The purification hunt: the Salwa Judum counterinsurgency in Chhattisgarh, India

What is it about?

Military counterinsurgencies can intensify wars by exacerbating the very violence and attacks upon civilian populations that they are meant to temper. In 2005, the state of Chhattisgarh, India responded to a long-simmering conflict against the Communist Party of India-Maoist (or Naxals) in this manner by secretly funding and arming a counterinsurgency group called Salwa Judum (meaning ‘purification hunt’). Salwa Judum was armed by the state in the hopes that it would fight the Naxals, make the mineral-rich area safer for industry, and allow for official deniability of violence against civilians and suspected Naxals in the name of reasserting control. Instead of quelling the rebellion, the conflict became exponentially deadlier, militarizing marginalized communities in the process. However, industry has thrived even as it sits in the heart of the conflict zone, surrounded by a human rights disaster from which the state has yet to recover.

Featured Image