A Muniya Gond woman in Chhattisgarh sits in a temporary Hamlet in 2009 in the then undivided undivided Andhra Pradesh’s Khammam district. Photo Credit: through AFP Getty Image
In 2005, around 50,000 Gond tribals were forced to transfer the then storms to Andhra Pradesh (now parts of Telangana), when the Indian government began an attitude used in South Vietnam in the 1960s to end the Maoists in Chhattisgarh. However, the project was a failure. The tribes, which the government had moved to the roadside camps, has been back into deep forests for a long time, and some, who could not go back to fear of the Maoists, joined the security forces.
Some of these disorganized tribals are now the backbone of the current military successes of the security forces against the Maoists in Chhattisgarh. Many Maoists have surrendered, they have also joined. Unlike the central paramilitary forces and the local non-Tribal police, they know the language and territory of the tribal region, and have proved to be sports-series, especially for Home Minister Amit Shah, who announced that the war against Maoists will end by 31 March 2026.
through the years
The strategic Hamlet program to fight communist revolutionaries is not new in India. Just after independence, at the end of 1949, the new government of India also shifted tribals from forests to roadside camps, which to fight the Telangana Communist revolutionaries after the Nizam’s surrender. He recruited hundreds of tribals as a “special police constable” to fight communist Dalms, although he had mostly underdeveloped weapons such as spears and axes and had no military training. One such special group of Koya tribals was “Tiger Squad”, which had around 300 members.
The strategic Hamlet’s strategy was more successful in Mizoram in the 1960s, where the government eventually reached a peace agreement with Mizo fighters. Little later, in 2019, when the same Mizo tribals began a fight with fellow Bru (Reenag) tribals – thousands of people fled to the nearby Tripura – the Indian government came to the rescue with a broo rehabilitation plan.
However, the government has not shown kindness towards the Guti Koya tribals (as they are known in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana), who have been living uncertainly on illegally occupied forest land for nearly 20 years. A recent meeting of the National Commission of Schedule Tribes (NCST), a representative of the Government of Chhattisgarh, said that about 10,000 Gond tribals have been displaced in other states due to ongoing violence, and most of them do not want to return. Representatives of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh said that they have 24,000 and 8,000 displaced tribals from Chhattisgarh respectively.
NCST has ordered a proper survey of displaced people in three months. The same order was issued in 2019, but Chhattisgarh said that they could not conduct survey due to Kovid -19 epidemic. The attitude of the Chhattisgarh government has improved slightly. A few years ago, in the written reply to a Congress MLA from Bastar, the then Home Minister of Chhattisgarh said in the assembly: “Because no tribal has been displaced due to the ongoing violence in other states in Bastar, there is no question of their rehabilitation.”
In the absence of any national or international law for internally displaced people (IDP), which follows India, these tribals have been the subject of atrocities for years – from forest officials, police and even local tribals who see them as encroachments on their resources. The Maoists have not allowed them to return, and are reluctant to treat state officials in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana as tribal.
According to Claus 3.1 (M) of the One Rights Act (FRA), if a tribal person was forced to vacate a forest land in his possession before the cut-off date of December 13, 2005, the state should provide him with alternative forest land. Many IDPs in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have applied under this section requesting alternative forest land in these states. However, the Government of Chhattisgarh has been sitting on those applications for more than five years. The section does not say that alternative land cannot be given in a separate state. Nevertheless, Chhattisgarh has not raised the issue with the Ministry of Tribal Affairs in Delhi or Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, despite repeated requests.
Under the 2019 Bru Rehabilitation Scheme, BRU tribals were given the option to either return to Mizoram or stay back in Tripura with low state support. In the last 20 years, a new generation of guti Koya tribals has raised in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, but they have been denied state support as tribals as both governments consider them as “migrants who cannot be given tribal status.” At the NCST meeting, representatives of the two states said, “We try to support these displaced tribals on humanitarian grounds, but we cannot do much. The Union Home Ministry should intervene here, as they have done elsewhere in the case of other internal displaced people.”
Most displaced tribals are attracted to more economic opportunities available in the new generation, mainly from the new generation, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Telangana has handled the fields of many displaced tribals, which in Chhattisgarh plant trees there as part of the new attempt to push them back, and Andhra Pradesh has discouraged any attempt to build new houses in the forest. The courts have sometimes offered relief to the displaced tribals, but they are looking for a permanent agreement so that the new generation can lead a life of dignity.
Shubhranshu Chaudhary is a writer of Maoists in Chhattisgarh with Lats Call Accident Vasu. He is also an active member of the new peace process there.
Published – 17 April, 2025 02:29 AM IST