The drumbeat was loud. The dancers were faster. I asked a young tribal woman: “Are you afraid of the Naxals?” She laughed. “We are afraid of the drum stopping.”
Chhattisgarh has a reputation. Naxals. Maoists. Insurgency. Violence.
Every time I read “chhattisgarh news”, the same stories:
Encounter in a forest
Security forces ambushed
Civilian killed
Area cordoned off
I thought Bastar was a war zone. Then I went there for a week.
The Bastar they don't show you
Bastar is not a war zone. Bastar is a land of forests, rivers, and tribes who have lived there for centuries.
I attended a local festival. Tribal dance. Drums. Colors. Laughter.
I asked a young woman dancing: “Do you read ‘chhattisgarh news’?”
She said: “We don't have newspapers here. We have the drum.”
“The drum tells us when to dance. When to celebrate. When to harvest. When to mourn.”
“The news only comes when someone dies. We don't want that kind of visitor.”
What the village elder told me
The elder was 75. He had seen governments come and go. He had seen news crews come and go.
I asked: “Is Bastar dangerous?”
He said: “Dangerous for whom? For you? Maybe. You don't know the forest. For us? No. We know every tree. Every path. Every animal.”
“The news shows you the 10 bad people in the forest. It never shows you the 10,000 good people.”
“The bad people make headlines. The good people make dinner.”
The one time news was right
I asked: “Has ‘chhattisgarh news’ ever reported something true about Bastar?”
He nodded. “Yes. When the forest was on fire. That was real. We saw the smoke. We fought the fire. The news came after.”
“But they didn't stay to see us plant new trees. They left. Because planting trees is not news. Fire is news.”
“So the world thinks Bastar is on fire. But Bastar is green again.”
What I saw in 7 days
No encounter. No ambush. No civilian killing. No cordon.
What I saw:
Children playing in a river. Laughing.
Women collecting tendu leaves. They make their living from it.
A young man who taught himself welding. Now he repairs pumps for the whole village.