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19 July, 2015

Chhattisgarh PUCL Condemns The Abduction
And Killing Of Four Constables

By People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Chhattisgarh

The People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Chhattisgarh condemns in no uncertain terms the abduction and killing of four constables belonging to the Chhattisgarh Auxiliary Force (erstwhile SPOs) attached to Police Station Bedre, district Bijapur by the Maoists

16 May, 2015

Curious Case Of Chhatradhar Mahato
By Nisha Biswas

The judgment of May12, 2015 of Midnapore session court to sentence Chhatradhar Mahato to life imprisonment is a travesty of justice and an attempt by the state to send a clear message to the people’s movement across West Bengal and India that any dissent against the state and the ruling classes will be answered in a ruthless manner

01 March, 2015

A Journey To Niyamgiri, A Celebration Of Life, Activism And Struggle!
By Shobha.R

We are once again reminded of the goondaism that prevails in regions like these, where communities face threats of abuse, intimidation and forced eviction due to mining and other so called development projects; where human right defenders and activists who believe in and abide by the law are made to feel like criminals and where the rich corporates who violate the law, rule the land

21 February, 2015

Kerala's Maoist Question
By Aishik Chanda

The state should immediately start considering Adivasis as very-much residents of Kerala. Then Forest Rights Act, Panchayati Raj Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA), distribution of “cultivable land” to Adivasis and reduction of malnutrition deaths will follow automatically. As far as the Maoists are concerned, experiences of West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh have shown that they can be flushed out of a state, but they will continue returning back till they find fertile grounds for “revolution”

20 February, 2015

War And The Lightness of Being Adivasi: Security Camps And Villages In Bijapur, Chhattisgarh
By People's Union For Democratic Rights

Between December 26th and 31st 2014, a PUDR fact-finding team visited 9 villages of Bijapur district, Chhattisgarh to ascertain reports of arrests, intimidation and harassment, including sexual abuse by security forces who are stationed there to fight the Maoists. Predominantly Adivasi villages, the residents of Basaguda, Kottaguda, Pusbaka, Lingagiri, Rajpeta, Timmapur, Kottagudem, Korsaguda and Sarkeguda, narrated the daily acts of violence and violations committed by armed personnel residing in security camps

06 February, 2015

‘Adivasi Campaign’ Demands Rejection Of The Land Acquisition Ordinance, 2014
By Adivasi Campaign for Human Rights

The present BJP led National Democratic Alliance government introduced an ordinance on 31st December 2014 to amend the LARRA. The Ordinance set aside the five major safeguards – social impact assessment, mandatory consent of the affected people, provisions to safeguard food security of the communities, punishment to the government officials and returning of unutilised land to the original land owners. These amendments effectively reintroduced the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 and ought to be rejected for the following reasons

27 December, 2013

Condemn Killing of Media Persons by CPI (Maoist)
By Asish Gupta & D Manjit

Peoples Union for Democratic Rights condemns the killing of Sai Reddy, a correspondent of Deshbandhu, a Hindi newspaper, based in Bijapur in south Bastar, Chhattisgarh on December 6, 2013. In a statement issued on December 10, 2013, the South Regional Committee of CPI(Maoist) claimed that Sai Reddy had “played an active role against the people’s movement in Basaguda and Usur areas over last two decades”, and therefore was condemned to death. Ironically, Sai Reddy not only wrote against Salwa Judum but was arrested by the police in 2008 and charged under Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act for allegedly being a Maoist supporter

29 October, 2013

The Terrible Cost Of An Inhuman Counter-Insurgency(PDF)
By Human Rights Forum

This report exposes the immense and entirely unacceptable suffering inflicted on adivasis by our not-so-human governments and police

20 August, 2013

Niyamgiri Mining Plan Gets A 12-0 Drubbing
By Countrercurrents.org

The Dongaria tribes of Jarapa village in Rayagada district today rejected the Niyamgiri mining plan, which was conceived to secure raw material for Vedanta Aluminium at Lanjigarh, Odisha, India. 11 other villages earlier rejected the mining plans of Vedanta in similar Gram Sabhas

15 August, 2013

India: The Burning Train
By Satya Sagar

Over six decades ago Pandit Nehru, the country's first Prime Minister, famously declared India’s 'tryst with destiny' and promised to make Independence a vehicle of future peace, prosperity and democratic rule for all his countrymen and women. But for millions of Indians living in this vast and diverse land it is as if Independence never arrived and our colonial rulers never left. There are two simple questions they pose that nobody seems to have an answer for. Who exactly got the freedom that India is supposed to have achieved? And WHO does this country really belong to?

30 June, 2013

Brutal Killing Of Adivasis In Bihar
By Jharkhand Human Rights Movement

A letter to president of India requesting an investigation on the brutal killing of 8 innocent Adivasis including 3 minor children in police firing, at Katharwa village in the state of Bihar on 24 June, 2013

26 May, 2013

Maoist Violence A Threat To Secular Democratic Forces In India
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

The Maoist threat and violence will only strengthen the militarized minds in the bureaucracy who will make a war cry. It will strengthen the right wing agenda of political parties and the end result would be that situation would turn more difficult for all those whose rights are violated particularly the most marginalized sections of our society whether it is Dalits or Aadivasis or Muslims and other backward communities

NAPM Condemns The Ambush By Maoists In Bastar
By National Alliance of People’s Movements

Politics of Violence and Counter Violence will only Maim Adivasis, Increased Militarisation in the Region would be no Solution

Condemn Massacre Of Leaders And Workers Of The Congress Party
By Concerned Citizens

The latest Maoist action will only invite even more state repression in the area. The CPI(Maoist) leadership, which authorized the attack, seem to have cynically calculated that such increased repression will swell their numbers and help their movement grow. If that is the case then their politics is as evil as those they claim to be fighting against and should be shunned by all those who stand for democratic norms in political struggles for peace with justice

CPI(ML) Condemns The 25th May Attack Of Maoists On Congress Rally
By KN Ramachandran

The 25 th May attack on the “Parivartan Rally” of Congress in Bastar region of Chhattisgarh by Maoists leading to killing and injuring of many including Congress leader Mahendra Karma and severe injury to V.C. Shukla, is a suicidal act which will only lead to further intensification of state terror against the adivasi masses

17 April, 2013

Fact Finding Report On The Death Of Three People
In The Bomb Explosion At Jagatsinghpur District, Odisha

By Concerned Citizens

On the 9 th of March 2013 , a 12 member team consisting of human rights activists, journalists, academicians, democratic rights and civil liberty activists, conducted a fact finding visit to Patana and Gobindapur villages of Dhinkia Panchayat in Jagatsinghpur District of Odisha. On the 2 nd of March 2013 , a bomb blast took place in the Patana village and three people were killed on the spot. One seriously injured person was admitted in a hospital at Cuttack

16 March, 2013

Preliminary Report On The Fact Finding In Bijapur District, Chhattisgarh
By Democratic Students’ Union

