The Nation.

A War in the Heart of India

By Ramachandra Guha

This article appeared in the July 16, 2007 edition of The Nation.

June 27, 2007

Write a Web letter about this article.

What's a Web Letter?

Web Letters are continuously published e-mails from real people, signed with their real names. No registration is required. Each article page on The Nation includes a Web Letters link.

Read the best Web Letters on this page.

We're committed to publishing your comments as they are received. We place a red star () on the best submissions and may edit your e-mail for length or content. Your e-mail address will not be published or shared with any third party without your consent.

If you prefer, you may submit a letter to the print edition only.

We look forward to hearing from you.

  • Perhaps Ramachandra Guha is pulling a few punches in this article. I have read the report he helped file with the Independent Citizens Initiative and I think this article downplays exactly how terrifying the Salwa Judum really are. In his own report the human rights activists were harassed by a mob of Salwa Judum members and had their camera confiscated. An excerpt from a police transcript they printed said that the police were ready to shoot journalists if they got too close to the real story of Salwa Judum.

    Two weeks ago I traveled through Chhattisgarh while working on a radio story for a major American broadcaster and I saw roving mobs of axe- and AK-47-carrying cadres threatening everyone who passed their checkpoint. The local police chief of a refugee camp called Dornapal said he was too scared to leave his station to meet us because the day before he had been assaulted by the local mob.

    Salwa Judum is a classic example of the cure being worse than the disease. While I agree with Mr. Guha that the Maoists are dangerous and refuse to negotiate with the Indian government, at least they have an ideology. You can sort of predict what the Maoists might do next. Salwa Judum have no ideology. They understand only power.

    One police officer I spoke to said that arming the Salwa Judum SPOs may have been their biggest mistake. He fully expects that in a few years the police will be fighting two insurgencies instead of just one.

    Scott Carney
    http://www.scottcarneyonline.com

    Chennai, India

    09/24/2007 @ 06:04am


  • Perhaps it took a foreign publication to frankly discuss, as Guha does so well, the Indian "self-congratulatory" urban/yuppie press, who evidently do not wish to disturb the possible corporate investors that are their masters, as well as the indolence of government figures in those parts.

    From all I've gathered, the Salva Judum are actually a government-sponsored force for co-opting the desperate villagers, in order to clear the forest areas of both Maoists and tribals and open them up for "development." The government will then ghettoize the tribals like Native Americans and exploit the valuable untouched forest reserves. I had always hoped India would learn from American history, but I'm afraid they've learned all the wrong things.

    From a Nepali perspective, the resemblance to our Maoist situation is complete. Maoists paid attention to the situations the big-city politicians ignored. And despite their championing of Adivasis, the leadership of the Naxals, like that of the Maoists, is solidly Bahun-Chhetri (Brahmin-Kshatriya). So much for social change.

    But the Indian Naxals need not worry about the Nepali Maoists having "sold out" by "giving up weapons." All they've really done is lock up the worthless arms and stash the good stuff elsewhere. You heard it here first.

    Caroline Martin

    Kathmandu, Nepal

    07/16/2007 @ 12:44pm


Popular Topics
Most Searched

Issues »

Most Emailed

Issues »

Blogs

» Campaign 08

McCain Campaign Bans Bush Librarian (Video) | The McCain Campaign drops the hammer on a librarian who dared suggest the supposed "maverick" is like Bush.
Ari Melber

» Capitolism

Can't Keep Brian Beutler Down | Beutler talks to Feingold about FISA
Christopher Hayes

» The Beat

What Obama Should Be Saying About FISA | The Democratic candidate for president could have struck a blow for civil liberties and corporate responsibility today.
John Nichols

» The Dreyfuss Report

The Problem with Power | Samantha, that is. Her Zimbabwe solution is a dangerous step on a slippery slope.
Robert Dreyfuss

» Editor's Cut

Iraq Reconstruction Corruption, Part 7 | The Commission on Wartime Contracting should be a critical curb to the systemic waste, fraud and abuse associated with the wartime-support and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Katrina vanden Heuvel

» The Notion

The Afghan Pipeline You Don't Know About | It was in the planning stages in 2001; now the U.S.-backed Afghan pipeline has returned, but nobody in the mainstream media is writing about it.
Tom Engelhardt

» ActNow!

Of House and Home | Urge Congress to fight back against the subprime swindle.
Peter Rothberg

» Passing Through

Leveraging the Power of Celebrities | With the help of Web 2.0 tools, celebrities can contribute more than just hype to this election cycle.
Michael Connery

» And Another Thing

Preachers and Politics | Secularism looks better and better.
Katha Pollitt