an accidental corelation!

A long telephonic conversation with friends is always a moment to rejoice. When conversation becomes a debate its even more interesting and here is one such rejoiceable and interesting conversation with a friend of mine. After a couple of minutes of formally non formal chit chat the conversation diverted to the recently released movie Avatar. With all praises to the cast and crew of the film we got into a discussion on James Cameron’s imagination of how humans would end up the greenery of the existing world and look for Pandora in the year 2154. As humans we have been constantly exploiting the resources around us in an exponentially rocketing rate.
The movie is interestingly made on the thirst of corporatism where people just think, talk and live of money and not bothered about other emotions etc., The relationship quotient between the avatars and the nature has been highlighted so beautifully where everyone of us could related to the feelings communicated by a tree / a creature which seems destructive but extends such a lovely hand in need for the people of Pandora. Over all finally to have a happy happy ending Cameron might have ended saying that Avatars win over humans and send them back to the sky world from where they come. People applaud and say that’s right… The land and the place belong to them and humans should not have invaded. My friend called it a brilliant finish.
Our talk gradually moved towards the campaign AID has doing at Chhatisgarh along with a brief talk on fasting of Himanshu ji of VCA for the human rights. First of all when I began to describe it my friend had no clue of what exactly is happening at Chhatisgarh at all. Thanks to our national media who need to be given credit for the same. I began to elaborate him about the issues currently at Chhatisgarh. I briefed him that the tribal of Chhatisgarh are being hunted by the police men saying that they were naxals / people who encourage naxals. I also elaborated him entirely on the recent arrest of Kopa, charges the policemen are trying to file with people of VCA., destruction of VCA a couple of months ago etc., I also shared him about what exactly is going on with lives of people there. He still couldn’t connect to the issue completely and was reasonably confused with why the government would want to kill people.
Well thanks to Avatar which made me understand him the issue simple. Chhatisgarh is a land of enormous resource. I myself have been to Corba mines a couple of time to collect coal for my analysis. It’s a beautiful place with a mixture of green and black. Green above the land and black below. It also has abundant of other resources on which the industrial world and the corporate people want to capitalize on. Rehabilitation and resettlement was one possible option they had and tried it with a lot of villagers around. The corporate people at Chhatisgarh are like the money rich human’s from Avatar. They reach Pandora and these people reached Chhatisgarh.
They choose a couple of local people and appointed them as SPO’s [Special Police Officer’s] who were authorized to shoot naxals in the area. These SPO’s were working for the police officials and the corporate people. The movie shows a couple of people taking the souls of the avatars and mingling with people to understand their lives / cultures etc., The role of both are quite similar. The SPO’s gradually will evacuate people by threatening people failing which would lead to rape of women in the family and murder them. Adivasis keep on running in to the jungle. The analogy of how the entire military force make the residence tree of the avatars fall would fit in to how these SPO’s and police forces make the Adivasis run into the jungle. The greed of this corporate driven culture will never end and the story keeps on going. Government is doing an entire operation called Salwa Judum to kill people and grab land. Adivasi’s are tagged as naxals and are eradicated from their own land. People are made refugees in their own soil but the nature is listening to their prayers and seeing all these happen in front.
Hopefully now he was able to relate to the issue and understand it in a broader spectrum. He also said that he’ll spread the message across and contribute in some way to the campaign what we were doing. A whole hearted Thanks to James Cameron who made it simple to explain things in detail :).

Comments

दर्शन said…
This is something i should feel good about ,Although I am trying to know things from Dantewada ,but the narration is so simple anyone can understand the issue .

And moreover the Corelation between Avtaar & salwa Judum is intersting .I wish more people can think beyond urban society ,beyond Malls :)
Anonymous said…
Haven't seen Avtaar, but your correlation was nice :)

Surely your friend would've understood it better now.
Priyanka said…
hy selva...
nice write up..I liked it..u have made a complicated issue so simple to understand..I havnt seen Avatar..but yeh now I can say..I know what the movie is about :)
And being a lil sarcastic here..i would say that Indian Govt. Officials...we have got to learn sum strategy from them...they r soo tru to their job ;)
Shalini Sharma said…
thanks for this post Selva! loved your analogy...will use this example while telling about the case to friends here. however, am really dismayed over the state of media and what it has come to represent now.
Good one selva,
When I have seen the movie same thought came to my mind but not in relation to Chattisgarh incidents as I am also not aware about it. I have just taken it in co relation to the SEZ development riots happned in Maharashtra.

But it's a nice writing and thoughtful understanding of the subject.
Learning Music said…
good that you wrote this, selva -- earlier I used 'blood diamond' as an example to convey the chhattisgarh issue to new people, now 'avatar' might help one step further
earthwire said…
Good one... I was just vaguely aware of things happening in Chattisgarh... this analogy helped a lot. Nice thought :)
Vertika said…
Hey Selva
This was just a piece which seemed to be right out of my mind. When I watched Avatar, the reason I loved it so much, is because I could relate it to many issues and things around, like the Narmada issue and all...
Congrats to you for putting in words for everybody to read what people like me used to just feel for themselves only! :)
Time & Destiny said…
Very Nice ..... Lovely Correlation :)

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