Where there is fear, there is also courage, and defiance

The killings of nearly 17 villagers in Sarkeguda, Kottaguda and Rajpeta in Chhattisgarh on June 28 came just as life there was getting back to normal after years of violence followed by painfully slow rehabilitation.

Some of their children had started going to school and were doing well. Rahul Kaka and Ramvilas Madkan, students of Std X at a school in Basaguda village, were two such teenagers. Ramvilas was a bright and ambitious boy, according to his sister Ratna.

“He wanted to be an advocate. And I’m sure he would’ve become one because he was very good in studies. He used to consistently score 60-70% in class,” she said. Ramvilas, who stayed in a hostel in Basaguda and had come home in Kottaguda for the summer vacation, was at the meeting that fateful night in June. He and his friend Rahul, who had accompanied him for the visit home, were both shot dead.

The killings have struck a deep fear into the villagers’ hearts. When tribal leader and activist Kopa Kunjam entered the area with the rest of the fact-finding team, it was his first visit there since his imprisonment.

Somewhat of a hero and leader for the villagers, his tireless work for their rehabilitation has left them with immense gratitute and respect for him. Even then, on seeing Kunjam, the common refrain was, “We came back on your word. You assured us that we would be safe. But they’re killing us again.”

At night, by the light of a solitary battery-charged lamp, Kunjam gave a rallying speech. “If we want to live well, we can’t depend on others’ largesse. If we don’t unite, we are doomed.” l Turn to p9

Kunjam was asking them to unite as a voting block. He went on to say that if they don’t unite and vote in leaders who will work for their welfare, they are doomed as a people. Kunjam, it must be said, is planning to contest the legislative assmbly elections from Bijapur in 2013.

But where there is fear, there is also courage and defiance. Running away again, it seems, is not an option for them anymore.

A villager, whose nephew was killed on June 28, said, “They shot us with bullets. They hacked our bodies with axes. But this time we won’t leave. If we had to leave we would’ve gone by now. We can’t leave. And they can’t make us.”