Skip to main content

Madhya Pradesh Adivasi activist asked to leave district: Govt move ahead of elections?

 
The Burhanpur district administration, Madhya Pradesh, has handed over externment notice Antram Awase, a 32-year-old Adivasi activist, who has been on the forefront of the campaign for implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) as well as the movement against mass illegal forest felling in Burhanpur. Earlier in April, he was arrested in an allegedly false case.
Reporting on this, the civil rights group Jagrit Adivasi Dalit Sangathan (JADS), to which Antram belongs, said, ever since April a wave of repression began with the arrest of many activists, demolition of people's homes, and notice of externment to others from the district. Yet, Antaram and the Sangathan continued their movement unfazed.
"Now, the MP Government is attempting to extern Antram on false, baseless charges. We believe that the government may carry out more attacks against forest rights claimants and the Sangathan ahead of elections in November-December", JADS underlined.
The family of Antram, 32, has been cultivating in the forest of Dhababwadi (Siwal) village of Burhanpur district since before 1980. Like other Adivasi families in Dhababawadi, his family has also faced terrible violence, torture and repression for decades now, noted JADS.
When Antaram was in 5th std, the forest department destroyed farms being cultivated by Adivasis of his village, their cattle were looted by the forest department and landed farmers together and their locality was burnt to the ground, JADS recalled.
After his home was burnt down, Antram was forced to leave his studies, started working to support his family. However, the thirst for education remained -- through self-study, he appeared for 10th class examination from an open school.
But despite taking the examination, he was marked absent in one paper and did not pass. He was not able to correct this mistake or study any further. Meanwhile, the Adivasi families of his village continued trying to cultivate their land despite facing the "violence and oppression" of the forest department. Even after passage of the FRA these families continue to be called "encroachers" in their own fields, said JADS.
When the Sangathan began its work in Burhanpur in 2018, Antram joined it and quickly became active in the campaign to implement FRA in letter and spirit. Through Antaram and his sathis, a strong movement against the atrocities and oppression of the Forest Department that had been continuing unchallenged and unabated for generations took shape, stated JADS.
In 2019, in yet another attempt to "illegally evict" Adivasis from their lands, the forest department fired upon protesting Adivasis who were asserting the legal safeguards under the FRA, injuring 4 Adivasis. A massive jail-bharo Andolan led by the Sangathan forced the Madhya Pradesh government to take partial action against the DFO and other forest personnel. Since then, the forest department has been holding its grudge against activists like Antram and the Sangathan, claimed JADS.
"Over the past 5 years, violence, oppression and corruption of the forest department have been curbed to a great extent in the district thanks to the relentless work by Antaram and his sathis. The organization publicly challenged and protested against the government's blatant complicity in illegal deforestation of roughly 15,000 acres", said JADS.
"This agitated not only the forest department, but also the Madhya Pradesh government and district administration, and resulted in a series of attacks on the organization. Antram, Dilip Sisodia and Nitin were arrested in fabricated cases, Madhuri Ben was externed from the district, many other activists were implicated in old cases and the Superintendent of Police started publishing many absurd, fabricated and baseless allegations in the newspapers to defame and discredit the organization in his defense", it added.
"Now, just before the assembly elections, Antaram is being threatened with externment from Burhanpur district. This is a possible precursor to more violence, evictions, and repression against forest rights claimants and the Sangathan, once the elections are done in December", asserted JADS.

Comments

TRENDING

60 crore in Mahakumbh? It's all hype with an eye on UP polls, asserts keen BJP supporter in Amit Shah's constituency

As the Mahakumbh drew to a close, during my daily walk, I met a veteran BJP supporter—a neighbor with whom we would often share dinner in a group. An amicable person, the first thing he asked me, as he was about to take the lift to his flat, was, "How many people do you think must have participated in the holy dip?" He then stopped by to talk—which we did for a full half-hour, cutting into my walk time.

Morari Bapu echoes misleading figures to support the BJP's anti-conversion agenda

A senior Gujarat activist phoned me today to inform me that the well-known storyteller on Lord Ram, Morari Bapu, has made an "unsubstantiated" and "preposterous" statement in Songadh town, located in the tribal-dominated Tapi district. He claimed that while the Gujarat government wants the Bhagavad Gita to be taught in schools, the "problem is" that 75% of government teachers "are Christians who do not let this happen" and are “involved in religious conversions.”

Breaking news? Top Hindu builder ties up with Muslim investor for a huge minority housing society in Ahmedabad

There is a flutter in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur area, derogatorily referred to as the "border" because, on its eastern side, there is a sprawling minority area called Juhapura, where around five lakh Muslims live. The segregation is so stark that virtually no Muslim lives in Vejalpur, populated by around four lakh Hindus, and no Hindu lives in Juhapura.

An untold story? Still elusive: Gujarati language studies on social history of Gujarat's caste and class evolution

This is a follow-up to my earlier blog , where I mentioned that veteran scholar Prof. Ghanshyam Shah has just completed a book for publication on a topic no academic seems to have dealt with—caste and class relations in Gujarat’s social history. He forwarded me a chapter of the book, published as an "Economic & Political Weekly" article last year, which deals with the 2015 Patidar agitation in the context of how this now-powerful caste originated in the Middle Ages and how it has evolved in the post-independence era.

Justifying social divisions? 'Dogs too have caste system like we humans, it's natural'

I have never had any pets, nor am I very comfortable with them. Frankly, I don't know how to play with a pet dog. I just sit quietly whenever I visit someone and see their pet dog trying to lick my feet. While I am told not to worry, I still choose to be a little careful, avoiding touching the pet.

Caste, class, and Patidar agitation: Veteran academic 'unearths' Gujarat’s social history

Recently, I was talking with a veteran Gujarat-based academic who is the author of several books, including "Social Movements in India: A Review of Literature", "Untouchability in Rural India", "Public Health and Urban Development: The Study of Surat Plague", and "Dalit Identity and Politics", apart from many erudite articles and papers in research and popular journals.

New York-based digital company traces Modi's meteoric rise to global Hindutva ecosystem over several decades

A recent document, released by the Polis Project Inc.—a New York-based digital magazine and hybrid research and journalism organization—even as seeking to highlight the alleged rise of authoritarianism in India, has sought to trace Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meteoric rise since 2014 to the ever-expanding global Hindutva ecosystem over the last several decades.

Socialist utopia challenging feudal and Brahminical systems: Kanwal Bharti on Sant Raidas’ vision of Begumpura

In a controversial claim, well-known Dalit writer and columnist Kanwal Bharti has asserted that a clever Brahminical move appears to be behind the Guru Granth Sahib changing the name of the 15th-16th century mystic poet-saint of the Bhakti movement, Sant Raidas, to Sant Ravidas.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.