In the three weeks from mid-January till the first week of February, several villages in the Bijapur District of Chhattisgarh experienced the terror of the armed forces of the Indian state. The CRPF, Chhattisgarh state police, erstwhile SPO’s of the Salwa Judum along with various coercive arms of the state orchestrated a systematic targeting of villages, burnt down hundreds of homes, ostensibly in random, further, burnt down the schools built by the people, picked up villagers, young and old, and physically tortured them while their homes burned to the ground

19 December, 2012

CRPF Kills Unarmed Villagers And Terms It
‘Encounter With Maoists' In Odisha

By Coordination Of Democratic Rights Organisations (CDRO)

Following an outcry against the alleged killing of five tribals/Maoists in an ‘encounter', near Bhaliaguda village of Gajapati district of Odisha, a six-member team of individuals representing CDRO and Women against Sexual Violence and State Violence (WSS) visited Odisha from 8 December to 9 December 2012. Here is the fact finding report

03 September, 2012

The Government Of Violence: The Massacre Of 17 Adivasis- A Video
By CRDO Fact Finding Team

An all-India fact-finding team of rights activists belonging to the Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations (CDRO) visited the area in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh where 17 adivasis died as a result of firing by CRPF forces on the night of June 28, 2012. The team visited the villages of Sarkeguda, Kottaguda and Rajpenta on July 6 and 7 and elicited information about the events

23 July, 2012

Is Judiciary Biased Against Adivasis?
By Gladson Dugndung

An Adivasis dominated village “Nagri” is situated at a distance of 15km from Ranchi, the capital city of Jharkhand. On 23 November, 2011, the Jharkhand Government began to capture 227.71 acres of fertile land of the villagers and handed over the entitlement of the major part of the land to the IIM, the IIIT and the Law University and the poor Adivasis are protesting against this acquistion ever since. Now the recent judgements from Jharkhand High Court raises questions about the impartiality of the judiciary

16 July, 2012

The Government of Violence:A Massacre In Dandakaranya
By Kamal K.M

A pictorial story by an Indian film maker on the massacre of 17 adivasi people, including 5 children, in three villages in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh state, India

10 July, 2012

Fact Finding Report Of The Killing Of Adivasis By CRPF Forces In Bijapur District
By Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations

An all-India fact-finding team of rights activists belonging to the Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations (CDRO) visited the area in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh where 17 adivasis died as a result of firing by CRPF forces on the night of June 28, 2012 . The team visited the villages of Sarkeguda, Kottaguda and Rajpenta on July 6 and 7 and elicited information about the events. Here is a brief report of the team

The Buck Stops At Your Door Mr. Chidambaram
By Gladson Dungdung

The Corporate Home Minister P. Chidambaram must leave his office, precisly because he is responsible for the brutal killing of all the innocent villagers including 17 innocent Adivasis of Kottaguda, Sarkeguda and Rajpenta villages of Chhattisgarh. The questions should be asked to Mr. P. Chidambaram that is it enough to say sorry after taking away the precious lives of 17 innocent people?

07 July, 2012

“Deep Intelligence” in Bastar: Mapping The Maoists From The Skies
By Trevor Selvam

In any other country in the world, when such a massacre takes place, a government with an iota of morality would ask the local Police Chief and the Chief Minister to step down. Now we are not asking for the resignation of Mr. Chidambaram. We are not asking for Mr. Singh to express some apology (he would probably nod off during such a try). All we are saying is, let there be some acceptance of responsibility

30 June, 2012

Killing 22 'Maoists' : First Triumphalist Bluster --Then Lies -- Then Denial
By Trevor Selvam

One whole day later, reports started filtering in, that 11 year old children and 16 year old girls were among those shot dead. Then the Local Congress Party decides that there is something totally fishy about the reports and decide to carry on an investigation themselves. The Hindu reports there are doubts about the exact nature of the campaign carried out by the brave Cobra commandos. There are reports now emerging that majority of those killed were villagers attending a meeting

21 March, 2012

Capitalism: A Ghost Story
By Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy tells the story behind the much hyped "Indian growth'' and how protest movements are muffled, so that the ruthless Indian coporate juggernaut move ahead unopposed

No One Form Of Resistance Is Going To Succeed: Arundhati Roy
Diana Mavroleon in conversation with Arundhati Roy and Professor Robert Biel

Transcript of a radio interview conducted on 8th June 2011

28 February, 2012

Release Abhay Sahoo: Free India
By K. P. Sasi

Abhay Sahoo of anti-POSCO movement of Orissa is in prison today with 50 fabricated false cases, four of which cannot be bailed. But he is not alone. There are over 200 fabricated false cases on over 800 activists of the anti-POSCO movement, whose freedom is restricted without being jailed. But they were attacked by the police and the goons of the company for defending their lands

14 February, 2012

Press Freedom Stifled In India’s Naxal Areas
By Gayatri Parameswaran

It might be the world’s largest democracy but India is struggling to defend its democratic status in the ‘red corridor’ – areas troubled by Naxalite or Maoist insurgency. Expectedly, press freedom is taking a beating. Some activists say the government is controlling information to hide its bad human rights track record

03 February, 2012

Jungal Mahal And Recent 'Peace' Efforts
By Dipankar Chakrabarti

The Maoists must take into cognizance the ground reality. They should ponder over the desertion of other anti-CPI(M) forces from their side as well as large number of their cadres and sympathisers . They also need to be circumspect about their gradual isolation from the civil society and the common people in the wake of their excessive dependence on armed action and autocratic control over the mass organisations

29 January, 2012

Coming Downhill From Kashipur
By Deba Ranjan

Police firing and encounter deaths for corporate development in Odisha/India

05 September, 2011

No One Raped And Murdered Meena?
By Akhil Katyal

Will Meena Khalkho's case be picked up by the mainstream media like they did Jessica Lall's? Or will the difference in her political environment and class position and, above all, her distance from Delhi, be too much to bridge?

30 August, 2011

Killing, Denial And Manipulation
By Gladson Dungdung

Brutal killings continue in Jharkhand

22 August, 2011

A Fact Finding Report On The Forced Land Acquisition
And Repression At Gobindpura

By Democratic Front Against Operation Green Hunt

The struggle of the people of Gobindpura continues. They have refused to part with their lands and houses, braving threats, inducements and severe repression. The women & children, especially girls have played a very glorious role in the struggle

Face to Face: A Talk With Anti POSCO PPSS Leader Abhay Sahoo
By Musab Iqbal

Musab Iqbal, Chief Editor of newzfirst traveled to very heart of resistance in Odisha to understand the overlapping phenomena of resistance and development. He interviewed the leader of anti POSCO PPSS Abhay Sahoo, a man who architected this movement from ground zero and lead it through its all tough time

27 July , 2011

POSCO Protesters Are Determined
By PUCL-Bangalore

Visit by PUCL-Bangalore to POSCO Affected Areas 22-24 July, 2011

22 July , 2011

Historic Judgement By Indian Supreme Court Against Arming Civilians
By Justice B. Sudershan Reddy and Justice Surinder Singh Nijjar

Full text of the Supreme Court order by Justice Sudershan Reddy and Justice SS Nijjar declaring the use and arming of SPOs as well as state support for Salwa Judum in Chattisgarh state of India unconstitutional and directing the state to disarm SPOs, stop using them in counterinsurgency operations, as well as file FIRs and prosecute them vigorously

