The threat to tribal people in India

You draw welcome attention to tribal people's resistance to India's mining industry (Report, August 2). These genuine indigenous movements are not part of a "red corridor" and have remained essentially non-violent. The tribal people who were fired on by the police at Kalinganagar on January 2 and blockade Orissa's main highway are organised as the People's Platform Against Displacement. Every big company which displaces tribal people promises them a better life. These promises are never kept. Claims of "corporate social responsibility" and "sustainable development" do not bear close scrutiny. Invariably, people's standard of living plummets when they lose their land. From a community lifestyle sustained over centuries, they become slaves in all but name, doing the lowest labouring work in India's cities.

Communists in Orissa have often supported tribal movements. But Mao and Stalin imposed industrialisation as ruthlessly as any capitalist. In Chhattisgarh (central India), Maoists brought on a civil war which has split the tribal population. Its underlying cause is endemic exploitation and the state's determination to set up mines and metal factories displacing tribal communities. Where indigenous people are uprooted, permanent damage is done to mountains, forests and rivers. Plans for further iron and bauxite mines, plus steel and aluminium plants are being imposed with a brutality almost designed to drive people into Maoist extremism. Those resisting forced dislocation are not extremists. The lifestyle they defend is truly sustainable, based on an enduring respect for nature.

Samarendra Das (SJP), Surya Shankar Dash, Richard Harkinson (Minewatch), Roger Moody (Nostromo), Bhabani Nayak (CPIM), Patrik Oskarsson, Dr Felix Padel