Delhi University professor denies link with Chhattisgarh Maoists // Nandini Sundar - Everywhere, a Maoist plot
Delhi University professor Nandini Sundar on Thursday denied Chhattisgarh Police's claim that she is associated with a Maoist body in the state. "Meeting Maoists is no crime. Whatever meeting I had was for my research work on the Bastar region," said the award-winning sociologist.
Sundar, who is not the first Delhi-based teacher to be accused of Maoist links, was caught in the controversy after Congress member Badri Gawde, whom Chhattisgarh Police paraded before the media, claimed he arranged meetings between Sundar and the Maoists, and that she had formed a committee at their behest to oppose all rail and mining projects in Kanker. Sundar said, "I did meet Gawde, but once, and that for an interview. My opinions on Maoists, the Constitution and democracy are pretty clear. So what crime have I committed?" She said she supports the cause of the Rowghat Sangharsh Committee but is not connected with it. "The claim that I have been spearheading (the movement) is completely false... Police are claiming I am spearheading the movement in Rowghat. I am either teaching in DU or working there. It can't be both."
Sundar completed her PhD from Columbia University, New York in 1990 and is the author of Subalterns and Sovereigns: An Anthropological History of Bastar. She has been researching on the Bastar region for 24 years and is a vocal critic of Salwa Judum. She says police have been targeting her for a long time without verifying their claims. "In 2010, I was named along with Medha Patkar and Arundhati Roy for attacking a local Congress leader, Avdesh Gautam, in Dantewada, whereas I was in Paris that time. I didn't even know the name of Gautam then." Sundar said, "As researchers, we need liberty to visit difficult areas and we should have freedom from police and the underground. What is wrong if we meet Maoists to interview?" Earlier, Maharashtra Police had raided professor G N Saibaba's house in North Campus for his alleged Maoist links.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Delhi-University-professor-denies-link-with-Chhattisgarh-Maoists/articleshow/29631970.cms
Nandini Sundar - Everywhere, a Maoist plot
By going to town as the Chhattisgarh police and media have recently done on my alleged Maoist links, the real questions have been sidelined. As citizens of this country do we have the right to protest democratically and constitutionally, and as journalists, researchers or human rights activists, are we free to pursue our vocation?.
The police arrested one Badri Gawde on the 23rd, and paraded him before the media four days later, after his family had filed a missing report. Puffy faced, and barely able to keep his eyes open, Gawde ‘revealed’ to the media that I was working on behalf of the Maoists to oppose the mines and rail line that are to come up in this area. The activities that my doppelganger is up to such as leading the Raoghat Rail Sangharsh Samiti in far away Chhattisgarh, even as my mundane self takes classes in Delhi, amazes me. If only I had that much energy and time.
Like many young men in conflict areas, Gawde is a man of many parts. Stylishly dressed, and with political ambition, Gawde is active both with the Congress and in local Gond community politics, which involved supporting Vikram Usendi, the Gond BJP candidate in the assembly elections against the Halba Congress candidate. But being political in these parts also means, perforce, keeping up with the Maoists. In November 2013, soon after the assembly elections, I visited Bastar, as part of my research on counterinsurgency and democracy. With me was a friend with ancestral roots in Narayanpur-Antagarh. Badri mentioned that he was going to meet a Maoist leader the next day, and asked if we would like to come. Since this was a rare opportunity for us, we went along. Unlike the embedded journalists and others that the Maoists have given access to, they have been deeply resentful of my criticism of them. If meeting a Maoist is a crime, then dozens of journalists should be instantly arrested. Can it be anyone’s case that there is a different law for journalists and a different one for researchers and human rights activists, each of whom contributes to information and knowledge dissemination, but in different ways? On that same visit incidentally, I also met a senior police officer.
Our meeting with the young Maoist, who had a childlike face and giggled frequently, lasted an hour or so. We discussed the implications of the Raoghat mines of course, because it would be impossible not to, but also Godse versus Gandhi, local Gods and customs, and his own life history. I came away from that meeting with a sense of great sadness, after having travelled through some of the most spectacular scenery I have ever seen - mist covered mountains blue-green with trees, and clear pebbled streams. Badri pointed out a special tree from which alone the Anga Deo, or log God can be fashioned.