21 July , 2011

The Indian Supreme Court Condemns
The Injustices Of Globalization
As An Amoral Paradigm Of Developlement

By Niloufer Bhagwat

The importance of this judgment lies in the recognition by the Supreme Court , that there is a breakdown of the ‘social contract ' between the government and people in these regions, as a consequence of the distorted policies of globalization implemented, pursuant to which illegal and unconstitutional measures were adopted by the State

28 June , 2011

Who Is Making Them Cry?
By Gladson Dungdung

The 64 years of Indian independence has added more pains, sufferings and sorrows in the lives of majority of its people. The Indian state instead of healing the pains, sufferings and sorrows of the old-men, it turned their lives into a hell. Their cultivable lands were taken away from them by the ‘mighty state’ with the barrel of guns in the name of growth and development

19 June , 2011

Every Thirty Minutes: Farmer Suicides,
Human Rights And The Agrarian Crisis
In India (PDF)

By Center for Human Rights and Global Justice,
New York University School of Law

It is estimated that more than a quarter of a million Indian farmers have committed suicide in the last 16 years—the largest wave of recorded suicides in human history. A great number of those affected are cash crop farmers, and cotton farmers in particular. In 2009 alone, the most recent year for which official figures are available, 17,638 farmers committed suicide—that’s one farmer every 30 minutes

15 June , 2011

Lying Down For Justice: The POSCO Satyagraha In Pictures
By POSCO pratirodh Sangram Samiti

Jagatsinghpur district administration has temporarily halted forceful land acquisition for POSCO project. The government will restart the process from 17th June 2011. The officials illegally demolished betelvines at Gobindpur village. The people are now rebuilding it. Here are some pictures from the historic Satyagraha

13 June , 2011

Lying Down For Justice Children Show The Way
By S.G.Vombatkere

The people and especially the children of Dhinkia, Gadkujang, Govindpur and Nuagaon villages in Jagatsinghpur District in Odisha have shown the nation how people matter over governments' plans for development of business corporations at their cost. The children “illegally” lay down on the hot earth under in the blazing summer heat and refused to move to allow entry to government officials to take over forest land and their villages for the POSCO mega-project

Our Children Have Opened The Nation's Eyes
By POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti

Splashed across the headlines and TV channels across India are the people of the proposed POSCO project area and their heroic fight to stop this illegal project from grabbing our lands. The bravery of the children and women of our villages - lying down in front of a thousand armed police poised to destroy their lives and homes - has captured the nation's attention

09 June , 2011

Activists Fear Carnage As Acquisition Clock Ticks In Odisha
By Countercurrents.org

Villagers of Dhinkia and Gobindpur who are keeping a day and night vigil to prevent forcible land acquisition for the Rs 52,000 crore integrated POSCO steel project, fear that the police might unleash a mid-night action any time similar to what happened at the Ramlila grounds few days ago. More than 20 platoons of police are currently stationed at the mouth of these villages and any ill-conceived move to forcibly acquire land or evict the protesters might lead to bloodshed

08 June , 2011

Halt Attack On Protesters At POSCO Project Area
By Concerned Citizens

Thousands of people are peacefully protesting while 24 platoons of police have been deployed in the area, probably for use in a brute force attempt at taking the land of the villages of Dhinkia and Gobindpur in the coming days

Nation's Conscience Must Be Awakened To
Anti-POSCO Struggle

By Concerned Citizens

Tackling corruption must begin by scrapping the scandalous POSCO project

22 May, 2011

Red Mud Spill And People's Resistance
At Niyamgiri: A First Hand Report
From The Struggle(PDF)

By Miriam Rose

On 16th May after heavy rain, toxic red mud poured from a breach in one of Vedanta's Lanjigarh refinery red mud ponds, spilling onto the village below. The next day landless people displaced by the project held two blockades demanding adequate compensation; a five day walking protest ended with a meeting of 500 people on the threatened Niyamgiri hills; and the funeral of a tribal movement leader, killed by factory pollution, was held. Two months before Vedanta's often-subverted AGM this will be bad news for the company. This is a direct report from the scene

Report From Mehndiganj Near Varanasi: A Coca-Cola Affected Area(PDF)
By Miriam Rose

Mehndiganj is a village about 20km from Varanasi in North East India. Coca-cola company began operating a large factory there in 2000 which quickly began depleting the water table in the surrounding villages and farmland. The plant draws 500,000 litres per day from deep boreholes reaching the third strata of the earth, while local people are only allowed to bore wells to a fraction of that level. In 2006 a quarter of wells in eight surrounding villages had dried completely

11 May, 2011

Dear Jairam Ramesh, Please Listen
By Maj Gen S.G.Vombatkere

An open letter to India's Environment minister Jairam Ramesh regarding Uranium Corporation of India (UCIL) Public Hearing due to be held at Jadugoda, Jharkhand, on May 26, 2011

07 May, 2011

Fact Finding Report On Police Brutalities In Odisha
By Concerned Citizens

An All India Fact Finding team was constituted to look into some incidents of alleged encounter and false implication of villagers in anti-Maoist operation. While Team One covered incidents in Malkangiri and Kashipur, Team Two went to Sundergarh District of Odisha

04 May, 2011

What The POSCO Order Means
By Campaign For Survival And Dignity

The order on the POSCO project is condemnable in more ways than one. The basic principle is simple. The forest land and resources are not the private property of the government that it can give away. They belong to the people, the 4000 families who have rights

03 May, 2011

POSCO Loot Of Our Mineral Wealth And Environment
Is Far Worse Than The 2G Scam

By Leo F. Saldanha

Jairam Ramesh's disastrous decision favouring POSCO comes a day after CBI exposes A. Raja's shocking loot when heading Environment Ministry

Vidarbha's Dying Fields And Farmer's Suicides
By Vikram Jadav

Left behind by India’s soaring economic boom is Vidarbha, a region of hilly forests in the middle of India. It used to be known as India’s cotton belt – but now captures headlines as its suicide belt - that’s an average one suicide every eight hours

02 May, 2011

The POSCO Project Given The Go Ahead
By POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti

Today, in a sanctimonious order riddled with lies and distortions, the Environment Ministry allowed the POSCO project at Jagatsinghpur, Orissa state, India to proceed. The livelihoods of 4000 families (over 20000 people) and the laws of the land have been sold to the highest bidder

27 April, 2011

Narayanpatna: A Report From Ground Zero
A Fact Finding Report

Preliminary report of the DSU fact finding visit to Narayanpatna, Odisha

26 April, 2011

Is There Anyone To Hear This Boy’s Cry?
By Gladson Dungdung

The worst thing is Anup Oraon has not even seen his father since his birth. When he was born his father Paulus Oraon was already behind the bars. Though he cannot express his pains, sufferings and sorrows in words but his endless cry, anguish and anxiety are enough for describing everything he has been undergoing in the absence of his father

