Budhaditya Das

Over the past few years, the West Bengal government and its law enforcement agencies used repression against the tribals in Lalgarh on the pretext of acting against the Maoists. This resulted in a genuine resistance movement since November 2008, which has reacted not only to state repression, but had also taken matters of livelihood and development into their own hands. Members of a fact finding team who visited Lalgarh in April 2009, before the centre and state government commenced military operations in the area, bring out the sequence of events that has led to the current situation.