Guest Post by RICHARD TOPPO
Almost a century ago, Katherine Mayo published a book titled ‘Mother India’ that criticized the Indian way of living, and Rudyard Kipling spoke of the ‘White Man’s Burden’. These writings reflected the colonial perspective that what colonizers did was in the best interest of the colonized people. Consequently, most well-meaning citizens of colonial powers were alienated from the horrible plight of the colonized. Purpose well served – unopposed exploitation.
Years later, independent India seems to walk the same line. The tribal communities in central areas of Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh have faced rampant exploitation, displacement and dispossession from their resources at the hands of the state. However, the government has successfully produced an illusionary perception of ‘development’ that has alienated the middle classes of India from the miseries of tribals. As a result, the government in alliance with corporate interests ruthlessly exploits the tribal population, almost unchallenged by other sections of society. Continue reading Fallacious perceptions of development – a tribal view from Jharkhand: Richard Toppo
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The Times of India did not hear of any dead people because Monsanto paid for the taxi from the city to the village for its reporter. Or is that all that Monsanto paid for? P Sainath in The Hindu:
As Japan shut down its last reactor, the Koodankulam project is to go critical in ten days. Because Japan depends on local consensus for its nuclear decisions, unlike the World’s Largest Democracy, the views of Japanese people counts for something. Thousands of Japanese marched in celebrations to celebrate the switching off of the last of Japan’s 50 nuclear reactors on Saturday May 5th. 
