GREAT DIVIDE MARKS INDIAN NATION
Nantoo Banerjee
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2011-11-04 11:07
Adivasis in the jungles of Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal, who have turned dreaded Maoists in recent years, are not afraid of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram’s central reserve police as long as their mud houses have enough stocks of rice to last at least a week or so. The easiest way to bring them down on their knees would be to dry up supplies of rice. A large section of these extremely poor Adivasis lives entirely on rice – steamed rice, puffed rice and rice cakes for eating and home-made fermented cooked rice, known as haria, for compulsory evening booze to keep their spirits high to protect their tribal identity.