11 April, 2011

Dantewada: Days Of Rage
By Javed Iqbal

One year after 76 security personnel were killed in the Chintalnar area, with allegations of rape being used as a weapon of war soon after by the state, the latest attack on the adivasis of Bastar during a five-day long carnage has led to break the silence on atrocities that have been committed for over six years now, across the undivided Bastar region

30 March, 2011

Chintalnar Massacre: Fact Finding Report
By 13 Member Fact Finding Team

A 13 member fact finding team visited the Chintalnar Area of Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh to probe into the incidents of atrocities perpetrated by the Salwa Judum and the state forces on the adivasis living in this area between 11th and 16th of March 2011

29 March, 2011

Are These Anti-Naxal Operations Mr. Chidambaram?
By Gladson Dungdung

Chhattisgarh's Koya commandos, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and CoBRA battalions burnt more than 300 houses and food grains, raped 5 Adivasi women and killed 5 men of Timapuram, Morpalli and Tarmetla villages of Dantewada between March 11 and March 16, 2011 alleging them as the Maoists during the ongoing special police operations against the Maoists in the region

28 February, 2011

Three Killed In Police Firing On People Protesting Against
Thermal Power Project In Andhra Pradesh

By NAPM

The inevitable has happened, police opened fire on the peacefully protesting villagers in Vadditandra village and killed three villagers and critically injured atleast 25 people today afternoon in Srikakulam District, Andhra Pradesh, India

22 February, 2011

Maoist Kidnappings: Who Gains By The Blame Game?
By S.G.Vombatkere

The real and obvious agony of the families of these two officials (and the families of others killed in Maoist attacks and ambushes) is brought out by the electronic media, but it ignores the agony of families of thousands of adivasi people who have been victims of governments' economic violence and police depredations over the decades. Is the electronic media being impartial or partisan?

21 February, 2011

Raigad’s Victory Is Inspiring And A Warning To Greedy Corporates
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

With the Maharastra government denotifying the land acquired for Raigad SEZ of Mukesh Ambani led group Reliance Industries come an end to a historic protest movement of Raigad farmers who had deep faith in the democratic structure of the country despite its all weaknesses

State of Chhattisgarh Versus Dr. Binayak Sen
By Radha Surya

The rejection of Dr. Binayak Sen’s bail application by the Chattisgarh High Court on February 10 is the most recent in the series of blows that have been dealt by a vindictive state apparatus

I Try To Hope That I Will Live Again
With Binayak In My Lifetime: Ilina Sen

By M Suchitra

Dr Ilina Sen, well-known social activist and feminist scholar, who currently heads the Department of Women’s Studies in Mahatma Gandhi University, Wardha, Maharshtra speaks in detail to M Suchitra about her husband's trial and her appeal to the Chhatisgarh High Court

19 February, 2011

Honourable High Court Decides Criminal Appeal No. 20 & No. 54/2011
By Sadanand Patwardhan

There are insurmountable hurdles to reasonably concur with the Honourable High Court’s judgement in denying relief to Binayak Sen and Piyush Guha by granting bail during the pendency of main appeal against the conviction by competent trial court. Had the High Court granted relief to Sen, then it would have been left with no choice but to grant same relief to Guha. Because Binayak Sen was “prosecution’s only link” between Narayan Sanyal and Piyush Guha

PUDR Asks The Maoists To Release The Two Hostages
Taken By Them Unconditionally

By PUDR

PUDR asks the Maoists to release the two hostages taken by them unconditionally and call upon the authorities to address the specific instances cited by the Maoists so that Adivasis suffering is mitigated and incidence of hostage taking becomes redundant

08 February, 2011

Yet Another Binayak Sen
By Anand Teltumbde

Sudhir Dhawale is a prototype of a contemporary dalit activist: coming from a poor family, moderately educated and without any notable social acclaim. What makes them similar apart from their unflinching dedication to the oppressed humanity is the neurotic behavior of the state towards them. Binayak Sen’s case is by now world famous, tearing down the veneer of all state claims to democracy. Sudhir’s hopefully is adding to the shame of the establishment

19 January, 2011

'Niyamgiri You Are Still Alive’
By Suma Joson

Here is the documentary film , 'Niyamgiri You Are Still Alive’ By Suma Joson which won the Vasudha, Environment Award at the International Film Festival of India in Goa, 2010

10 January, 2011

Can Anyone Save This Tribal Girl?
By Himanshu Kumar

The persecution of Soni Sori

Political Killings In West Bengal
By Peoples Union for Democratic Rights

Hitherto the media and the authorities had confined themselves to condemning killings by the CPI (Maoists) in the Jangalmahal area, in which officially it was claimed that 79 persons lost their lives. But the killing by CPM cadres on January 7th, who fired around 300 rounds on a 250 strong crowd, primarily women, protesting the local CPM diktat that each family to send one person for arms training, thus killing 8 persons and injuring 20 with most bullets fired on the back, show how it is becoming a free-for-all between political parties

29 November, 2010

The People Friendly Police?
By Gladson Dungdung

The recent brutal killing of Dhirendra Kumar in Barwada police station clearly indicates of how the police stations have become the safest place of inhuman treatment, torture and brutal killings

23 November, 2010

Hegemony Overthrow or Political Power Seizure?
What Comes First?

By Trevor Selvam

Those who want to change things, need to rethink their alliances, as well, and also the business of overthrow of this specific cultural hegemony that is on the build. While Gramsci talked about the need to overthrow the bourgeois consensus and create an alternate radical consensus, perhaps in this country it is necessary to overthrow the middle class consensus. Without an independent civic society movement this cannot happen

16 November, 2010

In The Undeclared War Zone Of South Orissa
By Debaranjan Sarangi

The impoverished tribals of South Orissa is caught up in the violence and counter violence of the Maoists and the State

Invisible Cities: Part Two: Hunger
By Javed Iqbal

Malnutrition is not just a rural phenomena but is even unchecked amongst the poorest sections of the urban population. While access to development is often cited as a cure to the ills of hunger, there are many people living in Mumbai, deprived ‘access’ to development – healthcare and basic human rights

Plundered Histories, Forgotten Terrains And Entangled People
By Goldy M. George

A critical search on Planning and Commission on Mining

15 November, 2010

Internally Displaced Hunger
By Javed Iqbal

A look at hunger among internally displaced tribals from Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh states of India

11 November, 2010

Why, Rahul Gandhi, The Adivasis’ Soldier Silent?
By Gladson Dungdung

Perhaps, Rahul Gandhi is much worried on the matter of Adivasis deserting the Congress Party rather than protection of their rights therefore he intends to get back the lost Adivasi vote bank by projecting himself as their soldier. The relevant question here is if he is Adivasis’ soldier then whose government has been carrying on eviction of the migrant Adivasis in Assam, Salwa Judum in Chhatisgarh and Operation Green Hunt in the so-called Red Corridor?

