The music of the Adivasi communities of Chhattisgarh is a music of resilience – of people caught in decades of violent conflict, whose songs, often accompanied by drums, speak about the beauty of their land, their forests, their daily lives and a reverence of nature. Children too are taught these songs in their families at a young age.
We visited Farsegarh village in Bhairamgarh tehsil of Bijapur district in southernmost Chhattisgarh in August 2016. Of Bijapur’s population of around 255,000 (Census 2011), 80 per cent belong to the Scheduled Tribes. Farsegarh’s 1,400 residents, as well as those of neighbouring villages, are mostly Muria Gond. The village is among the many impacted by the conflict that involves Naxalite militants, the state, and the state-supported Salwa Judum. The people in the village say they are constantly caught in a cycle of violence.
A woman in Farsegarh, who lost her husband in the conflict, asks, “What else will happen when one son is a Naxal and the other is made a police supporter? What will a family do when they are out to kill each other? That’s the reality that we live in.” She is a farmer in her 50s who did not want to be named. “We don’t earn too much. We don’t even know if we will be alive tomorrow. We are alive today and that’s all we think about.”
Not many government schemes reach Farsegarh – the only state presence seems to be a residential school, the police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camps.
