Kamal Shukla and Malini Subramaniam | Journalism, Corporate Loot, State Repression and Maoism: Reporting from the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh

Kamal Shukla and Malini Subramaniam | Journalism, Corporate Loot, State Repression and Maoism: Reporting from the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh

Lecture | November 29 | 5-7 p.m. | Stephens Hall, 10 (ISAS Conf. Room)


Speakers: Kamal Shukla, Journalist and Editor of Bhumkaal Samachar, Bastar;Malini Subramaniam, Journalist and Human Rights Activist

Moderator: Raka Ray, Professor of Sociology

Sponsors: Institute for South Asia Studies,Department of Sociology, Friends of South Asia (FOSA)


Kamal Shukla & Malini Subramaniam, both among the very few journalists reporting from the high risk Bastar area in the state of Chhattisgarh, will talk about their years of frontline reporting from this region where Maoists are leading an insurgency.

Journalists working in Chhattisgarh do so under dangerous conditions. Police pressure journalists to report only their version of the incident and discourage any visit to the villages to gather facts, to serve as informants and threaten to jail those that report critically on them.

Within a span of nine months, four journalists reporting from Bastar have been arrested thus crippling reporting on human rights abuse. Rebels too have attacked journalists, murdering two because they suspected them of being police informants.

A recent analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on the killing of 27 Indian journalists since 1992, that has drawn global attention to this crisis, demonstrates that journalism can be an extremely dangerous pursuit in this region.

(from CPJ reporting).

About the Speakers

KAMAL SHUKLA has been working as a journalist in Bastar region of Chhattisgarh for the last 25 years. He is the secretary ofPatrakar Suraksha Kanoon Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti (United Struggle Body for Journalists’ Security Law), a group formed in 2015 following the arrests of journalists, Somaru Nag and Santosh Yadav, and has actively been at the forefront of the local movement of journalists in Chhattisgarh demanding a law to protect journalists. He edits a weekly called Bhumkaal Samacharfrom Kanker district in Bastar. After organizing rallies in October and December 2015, Kamal Shukla was among the journalists who met Chief Minister of State, Raman Singh, on 22 December 2015.

Shukla, himself, has been a frequent target of the State, where false cases have been registered against him in different police stations in Bastar districts. He constantly lives under the threat of arrest, detention and/or encounter.

As a journalist, Shukla has done incredibly fearless (and 'balanced') reporting on corruption scandals and rights abuses in Chhattisgarh, often with little return and with great risk to his safety. He has been a guide for many national and international journalists and activists through the interiors of a region that has witnessed a media blackout for years.

MALINI SUBRAMANIAM is among the few journalists reporting from the Bastar area in the state of Chhattisgarh--the epicenter of the conflict between Maoist and security forces--until early 2016.

Subramaniam has reported on abuses by police and security forces, sexual violence against women, the jailing of minors, the shutdown of schools, extrajudicial killings, and threats against journalists in the region. She has been interrogated, surveilled, and harassed by police and members of a pro-police vigilante group in connection with her critical coverage of human rights abuses and politics. Police have attempted to malign her and label her as a Maoist agent.

In February 2016, a vigilante group began protesting outside Subramaniam's home, chanting, "Death to Malini Subramaniam." Men attempted to incite her neighbors to attack her home. In the middle of the night, unidentified attackers hurled stones at Subramaniam's home, where she lived with her daughter.

While police allowed Subramaniam to file a complaint they initially refused to file a First Information Report, a necessary step to set in motion a police investigation. Days later, police finally did register a First Information Report, but Subramaniam said that it was weak because it did not name any individual and because the charges related only to trespassing and damage to her property. Later that month, Subramaniam's domestic staff and landlord were detained by police for interrogation. Police allegedly pressured her landlord to serve the journalist an eviction notice.

Subramaniam decided to leave Bastar, realizing that the people around her could face repercussions in connection with her work. Since Subramaniam's departure, journalists, rights advocates, including lawyers defending imprisoned journalists, and a BBC correspondent on a reporting trip have also been forced to flee the Bastar region.

Subramaniam has been awarded the Freedom of Press Award for 2016 by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Her report Ground Report: The truth behind Chhattisgarh's recent Maoist surrenderswas nominated for the Asian Centre for Journalism Awards for Investigative Journalism, 2016. She is also one of the 14 recipients of People's Union for Civil Liberties, Chhattisgarh's "Fearless Reporting Award" for 2016

(from CPJ website).