04 November, 2010

The Operation NGO Hunt In Jharkhand
By Gladson Dungdung

The Jharkhand government has launched a new operation in the state, which can be called the “Operation NGO Hunt”. In a latest discovery, the Jharkhand Police have found 1300 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as sympathisers of the Naxalites though nobody knows the ‘parameters’ of ‘sympathiser’

26 October, 2010

Violations Of The Forest Rights Act In The POSCO Project Area
Referred To The Tribal Ministry

By Campaign for Survival and Dignity

The Ministry and its officials are desperately shopping for somebody to give them a pro POSCO report, since they are finding it difficult to get around the proof of illegality. This is the same thing they have done in several other projects

23 October, 2010

Majority Report Of MOEF Committe A Vindication Of
Peoples Just Struggle Against POSCO Porject

By Ashok Chowdhury, Dr. Manoranjan Mohanty & Leo F. Saldanha

For project affected communities, the Committee's majority findings are a strong vindication of their resolute stand that the POSCO project represents the worst form of development – where our nation's resources are looted, our environment is devastated and Transnational Corporations walk away with tonnes of money, and not merely our iron ore

21 October, 2010

Ensuring Right To Education In The Red Corridor
By Gladson Dungdung

The Indian State must understand that the right to education and the police camps in the schools cannot go together. The Indian State has been practicing betrayal tricks (giving rights by one hand and taking away by another mighty hand) with the marginalized people of the country for last six decades. If the Government doesn’t stop it, the rapid growth of left-wing extremism cannot be halted

20 October, 2010

POSCO Project Justification Based On Flawed Data
By Mining Zone People's Solidarity Group

Orissa Government and POSCO Have Misled the Public on Benefits to the Country, says New International Report

18 October, 2010

Majority Of POSCO Enquiry Committee
Confirms That POSCO Project Is Illegal

By Abhay Sahoo

Today, three of the four members of the committee set up by the Ministry of Environment and Forests confirmed that the POSCO project is illegal and that all of its clearances were obtained by breaking the law. The Committee has also found that the project has potentially very dangerous impacts on issues like water, air pollution, and the coastline, and none of this was ever properly evaluated

12 October, 2010

The Maoist Versus The State Of India
By Prakash Kona

The author considers the historic reasons of maoist uprising in India and raises some questions about its objectives

29 September, 2010

The Jury Verdicts of IPT, Ranchi
By Gladson Dungdung

We are extremely pleased to inform you that we had organized a very successful Independence People’s Tribunal on Operation Green Hunt in Ranchi on 25th and 26th of September, 2010 under the banner of the Jharkhand Alternative Development Forum with the support of Operation Green Hunt Virodhi Nagrik Manch, Jharkhand Indigenous People’s Forum, Jharkhand Initiatives Desk, Jharkhand Jungle Bachao Andolan, Jharkhand Mines Area Coordination Committee and many other groups

18 September, 2010

State Response to Maoist Violence in India: A Critical Assessment
By K S Subramanian

Maoist violence is the consequence of increased atrocities against scheduled castes and scheduled tribes (especially in the central tribal belt) and widespread tribal unrest due to commercialisation of forest resources. Ignoring such analysis and acting primarily on reports by the Intelligence Bureau, which is not equipped to study the multiple complexities of developmental conflicts, the Ministry of Home Affairs has resorted to brute police force to deal with the violence. But, as suggested by several reports, the problem should be handled politically and administratively, implementing the constitutional provisions for dalits and adivasis that have so far been ignored

16 September, 2010

Lucas Tete, Maoist Violence And K Balagopal
By Biswajit Roy

It’s a welcome development that Arundhati Roy, G N Saibaba, Mahasweta Devi, Sujato Bhadra and others have condemned the killing of Maoists’ POW and Bihar policeman Lucas Tete as reported by Bengal Post

31 August, 2010

Niyamgiri To Bellary, Polavaram To Konkan:
Stop All Destructive Projects Now

By Dipankar Bhattacharya

The cancellation of the Vedanta group’s ‘mining rights’ in the Niyamgiri hills of Odisha’s Kalahandi district surely marks a huge victory for the growing people’s movement against corporate invasion and plunder

Niyamgiri: A Temporary Reprieve
By Ranjan K Panda

The Dongria Kondh know that their battle against Vedanta and for the preservation of their sacred Niyamgiri is not over in a state where money matters, people and the environment don’t, reports Ranjan K Panda from Orissa

26 August, 2010

Not Only Niyamgiri: Stop Resource-Grab Everywhere!
By NFFPFW

The NFFPFW (National Forum of Forest People and Forest Workers) welcomes Indian government's decision to deny forest clearance to the Vedanta mining project at Niyamgiri. Though much delayed , this decision is a just move, and perhaps for the first time in the history of the country the government has said ‘no’ to a large and powerful corporation on social and environmental grounds

Uttar Pradesh Farmers Latest Victims Of
Indian Business’ Land Grab

By Arun Kumar

Three protesting farmers were shot dead and more than forty others injured August 14, when police opened fire on a protest at Jikarpur, a village in the Aligarh District of Uttar Pradesh (UP).The farmers were protesting against the land expropriations being carried out by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) state government to build a 165-kilometer highway, the Jamuna (or Yamuna) Expressway, linking India’s capital, New Delhi, with Agra, the city that is home to the Taj Mahal

24 August, 2010

Faking An Ecounter: Killing The Peace Process
By Coordination Of Democratic Rights Organizations

Preliminary Report of the All India Fact Finding Team on the Killing of Azad and H. C Pandey. Released to the media at Hyderabad on 22 August, 2010

On The Support To Mamata Banerjee -
An Open Letter To Intellectuals

By Sumanta Banerjee

An open letter to Mahashweta Debi, D. Bandyopadhyay, Suvaprasanna, Sujato Bhadra and other friends…

21 August, 2010

More Than Just An Arrest
By Nagarik Mancha

On 17th August 2010, social activist and our General Secretary, Naba Dutta, had been arrested from West Medinipur. Owing to unprecedented public outcry against the arrest, he was granted bail next day, but not before serious, and totally fabricated, criminal charges were brought against him. Why and how did this happen?

17 August, 2010

This Is Your Army Mr Chidambaram!
(And The People Belong To This Country)

By Reyaz-ul-Haque

We know very well Mr. Chidambaram that you will never apologize for the atrocities committed at your behest. This brutal army represents the real face of your government

16 August, 2010

The Cold-Blooded Murder In Jharkhand
By Gladson Dungdung

On July 5th, 2010, the security forces picked up 45 year-old Etwa Munda of Papirdah village in Ranchi district of Jharkhand and killed him in a fake encounter

14 August, 2010

Superpower Democracy Mass-Murders Abroad!
Largest Democracy Mass-murders Its Own Children

By Jay Janson

US media have never called millions killed in their own homes, by US military during invasions and occupations since Korea through Iraq, mass murder. Likewise, the annually legislated starvation of millions of Indians in the 'largest democracy in the world', is never called mass murder. India buys WMD, with money saved, seeks to use the market to solve the problem. NY Times fields a question, “Should Food be a Right?

