Caught between State and Maoists

While the Chhattisgarh government claims that Salwa Judum is a spontaneous civilian movement of tribals against the atrocities of Maoists, there is overwhelming proof that its members indulge in atrocities against poor tribals and are a law unto themselves
Harsh Dobhal Lingagiri/ Dantewada

December 29, 2006. Lingagiri village in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, about 600 km from Raipur, close to Andhra Pradesh border.
Gantal Raju, 30, was at his village home with father, Gantal Kanhaiya, wife, young son and 20-year-old sister, Sreedevi. Suddenly, in the wee hours, a group of armed security personnel barged into their house. The uniformed men entered neighbouring houses and dragged people out. Unprovoked, they began beating Raju mercilessly. When his father tried to object, they dragged him out and started hitting him on the chest. "When he resisted and tried to argue that we were innocent villagers and not Maoists, they stabbed him to death right in front of our house," Raju said. 

The barbaric acts did not stop there. They beat up Raju's mother and fractured her thigh bone. "They dragged my sister by her hair towards a pond in the nearby jungle where she was raped and murdered. Her body was found four days later.  The CRPF and Special Police Officers or SPOs, (State-armed local villagers) also robbed the family of all our belongings."

It was during the same assault that Gantal Baby, Sreedevi's closest friend, had to run to the forest to save her honour. Nine months into pregnancy, she delivered her baby boy in the forest while on the run. Avadu Ramadu, now three years old, literally means 'born in the jungle.' 

After that day of horror, Raju escaped with his family to Cherla in Andhra Pradesh, about 70 km away. Gantal Baby's family and many others from Lingagiri and neighbouring Boreguda and Basuguda villages, too, ran away to Cherla. Others were forced to go to a nearby camp run by the Salwa Judum ('peace campaign'), a State-sponsored militia, touted as an adivasi movement against the Maoists in Chhattisgarh.

While the BJP-led Chhattisgarh government claims that Salwa Judum is a spontaneous civilian movement of tribals against the atrocities of Maoists, there is overwhelming proof that its members indulge in organised brutality against poor tribals and are a law unto themselves. Other villages - Pichepara and Pakela on the other side of the Basuguda, Mahapara, Doleguda, Kumarpara, Dharampur, Nayapara and Pathanpara - also faced the same horror.

Once the inhabitants were forced to flee, these villages turned into a wasteland by the end of 2006. A fact-finding team from Delhi recently visited the region (this journalist was part of the team). Villagers informed the team that Basuguda was a thriving village till three years back. It had lush green fields, orchards, a rippling stream, school, rice mill and a bustling marketplace that would draw people from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. Mango trees, sal, tendu, mahua, teak, jackfruit, neem and many other indigenous species still dot the abandoned landscape. 

Now, there is a community square amidst ruined mud houses, broken roofs, but wall writings still intact. Serpentine kuchcha lanes and heaps of earth and wood lie scattered. "Kalamu Masal kab bana Mahendra Karma, jawab do," (How did Kalamu Masal change his name to Mahendra Karma), reads a graffiti, referring to Mahendra Karma, Congress leader, popular as the godfather of the Salwa Judum.