There has been news coming from Jharkhand about state terror that is being unleashed upon the Adivasi peasantry by the Indian state as part of its Operation Clean. The Indian state has been establishing new forward operational camps in the Kolhaan Division of Jharkhand as part of this Operation Clean. The people of Kolhaan division especially in the Lovad and Lipunga areas of West Singhbum district have been protesting against these camps due to the violence that the Adivasis have faced under the state forces in the Saranda forests, near Kolhaan, as part of Operation Anaconda, the predecessor to Operation Clean. The paramilitary forces were ordered to fire at the protesting Adivasis in the area. For 15 days, the villagers faced intermittent firing. There were even instances of rocket launchers being fired outside the villages. In the past months, there have also been instances of two fake encounters happening in the Kolhaan region. In the first instance in Jharkhand, an exchange of fire happened between the PLGA of the CPI (Maoist) party and the paramilitary forces, in this encounter, Budhveer of the PLGA, who was leading the squad was injured in the leg. Since he became immobile, he handed over his weapon to his fellow comrades and asked them to flee. The state captured the immobile and weaponless individual, tortured him and killed him. The state did not follow the due procedure that it has to follow when apprehending a Maoist. The Maoists are citizens of the country and therefore, have the same rights that any citizen will have within the country, this includes the right to an appropriate judicial process before he is punished. The executive of the state does not have the right to murder an individual in cold blood. Moreover, this is against Article 13 of the Geneva Convention, which has clearly declared that no form of mutilation, torture or bodily harm can be done on the prisoners of war. After this incident, two women from the PLGA were also captured, raped and then killed by the state. The state has used sexual torture against its own citizens in this incident too. This violence is going on to grab the land of the Adivasis and loot the resources under the soil of Kolhaan.

The Singhbum region that comes under Kolhaan division has one of the largest iron ore reserves. 28% of Indian reserves exist here. Singhbum area has a high quality iron that can last for at least a hundred years. The region has 13 other minerals including Gold, Manganese, Nickel and Chromium. Many of these minerals can be used for the production of steel too. Jharkhand as such has 32 different tribes, out of which the most prominent are the Ho, the Santhals, the Oraon and the Munda, others include the Asur, the Birhur, the Korwa and the Pahariya tribes. Most of these tribes are located in the Singhbhum region in the Kolhaan division. The Adivasi peasantry of the region has had a rich history of struggle against foreign invasion. This was an area that never came under the subjugation of the Mughals and the Maratha’s.

When the Britishers tried to subjugate them, the Adivasis rose in resistance. The Ho’s rebelled against the British from 1827-36. Birsa Munda also led his Ulgulan against the Britishers in Jharkhand and the Adivasi peasants from Singhbum also participated in it. The Britishers were forced to provide some level of autonomy to these communities as a result of this rebellion. After the transfer of power, the Indian state took away the autonomy that was provided to the Adivasis by the Britishers. The state has attempted to take away the lands of the Adivasi peasantry and transfer it to the imperialist powers. This is being done through military operations such as Operation Clean.

Operation Clean has been developed as part of Operation Samadhan-Prahar, which was started in 2017 after the defeat of Operation Green Hunt. It is similar to Operation Kagaar which was also launched as part of Operation Samdhan Prahar, to wipe out the resistance of the Adivasi peasants in areas which the state has had limited access due to the movements of the Adivasi peasantry. Samadhan seeks to end all resistance against mining operations and the democratic assertions of the Adivasi community. Operation Clean is a successor to Operation Anaconda that was launched to displace the Adivasi peasants in the Saranda region of Jharkhand to ensure the corporate loot of the Adivasi peasantry. Operation Anaconda was part of the Operation Green Hunt, which was launched to unleash a genocide on Adivasi peasants. Tactics similar to that used by the state in Bastar as part of Operation Green Hunt were utilized in Jharkhand too. Just like how the state organized a fascist militia called Salwa Judum, the state organised several armed militias as part of Operation Anaconda too.

Groups such as the Tritiya Sammelan Prastuti Committee (TSPC), People’s Liberation Front of India (PLFI), Pahadi Cheetah, Shanti Sena are armed groups who constantly threaten and harass the Adivasis belonging to the land. These groups were created by state security agencies, though the state denies these claims. TSPC and similar organisations receive funding from corporates. Corporates claim that these groups use violence to demand extortion or bribes. However, these armed groups work for the benefit of corporations, as they provide protection to mining companies and contractors by intimidating villagers to give up their land so that it can be acquired for mining.

