As one of the many inhabitants of urban India, sometimes in the know and mostly not, news of the recent developments in central India, where the paramilitary forces have stepped up their activities against Maoist forces, captured my attention. Being stuck in the information technology capital of the country, keeps me tapped into information through various sources, especially the internet. This has so far given me some perspective on the Maoist or Naxalite issue that India faces. Magazines like Tehelka and Caravan and the travelogue through naxal territory, ‘Red Sun’, by Sudip Chakravarthy have also informed me. There have also been some strong attempts by the corporate media houses, especially TV to misinform me and many like me. They of course do it, as you know, by presenting only one side of the story which highlights the ‘threats’ of the Maoists
Having met many people from Dantewada and as a part of a support group in Bangalore coming face to face with the many happenings, in the last one month or so, I feel a sense of outrage, sadness and helplessness. The confusion and helplessness largely a result of leading a schizophrenic existence, of enjoying the privileges of class and location, but being acutely aware of the cost of lives and livelihoods this existence has to pay. The outrage and sadness due to getting to know and see (through photographs and documentaries) the high level of atrocities being perpetrated on fellow and lesser privileged citizens. So what can I or any of us in this ‘bubbled’ existence do? I guess for one we can at least make attempts at knowing more and understanding realities better through interactions and discussion and then perhaps informing others? Or even better, get out of our comfortable bean bag existence and visit places like Dantewada? Time perhaps for middle class India to become unselfishly political, both in consumption and lifestyle choices, as well as taking a stand for equitable development?
Rohan D’Souza (virtuallyme@gmail.com)
These various sources of information (and misinformation) have painted a grim situation in at least seven states in central and eastern India. The crushing poverty and lawlessness in these states is fueled by political parties, local and state level businessmen, contractors and now the biggies of India Inc. Armed resistance in the form of the naxalite movement has attempted countering the exploitation arising out of such situations since the late 1960s. But then again violence does have a way of perpetuating itself, inviting more violence and leading to a never ending cycle. This cycle of violence has to stop somewhere, but then the state at its neo-liberalistic best (or worst?) is in no mood to stop until it ‘secures’ forests and ensure that the resources they contain speak in the balance sheets of Multi National Corporations and in the prosperity of the complex network of state and non-state actors around them! Perhaps this is what wealth creation is all about?
