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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | In Chhattisgarh Naxal fight, police do as tribals do by Ashutosh Bhardwaj

In Chhattisgarh Naxal fight, police do as tribals do by Ashutosh Bhardwaj

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published Published on Dec 7, 2011   modified Modified on Dec 7, 2011

Social anthropologists have long used the technique of learning tribal languages and adopting tribal customs to understand tribal peoples. There’s a new class of sociology students in Chhattisgarh now — the police.
Bastar police are studying tribal behaviour to recoup what they think is lost in the linguistic and cultural gap with the local population. The problems of communication, the police believe, lead to suspicion and miscommunication, and push local people towards the Naxals.

“There is a theory of vyavhaarvaad in political science. It argues that studying the behavioural patterns of a community helps to understand the ways in which it makes its decisions. If we follow tribal behaviour, we can predict the actions of Naxals,” Bastar SP Ratan Lal Dangi told The Indian Express.

The district police, Dangi said, are being trained in the customs of the local tribes. Police personnel meet tribals, visit their homes, and mix with them.

“Unless we understand tribal culture, there will always be disconnect between them and the police. Even if we do good for them, they will think we are harming them,” said Dangi, Chhattisgarh’s youngest IPS officer and twice winner of the President’s Gallantry Medal.

Dangi has written to the Jagdalpur anthropological museum, seeking expert help in training. Museum in-charge K M Sinha Roy said the police had asked for an “awareness programme focusing on agricultural practices, trade, eating habits and other customs of tribals”.

“It’s a significant step,” Sinha Roy said. “We forwarded their letter to our Kolkata head office, and they have dispatched material required for the training. Things will move soon.”

To ensure that the fruits of the training are permanent, Dangi has asked every police station to keep a record of local tribes and their customs, along with detailed guidelines on how to behave with them. The files are expected to be passed down to successive thana in-charges.

Some results are already visible in significant Naxal arrests recently, Dangi said. “We expect positive results over a period of time. But yes, some changes are already there.”

The training programme, currently being implemented only in Bastar, might be replicated elsewhere too.


The Indian Express, 8 December, 2011, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/In-Chhattisgarh-Naxal-fight--police-do-as-tribals-do/885177/


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