13 August, 2010

Unlikely Alliances In Fight For Sacred Lands
By Tess Thackara

Major shareholders are joining the Dongria Kondh tribe’s fight to protect their homeland from mining by Vedanta Resources

12 August, 2010

Signals From Vijayawada And Lalgarh:
And Challenges Before Revolutionary Communists

By Dipankar Bhattacharya

The CPI(M) will have to pay the price for its opportunist sins and revolutionary communists can have no sympathy for it on this score. Any meaningful defence of the legacy and gains of the Indian communist movement and resistance to the anti-Left offensive of the ruling classes necessarily calls for a firm and decisive rejection of and struggle against the CPI(M)’s opportunism

11 August, 2010

Mamta, Maoists And Mediation
By Rahul Pathak

Lalgarh rally suggests towards the possibility of mediation which can bring some peaceful solution to the naxalite problem, the opposition should welcome this move rather than politicizing it

09 August, 2010

Modi’s Method
By Sadiq Naqvi

After the genocide in 2002 and a string of fake encounters targeting Muslims, the 'Hindutva lab' is again active. Now, secular social activists are being branded as Maoists and jailed

06 August, 2010

Environment Ministry Directs Orissa Government
To Stop Work On The POSCO Project

By Campaign for Survival And Dignity

The Environment Ministry today finally issued a welcome but ambiguous order directing the Orissa government to stop work on the POSCO project and the illegal process of forest land takeovers that is taking place. While giving some immediate relief by stopping the illegal land grabbing that the Orissa government started last week, the order is silent on the basic issue: the illegal forest clearance granted by the Ministry on December 29, 2009

05 August, 2010

Brazen Mockery Of The Forest-Rights Law
By Subrat Kumar Sahu

In yet another unfortunate incident in which how the FRA 2006 – which the government dubs as an instrument to correct ‘historical injustices’ meted out on forest communities – has rather been used as a tool of oppression and intimidation, a Dalit villager in Orissa was arrested on 21 July 2010 for raising issues of forest rights

Family Matters
By Javed Iqbal

In Bastar, the un-sanitized war is brutal, unforgiving and uncompromising. And it’s impact on families has been specifically devastating. Battles aren’t just fought in the jungles – this a war where villages are the battlefields, homes are the trenches and your family is a weapon and a target

The Dispossession And Criminalisation Of
The Adivasis Of Central India

By Stan Swamy

The dispossessed Adivasi is hunted as a criminal; the looter-outsider has become ‘honourable citizen’

Poverty Spectrum Disorder
By Sadanand Patwardhan

A couple of rupees of difference in consumption levels that are used in defining poor is all it takes to shift literally hundreds of millions of people from poor to non-poor and vice versa. Once this is learnt it becomes obvious that Poverty Line is unlike an internationally recognized BORDER that it is made out to be – inviolable & sacrosanct - a sort of litmus test to decide whether to bestow or to withhold “welfare largesse” . In fact, what we have is apicture of Poverty Spectrum – a continuum – of deprivations that has wafer thin separations

03 August, 2010

Half of India’s Population Lives Below
The Poverty Line

By Arun Kumar

According to a new Oxford University study, 55 percent of India’s population of 1.1 billion, or 645 million people, are living in poverty. Using a newly-developed index, the study found that about one-third of the world’s poor live in India

31 July, 2010

Endless Cry In The Red Corridor
By Gladson Dungdung

After the arrival of the Monsoon, the city dwellers are enjoying the cool weather. The farmers are busily preparing their paddy fields. However, the atmosphere in the red corridor is more or less the same, a mood of anxiety, uncertainty, fear, pain and shock prevails in the region

30 July, 2010

POSCO, Polavaram Projects Illegally Take Over Forest Land:
Ministry On The Rampage

By Campaign for Survival and Dignity

Recent actions by the Environment Ministry and the Orissa and Andhra Pradesh governments with respect to the POSCO and Polavaram projects are in total violation of the law and of democracy. They show yet again that the forest bureaucracy is among the key drivers of land grabbing across the country

28July, 2010

Andhra - Independent Fact-Finding Team
On The 14th July Sompeta Firing

Interim Report

The firing occurred on 14 July 2010 in which two persons died and five were injured by bullets (including a cameraman of TV-9 Telugu channel). In the events prior to the firing, about 300 people belonging to the neighbouring villages opposing the power plant and about 50-60 police personnel were injured

27 July, 2010

Land Grab For POSCO Project Begins
Campaign for Survival and Dignity

Today the Orissa government initiated "acquisition" of land in the proposed POSCO project area of Jagatsinghpur District, Orissa. The project is in complete violation of the law and this "acquisition" is part of an illegal land grab

24 July, 2010

Lalgarh - Massive Protest By Women Against
Rapes Committed By Security Personnel

By Partho Sarathi Ray

On 20th July, around 50,000 women under the banner of “Committee to save honour of women” tried to march into Jhargram town to protest against the recent incidents of raping of women in Sonamukhi village by the joint security forces

Odisha Poverty, Corporate Plunder And Resistance
By Prafulla Samantra & Asit Das

Odisha has become the beacon of hope for the struggling workers and peasants of this country in their heroic struggle against the predatory mining and industrialization of the state uprooting the toilers of the soil. Massive people’s resistance is going along the length and breadth of the state. Some prominent ones are Kalinga Nagar, Niyamgiri, anti-POSCO (Korean Steel Company), and anti-Vedanta University people's struggles

19 July, 2010

Dear Chhattisgarh Police, Are You Mad?
By Javed Iqbal

And a few days ago, to my surprise, the Chhattisgarh police branded me a Maoist agent. And I’m not the only one who receives this ‘honour’ from the police

Memories Of A Friend In Exile
By Mahtab Alam

It came as a shocking, rather, frightening news when I read about the arrest of my friend Abdul Shakeel Basha, a peace and human rights activist, a few days back. For a moment, it felt as though we had almost turned into a fascist state, where campaigners of peace and justice have no place. Shakeel was arrested on 17th June 2010, by the special cell of Delhi Police on the requisition of the Gujarat Police for his alleged affiliation with Maoist/ Naxal movement of India

15 July, 2010

Gujarat: Making Of A Fascist State
By Ram Puniyani

Social activists are being put behind bars in Gujarat branding them maoists

12 July, 2010

‘Cholera’ Outbreak Kills Over ‘60’ In Bastar
By Javed Iqbal

A suspected cholera outbreak has killed around an estimated 60 people in Bijapur District of South Bastar, Chhattisgarh since the beginning of the 7th of June this year when the first fatality was confirmed in Gadiguda village in Pamed Block.Yet violence continues unabated in affected-areas

Maoists Attack Contractor’s Home
By Javed Iqbal

Two killed, two injured, including 11-year old son of contractor

10 July, 2010

Hunted Chasing A Dream
By Raja Jaikrishan

'I feel guilty of Azad's untimely killing. I think as Azad was keeping regular contact with me to hold peace talks with the centre, that's why he died so early,' Swami Agnivesh said. In the guilt of Swami Agnivesh is guilt of the entire civil society has been damned

03 July, 2010

Statement on arrest of Dr. Nisha Biswas
and other civil rights activists in Lalgarh

We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, are shocked by the arrest on 14th June of Dr Nisha Biswas, Scientist - Central Glass & Ceramic Research Institute Kolkata, Manik Mandal, writer, Kanishka Choudhary, school teacher, and ten other persons by the W Bengal police from Lalgarh area, where they had gone at the request of the local people to investigate human rights violations by police and paramilitary

