Dent In Democracy
By Anand Prakash
18 January, 2014
Countercurrents.org
“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?” ― Mahatma Gandhi
This quote of mahatma Gandhi aptly describes the current situation in tribal areas of india where government is snatching the basic human right of food and shelter on the name of development .Democracy can be seen as a system in which every individual has an equal say in the government of society , unfortunately it is hardly the case in tribal areas .Individuals surrender their rights to state because they believe that state will provide justice and protect their rights against the private interests and if state fails to do so ,than it will lead to a large scale social unrest . This is precisely what is happening in these tribal areas .Lack of concern from the part of the state gives birth to anti –state ideologies in areas where people are already struggling against the exploitation. Maoist rebellion is an outcome of such kind of apathy .This ‘maoist’ rebellion is the violent extreme of social discontent- a discontent not only with the social order but also with the ruling political classes and it is more intensive and extensive than the widespread civil disaffection with both the national and state government .
The legitimacy of a government can be justified on the parameters of how it brings harmony among conflicting interests and provide justice in terms of distribution of resources. Government is also supposed to protect common interests against the onslaught of diverse conflicting private interests .Now we can say that government is illegitimate as it fails to do any of such things in the tribal areas and in such a scenario people living in these tribal areas have no other option left other than going against the state often through violent means .Now, instead of going into the root cause of such uprisings and dealing with them in more democratic and peaceful manner , state employs army to forcefully suppress such kind of uprisings .In the name of combating such uprisings state uses all kinds of repressive measure to neutralise the voice of these minorities and these measures completely deny the norms of democratic india .It gives rise to the feeling that democracy is only for the rich , educated and affluent classes of india and others has no stake in it .
This continuous neglect and oppression by the state act as petrol in the fire which manifests in the resort to violence against the state .The state has done little to understand the plight and pain of these tribal people . state is not aware about the abysmal conditions in which these tribal people live .It is only concerned about the rich capitalist classes and often acts according to their interests .The incidences of giving tribal land to the mining companies and displacing tribal people from their land without any proper rehabilitation shows the biased and unjust nature of the state which bows down to the interests of capitalist classes .In the Mahanadi coal field case , the central government and Mahanadi coal field united had acquired the land of the tribal people in the sundargarh district of odisha and not compensated them for 23 years .Incidents like this clearly explains why people adopt violent means to go against the state .There is no other option left to them as to attract the attention of the state and the media .In a situation where their source of livelihood is snatched and nobody is caring about that , than there is no other option left other than taking the means of violence to fight for their rights .
So , in conclusion Ijust want to say that if state really wants to tackle the problem of these uprisings then it should adopt a more democratic procedure rather than using the brute force of violence.The main problem here is not the uprising but the dejection of political structure from the part of these tribal people . Rather than using brute force the state must try to build confidence of these people in democracy through dialogues and implementing more inclusive policies with deep and meaningful engagement with the local communities of these tribal areas .
Anand Prakash is pursuing Masters in Development studies from Indian institute of technology Guwahati
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