Chhattisgarh Peace Talks: The Inside Story Of Madvi Hidma’s Death And The Future Of The Remaining Adivasi Cadres

The winter of 2024 was a watershed moment in the history of the Maoist movement in Bastar. On January 16, Maoists had assembled all their divisions of South Bastar to attack the Dharmavaram CRPF camp, situated next to the Chintavagu River in the Pamed region of Bijapur district in Chhattisgarh. They wanted it to be a decisive reply to the state’s strategy of establishing police camps in the Maoist-controlled areas. This had accelerated post-2019, and had made their work difficult.

Although the Maoists “fired 600 grenade launcher shells with the help of hundreds of locals”, the Dharmavaram attack was a failure. They claimed to have killed 35 security forces; however, as per the police forces, nine security men were injured. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the investigation and said: “Maoists had done an elaborate preparation for the attack, including establishing a training dummy camp as a replica of the target camp”. Maoists were also wearing camouflage dress made of grass, which was widely publicised by the press.

But what is little known is what happened after the failed Dharmavaram attack. It was a rare moment when all the Maoist Divisional Committees (DVCs) were together, and they penned what was brewing in their minds for some time. All the Maoist DVCs are manned by almost 100 per cent Adivasi fighters, though each committee has a Telugu minder called ‘Secretary’, who usually calls the shots. The draft letter said: “It is becoming more and more difficult to meet and get support from people due to these police camps. So, we suggest that an alternative strategy must be adopted to continue the fight. We think we should dump our weapons for some time and think of alternatives.”

This was the rarest of rare expressions of defiance by the majority Adivasi cadres of the Maoist movement, led mostly by Telugus. Though Adivasis made up 99 per cent of the Maoist cadres in Bastar, there was no representation of local Adivasis in the all-powerful Central Committee (CC) of the party till then. The Secretary for South Bastar—Sujatha, the widow of famous Maoist leader Kishenji, who later surrendered to Telangana police—was requested to take the letter to the CC. Madvi Hidma, the top Adivasi Maoist leader, who was part of the Dandakaranya State committee by then (he was included in CC later that year), was requested to get the opinion of other DVCs about the letter.

Unfortunately, the CC rejected the proposal. This was around the same time when Chhattisgarh Home Minister Vijay Sharma offered peace talks just after the BJP came to power in the state in December 2023. Though the letter was rejected, it had done its work. Hidma got support from almost all the DVCs in the entire Dandakaranya state who lived nearer to people and reflected their wishes of a change in strategy.

Unless by top leaders, such Maoist letters mostly travel with couriers and take a long time in going to and fro. As per recently surrendered Maoist CC member Venugopal, the letter had got some support in the CC and resulted in a change of mind of General Secretary Nambala Keshav Rao, just before his death in May 2025.

Rao had started writing to other CC members and contacting interlocutors exploring peace talks, which is refuted by the current leadership of the Maoist party. Hidma, the lone representative of local Adivasis in CC (now there is one more local Adivasi called Ramder, who has now surrendered) was more interested in talks on Adivasi issues of forest rights and autonomy. When the talks did not materialise and there was no assurance from the government, Venugopal surrendered with another CC, Rupesh, who supported “the letter”, but Hidma moved to new leadership, vowing to continue the fight.

In the meantime, the strategy of setting up more camps was taking shape with renewed vigour since the BJP government in the state was getting a lot of support from surrendered Maoists and local Adivasi fighters, apart from local Adivasis who were providing intelligence, which won the war for the state. The locals were helping the state because they were fed up with the continued violence and wated to end this anyhow. The Maoist party lost many of its Telugu CC leaders in this offensive and had activated their supporters to demand peace talks. They backed off when Venugopal and Rupesh claimed they had negotiated three demands from the government, which did not include Hidma’s demand for talks on “Adivasi issues”. In his final days, Hidma sent another letter to an interlocutor from Adivasi Samaj saying he is ready to surrender, but would like talks on the issues of “forest rights and Adivasi autonomy”.

Hidma was killed by security forces on November 18, 2025.

His supporters allege the location of Hidma was leaked to the police by the current Maoist leadership, who killed him when he demanded “some talks on Adivasi issues before surrender”. Whatever may be the truth of this story, it looks quite certain that Adivasis were, once again, cheated by all sides in this four-decade-long misadventure. They paid the maximum price and got nothing in return.

After Hidma’s death, most Adivasi cadres have surrendered. Now, up to 150 fighters, including 50 from Hidma’s team (PLGA), are still controlling about 100 square kms area, primarily in the Indravati National Park area in Chhattisgarh, bordering Telangana and Maharashtra. It is a matter of a few more intelligence-based operations before the current phase of the movement will finally be over. Post Left-wing Extremism (LWE), the main challenge will be to control people’s anger over renewed state efforts for mining, which the state is rushing ahead with, without investing in winning the trust of the previously-affected communities.

Shubhranshu Choudhary is a practitioner of Democratic Media. He has been a journalist with the BBC and is also a part of The New Peace Process in Chhattisgarh.

(Views expressed are personal)