Excerpts from an interview with Himanshu Kumar- "In 1988, Gandhian activist and former MP, the late Nirmala Deshpande, my father, and I visited Dantewada, and toured the villages there for 15 days. We found this area to be one of the most neglected in the country, and I felt this is where our work is most required. Also, since a violent movement was taking root here, we thought, why not work here and really test the strength of nonviolence. So we decided to live with the people in the villages, as Gandhi had said, and help address the people’s issues by nonviolent means. "
"Atrocities by the forest department and the police, cheating and extortion by the revenue officials. The government does not have a single welfare scheme there till date, and the police are the only face of Indian democracy that these people have seen." "As a follower of Gandhi, truth and nonviolence form the foundation of my value system. With regard to what is happening in Dantewada today, my approach would be to understand it and get to know the truth about why this violence is taking place." "The state has managed to ensure that the cases never come up for hearing. They keep on taking adjournment after adjournment. That’s my question: why should the state fear the truth?" * *"Not one. Till date, I have not been able to get justice from our system for even a single adivasi. I have spent all these years, telling the adivasis, come, come to us, we will get you justice through democratic means, but I am not able to get them justice. And when the adivasis, with the help of the Maoists, manage to avenge the deaths of their kith and kin, they feel that Maoists have got them justice rather efficiently, while these so-called Gandhians and believers in democracy have not been able to give them anything from the system." * *"Gandhi believed in two basic principles: one, nobody should endure injustice. Two, we should not remain silent when we see injustice being done to others. So Gandhi would definitely have spoken out. The British at least tolerated Gandhi. But today’s regime, which does not tolerate dissent at all — I was hounded out of Chhattisgarh for speaking out — would have sent him to jail. If Gandhi was alive today, he’d be in a jail in Dantewada, he’d be with the adivasis." http://www.dnaindia.com/india/interview_if-gandhi-were-alive-today-he-d-be-in-a-jail-in-dantewada-himanshu-kumar_1386497