Himanshu Kumar | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, India |
| Occupation | Social Activist |
| Father | Lakshmindraprakash Sharma |
Himanshu Kumar is an Indian Gandhian activist, best known for his activism for the tribal communities of the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. He founded a non-profit organization named Vanvasi Chetna Ashram in Dantewada district (now Sukma district) of Chhattisgarh, which he ran from 1992 to 2009. [1]
Kumar was born in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh and both his parents were freedom fighters. He grew up in Gandhi Ashram, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. His father, Prakashbhai Sharma, worked closely with Mahatma Gandhi and Vinoba Bhave. [2] [3]
After visiting Dantewada in 1988 with activist Nirmala Deshpande and his father, he decided to move to Dantewada with his wife in 1992 and founded the Vanvasi Chetna Ashram along with her. The ashram worked to educate the tribals about their legal rights. [4] The ashram was demolished on 17 May 2009 by the police. [5] [6]
Over the years, he extensively worked in the Bastar district with the government to raise awareness on malaria & literacy, and against the government over alleged human rights violations, especially during the Salwa Judum movement. [2]
Over the years, Kumar has filed over 519 petitions related to alleged fake encounters, rape, and loot by the Indian security forces. [7] [8]
In 2009, Kumar, along with 12 tribals, [9] [10] filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) [11] with the Supreme Court of India to investigate the alleged killing of 17 tribals from the Dantewada district (now Sukma district) by Chhattisgarh Police as a part of Operation Green Hunt in September and October 2009. [10] [2] The petition sought an independent inquiry into the killings while also asking the court to direct the government to provide compensation to the kin of the deceased. [12]
On 14 July 2022, the Supreme Court dismissed the petition and imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Kumar. [11] The court cited the FIRs and the chargesheets filed in the case and noted that the tribals were killed by Maoists. [13] Kumar refused to pay the fine [12] [14] and said "I will not pay the fine as I have not done anything wrong." [1]
Tantrik Jagadacharya Chandraswami was an Indian Tantrik.
The Communist Party of India (Maoist) is a banned Maoist communist political party and militant organization in India which aims to overthrow the "semi-colonial and semi-feudal Indian state" through protracted people's war. It was founded on 21 September 2004, through the merger of the CPIML People's War and the MCCI. The party has been designated as a terrorist organisation in India under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act since 2009.
The Adivasi are heterogeneous tribal groups across the Indian subcontinent. The term is a Sanskrit word coined in the 1930s by political activists to give the tribal people an indigenous identity by claiming an indigenous origin. The Constitution of India does not use the word Adivasi, instead referring to Scheduled Tribes and Janjati. The government of India does not officially recognise tribes as indigenous people. The country ratified the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 107 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of the United Nations (1957) and refused to sign the ILO Convention 169. Most of these groups are included in the Scheduled Tribe category under constitutional provisions in India.
Mahendra Karma was an Indian political leader belonging to Indian National Congress from Chhattisgarh. He was the leader of the opposition in the Chhattisgarh Vidhan Sabha from 2004 to 2008. In 2005, he played a top role in organising the Salwa Judum movement against Naxalites, a Maoist group in Chhattisgarh. He was a Minister of Industry and Commerce in the Ajit Jogi cabinet since the state formation in 2000 to 2004. He was assassinated by Naxalites on 25 May 2013 in the 2013 Naxal attack in Darbha valley while returning from a Parivartan Rally meeting organised by his party in Sukma.
Dantewada District, also known as Dantewara District or Dakshin Bastar District, is a district in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. Dantewada is the district headquarters. The district is part of Bastar Division. Until 1998, Dantewada District was a tehsil of the larger Bastar District.
Salwa Judum was a militia that was mobilised and deployed as part of counterinsurgency operations in Chhattisgarh, India, aimed at countering Naxalite activities in the region. The militia, consisting of local tribal youth, received support and training from the Chhattisgarh state government. It was outlawed and banned by a Supreme Court court order but continues to exist in the form of armed auxiliary forces, District Reserve Groups, and other vigilante groups.
Binayak Sen is a naxal kingpin, paediatrician, and public health specialist. He is the national Vice-President of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL). He is the recipient of several awards including the Jonathan Mann Award, the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights, and the Gandhi International Peace Award.
Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati and four of his disciples were murdered on 23 August 2008 in the State of Odisha in India. Saraswati was a tribal activist Hindu monk and a Vishva Hindu Parishad leader. Seven Catholic Panos and one Maoist leader were convicted in the case.
The Naxalite–Maoist insurgency is part of an ongoing conflict between left-wing extremist groups and the Indian government. The Naxalites are a group of communist supportive groups, who often follow Maoist political sentiment and ideology.
The Naxalite–Maoist insurgency is part of an ongoing conflict between Left-wing extremist groups and the Indian government. The insurgency started after the 1967 Naxalbari uprising and the subsequent split of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) leading to the creation of a Marxist–Leninist faction. The faction splintered into various groups supportive of Maoist ideology, claiming to fight a rural rebellion and people's war against the government.
The April 2010 Dantewada Maoist attack was an 6 April 2010 ambush by Naxalite-Maoist insurgents from the Communist Party of India (Maoist) near Chintalnar village in Dantewada district, Chhattisgarh, India, leading to the killing of 76 CRPF policemen and 8 Maoists — the deadliest attack by the Maoists on Indian security forces.
The Chhattisgarh Police is the law enforcement agency for the state of Chhattisgarh in India. The agency is administered by the Department of Home Affairs of the Government of Chhattisgarh. The force has specialized units to fight the Naxalite–Maoist insurgency in some districts of the state.
Kartam Joga is an adivasi Indian political activist of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). He was imprisoned in Chhattisgarh on suspicion of participating in the Tarmetla ambush in which 75 members of the Central Reserve Police Force were killed by CPI (Maoist) forces. Amnesty International named him a prisoner of conscience and described the charges against him as "fabricated". He was acquitted at his trial for lack of evidence.
Soni Sori is an Adivasi school teacher turned political leader of Aam Aadmi Party in Sameli village of Dantewada in south Bastar, Chhattisgarh, India. She was arrested by the Delhi Police's Crime Branch for Chhattisgarh Police in 2011 on charges of acting as a conduit for Maoists. During her imprisonment, she was tortured and sexually assaulted by Chhattisgarh state police. By April 2013, the Indian Courts had acquitted her in six of the eight cases filed against her due to lack of evidence. After release from prison, Sori began campaigning for the rights of those caught up in the conflict between Maoist insurgents and the government, in particular criticising police violence against tribespeople in the region.
On 25 May 2013, Naxalite insurgents of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) attacked a convoy of Indian National Congress leaders in the Jhiram Ghati, Darbha Valley in the Sukma district of Chhattisgarh, India. The attack caused at least 27 deaths, including that of former state minister Mahendra Karma and Chhattisgarh Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel. Vidya Charan Shukla, a senior Congress leader, succumbed to his injuries on 11 June 2013.
Sukma district is the southernmost district in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. It is located in the Bastar region, known for its tribal culture. Sukma district borders with Odisha, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
Chetna Natya Manch is the "Cultural Troupe" of the Communist Party of India (Maoist). Chetna Natya Manch is headed by Leng, and has more than 10,000 members.
Nandini Sundar is an Indian professor of sociology at the Delhi School of Economics whose research interests include political sociology, law, and inequality. She is a recipient of the Infosys Prize for Social Sciences in 2010. She was also awarded the Ester Boserup Prize for Development Research in 2016.
Umar Khalid is an Indian student activist, a former research scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), former leader of Democratic Students' Union (DSU) in JNU. He was allegedly involved in the JNU sedition row and is an accused under the UAPA law for Delhi riots. Khalid is also associated with United Against Hate, a campaign founded along with Nadeem Khan in July 2017 in response to the series of lynchings.
The 2021 Sukma-Bijapur attack was an ambush carried out by the Naxalite-Maoist militants from the Communist Party of India (Maoist) against Indian security forces on 3 April 2021 at Sukma-Bijapur border near Jonaguda village which falls under Jagargunda police station area in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh, the ensuing gunfight lead to the killing of 22 security personnel as well as 20 Naxalites. The death toll was the worst for Indian security forces fighting the Naxalites since 2017.