestry.
From the early eighties, four environmental and wild life projects came into existence.
They include Kanger Valley National Park (200 sq km), Bairamgarh Game Sanctuary (139
sq km) and Pamed Game Sanctuary (262 sq km). The biggest among them is the Indravati
Abhyaranya Tiger Project (3000 sq km). It is located near Kutru, Bijapurtahsil. There are 57
villages with a population of 6000 inside the reserve. The density of the population is very low,
with about 9 persons per sq km and the villages are scattered both in the core and buffer zones
of the reserve. These villages are proposed to be evacuated and a Rs.1 crore rehabilitation
programme has been prepared by the Directorate of Project Tiger, subject to the approval of
the government. But in the meantime, the reserve is becoming famous for other reasons.
Naxalite activity in the former Zamindari areas of Kutru and Bhopalpatnam has attracted a lot
of attention. In one of the villages inside the reserve, Mukabelli, a Naxalite woman was killed
in an encounter, leading to massive armed police raids on many of these villages. In the last
three years at one time or another armed police camps were set up in as many as eight of
these 56 villages. In Bedre and Pileru camps are stationed more or less permanently. The
police, with all the attendant paraphernalia, swamp the reserve. In a sense the activities of
armed police are now adding a new dimension to the problems of the environment in Bastar.

III. ADIVASI LIFE : IN DUE SEASON AND OUT

The depletion of the forests and its degradation informs every aspect of the life and
living of the adivasis of Bastar. The land which they can cultivate has gradually shrunk as more
and more forests have come under state control in some form or the other. With a few
exceptions in some pockets of North Bastar, the life of adivasis here is segmented into three
seasons: the agricultural season, the wage work season and the Minor Forest Produce
(MFP) season.

From the advent of the monsoon in June till October people engage in cultivation. They
cultivate land officially recognised as land under cultivation and for which they have pattas.
They also cultivate land for which they have no pattas and which is otherwise notified as
forests in the records. And then they also cultivate land which has been recently brought into
cultivation by encroaching on the forest. It is difficult to estimate the extent of land under
cultivation in the last two categories. For instance, in Kakerianka (population 800, tahsil
Konta, P.S. Jagargunda), our enquiries suggest that about 300-400 acres of land is under
cultivation. But the Census lists only 7 acres under cultivation and all the rest of the 600 acres

9

VILLAGE SAGUMETTA
The oldest man in this village appears to be in his seventies. And he says that they came here

in the time of his grandfather and great grand fatherffafa muttala kalairf). Like many of the other
families in the main village, he belongs to the Telugu speaking Netakani (weaving) caste. There are

more than 30 families, all Marathi speaking in Maharpara. The village is about 18 km from the naka
of Indravati Abhyaranya Tiger Project Reserve, on the Farsagarh side. All the villagers subsist bn

monocrop cultivation for four months a year. The crops include rice, jowar, moong, and oats. Water
is a big problem here as in all the villages of the Reserve. Two wells, two boring pumps, and a rivulet

that dries up during the summer serve the five surrounding villages. The hand pumps break down
once in every two months and they 'wait for the jeep to come and repair it’. In the long lean
season.they go to collect forest produce. Or at least they used to, for, ever since the forest was

notified as a national park (more than a decade now), their movements within the forest are
restricted. The Chief Conservator of Forests says that Nistar rights are permitted still. But the finer

distinctions are lost on them and perhaps also on the forest guards. So they have suffered
harassment and intimidation fqr many years. Even the ceremonial community hunt during the annual

festival at the end of the summer season, ittanam panduga, was prohibited. But recently the
harrassment has stopped due to intervention of the Naxaiites. The adivasis in the village, Koitur
Gond, now go hunting along with the Marias from the neighbouring villages. Sometimes the

Netakanis and the Mahars also join them.

The village has a school but no teacher. He hasn’t come for over a year now. The villagers

applied for permission to build quarters for him. But it was rejected since the village is scheduled to
be evacuated. Some of the younger boys however goto the Ashram school at Kutru, some 35 km

away. The subcentre of the PHC at Kutru is also the nearest dispensary for them. But it hardly has
any staff. For emergencies they have to go on foot or by bullock cart to Bijapur. 70 km away. They

have applied for a water tank, a dispensary, electricity, more boring pumps, and PWD work. But the

applications are rejected. Even their MLA Shishupal, according to them, says that he is helpless. The

Project is part of a larger central government scheme. They do not have enough land to sustain
themselves and the forest is forbidden. But there is no wage work either, since it is suspended in all

national parks. Last year for three months during the winter wage work season they got Rs.l 1 per
day for laying down the kaccha road to Farsagarh. The road facilitates SAF jeeps to come up to the

village.
The armed police are now part of these villages. During the Bandh call given by the Naxaiites
on 30 December, 1988, some of the villagers were arrested and taken to the recently upgraded police

station at Kutru and beaten up. After the encounter at Mukabelli, a Maria Gond village 3 km away

the same story was repeated with increased intensity. In some cases, formal legal proceedings were

launched against some of them. Are they still involved in the cases? They did not know. Possibly
the cases are under Section 107 (Guarantee for good behaviour) and Section 151 (Preventive

Arrest) of the Criminal Procedure Code, in which the accused may be released on personal bond
and no trial is Involved. Possibly not.