Anaconda was a genocidal operation to bring down local resistance to mining. Fake encounters and rape of Adivasi peasantry was common in the area. In a bid to wipe out the Maoists from Saranda, the state unleashed indiscriminate violence on the adivasi peasants of the region. The paramilitary came into the villages and attacked the villagers, they took away any document that proved that the land belonged to the Adivasi, and burned them. There was an increase in the rape and encounter killing of the Adivasi peasantry, which was done in order to intimidate them to leave their own land. The Adivasi peasantry was displaced from certain areas of the Saranda forests, and then the lands were given to the mining companies. Big roads were constructed over the land for the trucks of the mining companies. This impacted the environment of the forests too. The Saranda forests were equivalent to the Amazon forests for the states of Jharkhand and parts of Bihar and West Bengal. There were several perennial streams that would water the region. These perennial streams were wiped out by the mines. The aquifers under the soil were completely contaminated too. Kidney and liver diseases became endemic to the region. When the mining companies were asked about this, they gave the response that this was due to an increase in alcohol consumption, but its truly impossible for the women, men, the old, the young and the entire population to have a drinking problem. Moreover, it was proven that these were diseases that emerged as a result of mining. The average lifespan of an Adivasi in the Saranda forest became 45 years.

The fertility of the land drastically decreased and the area became drought ridden. Later on, the state used NIA and other state agencies to intimidate the civil rights movement too. Activists like Stan Swamy were arrested and then murdered in the prison by the state. Journalists like Rupesh Kumar Singh also remained arrested under UAPA, Damodar Turi of the Visthapan Virodhi Jan Andolan, was constantly harassed by the state, he is not able to continue his work due to the incessant arrest and other forms of state repression. All of these individuals were civil rights activists that were working for the rights of the Adivasi peasantry. Similarly, even working class organisations like MSS and AMS were banned. The state is trying to ensure that people do not get organised in anyway against the corporate loot. The government called this, the Saranda model of development. They brought in welfare schemes through this model too, but these schemes were not very successful. MGNREGA was implemented in the area, but the Adivasi peasantry was not even properly compensated under the scheme. Thus, the Saranda model of development involved the removal of any local resistance from a particular area through genocidal violence, and then establishing mines and other infrastructural projects for the corporate loot of the land. The state has declared that it will establish this Saranda model of development, in which the Adivasi peasantry would face genocidal violence, their land would be taken away, their forests wiped out and their waters polluted for the sake of big corporates and mining companies, all across Jharkhand and Adivasi areas across the country.

The state is trying to spread this model of corporate loot across the country, as part of the Surajkund scheme. The land and the other resources of the people are being taken away from them and handed over to the corporates by the state. The land is being enclosed away by the state and then handed to the corporates. The laws across the country, the enforcing of these laws, the justice system and the policy making is being changed for the sake of this. The state is moving towards a policy of increasing fascisation of the country, in order to serve this purpose. Dissenting voices are being silenced using new public security laws, such as the Maharashtra Public security act, in which red tagging of dissenting voices was officially adopted by the state. Now, red tagged individuals can be criminalised under this law in a more easier manner. Operation Clear, is also part of this Surajkund scheme. The state is trying to impose this Saranda model of development in the Kolhaan region too, and therefore, it is establishing more paramilitary camps in the Kolhaan division too. They have unleashed violence on the Adivasi peasantry as part of this Operation to ‘clean’ out the Adivasis from these forests. The Brahminical state is seeing the Adivasi peasantry as sub-human’s who needs to be cleared out of the forests for those that hold capital, and get a share of the profits of the exploitation, for this is the only section that the state cares about. If the paramilitary succeeds in its attempts then the fate of Kolhaan will be that of Saranda.

Forum Against Corporatisation and Militarisation demands an end to all forms of militarisation across the country, such as Operation Clean and Kagaar, that will lead to genocidal violence on the Adivasi peasantry, the displacement of the peasantry and the corporate loot of their resources. We demand an end to the intimidation of the Adivasi peasantry in Jharkhand, the peasantry should not be stopped from exercising their right to peacefully protest against state violence. We ask for an independent judicial investigation on the excesses carried out by the state in the Kolhaan region of Jharkhand under Operation Clean, and justice should be carried out for the victims of the violence that has happened in Kolhaan.

Click here to return to the October 2024 index.