Conflict

In 1997, the largest and most powerful insurgent group of the Northeast signed a suspension of operations agreement with the Indian government. With the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) (NSCN-IM) agreeing to come to the negotiating table, many saw it as the beginning of the end for conflict in the region. They had reasons to believe so. For one, it was the NSCN(IM) which held sway over the many other smaller militant-secessionist groups of the region, which it had willy-nilly...

Soon enough, the leopard might become as endangered as the tiger is. Four leopards have been poached and their body parts entered into illegal wildlife trade every week for 10 years in India. If the trend is unchecked, the leopard too may be pushed to the brink of extinction. And, the leopard is arguably paying a collateral damage for its more precious cousin, the tiger. As of now, almost 90 per cent of leopard seizures are that of skins. One of the reasons for the selective targeting of...

The Indian government wouldn't want you to see this Channel 4 film. This is how the makers of the documentary describe the film: In the most militarised place on earth, one man is standing up to the armed might of the world's largest democracy. 'Kashmir's Torture Trail' follows a Kashmiri lawyer as he uncovers India's best kept secret. With the world's media attention focused on repression in Syria and the threat to the Euro, the Indian state of Kashmir, nestling in the shadow of the Himalayas...

A 30-year-old woman was repeatedly gangraped by security forces for a week during August in the Saranda forests of Jharkhand. Jawans of the anti-Naxal Cobra force captured her house, and made her to live with and cook for them. Today, she does not dare speak out against the barbarity since the jawans subsequently arrested her son for being a Maoist. She fears more for the life of her son, than speaking out against the atrocity that was heaped on her. This woman’s story is not an isolated one...

They had three sons. They were not rich, but “were quite contented”. In the mid-1950s, her husband responded to the Naga movement and joined the Naga army. He rose through the ranks to become an important officer. His wife and children stayed behind in the village to fend for themselves by labouring in their fields. The Indian army kept constant surveillance and often raided the house hoping to capture him. She lived through constant fear and harassment. After several years in the Naga army, the...

Tension prevails in the remote Saal Valley of Chamba in Himachal Pradesh where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has been turning a blind eye at repeated attacks on villagers protesting against the Hul hydropower project. All attacks have been allegedly carried out by goons hired by the Hyderabad-based Hul Hydro Power Private Limited (HHPPL). The attacks were carried out in the backdrop of the people of eight panchayats of Saal Valley, under the banner of the Saal Ghaati Bachao...

It is women in Jharkhand who have been facing the brunt of Operation Jharkhand. There have been several reports and allegations of police and other security forces inflicting brutal violence on villagers during their anti-Maoist operations in areas under Operation Greenhunt, including rape and sexual violence against women, which rarely, if at all, get reported. This investigation by Women against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS), a non-funded group, were told of news reports of rape...

It was the Punjab government’s well-guarded secret for a while. Till, of course, word trickled out, and dirt hit the proverbial fan. The coalition government of the Akali Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party did everything in their means to browbeat the farmers of a small village called Gobindpura in Mansa district of the state into submission. All fundamental rights– right to speech and expression, right to organise and struggle, right to free movement – were trampled upon by a ruthless police force...

It made for a wonderful keepsake photo opportunity when leaders of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) visited New Delhi for preliminary tripartite peace talks in August. There were smiles all around, and word was that peace was soon going to return to Assam. Unfortunately, that’s where the good news ends as of now. If you go beyond the headlines and hark a little into the past, you will find that things will progressively appear worse. That would be because there are many talking points...

Kashmir’s much-hyped literary festival has been cancelled. The organisers of ‘Harud: The Autumn Literature Festival’, scheduled for September 24-26 in Srinagar, cited the possibility of violence as the main reason behind this decision. The festival secretariat said they were concerned about the possibility of protests and the "heightened" nature of the debate. The debate in question was the incisive criticism that the organisers faced from writers, journalists, filmmakers and artists, among...