30 June, 2010

Maoists Ambush Indian Police Patrol; 26 Killed
By Aljazeera

Suspected Maoist rebels have killed at least 26 police officers during an ambush in the Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh state on Tuesday

29 June, 2010

Terrorizing The Democratic Space
By Gladson Dungdung

Terrorizing of human rights activists in Jharkhand

Indian Environmentalist Arbitrarily Arrested
And Illegally imprisoned

By William Gomes

Mr. Moirangthem Ashnikumar Singh, an environmentalist and Vice-President of Thanga Elfare Committee, Secretary of Keibul Lamjao National Park Forum, was arbitrarily arrested on 27 April by the Bishnupur police in Bishnupur district of Manipur state

28 June, 2010

Pictures That Turn A Generation; Armies That Lie
By Trevor Selvam

Let this picture then tell the lie about India shining. Let this picture be the turning point of the struggle for genuine democracy. Let this picture be carried around in every demonstration to show the world how G20 Manmohan’s India follows the Geneva conventions

Economics That Causes Militancy: W(h)ither The Republic?
By S.G.Vombatkere

Armed militants ambushing or attacking State power is bad news concerning everyone. But neglecting first causes and suppressing the symptoms by up-scaling police action (like Operation Green Hunt) only enlarges the circle of innocent adivasi people caught in the crossfire and paying with their lives and livelihoods. The nation as a whole loses

Denizens Of The Other India
By D Bandyopadhyay

It was time that one should check up what type of governance tribals had before the civil administration collapsed? A basic ingredient of any civil administration is the administration of justice. How was it done before the territories were “lost” to the Maoists?

26 June, 2010

Maoists Respond To Chidambaram
By Sanhati

Letters from P. Chidambaram and CPI(Maoist) to Swami Agnivesh regarding the possibility of dialogue

25 June, 2010

For Whom Are The Forests Turning Red ?
By M Suchitra

A journey through Chhattisgarh, the heartland of maoist- government conflict

The Summer Of Our Discontent
By Javed Iqbal

Summer 2010, and it is becoming evidently clear that the adivasi refugees from the Maoist-Salwa Judum conflict in Dantewada, residing in Khammam district have either no access to water nor food. There are an estimated 16,024 IDPs identified in 203 settlements in Khammam district alone with a 110 settlements in the Reserve Forest. At the same time, the Forest Department is struggling to prevent the clearing of forests by the IDPs for podu cultivation

Attack On CRPF Camp Or Fake Encounter?
By Tusha Mittal

The government story of a a Maoist attack on a CRPF camp at Lalgarh in West Bengal’s West Midnapore district may be fake

17 June, 2010

Death And The Maiden
By S V Rajadurai and V Geetha

A photograph featured in The Hindu, dated 17-06-2010 shows security personnel in West Bengal , carrying the body of a woman killed in a purported raid on a Maoist hideout. The woman's body had been trussed up like the carcass of a dead animal. The photo speaks volumes of how the Indian state views those it considers a threat to the internal security of the nation - as people beneath its contempt and consideration

Rights And Wrongs Of Armed Resistance
By Gautam Navlakha

A discussion on armed resistance in the context of the Maoist resistance in India

15 June, 2010

Rape As A Weapon Of War
By Javed Iqbal

Rape as a weapon in the war between the Maoists and the Indian government

Wars Against People
By Raja Jaikrishan

An environment has been created where the abuse of power by the governments of the Indian subcontinent is visible and invisible at the same time. It is like a mirage, which disappears as we draw close to it. The institutions of democracy are being used to muzzle screams of victims and numb their thinking

14 June, 2010

Operation Green Hunt's Urban Avatar
By Arundhati Roy

While the Indian Government considers deploying the army and air force to quell the rebellion in the countryside, strange things are happening in the cities

Kottacheru: A Short History Of Violence
By Javed Iqbal

This is the story of Kottacheru. But this can also be the story of thousands of villages in India

09 June, 2010

Letter to PTI against concocted report on
Arundhati Roy's speech at Mumbai

By CPDR

Letter of protest to PTI against concocted report on Arundhati Roy's speech at Mumbai

07 June, 2010

Arundhati Roy, Operation Green Hunt
And The Indian Middle Class

By Abhijit Dutta

Abhijit Dutta argues that the Indian Middle Class should be engaged rather than castigated in the people's movement against government of India's "Operation Green Hunt"

04 June, 2010

India's War On People
By Gautam Navlakha & Arundhati Roy

Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights held a public lecture by Gautam Navlakha and Arundhati Roy on the 2nd of June in Mumbai. This was purportedly Arundhati Roy's first public meeting in India after her visit to Maoist controlled territories in Dantewada. She outlines her views and clarifies a lot of her 'controversial' opinions and paints it in the larger canvas of the nation and the globe as a whole. Gautam Navlakha, another writers and a passionate opponent of state brutalities on people and who has also lived amongst the Maoists and written a beautiful essay, puts across his views.- A Video Series

03 June, 2010

Orissa Situation Worsening
By Surya Shankar Dash

The situation in Orissa is gradually worsening in every area where people have put up brave resistances against forcible land acquisition and mindless mining and industrialization at the cost of life and livelihoods of millions of people. It is very difficult to say if these movements can withstand the disaster which looks so imminent

Maoists Nurse Grassroots
By Raja Jaikrishan

The success of evicting Tata from Singur catapulted Mamata Banerjee as the savior of adivasis in Singur. She maintained since that land couldn’t be taken from unwilling peasants. She has humbled the CPM in Bengal, twice –first during the Lok Sabha poll and now in the civic body poll with the support of the Maoists

01 June, 2010

The Indian Government Should Surrender
To The Maoists: An Immodest Proposal

By Jesse Ross Knutson

Jesse Ross Knutson suggests that Indian state will do well to avoid a confrontation with Maoists and surrender to their policies

29 May, 2010

Scavenging Consent: Desperate For Casus Belli
By Trevor Selvam

Now the tone is changing gradually regarding yesterdays train mishap. A foot and half of fish-plates were found removed. A BBC cameraman has displayed the gap in one of their broadcasts. No evidence of a blast any longer. No evidence of gelatine, dynamite, ammonium nitrate. The foreign press had already expressed some caution, in their statements and terminology. But not the Indian press. They are so free, unfettered and dynamic when it comes to spreading innuendo!

Reports From Ground Zero
By Tusha Mittal

A civilian bus is blown up. Six men are arrested below radar, a mindless cycle of violence rolls on in Dantewada

28 May, 2010

Have You Looked At Barsa Lakhma’s Face?
By Nirmalangshu Mukherji

The Hindu, 25 May, posted the above photograph of a person on its frontpage under the head “Six Naxals held for Dantewada massacre”. The person, Barsa Lakhma, is alleged to be a Naxal “leader”, a “commander” who is said to be involved in the gunning down of 76 security personnel. Take a close look at Barsa Lakhma’s face. With his puzzled eyes and full cheeks, how old does he look like? 15? 16?

