Paper short abstract:

In the middle Indian Maikal Hills a process of ongoing relocation legitimated with the label of “development” can be analyzed out of the perspective of the indigenous Baigas: Problems of Naxalite terrorism and “primitivity” should be solved by approaches of “development”.

Paper long abstract:

The Maikal Hills are a mountain range on the Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh border. The region is rich in forested areas, natural resource deposits in copper, bauxite etc. and rivers like the Narmada and its several tributaries. The traditional land rights of the indigenous Baigas have neither by the British, nor the Indian Government been acknowledged. Instead of, they try to "develop" the as "primitive" considered people with their subsistence mode of production of slash-and-burn cultivation.

British started to resettle Baigas for agricultural extension and forest protection. Nowadays Baigas are again relocated for National Parks, opening up of copper and bauxite sources and big dam projects for irrigation and power production. The British introduced their abstract and concrete ideas of property, which are in contrary to Baigas ideas of Nature. Today the relocational processes are again legitimated by "Development". Simultaneously these approaches should tie the Baigas to the mainstream society and fight the growing influence of Naxalite activity in the whole region.

The State uses different Labels of "Wilderness" connected with "Primitivity" of the local Baigas and the naxal Terrorism to fight with "Development" approaches. In these way national (economical) interests seems to be more important than local: Current developmental approaches are sharpening existing problems and issues.

What different ideas of nature and property are involved in these ongoing processes of relocation? How are these imaginations related to "Development" and naxal Terrorism?