This area deserves to be treated as a national biodiversity paradise rather than mined into a wasteland. It has a unique expression of Indic religion unavailable anywhere else in the world, described by Verrier Elwin as “a special and characteristic faith.” Each hilltop houses a clan God, and people come from far away places in Maharashtra and Andhra to their clan festivals, every few years. People are immensely proud of their culture. And yet the fake gram sabha certificates which the government has produced as evidence of popular consent, all state in identical language that there is nothing of cultural or religious value in the area. This is a 5th schedule area, yet none of the safeguards that the Constitution affords in the form of PESA or the Forest Rights Act, have been followed.
Part of my sadness is that people think that Maoists are saving the land, but they are hardly the answer. The government, however, appears insistent on stopping all peaceful protest, and violating every law to ensure the mines come up. Ten years ago, when the mines were still incipient, the police made people deposit their bows and arrows in the thana, and entire villages now have no means to defend themselves against wild animals. There are ghost villages of women and children, because all the men have been arrested. 22 CRPF camps have come up in the area financed by the Bhilai Steel Plant. Ostensibly the mines will be used by the public sector but large private players are waiting in the wings. Those who have not been arrested are being silenced through civic action programs.
Sadly for democratic politics, the post 1947 government has inherited, among other things, a colonial theory of incitement. Unable to accept that people have a legitimate right to safeguard their lives, they are always looking for conspirators to explain resistance. In this case, the aim is not simply to target me, but to preemptively act against all democratic, peaceful and lawful opposition to the Raoghat mines, by raising the Maoist bogey. It also helps the Chhattisgarh government to deflect attention from their deliberate refusal to act on the Supreme Court’s orders. Schools are still occupied by security forces putting girl students at risk, no-one has been compensated for their houses being burnt and of course no-one has been prosecuted for the killings and rapes the security forces and salwa judum carried out.
The Chhattisgarh government has long tried to claim that our petition against Salwa Judum in the Supreme Court has been filed at the behest of the Maoists. They cannot accept that ordinary democratic minded citizens who have witnessed or experienced at first hand the devastation brought about by Salwa Judum might independently want justice. My co-petitioners, Ramachandra Guha and EAS Sarma, can hardly be accused of being Maoist dupes. The incitement and urban network theory can only go so far. Till the day that our Constitution says that the profits of mining companies outweigh the right to life, affected villagers will continue to fight, and democratic people will continue to support them.
Sundar, who is not the first Delhi-based teacher to be accused of Maoist links, was caught in the controversy after Congress member Badri Gawde, whom Chhattisgarh Police paraded before the media, claimed he arranged meetings between Sundar and the Maoists, and that she had formed a committee at their behest to oppose all rail and mining projects in Kanker. Sundar said, "I did meet Gawde, but once, and that for an interview. My opinions on Maoists, the Constitution and democracy are pretty clear. So what crime have I committed?" She said she supports the cause of the Rowghat Sangharsh Committee but is not connected with it. "The claim that I have been spearheading (the movement) is completely false... Police are claiming I am spearheading the movement in Rowghat. I am either teaching in DU or working there. It can't be both."
Sundar completed her PhD from Columbia University, New York in 1990 and is the author of Subalterns and Sovereigns: An Anthropological History of Bastar. She has been researching on the Bastar region for 24 years and is a vocal critic of Salwa Judum. She says police have been targeting her for a long time without verifying their claims. "In 2010, I was named along with Medha Patkar and Arundhati Roy for attacking a local Congress leader, Avdesh Gautam, in Dantewada, whereas I was in Paris that time. I didn't even know the name of Gautam then." Sundar said, "As researchers, we need liberty to visit difficult areas and we should have freedom from police and the underground. What is wrong if we meet Maoists to interview?" Earlier, Maharashtra Police had raided professor G N Saibaba's house in North Campus for his alleged Maoist links.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Delhi-University-professor-denies-link-with-Chhattisgarh-Maoists/articleshow/29631970.cms
Nandini Sundar - Everywhere, a Maoist plot
By going to town as the Chhattisgarh police and media have recently done on my alleged Maoist links, the real questions have been sidelined. As citizens of this country do we have the right to protest democratically and constitutionally, and as journalists, researchers or human rights activists, are we free to pursue our vocation?.