10

are listed under forests. In Karkeli, from the accounts of the villagers, it appears that about
600 acres is under cultivation. But again the Census lists only 330 acres under cultivation. In
Bhattugudem not more than fifty percent have pattas for the land they cultivate. This land, we
should recall, is hardly productive. Irrigation facilities are either poor or absent. A family
owning 20-30 acres of land may only be marginally better off than the marginal farmers who
own less than five acres of land. The gamut of governmental programmes do not always take
these hard realities into consideration, leading sometimes to farcical consequences.

The government approach to the welfare of the people in Bastar is multifaceted. The
programmes launched include general national level programmes such as the Community
Development Programme (CDP), Community Area Development Programme (CADP),
Whole Village Development Programme (WVDP), Drought Prone Area Programme (DPAP),
Hill Area Development Programme (HADP), Intensive Rural Area Development Programme
(IRDP), etc. Some of them, in the Bastar context, such as HADP in Abhujhmar and WVDP
in South Bastar, effectively become tribal welfare programmes. In addition there are
programmes exclusively focussed on tribal welfare. Notable among them are the Tribal Area
Development Programme (TADP) and the Intensive Tribal Development Programme (ITDP)
that covers seven blocks in Bastar. Besides there is a Bastar Development Authority and a
separate Abhujhmar Development Authority which came into existence in 1980. For the
purposes of inclusion in the Seventh Plan, a separate Bastar Plan was also prepared. These
programmes coupled with other normal activities focus on creating infrastructural services
and improving the living standards of the people.
According to the latest available data, only 19% of the 3400 villages are electrified.
Recently in some of the villages solar lamps were set up. None of the four lamps in Karkeli
ever worked, although in Farsagarh five of the nine lamps did work for a while. These lamps
are a source of amusement to the villagers. There are 5032 primary schools, 796 middle
schools and 104 high schools in the district. In all of the eight schools we visited there are no
teachers. In some of them the villagers have not seen the teacher for more than two years!
The only exceptions are the far and few Ashram schools run by a Sarvodaya Trust, with the
helpof the government. There are 6 hospitals, 33 primary health centres and 80 sub-centres.
There is just one dispensary per every 25000 population, on an average. The area of their
coverage is also vast, over300 sq km per dispensary. But again, except in one case, we found
that the medical workers are not making their appearance. In one of the villages the
chhittiwala (postman) also doubles as dawaiwala (medical worker) by getting medicines from
the tahsils or nearby market centres!

The other types of governmental programmes focus on the economic life of the people.
We must note that these programmes do not assign sufficient importance to land and
agriculture. A particularly ignored aspect is irrigation. As the villagers in Bodhghat area put
it ‘ Sarkarbijlee sarkar hai, sinchayi sarkar nahi' (This government is electricity government,
not irrigation government). The hydel projects are an adequate testimony to that. Tanks, the
main source of water, are the most neglected. Consequently the land and the income from
it cannot really sustain any family anywhere for the entire year. In such a situation the
Intensive Rural Development Programme (IRDP) was launched. This programme, along with

others, was based on the well known divisions between rich, middle, small, marginal and
landless farmers. But no one cared to notice the irrelevance of such a premise in most of the
small villages in the interior of the forests, and the programmes fell flat.

Underthe umbrella of IRDP, rural co-operative banks, land mortgage banks (financed
by the World Bank) and branches of various nationalized banks give loans to farmers for
‘improvement of land’. There are altogether 150 branches of different kinds of banks now
swamping Bastar. Lakhs of rupees of credit is given every year. The government part of the
expenditure alone came to Rs.5.74 crores last year. But what they need immediately is not
credit to improve their land but scope to improve it which is closed by forest policy and
irrigation policy. So they all become indebted. Some of the commercial banks also attach their
property. Enroute to Konta from Sukma, when we stopped at a village on the roadside all the
men sitting there ran helter skelter. They came back only when they were assured that we
were not Bank officials who had come to collect dues! A study of Kondagaon, in 1976-81,
established that of the 499 farmers who received loans from the Land Mortgage Bank, 476
people lost their cattle or land because of their inability to pay back. In the case of Cooperative
Banks, the government took a decision in 1981 annulling all the loans taken prior to 1971. In
the following 18 years the arrears have again accumulated. In fact, as the chief of the District
Rural Development Agency himself summed up, these peasants simply have 'no capacity to
absorb all the credit that is being pumped’. Where else it is going and what are its implications
to the politics and administration of the district is a moot point. The point about these
programmes is not that they generate corruption, which they do, but that they generate
poverty and landlessness.
From the latest report of the Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes (Annexure III), to the local politicians and lower ranking policemen, everyone suggests
that this explains the social origin of the Naxalite movement in Bastar. For the Naxalites pro
vide them support to cultivate the pattaless lands, otherwise notified as forests and even
organize them to encroach upon forests and bring more land under cultivation. Last year, in
the harvesting season, it was reported that in the Pamed range alone, they brought 400 acres
of forest into cultivation. Their front organisation Adivasi Kisan Mazdoor Sanghathan (AKMS)
raised the issue of tanks repeatedly in all its memorandums, delegations, pamphlets and
bandh calls.