27 May, 2010

Illegal Clearing of Forest for POSCO Project
By D Raja

D. Raja's letter to Prime Minister of India

Scrap POSCO
By Fact Finding Team

A fact finding team traveled to Jagatsinghpur district of Orissa to look into the human rights violations in the wake of May 15 police attack on the activists of POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) and villagers affected by the proposed POSCO project. The fact finding team demanded the immediate withdrawal of all forged cases against villagers and anti-POSCO movement leaders, release of those arrested, withdrawal of police force from the area and initiate immediate withdrawal of the proposed POSCO project from this site

25 May, 2010

The Big Fat Brutal Lie
A Video

Police bruatlity against peaceful protesters against POSCO at Balitutha, Orissa state, India on May 23, 2010

Examining The Myth Of Maoists Concern For Tribal Welfare
By Nirmalangshu Mukherji

The state dismantles operation green hunt since its immediate victims are unarmed tribals under mental and physical seize. The state announces total and universal amnesty to the young tribal people in the militias and the PLGA—and a safe and concrete programme for their rehabilitation—once they surrender (only) to a citizen’s body . The essentially non-tribal leadership of CPI (Maoist) is brought to justice for their crimes against humanity

24 May, 2010

The Real Face of Vedanta
A Video

The plight of tribals in the Niyamagiri hills of Orisa state, India, where Vedanta's bauxite mining is destroying the livelihood and life of the people

A Member Of The Civil Society
Responds To Chidambaram

By A K Agrawal

Would the Naxal problem have been there if 25% of the mining profit was spent on the poor and the tribal living in the mining area and whose life was uprooted by the greedy corporate/mining mafia with active connivance of the law enforcers and policy makers

23 May, 2010

We Will Not Leave Our Village (gaon chodab nahin)
Video By K.P Sasi

This song describes the present day exploitation of tribal land and forests in the name of development in India

22 May, 2010

PEACE NOW In Tribal Areas
By Dr.B.D.Sharma

Former Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, B.D Sharma's letter to the President of India

16 May, 2010

Conspiracy Against Non-Violent Resistance Movements In Orissa
By Nachiketa Desai

A macabre drama is unfolding in the poverty-stricken Indian state of Orissa where a democratically-elected government has begun to crush over a dozen people’s peaceful resistance movements against their forceful eviction from their forest, farm, water bodies and source oflivelihood to help giant multi-national corporations usurp mineral-rich forest and fertile agricultural land

D Raja's Letter To Prime Minister Of India

I am writing in the context of the brutal attack of the Orissa police on the peaceful protesters of the POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti in Jagatsinghpur District, Orissa. More than 100 people, including many women, have been injured; those seriously injured are receiving no medical care; the police have burned houses and shops as well as the protesters' tents; and the police are blocking the entry or exit of any person from the area. This kind of atrocity can never be justified. But what makes it doubly criminal is that the Orissa government claims to be doing so as they have rights over the land

Can 'Civilised' People Show Such Disrespect
For The Land And Those Who Cultivate It

By Felix Padel

This state violence perpetrated by police and goondas contains the seeds of future atrocities, and acts as the surest recruiting ground for Maoist insurgency

Orissa: Miners’ Paradise
By Nachiketa Desai

‘Mining Happiness’ is the catch-line of the recent multi-million-rupee multi-media advertisement campaign of the Vedanta Aluminum Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the London Stock Exchange listed mining giant Vedanta Resources PLC. Vedanta’s advertisement campaign claims the company’s one million ton alumina refinery to be scaled up to five million tons at Lanjigarh in the state’s Kalahandi district, ill-famed for recurring droughts and starvation deaths, will wipe off poverty and bring about all-round development of the region

15 May, 2010

Police Atrocity Against Villagers In Orissa
By Nachiketa Desai

In a massive armed assault using crude bombs, bullets and batons, the Orissa police cracked down on over 1,500 villagers staging a peaceful sit-in dharna since January last against their imminent displacement to make way for South Korean mega corp Posco’s 12 million ton Greenfield steel plant in the coastal district of Jagatsinghpur, Orissa state, India. More than 100 people, five of them seriously, including women and children were injured in police action which began since the crack of the dawn on Saturday

Stop Police Attacks On Peaceful Protesters
In Orissa

Appeal By Concerned Citizens

We believe that, to crush peaceful dissent in such a brutal manner can only serve to undermine Indian democracy and push large sections of the Indian population to the point of desperation. At no point, in their struggle for over five years, have the anti-POSCO protesters indulged in any violent activities and have instead set an example to the rest of the country on how to carry out a democratic struggle based solely on the mass support of ordinary men and women

Police Attack On Anti-POSCO People’s Movement - Chronology Of Incidents
By POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti

‘More than 100 villagers injured, the condition of 5 persons is serious and 18 persons including 5 women got arrested by the Police under the direct supervision of Orissa Chief Minister’- POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS)

The Real Story Of The POSCO Project
By Campaign for Survival and Dignity

This is not just a “dispute over land acquisition for development.” The POSCO project is illegal and will not bring any benefits for the local population or the country’s economy. Rather, it is simply plunder of lives and resources

Timeline Of Events In POSCO Project Area Relating To Forest Rights
By Campaign for Survival and Dignity

Timeline of events in POSCO project area

Horrific Images Of Police Brutality ( VIDEO)

See the horrific images of what the police was upt at balitutha today

Kalinganagar Police Firing ( VIDEO)

Footage of the police firing at Chandia village on 12 May 2010 that caused the death of Lakhman Jamuda, aged 55, and an active member of Bisthapan Birodhi Janmanch.

Lessons From Chhattisgarh Peace March
By Nachiketa Desai

Having met with nasty protest from traders of Jagdalpur and Dantewada, the peace marchers held a review meeting in which several participants stressed the need for crossing the Indravati river into the 'Red Corridor' to express solidarity with the Maoists' cause of giving the ownership rights to the adivasis over land, forest and water bodies,
with the rider that taking up guns was not the solution

03 May, 2010

Am I A Maoist?
By Gladson Dungdung

I’m neither a Maoist nor a Gandhian but I’m an Adivasi who is determined to fight for his own people, whom the Indian State has alienated, displaced and dispossessed from their resources and is continually doing it in the name of development, national security and national interest even today

28 March, 2010

In Defence Of The Bitch… 
By Trevor Selvam

One can dispute many of the tactics of the Maoists and one can critique many of their actions, but it is time for India’s intellectuals to comprehend that diminishing and ridiculing the stand taken by Arundhuti Roy will be a permanent scar on the evolving history of this nation. She is merely stating that the regular channels for genuine change in India are exhausted. Someone has to state this very clearly. That those who are attempting alternate methods are being violently suppressed. And it is their story that she wants to tell

22 March, 2010

Walking With The Comrades
By Arundhati Roy

Last month, quietly, unannounced, Arundhati Roy decided to visit the forbidding and forbidden precincts of Central India’s Dandakaranya Forests, home to a melange of tribespeople many of whom have taken up arms to protect their people against state-backed marauders and exploiters. She recorded in considerable detail the first face-to-face journalistic “encounter” with armed guerillas, their families and comrades, for which she combed the forests for weeks at personal risk