Markam, a well-known forest rights and prisoners’ rights activist, was accused by the police and the NIA of involvement in Naxal activities and arrested on March 9, 2021. She was acquitted in four cases and granted bail in the last one.
When Process Is Punishment: Hidme Markam s Activism and the Sketchy Cases Against Her
Markam knew she would soon become a target â every tribal rights activist confronting state repression in Bastar faces a similar fate.
Hidme Markam amid heavy paramilitary deployment at a protest in Dantewada. Photo: Deependra Sori
Dantewada (Chhattisgarh): Hidme Markamâs arrest was inevitable.
Over the past decade, the 28-year-old Adivasi rights activist from Permapara in Burgum village of Dantewada district in southern Chhattisgarh had immersed herself in the peopleâs movement, fighting both the police and the Naxals in equal measure. There are hardly any villages in the conflict-torn Dantewada district that Markam hadnât reached â gathering evidence of both police and Naxal excesses, and strategising ways to fight a legal battle. As a pivotal part of the Jail Bandi Rihai Manch (Committee for the Release of Arrested Persons), Markam, along with other tribal rights acti