Guns, Greed, and the Cost Paid by Common Indians

India today stands at a dangerous crossroads. On one side are forests, mountains, rivers, glaciers, and indigenous ways of life that sustained us for thousands of years. On the other side are guns, mining contracts, corporations, and so-called “development.” Caught in between are common people—tribals, farmers, soldiers, students—who suffer silently while powerful interests decide their future. Indians are killing Indians, and nature is being destroyed in the process.

The nation must ask: who benefits from this violence and destruction, and who pays the price?

Killing Our Own People on Our Own Land

Madvi Hidma and Sonam Wangchuk represent two very different paths taken by Indians who confronted injustice, yet together they expose one national failure.

India today is witnessing a tragic conflict where Indians are killing Indians on their own land—deep inside forests and villages. On one side are CRPF jawans and soldiers, mostly from poor rural families; on the other are young tribal men and women labelled Naxals or Maoists, also from poor and neglected backgrounds. Both carry guns, both bleed, and both die—while the real beneficiaries remain far away.

Madvi Hidma, born into a tribal family in Bastar, rose to become a powerful Maoist commander in regions where the state’s presence was felt more through guns than governance. To the state he was a terrorist; to some locals he symbolized resistance. His killing was projected as a victory, yet history shows that movements do not end with the death of leaders when root causes—poverty, displacement, land alienation, and injustice—remain unaddressed. Poor and tribal communities, lacking education, healthcare, jobs, and dignity, become vulnerable to ideologies that tell them their forests are being stolen and their lives ignored—sometimes exaggerated, sometimes painfully true.

Forests for these communities are not resources but life itself—food, culture, identity, and history—yet mining, dams, and industries arrive without consent, creating fear that Maoists exploit while violence ends up destroying the very forests they claim to protect. Behind this conflict lies an uncomfortable truth: jungles are rich in minerals, and when development appears as police camps instead of schools, mining trucks instead of hospitals, and displacement instead of dignity, people stop trusting the word “development.” At the same time, as highlighted by Vivek Agnihotri in Urban Naxals and Buddha in a Traffic Jam, ideological influence also flows through universities and urban spaces, where young minds are sometimes taught to hate institutions, glorify revolution, and reject democracy without bearing the cost of violence. The greatest hypocrisy is that while leaders, ideologues, politicians, and senior officials remain safe—often sending their children abroad—it is the common man’s child who dies, either as a jawan, a Naxal, or a villager caught in between.

Brothers are killing brothers in the name of ideology, power, and development, and the youth of India must wake up, reject blind nationalism, blind revolution, and blind ideology, and refuse to become tools in the hands of extremists, elites, politicians, or corporations that exploit land and lives for their own benefit.

The Shrinking Space for Peaceful Environmental Protection

Across India, citizens who speak for forests, rivers, mountains, and land are increasingly ignored, threatened, or criminalized. Peaceful protests are treated as obstacles to development. Environmental concerns are labelled anti-national or anti-growth. This shrinking democratic space creates frustration and fear—especially among youth who want change but see no safe path to achieve it.

“This conflict between development and environmental protection is no longer theoretical. It is happening right now, in real time, across the country. One of the clearest examples is the ongoing controversy around the Aravalli hills.”

The Aravalli Hills: A Living Example of Greed Over Nature

This conflict between development and environmental protection is not theoretical—it is happening right now. The Aravalli hills, one of the oldest mountain ranges on Earth, are being destroyed in the name of mining and industry. These hills protect North India from desertification, regulate climate, recharge groundwater, and support biodiversity. Yet rocks are being blasted daily, mountains are being flattened, and dust fills the air.

Mining operations pollute air, water, and soil. Groundwater levels fall. Villages face water scarcity. People suffer from respiratory diseases. Once mining ends, corporations leave—but common people are forced to live with the damage forever. Reducing the Aravallis to legal definitions and maps ignores the reality on the ground: nature cannot be cut into pieces without consequences.

Greedy Corporations and the Cost Paid by Ordinary People

Big corporations chase profit, not long-term survival. For them, forests are resources, mountains are obstacles, and rivers are tools. They blast rocks, cut trees, pollute water, and move on to the next project. When floods come, when droughts strike, when heatwaves intensify, they are nowhere to be found.