In the winter season, October to March, they go for wage work in commercial forestry
operations, roads, bridges and other construction works. A part of the IRDP that relates to the
National Rural Employment Scheme (NREP) relates to this kind of work. Here the role of
forests or labour contractors is notorious. Near Mallebagh, on the road from Dornapal to
Bijapur, a bridge has been under construction on the Talperu river for the last five years. Last
year AKMS attempted to organize the labourers for an increase in wages. These labourers
struck work for a few days. According to the police, the Naxalite dalam (armed squad) also
burnt the trucks of the PWD contractor. Eventually the wages were raised from Rs.9 to Rs.13
a day. When we visited, we found that the labourers are of two kinds. First are those who are
settled just next to the river. They are about ten families who came from far off places and work
round the year. During the winter season, adivasi labourers from nearby villages join them.

12

Men of those settled here are being paid
Rs.14 per day while women get Rs.12.
But men from the nearby villages re
ceive Rs.12 per day while the women
receive Rs.10.The official wage rate for
all categories and for both sexes is
Rs.17 per day. Last year (1988-89), the
government spent Rs.3.0 crores on its
Rural Employment Scheme. In addition
there are a host of similar programmes
which focus bn creating employment in
this season. But this year all eyes are
set on the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana.

JAWAHAR ROJGAR YOJANA IN BASTAR
The Yojana launched in thia financial

year merged the two existing employment
generation programmes (REGP and NREP).
The three criterion selected by the Centre to
allocate the money under the project to differ

ent states are: the inverse of agricultural pro
ductivity, the proportion of scheduled castes
and tribes and the proportion of agricultural

labourers. But strangely the Centre has asked
the district administrations to abandon these

entertain allocating the money within adistrict
between the different blocks. Instead, total
The summer season, March to
population has been made the sole criterion.
June, is the season of minor forest
Usually the population would be more where
produce. It must be noted that the adivathere is more development or more employ
sis collect some or the other produce
ment, actual or potential. The implications of
from the forest throughout the year.
this new criterion to Bastar are ridiculous.
Mahua, imli, harra, chiraunji, fibres and
Bastar received, in two instalments, a
creepers are collected year.round Some
total of Rs. 11.83 crores. Going by the criterion
of it Is collected from the reserved forest
of total population, the block in which Kirandul,
from where it is prohibited to collect.
the mining township, falls will receive Rs.65
Heavy fines are levied on them. In fact,
lakhs, the block in which the Dandakaranya
as in the case of cultivation of land
Development Authority falls will receive Rs.44
notified as forests, these kinds of acts
lakhs, while Abhujhmarh will receive just Rs. 12
prohibited by law do not actually prevent
lakhs.
people from indulging in them. Instead
the law becomes an instalment of cor
ruption, harassment and intimidation for the forest officials. According to the Tribal Study
Team, initiated under the World Bank's Pine Project, over 70% of the forest produce thus
collected is for seif consumption. The rest of it goes to the weekly market and is bartered off
at absurd rates like 20 kg of mahua for 1 kg of rice or 6 kg of it for half a kilogram of salt. In
fact, our enquiries suggest that it is only in the case of tamarind that they exchange at a decent
‘price’. The government’s own mobile ration vans are also involved in supplying them their
daily needs. But then they demand cash. However, the organised trade in minor forest
produce is more important than the collection for self consumption or exchange at local
markets. Tendu leaf of course is the most important among them.

Tendu leaf collection in Madhya Pradesh is a political issue at both ends of the long
chain of trade. In Bastar, the Naxalites, in tune with their strategy in the neighbouring forests
of Telangana and Gadchiroli have taken up the wage question. For over two decades the
wages remained at 3 paise to 8 paise per gaddi (a bundle of 50 leaves). From about 1982
it has risen dramatically to 30 paise in 1988, while the rate in rest of the state remained at 8
paise. Since the contractors cannot afford any strike in the short duration collection period (six

