Deadline or Death Sentence: State Violence and Indigenous (Adivasi) Peoples’ Resistance in India
A Public Education Series
Image credit: Malini Subramaniam
India’s Indigenous Adivasi communities in central and eastern regions are witnessing escalating State repression due to their steadfast refusal to accept the State’s vision of“development”. These Adivasi communities have an unbroken history of resisting colonialism and imperialism: from armed rebellions, socio-religious and cultural movements, to anti-displacement struggles and legal measures for constitutional recognition. The current moment has again become a critical flashpoint in this resistance.However, the Home Minister of India, Amit Shah, has declared that the Indigenous people’s refusal stems from being misled by the revolutionary Communist (Naxalite) insurgency, which has been present in the region for the last four decades. He had further said that its eradication from both rural and urban areas across India will put the country back on the track of development. Shah declared a deadline of 31 March 2026 for making India a ‘Naxalite’-free zone, and an unprecedented form of State violence under the guise of an escalated counterinsurgency programme – ‘Operation Kagar’ – ongoing since January 2024. In the backdrop of India’s authoritarian turn under the Hindu nationalist Modi government, this exercise unfolded concurrently with aggressive corporate land grabs from the Adivasi communities, revealing a deep State–corporate nexus.Commencing as Operation SAMADHAN-Prahar in 2017, Operation Kagar by its 'end' on 31 March 2026 led to over 700 killings, human rights violations, sexual violence and unlawful arrests of activists and Adivasi dissenters across the Adivasi regions of central and central-eastern India with Bastar Division in Chhattisgarh as the locus of this operation. As the killings mounted, crony capitalism and environmental degradation was increasingly entrenched. Clearly, the aim of the militarized state-bureaucratic-corporate nexus is to annihilate the Adivasi resistance by destroying their lands, livelihoods and way of life.Over 12 sessions, the series explored and analysed this situation to help understand how we can build solidarities to resist the destruction of the Indigenous Adivasi communities in India. We linked the struggles of the Adivasi peoples with those of oppressed peoples in Palestine to find the commonalities in our struggles against colonialism and imperialism. Each session countered the state’s hegemonic narrative to build public consent and framed the Adivasi resistance through a lens that recognises it not just as a response to repression, but also emphasises that the people facing the oppression have alternative visions of development grounded in sustainability and collectivity.Some Suggestions for Building Global Solidarities with the Adivasi Anti-Mining, Anti-Displacement Resistance Movements in Central and Eastern India
Corporate accountability outside India Find out and initiate campaigns targeting the investors and supply chains of the companies that are operating in Adivasi regions: e.g. Arcelor Mittal (Bastar); Lloyds Metals (Gadchiroli), Vedanta (Niyamgiri), JSW (Gadchiroli), Sunflag (Gadchiroli), Adani Group (multiple sites across these regions); Lloyds Metals - Curtin University (Australia) partnership is one international link; the Adani Green sponsored ‘Energy Revolution’ in the Science Museum, London is another [will add hyperlinks to these].
Demand accountability Demand accountability for the extrajudicial killings, the enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention and other forms of state repression in the Adivasi areas and pursue international means of accountability wherever possible.
Document what the state does not For example, independent water and soil testing downstream of Surjagarh; a jobs audit (local, Adivasi, permanent vs contract); a census of community forest rights (CFR) overlap with leases, socio-economic and environmental conditions in areas where large mining corporations are functioning.
Amplify the Gram Sabha alternative modes of self-governance being practised in Adivasi regions The united Gram Sabha movement in various parts of Gadchiroli and their forest-based economical and self-governance system demonstrates a development model the communities themselves have chosen. .
Academic freedom link Researchers and journalists face restricted access to Etapalli in Gadchiroli, many areas in Bastar and so on; other organisations like InSAF India can try to support safe field documentation and publication.
Amplify Adivasi voices in youth spaces. Use the series and the forthcoming learning materials in your teaching if you are an academic.
Write a solidarity statement with the jailed Adivasi youth activists You can do this here: https://www.academicfreedomindia.com/solidarity-jailed-adivasi-youth-activists. Then share it on social media.
Deadline or Death Sentence ‘Book Club’ Each webinar is like a ‘book chapter’ that can be watched in advance of a group discussion. Decide an action at the end of the series – use our suggestions or think of more.
Make links. Between the Adivasi situation and resistance with other Indigenous struggles you support.
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Read our statements of solidarity for the Adivasi people of Bastar:2024/2025: International Statement Condemning the Escalating State Violence on India’s Indigenous Adivasi Communities in Bastar, Chhattisgarh, India
2023/2024: Indigenous Peoples’ Un-Freedoms and Our Academic Freedom A Call for Solidarity Bengali English Hindi Malayalam Panjabi TeleguPrevious webinars
