The poem and essay frame India’s land conflict as a battle between Adivasis defending livelihood and rulers pursuing capitalist “development.”
The piece exposes a moral double standard where power, not justice, determines whose violence is justified.
The conflict highlights how power and legitimacy shape narratives of violence in India’s long-running land disputes.
Guns, Power And The Adivasi Ideology
Adivasis and rulers, both fighting for the same pieces of land, have started taking to guns. Is the violence justified?
Summary
Land
Both are fighting …
for Land
Both will kill each other ...
for Land
One wanting to save his land …
for livelihood
Other wanna grab it …
for indulgence and luxury of the capitalist ilk …
GUN
He had a gun …
The other too wielded one.
Power flows through barrels of gun.. believed he …
To prove him wrong, the other confronted him … with a gun.
He picked up gun to save his village-farm-barn and jungle..
Reaching his village the other pointed gun on him to snatch away the same.
Without smelling blood.. 'murderous' was called his gun..
Other's was titled 'patriotic'..soaked in blood though.
Other's gun had government insignia so...!
In rural India, Adivasis, the indigenous people, and the land owners are in continuous conflict since ages with the rulers who want to grab their land. Pre-independence, the conflict was with the colonial rulers and now with our own people. Adivasis want to save and retain their land for their livelihood. The rulers, on the other hand, under the guise of development, want to grab the same pieces of land for their capitalist interests.
Adivasis, who fought the colonial rulers tooth and nail, showing great valour, with the help of their local heroes like Birsa Munda, now believe in the ideology that the power they require to retain their livelihood comes from the barrel of gun and hence they take to arms. The rulers, on the other hand, while declaring that gun is not the solution, confront the Adivasis with same guns, thus underscoring the Adivasi ideology of relation between gun and power.
If in this conflict between the Adivasis and rulers, the police— mostly hailing from similar lower-class strata like the Adivasis—get killed, they become martyrs and the Adivasi's are called murderers. On the other hand, when the police, as the agents of rulers kill Adivasis, they are hailed as patriotic heroes. In this conflict for land, both the parties wield guns— the notorious weapons for killing—but the one used by the police, being from the government armoury, are always justified to kill.
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Milind Bhawar (Panthers) works as consultant at Air India-Tata. He writes against religious and caste atrocities.
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