13

weeks), they concede the demand and buy peace. It is widely believed that the Naxalites also
take money in large amounts from the tendu leaf contractors to finance their activities. In fact,
when Cong(l) leader Vajpayee wrote an open letterto the Naxalites in the local press charging
them, along with other things, of taking money from tendu leaf contractors, the Naxalites
replied, accepting the charge and explaining their reasons! (These khule patra between
Vajpayee and the Naxalites carried by the local media are a continuous source of much
amusement in Jagdalpur.)
The entire tendu scene changed this year with political intervention from above.
Former Chief Minister Arjun Singh announced a cooperativisation of the trade and handed
over collection to tribal cooperatives. This decision irked the tendu-beedi lobby, whose power
in MP politics is legendary. A section of them support the BJP. At least four Cong(l) district
leaders, five MPs including one in Bastar and two ministers in the present cabinet are
acknowledged to be associated with the tendu-beedi business. One of them even owns a
newspaper. It is believed that the lobby played an important role in dethroning Arjun Singh.
After some dilly-dallying the Motilal Vohra cabinet went along with his policy. The wage was
uniformly fixed at 15 paise per gaddi. More than 4000 co-operatives were formed almost
overnight. Practically every government department was mobilised to make the collection a
success. The MP government also hosted a team of journalists from the national newspapers
to report on its programme. In Bastar, the Naxalites gave a boycott call to press for increasing
the rate from 15 paise to the last year’s rate of 30 paise. They reportedly threatened all the
adivasi sarpanches and upsarpanches who were appointed as members of the newly formed
cooperatives. All the members of all the cooperatives in South Bastar resigned just before the
season began. The government mobilised hundreds of officials and jeeps, and injected 27
additional companies of the Special Armed Force (SAF). The achievement lies 40% less than
the target, mainly because of the fall in South Bastar. The Collector in his interview claimed
that the collection in South Bastar was 60% less than the target, but the Chief Conservator
of Forests said that it was a ‘hundred percent failure'. In all this the adivasis suffered. The
tendu leaf contribute more than a third of their meagre annual income.
This then is the cycle of their lives every year. It ends with the famous seed festival
(variously called Bijjum pandum, Vijju pandi, Ittanam panduga) just before the onset of
monsoon when the agricultural season begins.

Altogether their own production of rice, kodo, kutki and other millets sustain them from
three to six months in a year depending on the area and the rainfall. The nutrient content is
very low. In addition, they also brew their own liquor. According to some sample surveys, on
an average Bastar men consume 1.5 litre, women consume 1 litre and children consume 0.5
litre every day. Some of the adivasis also go hunting, especially in summer. Our own informal
enquiries and government sponsored sample surveys indicate that the winter wage work
season contributes least to their annual income. Ironically this is the season that is the focus
of many of the employment generation programmes. The rest of the income is almost equally
divided between the harvesting season and the M FP season. Their per capita average annual
income is estimated to be Rs.450 in sharp contrast to the national average of Rs.770.

14

The monotonous cycle of seasons in adivasi lives is incarcerated, like theirtechnology,
culture and jurisprudence in the process of development and degradation, leading now to
violent social tensions.

IV. THE STATE AND SOCIAL TENSIONS

It was in the context of this kind of development process that the Naxalite movement
took root in Bastar, since about the early eighties. The Naxalites, in the words of the SP,
Bastar, have ‘no problems of assimilation since they themselves are tribals’. Their concerns
have been not only land and wages, but also health and education amongst the adivasis.

VILLAGE BHATTUGUDEM

The village is located in the interior of the jungle, off Kondapalli, about 27 km from
Basavaguda. All the sixty households are of Maria Gonds. The village was not identified in the 1951
census. In 1961 it became a small'inhabited village’. Butin 1971 it became an 'uninhabited village'!
The villagers keep shifting the location of their settlement within the radius of their forest subject to

the availability of water. The most recent shift was just a few months before our visit. All of them till

about 4 to 5 acres per family. Recently half of them got pattas for their land. That’s about the only
contact they have had with their government. There are no literates in the village. There are not likely

to be any in the near future. School either as an institution or as an idea is far away from them. Nor
is there any dispensary. There is an Anganwadi where one of their own women works. Their main

contact to the main road is through trade. In due season, trading agents come and buy some of their
rice. They too go to the Frid ry weekly market at Basavaguda to exchange sal seeds or mahua
flowers with rice and salt. They have never worked in any of the employment generating works. But

they know that the government provides them such work. So when a SAF camp was set up in
Basavaguda, they went and asked for work, in vain. But the SAF came to them for the first time when

an incident of Narbali(human sacrifice), that so far has remained mysterious and unidentified, took
place in the jungle. They came, arrested them, .ookthem io the police station and beat them up. Next
time, when a da/ambeat up a notorious forest ranger somewhere inside the jungle, in October, 1986,

again the armed police came and beat them up. Police suspect that the adivasis shelter Naxalites.

Everytime a major incident takes place anywhere around, the police come. Thus, they were arrested
and tortured in July, 1987 when the AKMS gave a bandh call; in June, 1988 when the Chintalnar

dacoity took place; and on other occasions. Two of them died, they say, a fewdays aftertheir release
as a result of torture. Three of them are now in Jagdalpur jail, detained underTADA. They have never
voted so far in any election, although before the last election someone came and registered their

votes. They look completely unfamiliar with any facet of our developing democratic welfare state,
except the armed police.

15

According to the police, at the time of her death Rajakka was carrying, apart from a gun and
‘extremist literature', a rolling plastic blackboard and a few chalk pieces.
The group that operates here is known as the Communist Party of India, MarxistLeninist, People's War Group (CPI,M-L,PWG). Their main front organisation is Adivasi Kisan
Mazdoor Sanghathan (AKMS). In addition the group also has a number of armed squads
(dalams). Current police estimates put the total number of Naxalites in these dalams at 170,
including 35 women. They reportedly possess sophisticated weapons like AK-47 rifles.

