Arundhati Roy on Democracy Now yesterday spoke of India's war on its indigenous people and a LOT more.

Among many things the writer and activist talks about, I was the most educated by what she said about the oppression of the indigenous people of India. I didn't even know there were indigenous people in India.

But here's an excerpt from the transcript of yesterday's edition of Democracy Now:

ANJALI KAMAT: [...] What is this war that India is waging against some of the poorest people, people known as tribals, indigenous people, Adivasis? Who are the Maoists? What’s happening there? And how did you get there?

ARUNDHATI ROY: Well, it’s been going on for a while, but basically, you know, I mean, there is a connection. If you look at Afghanistan, Waziristan, you know, the northeast states of India and this whole mineral belt that goes from West Bengal through Jharkhand through Orissa to Chhattisgarh, what’s called the Red Corridor in India, you know, it’s interesting that the entire thing is a tribal uprising. In Afghanistan, obviously, it’s taken the form of a radical Islamist uprising. And here, it’s a radical left uprising. But the attack is the same. It’s a corporate attack, you know, on these people. The resistance has taken different forms.

But in India, this thing known as the Red Corridor, if you look at a map of India, the tribal people, the forests, the minerals and the Maoists are all stacked on top of each other.

via democracynow.org

Bold/emphasis added by me.

"...if you look at a map of India, the tribal people, the forests, the minerals and the Maoists are all stacked on top of each other."

Kind of says it all, doesn't it? Just like Peru, just like Sudan--am I forgetting any other place indigenous peoples are getting knocked off their land for the resources underneath it?

But hit up that link--Roy is a brilliant woman and has a lot to say about India, the world and also the "sham" of democracy.

Yeah, heavy stuff...

Posted via web from thepete's posterous