INDIA: Hail Indian Indigenous People's Heroic, Militant Struggles For Their Justified Rights And Extend International Solidarity for Them - CPI(Maoist) - Central Region

 Communist Party of India (Maoist)

Central Region

Hail Indian Indigenous People's Heroic, Militant Struggles

For Their Justified Rights

And Extend International Solidarity for Them

9^th August, is an International Indigenous people’s Day. It has been celebrating by indigenous people of the world for the last 36 years. The 37th Mulvasi (Indigenous People) Day is going to be celebrated in a few days. On this occasion, the Communist Party of India (Maoist) Central Regional Bureau is conveying revolutionary greetings to all the indigenous people of the country and the world.

During the last one year, many indigenous people across the world, including India, have sacrificed their precious lives fighting with the suppressive and fascist governments of their country and the security forces of State to achieve their just demands. In the memory of all their utmost sacrifices, we pay humbly our revolutionary tributes. We are wishing speedy recovery of those injured in the firings by the security forces of the fascist governments of predatory nature. At the same time our Bureau appeals to the people of the country and the people of the world including the democrats, rights activists to engage in more concerted way for the release of thousands of indigenous people who are languishing in jails without even getting the bails. All the indigenous people of different countries including the indigenous people of India called to observe August 9 as a solidarity day for the people of the revolutionary movement areas across India.

More than 8 percent of India's population is indigenous people. More than one-fourth of the territory of the country is covered with forest. Hundreds of tribal communities are living harmoniously since decades across the country. Out of it more than 75 tribal communities were shamelessly declared by Indian government as PVTG (Primitive Vulnerable Tribal Group). They are on the verge of extinction. Disappearing of a community is really a big loss to the human kind. It will be a serious loss to society in respect of culture, tradition, knowledge, language and everything what that community has been gained in the past history. Really it is the tremendous crime of exploitative Indian ruling classes.

The forests, which are hilly and have abundant water resources, have a variety of immense natural resources. The forests play a very important role in the conservation of the environment of South Asia including India. Till today the forests are protected by the indigenous people only. They are the Masters of it. But it has been ignored by the rulers. Before they fade out, it is time to recollect and remember some of these historical facts given here.

The indigenous people are fighting hard for the conservation of domestic forests with great dedication. They are demanding their rights over Jal, Jungle, Zamin. In order to ruthlessly suppress the struggles of those people, the Indian state not only hatched many kinds of conspiracies and tricks but also resorted to more brutal military actions against them than ever before. Our Bureau strongly condemns all these acts of authoritarian suppression and calls upon the indigenous people of the country and the world, democratic intellectuals, indigenous people‘s well-wishers, democrats and rights activists to condemn such acts.

All indigenous regions of India are bursting with various forms of mass struggle. The reactionary Hindutva forces that have been ruling India for the past few years are aggressively implementing imperialist neo-liberal economic policies on one side and building a Hindu state with Hindutva policies on the other. They sold vast tracts of the country's forests to multinational corporations. Thus Indian greedy bourgeoisie are paving the way for the destruction of forests. They are invited to make in India to loot and to spoil the precious natural resources of the country. As a result of the economic and political policies followed by the Government of India and all the state governments in the country, the indigenous people of India are facing a serious existential problem.

Their very survival has become questionable. To drive them out of the forests, the state is on the one hand resorting to white supremacist murders and massacres, and on the other hand, the forests are being filled with lakhs of security forces. Under the rule of Hindutva forces, corporatization and militarization of forests became synonymous. As these developments have become life and death problems for the people, they are bound to engage in strategic and armed struggles.

Your support and assistance is most needed for their fair and democratic struggles. It is time for us all to walk shoulder to shoulder with them. That is why our Bureau wants you to walk with them and their struggles. In gross violation of the Indian Constitution, the current Indian government is making undemocratic and bigoted laws like the CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) in the direction of building a Hindu state. The Indian government also refuses to recognise the indigenous people of the country as natives. India‘s ruling classes have been acting with Hindu bigotry since the beginning.

Acting in a non-secular manner is completely contrary to the spirit of the Indian constitution which stresses on equality of all religions. The Hindutva forces in power at present are following extreme fascist policies and are rejecting diversity as the foundation of development in the direction of implementing the destructive ideology of one party, one ideology, one flag and one leader. Central and state governments officially register all natives of the country as Hindus. All of them are clamouring to identify themselves as natives in the ongoing census. It is their self- esteem problem! Their eating habits are banned in many states, cow is worshiped, tribals, Dalits, Muslims and other communities who consume cow meat (beef) very passionately are being harassed and killed by mob lynching.

Hindutva mobs are attacking their villages with the arms of the state, burning their houses and properties and making their very existence unsafe. That is why today all the native people are protesting and criticizing by saying that we are not Hindus. Let us all join them. Let‘s walk with their self-respect struggles. Let us raise the slogan that we are with them to fulfill their demands. The Government of India enacted a law (Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas, 1996) years ago in the Fifth Scheduled Areas of the Constitution of India.

But the Act is still not implemented in at least one-fourth of the regions of the country. A law was made three decades ago to prevent rape of Dalits and Adivasis. However, NCRB figures reveal that physical assaults, rapes and murders are rampant against them every year under the current rule of Hindutva forces. According to PESA, a Gram Sabha is formed in every tribal village with all the adults. Without Grama Sabha‘s permission no one should enter even the village forest. No type of forest produce or underground resources should be moved from that forest.