In the initial years the AKMS systematically took up issues that relate to all the three
working seasons of the people, referred to above. It appears to us that, unlike the dalams, the
AKMS adopts only normal legal forms of activities. In the last four years the Sanghathan has
organised at least six major demonstrations and delegations. In July, 1988 when the Sang
hathan announced a major tahsil level demonstration at Bijapur, police were deployed in large
scale all around the place. Unable to take out the procession, the AKMS posted its
memorandum to the Tahsildar!

But the Naxalites ortheirdalams have
been involved in a number of incidents of
violence. According to the records of the
District police, they are held responsible for
twelve major incidents of arms snatching in
which 17 guns were snatched. Similarly
they are held responsible for the burning of
at least 12 trucks and two buses in the last
two years. In addition they have reportedly
been involved in scores of incidents of
beating up the forest officials. Finally they
are held responsible for seven instances of
murder in which suspected police informers
or alleged notorious village middlemen were
annihilated. In a widely reported incident,
Dubba Kanhayya, alleged black marketeer,
usurper of land and suspected police in
former was killed in a gruesome manner in
his village Sankanpalli near Bhopalpatnam,
Bijapur tahsil on 7th August, 1988.

SALT WITHOUT SATYAGRAHA
In July,1988, three hundred people
participated In a mass dacoity, led by a Naxalite

dalam, in Chintalnar. The dalam snatched six

guns of the thakurs. But the adivasis were
after salt. One of the adivasis accused enthu
siastically told us that he got lots of salt from
the thakurs' house. Salt is a most precious
commodity In the adivasi areas of Bastar. In

the most common form of food , pej, a liquid
gruel of the available cereals cooked in water,
no salt is added. This, according to medical
experts, is the cause of widespread diarrhoeal
diseases. The low intake of salt, coupled with

the raw salt marked by its Iodine deficiency,
has made goitre the other endemic disease.
In the weekly market, where the exchange of

goods takes place, six kilograms of mahua

In addition to these killings the Naxal
ites are held responsible fora major incident
of dacoity at Chintalnar in July, 1988. Chintalnar (Konta tahsil, Jagargunda P.S.) is
one of those few villages in South Bastar
where one can find an identifiable social
group of landowners cum money lenders

16

are given sometimes in return for half a kilo

gram of sab. And thus almost six decades
after the rightto make salt was made a symbol
for freedom and nationhood, the adivasis of

Bastar are yet to receive adequate quantities
of salt

and traders. Like all villages of its kind it is situated on the roadside. The thakurs of this village
came from Uttar Pradesh in the early sixties. Earlier they were liquor contractors in the days
when the adivasis were prohibited from brewing their own liquor. Gradually they diversified
into trade and money lending and became land owners. In early 1986, the AKMS forced them
to reduce the prices of the goods they were selling in all the weekly markets that they
controlled. Immediately an armed police camp was set up in their village and licences for six
guns were issued. Later the camp was withdrawn but not the guns. In July last year, a da/am
led a mass dacoity on their houses. An estimated 300 adivasis participated in this incident.
Apart from the six guns, gold and silver, a host of household commodities were looted.

Incidents of this kind, coupled with other instances of acts of violence invited
responsive measures by the government. In 1981, for the first time, three companies of the
27th battalion of the MP Special Armed Force (SAF) were deployed in Bastar. Later, in 1983,
a special Bastar battalion was created. Called the 30th battalion, the entire force is now in
Bastar. In addition, five companies of the 31 st battalion have also been mobilised. Presently,
11 companies consisting of about 1400 armed policemen are deployed in the district. They
are stationed, in addition to main centres like Jagdalpur, Bijapur and Kutru, in some of the
village camps. The latter keep shifting from village to village periodically, depending upon the
police assessment of the situation.
The strength of the civil police also has increased from about a thousand in 1981 to
almost two thousand now. In February this year, a new police district for South Bastar with
headquarters at Dantewada was created. To the existing 11 police stations, 9 more were
added. Altogether there are 42 police stations in the district now, of which 20 are in South
Bastar.
There have been a number of instances of exchange of fire between patrolling SAF
parties and the dalams. In the period 1981-85, seven such incidents took place. But since
1985 as many as 30 such incidents have taken place. In five of them, one civil constable, one
police driver and three SAF jawans have been killed. Independently five SAF jawans were
killed by their fellow jawans in some fracas in their camps. In one such instance that took place
in Kutru camp, a major centre where about 100 men are stationed, a jawan Bhagavati
Bhatham was reportedly killed by a fellow jawan on 29 April. But our investigation suggests
the possibility that he was killed during an aborted attempt by the dalams to raid the camp.
The incident, we understand from SAF sources, was suppressed. Hence there is a strong
possibility that the official figure of five policemen killed may be an underestimate.
On the other side, in similar exchanges of fire, five Naxalites were killed. In one incident
that took place near Gorkha, Konta, on 21 July, 1987, Podiyam Yerranna was killed. The
people say that two more, both of whom were adivasis were also killed. But the DIG police
denies it. In the Mukabelli incident already referred to, Rajakka was killed. Her body was kept
in a thatched hut outside for a day. Post-mortem was conducted there itself and she was
cremated on the spot. The latest encounter took place just a week before our visit, on 7 June
in Kaiskal forest, Narayanpur. Two people were killed. In addition six others lost their lives in
other circumstances. Of the total thirteen who died, six were adivasis.

