Since June 2005, Dantewada district (formerly part of Bastar district), Chhattisgarh, has been in the news for an alleged uprising of adivasis against Naxalites. At that time media and government reports described this movement, known as Salwa Judum, as a spontaneous and self-initiated reaction to Naxalist oppression, and hailed it as a turning point in the fight against insurgency.

Civil society and human rights groups, however, alleged that people in Dantewada were armed and then made