The common people suffer:

• Farmers lose water
• Villages face floods and landslides
• Children fall sick due to pollution

This is not development—it is slow violence against the poor.

Climate Warning: Glaciers, Floods, and a Future at Risk

The destruction of nature does not stay local. When forests disappear and mountains are destroyed, glaciers melt faster, rainfall patterns change, and floods become more deadly. What happened in Uttarakhand, Himachal, Ladakh, and other regions is a warning. Nature responds to greed with force.

• If glaciers melt, rivers flood.
• If rivers flood, people die.
• If ecosystems collapse, no army or corporation can save us.

This is a human-made natural disaster—created knowingly.

Kantara and India’s Forgotten Relationship with Nature

Films like Kantara touched people deeply because they reflect an ancient Indian truth: nature is sacred. For centuries, Indians worshipped forests, rivers, animals, and soil. We lived in mud houses, used natural utensils, and respected balance. Modern materials like plastic and excessive cement were introduced not because they were better for life, but because they were profitable.

Kantara reminds us that those who destroy nature for greed are never forgiven—not by god, and not by nature itself.

Why Are Talented People Like Sonam Wangchuk Being Silenced?

This is one of the most painful questions. Sonam Wangchuk represents the best of India:

• Scientific thinking
• Indigenous wisdom
• Environmental responsibility
• Peaceful activism
• Nation-building mindset

Instead of using minds like his to design sustainable development models for the entire country, we sideline them. Meanwhile, mining contracts are cleared faster than environmental studies.

When talented, honest voices are ignored or suppressed, frustration grows. And frustration, when left unanswered, often turns into anger.

This is how societies slide from dialogue to conflict.

What Choice Is Left for Common People?

If peaceful protest is punished and violence leads to death, people lose faith. This is dangerous for any democracy. The solution is not guns, and it is not greed. The solution lies in:

• Respecting nature
• Listening to local communities
• Supporting thinkers, not suppressing them
• Choosing sustainable development
  

Protect Nature, or Nature Will Judge Us

Madvi Hidma died with a gun.
Sonam Wangchuk struggles with a constitution.
Corporations count profits.
Common people count graves.

If we destroy nature, nature will destroy us. It is that simple.

To the youth of India:
Free your mind. Think independently. Reject violence and blind greed. Support the right path, the hard path, the peaceful path.

Because when nature collapses, everyone falls equally.

The Final Choice: From Colonization to Consciousness

This is not the duty of a few brave individuals—it is the birth duty of every human being. Do not fall into the illusion created by big corporations, social media, and the endless consumption of unnecessary things that keep us comfortable, distracted, and silent. Understand the truth. Choose purpose over comfort. We are not separate from nature; we are a part of it, and in destroying it, we destroy ourselves.

Once, the British looted India’s resources openly—its land, forests, wealth, and people. Today, global powers do the same in a different form, corrupting powerful corporations and politicians to loot natural resources, human labour, culture, and even our thinking. What is the difference, except the methods? In a meaningless world manufactured by greed, we must find meaning—know who you are, why you are here on Earth, and what you are meant to protect.

We have been given the greatest chance through our intellect and thinking brain, not to dominate, but to protect ourselves, other living beings, and Mother Nature. A few continue to destroy while many remain silent, but silence is also a choice. This is not people versus people; it is life versus blind greed. History and nature have shown, as reflected in Kantara, that when balance is broken, nature responds—not out of revenge, but out of truth. If this destruction continues, nature itself will deliver the final judgment, equal for all.

The choice is ours: remain lost in illusion, or rise with awareness—because when nature collapses, everyone falls equally.

Here’s what you can do:

Whenever something like this happens, write a postcard to your Chief Minister (CM) and the Prime Minister (PM) of our country.

Here’s the message for the Aravalli Range:

#NoMiningInAravalliRange
#DeclareAravalliRangeAsForest

You can also tweet using these hashtags.

Every small act matters. If each one of us speaks up, the government will have to act.
In a democracy, the real power lies with the people—let’s show that power and stop this from happening.