17

The government has launched scores of cases in connection with the Naxalite
movement. The notorious Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) came
into effect in MP in December, 1985. A designated court at Raipur was assigned to Bastar
along with four other districts of the Chhattisgarh region, in July, 1986 the first TADA arrest
took place in Bastar. Later, in March, 1987, Rajanna, who was believed to be the main leader
of the movement was arrested. (Subsequent to our visit Rajanna, along with two other
prisoners, escaped from Jagdalpur jail.) Among the 110 TADA accused in Bastar, about 100
are adivasis, fifty five of them in the dacoity case of Chintalnar. Altogether there are 300
accused in various cases, of which 250 are adivasis.
The experience of these adivasis with the legal system is heartrending. In many of the
link courts, where the magistrates come from Jagdalpur and hold sittings once a month, they
do not really have sympathetic lawyers. In cases like TADA it is not easy to get bail. But even
if they are granted bail, they are usually unable to provide sureties. Ironically, the surety
demanded is patta, the lack of which has perhaps driven them to the path of struggle. So they
remain in jail for months or even years. One of them, Tellam Bandi, died in Raipur jail in June,
1987. And 33 of the 55 accused in the Chintalnar case are still in jail, even though some of
them were granted bail.

The judicial administration in Bastar is somewhat peculiar. The TADA prisoners, who
were originally kept in Raipur jail were later transferred to Jagdalpur when a separate
designated court was created for Bastar in March, 1988. But the judge transferred them back
on the grounds that the earlier case did not come under his jurisdiction. Then the Raipur judge
transferred them back on the grounds that Bastar cases do not come under his jurisdiction.
This shuttling went on for about three times until finally they were assigned to the court at
Jagdalpur. The trial is yet to start in any of these cases. The adivasis are shuttled from jail to
jail, court to court, and make long journeys, sometimes on foot (a distance of 150 km), for
every adjournment. Just about the only redeeming feature is that in almost all cases the
adivasi panchayats have adopted them. In Karkeli we found that every household contributes
to the legal expenses of the five accused. This is also the case in Kakerlanka and Sagumetta.

But the real problem-forthe adivasis is not the legal proceedings but the illegal activities
of the police. The presence of the large contingent of armed police in the interior adivasi
villages has changed the environment completely. In the villages where they camp they take
away the food, especially chicken and goats, force the villagers to cook for free forthem, and
compete for the meagre drinking water which is available. Thus the camps, subsidised by the
villagers, are a burden to the people. In the last four years at least forty villages of South Bastar
have seen such camps at one time or another. In addition to the stationary camps, there are
also mobile patrolling parties which make regular rounds.
The presence of camps and patrolling by the armed police severely restricts the
mobility of the people. The adivasis commute only on foot through the familiar jungle routes
to the nearby centres or weekly market places. They (especially women) go to the forests to
collect fuelwood and other produce, and to fetch water. But the atmosphere of terrorthat now
prevails in the region has effectively closed or restricted such movements.

18

DESTITUTES OF DEVELOPMENT

In the princely Bastar state there was a practice,
called ghaitaponi, where the king used to conduct an
auction in which widows of some castes were sold to
the highest bidder?The practice gradually declined. In
the mid sixties came the NMDC’s mining project in
Bailadila. The non-tribal migrant workers and officials
entered into illicit relations with adivasi women, rakhel
(mistress), as they say. They were promised marriage,
but were invariably abandoned on becoming pregnant.
Some of them became prostitutes, since the adivasi
samaj does not accept them back into its fold. The
magnitude of the problem reached scandalous dimen
sions. In 1971, a much respected District Collector,
with the help of the police, raided Kirandul and forced many of the erring officials to marry their
mistresses. Some of the other women and about 500 of their children were 'rehabilitated' in a Nari
Niketan set up in Kirandul. Later the Collector was transferred and many of the reluctant husbands
also got themselves transferred. Meanwhile the Nari Niketan was shifted to Dantewada.
And now in South Bastar the tradition continues. The armed policemen enter into relationships
with adivasi women, with the promise of marriage, and then abandon them when they become
pregnant. In Mudded, Bhopalpatnam, Juwa Chauttakka committed suicide after she became
pregnant. The daughter of Basviraj in Sankanpalli died when the family tried to get the child aborted
secretly at Bijapur. Armed policemen also molest and rape unsuspecting women when they go to
fetch water in the forest. In Chinna Morupadu (Jagargunda P.S.) an adivasi woman was raped by
five policemen and then driven into her village naked. The police officials acknowledge some of these
rapes. In the last three years, seven SAF jawans have been dismissed, one suspended, and one rape
and two molestation cases have been launched, according to the commandant of the SAF 30th
battalion. But then they reflect neither the dimensions nor the intensity of the growing problem. In
many villages women are used as prostitutes. In one village, we were told, the wife of the sarpanch
herself is used by the twelve-member police camp. When we visited the village, we found the SAF
camp right next to the sarpanch's house. The circumstances were such that we could not investigate.
Altogether at least 11 cases of 'ape, 14 cases of forced prostitution and 35 instances of being forced
into illicit and fraudulent relationshipscametoour notice. As it usually is in our society, these reported
instances are only a fraction of the total.