The police arrested one Badri Gawde on the 23rd, and paraded him before the media four days later, after his family had filed a missing report. Puffy faced, and barely able to keep his eyes open, Gawde ‘revealed’ to the media that I was working on behalf of the Maoists to oppose the mines and rail line that are to come up in this area. The activities that my doppelganger is up to such as leading the Raoghat Rail Sangharsh Samiti in far away Chhattisgarh, even as my mundane self takes classes in Delhi, amazes me. If only I had that much energy and time.
Like many young men in conflict areas, Gawde is a man of many parts. Stylishly dressed, and with political ambition, Gawde is active both with the Congress and in local Gond community politics, which involved supporting Vikram Usendi, the Gond BJP candidate in the assembly elections against the Halba Congress candidate. But being political in these parts also means, perforce, keeping up with the Maoists. In November 2013, soon after the assembly elections, I visited Bastar, as part of my research on counterinsurgency and democracy. With me was a friend with ancestral roots in Narayanpur-Antagarh. Badri mentioned that he was going to meet a Maoist leader the next day, and asked if we would like to come. Since this was a rare opportunity for us, we went along. Unlike the embedded journalists and others that the Maoists have given access to, they have been deeply resentful of my criticism of them. If meeting a Maoist is a crime, then dozens of journalists should be instantly arrested. Can it be anyone’s case that there is a different law for journalists and a different one for researchers and human rights activists, each of whom contributes to information and knowledge dissemination, but in different ways? On that same visit incidentally, I also met a senior police officer.
Our meeting with the young Maoist, who had a childlike face and giggled frequently, lasted an hour or so. We discussed the implications of the Raoghat mines of course, because it would be impossible not to, but also Godse versus Gandhi, local Gods and customs, and his own life history. I came away from that meeting with a sense of great sadness, after having travelled through some of the most spectacular scenery I have ever seen - mist covered mountains blue-green with trees, and clear pebbled streams. Badri pointed out a special tree from which alone the Anga Deo, or log God can be fashioned.
This area deserves to be treated as a national biodiversity paradise rather than mined into a wasteland. It has a unique expression of Indic religion unavailable anywhere else in the world, described by Verrier Elwin as “a special and characteristic faith.” Each hilltop houses a clan God, and people come from far away places in Maharashtra and Andhra to their clan festivals, every few years. People are immensely proud of their culture. And yet the fake gram sabha certificates which the government has produced as evidence of popular consent, all state in identical language that there is nothing of cultural or religious value in the area. This is a 5th schedule area, yet none of the safeguards that the Constitution affords in the form of PESA or the Forest Rights Act, have been followed.
Part of my sadness is that people think that Maoists are saving the land, but they are hardly the answer. The government, however, appears insistent on stopping all peaceful protest, and violating every law to ensure the mines come up. Ten years ago, when the mines were still incipient, the police made people deposit their bows and arrows in the thana, and entire villages now have no means to defend themselves against wild animals. There are ghost villages of women and children, because all the men have been arrested. 22 CRPF camps have come up in the area financed by the Bhilai Steel Plant. Ostensibly the mines will be used by the public sector but large private players are waiting in the wings. Those who have not been arrested are being silenced through civic action programs.
Sadly for democratic politics, the post 1947 government has inherited, among other things, a colonial theory of incitement. Unable to accept that people have a legitimate right to safeguard their lives, they are always looking for conspirators to explain resistance. In this case, the aim is not simply to target me, but to preemptively act against all democratic, peaceful and lawful opposition to the Raoghat mines, by raising the Maoist bogey. It also helps the Chhattisgarh government to deflect attention from their deliberate refusal to act on the Supreme Court’s orders. Schools are still occupied by security forces putting girl students at risk, no-one has been compensated for their houses being burnt and of course no-one has been prosecuted for the killings and rapes the security forces and salwa judum carried out.
The Chhattisgarh government has long tried to claim that our petition against Salwa Judum in the Supreme Court has been filed at the behest of the Maoists. They cannot accept that ordinary democratic minded citizens who have witnessed or experienced at first hand the devastation brought about by Salwa Judum might independently want justice. My co-petitioners, Ramachandra Guha and EAS Sarma, can hardly be accused of being Maoist dupes. The incitement and urban network theory can only go so far. Till the day that our Constitution says that the profits of mining companies outweigh the right to life, affected villagers will continue to fight, and democratic people will continue to support them.
