During the last one year several tribal areas in Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, and Chhattisgarh have declared their independence from India. This is locally known as Patthargarhi movement.
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| Army in the jungles of chattisarh Wikimedia Commons by Janubforwiki |
Patthatgarhi movement is inspired by some fake document and the wrong interpretation of the constitution of India.
According to this misconception, it is believed that the tribal people are the real owners of the place where they are in majority.
In Jharkhand, this mutiny has taken the form of armed rebellion. In Madhya Pradesh and Orissa where this separatist crusade is still groping for strong footholds has taken the form of non-cooperative movement.
It is not certain in which direction this agitation will go in the coming years. But in order to achieve the objective of Independence, the tribal people resist all efforts of suppression and are ready to do and die.
In these areas, the tribal are resorting to a large scale election boycott. They do not welcome the elected representatives in their areas and look disdainfully at the Government officials.
Patthargarhi and separatist movement are spreading among the tribal masses like a forest conflagration.
What is the Parrhargarhi Movement?
In Patthargarhi movement a special stone is placed at the outskirts of the village to declare the autonomy of the area. In this way, hundreds or probably thousands of villages have become autonomous zones. Some people call it a tribal corridor or Tribal Land, while the others term it Advasisthan. The placement of stones is a symbolic declaration that the Indian law is not applicable in the land.
Self- Styled Local Autonomy
The local police and non-tribal are not allowed to enter the village. The newly formed tribal village committees are taking the Executive, Judicial and Legislative powers in their hands.
The matters from petty thefts to murder are being taken up and decided by the tribal village committees. These committees even run their own schools where the aims and objective of the movement are taught. These schools comprise of those children who are admitted who are forcibly taken out of the Government schools.
Reasons behind the Movement
According to the tribal people no government has paid heed to their plight. They feel completely alienated from the mainstream. The politicians have forsaken them for the benefits of Industrialists. They say that they have become homeless and landless after industrialization and the construction of big hydroelectric dams. They were not provided adequate alternative sites to live and were not adequately compensated. The industries have swallowed their fertile agricultural lands, while the industries could have been established on the wastelands. They mourn that they are not getting anything from these flourishing industries. Due to these and several other reasons they find themselves abandoned and detached from the society, hence the movement.
Failure of Administration
The administration is at a fix that how this problem should be tackled. The local police claim that this agitation and non-cooperation of the tribal people is a conspiracy of drug mafia so that they could motivate the tribal to cultivate poppy to extract opium and poppy seeds. The poppy crop will come in April and thereafter the situation would normalize.
But this claim of the police loses its appeal and authenticity, as there is no poppy cultivation in the districts in Sundergarh region of Orissa and the districts in Dindauri region of Madhya Pradesh.
But this problem needs long-term policies for the economic amelioration of the tribal people. Besides, the sincere efforts on the part of local and Union government are needed to build the confidence of the people in India and Indian Constitution.
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