PATNA- Adivasis on Warpath

PATNA Adivasis on Warpath TROUBLE is brewing in the tribal belt of the Chhotanagpur plateau in Bihar. Armed with bows and arrows the Adivasis have staged many demonstrations in the past few months demanding a separate Jharkhand State comprising the five districts of Ranchi, Hazaribagh, Palamau, Dhanbad and Singhbhum in Chhotanagpur and the Santal Parganas in Bhagalpur division. The demand is old but the frenzied demonstrations headed by a militant leadership are an altogether new and disconcerting phenomenon. The agitation is fast assuming the form of a conflict between four and a half million Adivasis of the plateau and about eleven million non-Adivasis. Already six Adivasi lives have been lost in police firing at Chin in Ranchi district; clashes with the police have been almost a daily occurrence in the last fortnight.