A Struggle To Find New Memories

source – tehelka

In shocking testimonies, tribals from Chhattisgarh tell SANJANA how the Salwa Judum has driven them into Andhra Pradesh. Photographs by TARUN SEHRAWAT

Adivasis who had witnessed attacks by the Statebacked Salwa Judum in Ground Zero in Chhattisgarh talked to TEHELKA about the horrific nature of the violence unleashed. Despite the violence, they had decided to stay in their ancestral lands and pay the price for staying amidst the familiar.

Thousands others decided the price was far too high and walked many hours across to the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. Civil society groups say that over 3000 people in the last four months alone have walked over to Andhra Pradesh . The villages they chose to walk to were very often names they had only heard from neighbours and family members who had left before them. For Adivasis, whose lives are intimately connected to their ancestral lands, the lack of connect with these villages is far more debilitating than the precarious condition they find themselves in. The Salwa Judum attacks left them with the clothes they were wearing —and stories of attacks they witnessed back home.

This week, we profile three Adivasis whose lives have been doubly scarred —once by the Salwa Judum attacks and the second time by the experience of being refugees in unfamiliar land. As Madivi Muthi, one of the refugees told us, “The struggle is not only to forget what happened back home but to find ourselves new memories

London Rally: against expansionist Indian ruling class ( Monday, 15th, February 2010)

Call to the Indian State       15/02/2010

Stop Meddling in the Internal Affairs of Neighbouring Countries!

In recent months, the Indian state has dramatically stepped up its interference in the internal affairs of its northern neighbour, Nepal. This is especially so in the wake of its contribution to the Sri Lankan state in its total subjugation and oppression of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka. While arrogantly and intransigently denying the people of Jammu and Kashmir their right to national self-determination, the Indian state is also deeply involved, in collaboration with the United States, in meddling in Afghanistan’s domestic affairs.

Let the Nepalese People Determine their National Destiny!

Ever since its independence from Britain, the Indian state has been imposing its dominance over Nepal. It has inherited the mantle of the British Empire in South Asia. This is particularly true when Nepal had to sign an unequal treaty with India in 1950, a heritage of British rule in India. All subsequent treaties India signed with Nepal have also worked very much to India’s advantage. Indian built dams control Nepal’s water and electricity needs.  Indian goods flood Nepal’s market today. Indeed, India dominates the Nepalese economy. Moreover, India has, in stealth and secrecy, encroached into and seized Nepalese land territories, thereby displacing large numbers of Nepalese citizens.

 Recent months saw the Indian ambassador, foreign minister, chief of the Indian army and other prominent political personages from India playing a not-too-subtle role in Nepal’s internal affairs, often pronouncing what and who in Nepal are acceptable to India.

Since November 2006, when the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) now Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) entered into a peace process with other political parties of Nepal, the  powers-that- be in India have been up to their noses in their involvement in deciding the destiny of Nepal..

The Indian government’s hand in overturning the decision of Nepal’s elected government to dismiss the country’s army chief is an obvious example. This has led to the toppling of a legitimate government in Nepal.

Indian State at War on the People of India

Within its borders, the Indian state has trampled underfoot its own national constitution; it has perpetuated the extremely oppressive caste system; it has torn to shreds its commitment to life, liberty and quest for a decent living of its indigenous population, the Adivasi people; it has severely curtailed the civil liberties of all classes of the people, save the few who belong to the ruling class. It has moreover, not only abandoned the fate of religious minorities to the violence, oppression and persecution of Hindu religious-political extremist mobs, but has in fact, taken new measures to suppress dissent in the name of fighting terror.  In the name of combating Naxalism, meaning communism, it has carried out real terrorist attacks against, not only against the Maoist communists (or Naxalites) and revolutionary minded people, but also against helpless civilians.  The citizens of India and the peoples of the neighbouring countries of India face and experience the wrath of a common enemy: the Indian state.

v  Stop the hatching conspiracies against the Nepalese peace process!

v  Defend Nepal’s Unity, National Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity!

v  India, Stop Interfering in Neighbouring Countries’ Affairs!

v  People of South Asia Unite!

v  Defeat the Common Enemy of the People!

v  Defeat Indian Expansionism!

Progressive Nepalese Society UK