Arundhati Roy ,Naxals And Chidambaram

First time I came across name of arundhati roy was years back when I went to a book stall. I asked the stall owner to suggest some good book . He suggested god of small things by arundhati roy. That was when I first heard of her.

Then I kept hearing about her , whether it was related to narmada bachao or supreme court or her take on 26/11 or her sympathizes about naxalites.

Operation Green Hunt is name given to operation against naxalites by India . Naxalites are grave security threat to India as per our prime minister and home minister.

Arundhati roy travelled to naxal belt recently and wrote an article about it which has been published in outlook and pakistani daily called dawn.

Article has her point of view on ongoing battle . She writes about how tribals with their traditional weapons are taking on powerful Indian police and paramilitary. How government is using natural resources of tribal belt , how tribals are getting dislocated from their traditional homes , how corporates are making lot of money while giving peanuts to government from tribal belt and how ethos of democracy are ruined in largest democracy. She also writes about police atrocity .

While she had some valid points like what about tribals who are displaced in the process of making dams and mining. Tribals lack skill set to compete in the mainstream world . They are comfortable with their jungle life where they know how to get food and how to survive.

Now to counter this point chidambaram had made very thought provoking statement -’ I dont want tribals to remain in museum civilization for ever’.

Well if we put aside religious versions and think on basis of what science says. Life started in jungle , humans started as hunters and slowly evolved as farmers . Villages came into existence and then came cities.

So logically those who were left in jungles and didn’t migrate to villages and cities have been left behind in this evolution series. Now there are two options , either to leave them behind forever and let them be in jungle or bring them in mainstream. Yes their comfort zone might resist that but in end they would be part of main stream.

Arundhati roy wants tribal to remain tribals till end of the world?. If no then she should be try to make them come into mainstream. Yes if she believes that let tribals be in jungle , she had valid point.

Yes we have massive corruptions in our system , Yes we have corporates who use this corrupted system to best of their advantage. Now what is solution for it?. Taking weapons and going for kill?. Stopping dams to be built?. Blowing off schools and railway tracks?.

I dont think so but may be booker prize winner and intellectual like arundhati roy knows better.

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