Session 11: Resisting State Narratives Normalising Violence and Displacement in Adivasi Regions

Date: Thursday 16 April 2026

Speakers
Shahd Hammouri, Academic and International Lawyer
Sharanya Nayak, Solidarity worker with Indigenous Peoples’ movements
Clifton D’Rozario, General Secretary, All India Lawyers Association for Justice

This session unpacked the narrative used since January 2024 to normalise the intensification of militarisation and state violence in Adivasi regions. Commonly called Operation Kagar or the Precipice, this has been promoted as the final solution to a longstanding insurgency problem. In addition, in the weeks leading up to the “deadline”, a rise in targeting of activists in urban areas has also occurred. The speakers discussed the urgent need for civil society to understand and challenge the state narrative of the criminalisation of Adivasi resistance in the backdrop of the ‘Trumpian moment’ the world is going through – the normalisation of criminalisation and violent crushing of all forms or resistance and dissent.

Resources mentioned in the webinar:

1. Salwa Judum: read the explainer here: https://londonminingnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Salwa-Judum-Order_Explainer_Final.pdf

2. Webinar 6: Scripting State Violence and Criminalisation of Dissent in India: hear it here: https://www.academicfreedomindia.com/deadline-or-death-sentence-webinar-series/session-6-scripting-state-violence-and-criminalisation-of-resistance-in-india

3. Acronyms used: FIR - first information report; LTTE - The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam; PESA - Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act 1996 (PESA)

4. Further reading suggested by participants:

Adivasi Or Vanvasi: Tribal India and the Politics of Hindutva by Kamal Nayan Chaubey

Imprisoned Resistance: 5th August and its aftermath - A Civil Society Report, https://pucl.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Imprisoned-Resistance-final-for-dissemination-1.pdf

For more readings on struggles for self-rule and self-governance in Adivasi areas, please visit this link which has compilation of writings of Dr B D Sharma: https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/BD_Sharma; https://www.academia.edu/44438451/UNBROKEN_HISTORY_OF_BROKEN_PROMISES_Dr_BD_Sharma

Image credit: Citizens’ Report, 2024.