Bastar is haunted by its destitute women. In the colonial period it was the power held by the
rulers and their agents that was responsible. In post independence India, it is the development which
is generating these women. Countless accounts of this kind have now become part of the oral history
of the people. In Bodhghat one of the persons said 'Yeh project kuchch nahi layega, bus hamari
bahnon ko rakhel banayega (this project will not bring anything except making our sisters into
mistresses )'. Thus, not the Bailadila mines but the Nari Niketan at Dantewada has become an
evocative symbol of development in Bastar. And now the armed police in the adivasi villages are
generating one more such symbol.

19

Every time a major activity of the AKMS (like a bandh call) or of the Naxalites (like an
instance of violence referred to above) takes place armed police conduct massive and
frightening raids in the villages all around. A large contingent of armed police, sometimes as
many as 100, descend on a village whose population is often less than that. They conduct
indiscriminate beatings, take away the best catch, chicken and goats, destroy the utensils and
other household goods, and throw out the stock of grains. This May, after the exchange of
fire in Kakerlanka which eventually resulted in the death of the jeep driyer, the police took
three youths and buried them neck deep in the fields. After such violence the people,
especially men, are taken to a police station. There the civil police take over. The police have
their own way of administering justice, but it appears to be rather ‘more advanced' than the
adivasis’ own system. They may hang the adivasis upside down from the ceiling, or subject
them to the infamous roller treatment and beat them up for days together. Some of the
detained people may be released after the elders from the panchayat or the family members
come and pay them large amounts of bribe. Eventually some of them may be sent to jail.

It is difficult to estimate how many villages have been raided in such a manner in the
last four years. We made an attempt to list the villages, the immediate contexts of the violence,
and the dates, with the help of some local journalists and press clippings. Our estimate is that
approximately 90 villages suffered raids of this kind in South Bastar in the period 1985 to May,
1989. The largest number of them took place in Jagargunda, Kutru, Bijapur and Konta police
station areas.
Even more difficult to estimate is the number of people who have been subjected to
illegal detention. In five of the villages that we visited, for every twenty persons who were
illegally detained an average of only one was booked under one or another case. And
presently there are about 300 accused in different cases.

The objective of this massive violence seems to be to generally terrorize the adivasis.
According to their own accounts, many people suggest that they are being punished for giving
food and shelter to the Naxalites. The ostensible purpose of the more sustained interroga
tions is to find the whereabouts of dadalog or annas, as the Naxalites are called even by some
of the policemen. The practice of using abominable third degree methods to extract
information from the suspects is perhaps fairly common in most of the police stations of the
country. But in Bastar it has absolutely no point since most policemen do not understand the
language of the adivasis whom they torture.

V.THE IMAGE AND REALITY: A CONCLUSION

In 1952, in the first general elections, an adivasi Mochaki Kosa wori the parliament seat
with the help of his former ruler, Raja Pravir Chandra Bhanj Deo. But soon he was fed up of

,20

living in Delhi. Among other things he complained of lack of money and resources to live a
decent life in Delhi! Much later it was disclosed that his Personal Assistant assigned by the
government cheated him of the allowances and perks that were due to him as a member of
the parliament. He left Delhi in the middle of his term and never returned. Almost thirty seven
years later, the adivasi representatives of Bastar appear to be doing well. One of them is even
associated with the high profile tendu trade. Yet we found in atleast one village no one has
as yet exercised their franchise in any of the ten assembly elections and eight parliament
elections held since 1952 in Madhya Pradesh.

Meanwhile Pravir Chandra Bhanj Deo himself became a source of recurring tensions
for the government. His assertion of authority, coupled with revivalist tendencies created a
number of problems .His strength was his legendary personality. Even at the time of our visit,
we found that he is still fondly remembered and reverred, The maverick forced a confrontation
between his former subjects and the government. Eventually he was killed in his own palace,
in police firing in 1966. Along with him many adivasis were also killed.

Later Baba Bihari Das, known as Kanthiwala Baba, came to prominence in Bastar. He
claimed that he was a reincarnation of Pravir Chandra. He gained such a large following
among the adivasis that a well known Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh was even reported
to have forged an alliance with him. But during the emergency (1975-77), the Baba was
detained under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act(MISA). Later, after his release his
activities flourished again, this time with the help of a different set of politicians. In 1983 he
was externed from the district to which he never seemed to have returned. But his influence
continued. His followers were allegedly involved in the burning of the pines in the World Bank
project.