In a way, it is like the power of "Ejido" that the people of Brazil achieved almost a century ago. The government there, which has turned its head on neo-liberal economic policies, has repealed that law, and the Indian government, which is implementing the same policies, is also plotting in the direction of finally abolishing the PESA law like Ejido.

Ten years after PESA, the Indian government made another law called the New Forest Act. According to that law, four hectares of land will be given to natives and non-natives living in the forests. However, even after a decade and a half, more than ll lakh indigenous (Mulvasis) and non-indigenous families (Forest dwellers) in the country have not received land according to that law. Moreover, in February 2019, the country's Supreme Court made a ruling watering down the law, fueling the anger of the indigenous people of the country. Though the ruling was put on hold with the opposition from across the country, lakhs of Adivasis are living in a panicked state unaware of their future.

The patriots, democrats, anti-imperialist exploitation forces and environmentalists should oppose such conspiracies and attacks of the Indian government along with all the indigenous people. We are appealing to fight till the end for the birth rights of native people over forests. We feel happy to inform you that all the Fifth Scheduled areas of our country are revolutionary struggle waging areas. All the oppressed people including the Mulvasi people of those areas are fighting for their power over the forests with unparalleled sacrifices, maintaining their legacy of struggle.

They are staunchly opposed to the corporatization and militarization of forests by the Government of India and state governments. Where PESA has been implemented in the country, the local government officials have been constantly engaging in various conspiracies to weaken the powers of the Gram Sabhas.

In Oligarchical (Maharashtra), which has brought forward the implementation of PESA in the form of a public movement, the formation of "Zilla Parivartan Samiti “ has recently been started. This is openly opposed by the real gram sabhas of the district. On the other hand all Mulavasi people have condemned the shameless imposition of IPC 124 (Sedition Act) by the rulers and their police on the thousands of people who fought for "Patthal Gadih“ to implement PESA which provides rights , Jal, Jungle Zamin (Water, Forest and Land). The CJI (Chief Justice of India) has openly said that this law is out of date. So, our party has been making it clear for a long time that all those cases should be withdrawn by the governments of the respective states immediately, none of them are treasonous or betrayers, and the current suppressive rulers are the real traitors of the people. On the occasion of The International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples celebrated on August 9 our party is calling for the abolition of the anti-people tyrannical laws.

Dear Mulvasis People,

You have been fighting for years in Dandakaranya and Jarkhand ( Kadianar, Amdai, Raoghat, Vechaghat, Vechapad, Gompad, Pombad, Pundri, Takilod, Surjagarh and Gaya, Aurangabad, Kaimur, Netrahat in Jharkhand). In the Hasdev forests of the Chattisgad, the people are bitterly struggling for their rights on the forest and opposing the CBB‘s mining. The Silinger People‘s Dhama which has been going on for more than a year with blood - shedding sacrifices deserves much appreciation and stands as a model before the people. From the hearts of the people's struggles erupting the fiery slogans like “Bastar Mein Narasamhar Bandh Karo”, “Police camps should be removed immediately in tribal areas” “Khadan Nahi Anaj Pahije". The revolutionary struggles of Jangal Mahal and Narayanapatna gave great experience of struggle for you. The rulers ignored your peacefiil and legal struggles. The rulers are squeezing your regions, your rights and they want to overcome their neck global financial crisis that they are stuck in. But let us categorically declare that people‘s revolutionary struggles cannot get them out of that vortex that they are stuck in.

Even if you rally to state capitals and encircle district collector's office, the ministers and officials are not even considering any of your demands. Moreover, though lakhs of lives are lost due to the Covid pandemic created by the imperialists in the last two years, in spite of it they are yet to declared the numbers honestly. The rulers forced the indigenous people of Telangana in the midst of the pandemic and as the khakis expelling Mulvasis from their villages in the most brutal manner, they staged agitation in the country's capital Delhi to voice their opinion. But the result is null.

These governments do not care about people's problems. They do not have answers to people‘s problems. The rulers are suppressing the voices of the people only through military actions. Those questioning the rulers are detained behind the bars and tried under tyrannical laws and punished severely. intellectuals, writers, journalists, rights activists, leaders, socio-political activists, students, grassroots people, who are very concerned about the Mulvasis of our country as the poorest of the poor, but the counter-revolutionary Hindutva forces are very intolerant

towards them.

Even though your struggles and dharnas are going on for months, you are not getting the justice you are looking for. So you have to manage your battles more effectively. To take your fights to new heights you must take up intensive fighting forms with determination. The oppressed people of the whole country and the world are standing with you today. Our party calls you with full confidence that you will go ahead more persistently and militantly and make a mark on the World Indigenous Day on 9th August.

It is commendable that the International Committee to Support the People‘s War in India has extended its deep support to your struggles and decided to stand by your issues internationally and protect the indigenous people from the attacks of the Indian government and Hindutva forces in their respective countries and to help them in their own countries to fulfill their just demands. Our Bureau congratulates all of them.

With revolutionary greetings,

Pratap,

Spokesperson,

Central Region,

Communist Party of India ( Maoist ).