There is a new “plan” for the scheduled tribes, but the adivasis themselves will have no say. Alienation from the forest and its resources, alienation from cultivable land and alienation from the State underlie the anger of the adivasis in India’s heartland. This is not a new or startling observation. Adivasi mass organisations, the more sensitive administrators, political organisations with their ears to the ground and scholars who have studied India’s...

A small farmer in Maharashtra, whose high-yielding rice variety is popular in five States, is denied the benefits of his research. TWENTY-SEVEN years ago, Dadaji Khobragade of Nanded Fakir village in Chandrapur district of Maharashtra noticed yellow seeds in three spikes of a paddy stalk in his field. Intrigued by the freak harvest, he preserved the grains. He subsequently planted them in a six-foot square plot, which he covered with thorny...

If home minister P Chidambaram’s recent letter to West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is any indication, it has taken the Union home ministry seven years to realise that arming civilians to fight Naxalites is a bad idea. How much longer will it take for them to realise that the current paramilitary-based approach in Chhattisgarh is similarly bound to fail? From 2003 onwards, the home ministry has followed a policy of...

Farmers in West Bengal whose land will be acquired will now get three cottahs of developed land for commercial purpose for every acre of land. This will be in addition to a compensation based on market rate. Even before the Central government came up with a fresh land acquisition Act and rehabilitation policy, the West Bengal government on Thursday announced its new rehabilitation package for the state’s farmers. Commerce and Industries...

Nearly 100 days after the nondescript Tembhali in Nandurbar district was swamped with promises of development, nothing has changed for the better in the tribal village. For over a week in September, the tribal village basked in public and official attention. Prime minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi landed to launch the ambitious Unique Identity (UID) card — Aadhaar — project amid great fanfare. Great promises to improve the...