Meanwhile other political parlies also gained prominence in the district. Notable among,
them were the CPI and the BJP. The former even won an election from Dantewada assembly
constituency which earlier had always voted for the Congress.That particular leader of CPI
has now joined Congress-L Presently out of eleven constituencies in the district, one is held
by BJP while all the rest are held by the ruling party. In this situation entered the Naxalites.
In a sense, the political fortunes of Bastar are intrinsically linked with its development
process. The adivasis' own democratic aspirations have never been given the place that is
due to them, just as they had no role in the evolution of a ‘development’ that is thrust upon
them. From Bailadila to Bodhghat no effort was made to involve them in the process. On the
contrary it closed some of the available options of survival for them. Thus it only strengthened
their traditional practices and the associated cults. Each time a new project, a new technology
or a new law made an entry into their lot, their own system became more oppressive. As
symbols of progress became sources of superstitions, rajas and babas flourished.
The permanent state of transition feeds the romantic images in which adivasis are
often perceived. To outsiders it appears that the adivasis are in 'perfect harmony with nature'.
But hard labour in adverse terrain is no harmony. Cruel poverty has no romance in it.

21

Alternately, these adivasis and their practices have also become the basis for
condescending and patriarchal attitudes of the ruling elite. To them the adivasis are innocents
in need of enlightenment from the benevolent establishment. But in fact they are intelligent
beings with tremendous fortitude, who survive the difficult geo-economic terrain. And that is
perhaps the reason why any form of political consciousness among them is treated with such
brutal savagery by hitherto enlightened people.
V(ir

Any attempt to understand democratic issues of adivasis must consciously attempt to
transcend these inherited images and the underlying attitudes. The problems of democracy
are inalienable from those of development

We have met representatives of almost all of the political parties, in addition to leading
advocates and journalists. All of them are of the view that th e Naxalite movement is essentially
a socio-economic problem. The failure of development programmes, exploitation by middle
men and contractors, and corruption among the officials are the most commonly cited causes.
Some of them even acknowledged the failure of the political parties to effectively champion
the cause of the adivasis. In a similar manner, Arvind Netam, sitting MP and former member
of the central cabinet, in a much publicised interview suggested that Bastar should be bought
under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, on the lines of North Eastern states, to solve the
Naxalite problem.
The District Collector, somewhat exceptional to all others we met, however maintained
that the Naxalite problem is essentially a ‘Morena problem’, a reference to the chronic dacoity
problems of the Chambal ravines. But again the Superintendent of Police (Bastar) suggested
that it is essentially a socio-economic problem The commandant of the Bastar battalion more
succinctly said that ‘our battalion was raised to solve a problem that it can not solve’. Perhaps
in that sense there is a near unanimity that the Naxalite movement is rooted in the social and
economic problems of Bastar and its people.
Yet just about the only thing that is happening in Bastar is the increase in police force
and their violence against unarmed citizens. Today policemen have become more lawless
than even the Naxalitesl And now, the government has taken a decision to make police part
of the co-ordination committee meetings on tribal welfare and development. Even the mobile
fair price trucks, the irregular and only source of goods at fair prices to the people are soon
to be managed by the police. At a time when it is important to review the role of the
development process in the violation of democratic norms, this gradual and surruptitious
policisation of administration is dangerous. And that will not be for the adivasis alone.

22

ROLL CALL OF THE DEAD

(a) Police:
SAF Jawans
3*
Civil Constable
1
"■ Driver ■
1
('excludes live jawans killed In the camps by fellow jawans)

(b) Activists:
(I)

‘Missing’; Those disappeared after their arrest
1. Dr. Suryadevara Malllkarjuna Prasad
2. Prakash
3. Raju
(ail In October-November,1986; Police deny the arrest of the latter)
Encounter Deaths:

(II)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
(III)

Ganapatl (Thadbelll, Narayanpur, 5 March,1985)
Podiyam Yerrana alias Valpadasi Sanker (Gorkha, Konta,
21 July,1987)
Uddam Mallal
} (Both In the same encounter above.
Unnamed adlvasl } Police deny.)
Kursum Rajakka (Mukabelil, Bljapur, 4 March,1989)
Ramesh
) (Both near Kalskal, Narayanpur,7 June,1989)
Bala Ramahna }
In custody:

I.Shlv Kumar alias Chlttl (Jagargunda, 7 February,1985)
2. & 3. Two unnamed villagers of Bhattugudem
(iv) In Jail:

1. Tellam Band! (TAD A prisoner, Raipur Jail, June,1987)

Forest Area (%)
Per capita Forest Area (ha)
Density per sq km
Rural Population (%)
Females per 1000 males
Scheduled Tribes (%)
Per capita Annual Income (Rs)
Literacy (%)
Electrified Villages (%)
* Estimate based on sample surveys.

BASTAR

MP

INDIA

54
11
47
94
1002
68
450*
14
19

35
0.3
118
80
950
23
28
52

23
0.11
216
77
933
7
771
36
68

Media: 1557.pdf

Position: 245 (22 views)