Naxalites are rebel groups, which believe in the Maoist ideology. This ideology was started by Mao Tse-Tung. Its basic tenet involves the revolutionary struggle of a vast majority of people against the exploiting classes and their state structures. It was termed a People’s War. In India such Maoist rebels are known as Naxalites or Naxals, which owes its origin to Naxalbari, a village in West Bengal where the movement first originated in 1967.
What provoked the rise of Naxalites and Naxalism In India
These Naxalites, as we know them now, are the tribal of these lands. They traditionally controlled lands and did farming and led a life as they knew it. A simple peaceful life which they led was firstly disturbed by the British, Zamindars and the moneylenders, against whom they fought, were massacred but never conquered. Later, when independent India adopted its constitution in 1950, the biggest tragedy struck as the lands which these tribes traditionally owned was now a property of the state. These tribes lost their right to forest produce. Lands no more belonged to them. The way they lived their lives were all criminalized… All this in exchange for the right to vote!
Development and growth of Modern India needed dams, irrigation projects, mines to be built in these mineral rich pieces of land. On the name of providing the tribes the fruits of modern development, these people were disposed from their homelands. But, despite all these efforts, they have been left untouched by India’s development, ignored by the government and bypassed by the electoral process.
What belief Drives Naxalites ?
Ideologically, the Naxalites claim they are against India as she exists currently. They believe that Indians are still to acquire freedom from hunger and deprivation and that the rich classes, such as landlords, industrialists, traders, etc, who control the means of production. Their final aim is the overthrow of the present system, hence the targeting of politicians, police officers and men, forest contractors, etc.
To fulfill their objective, they got their inspiration from the doctrine of Mao Tse-Tung, and declared their readiness to adopt armed struggle to redistribute land to the landless. Even today grinding poverty and malnutrition in some of the Indian states are driving villagers to support the Naxalites and rebel groups seeking to overthrow the government.
The Naxalites say they are fighting oppression and exploitation to create a classless society. The criticism against the Naxalites is that despite their ideology, they have over the years become just another terrorist outfit, extorting money from middle-level landowners (since rich landowners invariably buy protection) and worse, even extorting and dominating the lives of the Adivasis and villagers whom they claim to represent in the name of providing justice.
Indian Terrorism: Naxalite Oppression to Obsession
The May 17, 2010 attack at Dantewada came as a surprise to me, as they targeted a bus transporting civilians as well. Now the oppressed one seemed like the blindly obsessed one! On one side, the Naxals claim to be fighting for the people but on the other, they are now resorting to ruthlessly claiming their lives, which is just opposite to their original ideology. Naxal justification to the civilian death was that they were targeting the SPO’s and they regret the death of civilians which was used by the SPO as a human shield.
Indian government has been resorting to the brutal use of force for controlling the situation. But, It is quite disheartening to see that Naxals rejected any kind of talk with the government after India’s home minister Mr. P. Chidambaram offered such an opportunity if the Naxalites could suspend violence even for 72 hours.
In Search for a solution
As I understand development, being a part of modern India, it is easy to say the Naxal affected areas are the only backward areas left in the country that couldn’t taste the fruit of India’s recent unprecedented growth. Opposite forces working in the same direction is just making things more difficult for everyone and the only two entities that stand to lose in this tussle is the nation and its people.
The only way the Naxalite problem can be resolved is by genuine negotiations and trying to provide answers to their age-old problems. Unfortunately, Democracy and communism being incompatible ideologies a consensus can’t be seen on the horizon. Neither would we want to lose democracy nor would the Naxals want to compromise on what they have fought so long for. Both seem correct at the same time both seem wrong as it is ultimately humans dying on both the sides. Can’t we both co-exist?
Rahul Bhatnagar, the author of this article, is currently pursuing his Masters in Management from Amity Business School
Important topic needs to be debated across …and here it is described in simple and effective language.
Nicely written Article.Covers all the important areas of the topic.
Let me start by saying that this was a great first attempt, Rahul. Maybe we can still bring the writer in you out of the closet!!!
The reason I liked the piece was because it made me think – is there really one right decision that will be good for everyone? I think all governments need to think of the much cliched “greater good” when they make life changing decisions. It isn’t about what ideology is better but about what works for most. There will always be people who will get the short end of the stick. Our government needs to remain aware of who these people are and exactly how they are affected, so that measures can be taken to minimize the negative impact.
Today, violence and exhibitionist killings seem to the order of the day. Does it really get these rebel groups what they want? Don’t these perpetrators of violence lose any last shred of sympathy that people might have had for them by targetting the innocent?
The unfortunate truth is that all reform movements start with brilliant ideas and goals of positive change for mankind but each generation somehow manages to dilute the original mission till all that we, as outsiders, see is a band of rogue elements who don’t value life, not even their own.
I seem to have rambled on endlessly. As I said, your piece made me think. Well done. I look forward to more from you in the near future. Just one suggestion though – I felt the writing style in this piece was a little stuccato – maybe the topic called for it. I would like to see writing that is more flow and rhythm – not flowery language and rhetoric – but just more personal emotions.
not surprising since red revolutions usually spilled blood.
Very nice post, Rahul. It is written in a very simple way and that makes it more interesting for people. Personally, I abhor any form of violence because I don’t think it brings any solutions. However, I understand the reasons why naxals do most of the things they do to draw the attention of the Indian Government.
During the era of Independence, this country had young, dynamic and strong individuals who stepped up to question and fight the system because education had equipped them with confidence and knowledge to a great extent. Some became social reformers who fought for the rights of underprivileged sections of the society such as the “lower caste” or “Dalits” and others fought for relevant issues boldly and emerged as political leaders.
Today, look at ourselves as a nation. The Indian upper class family has nothing to do with social reforms anymore. The Indian middle class family is happily cocooned in being safe and content from any kind of involvement in the nation’s issues and challenges ahead….going to the US for higher education or a job remains the biggest dream and continues to be the thing that inspires today’s young people. Somewhere along the way, India has just become a symbol and nothingmore. The real problems affecting India have not been addressed at all – security, access to water, education, electricity, good farming methods, safety of women, food and employment for all and so much more.
A huge part of India continues to live in villages where farmers and poor people are either committing suicides or crimes to meet bare necessities. They have very little access to basic resources. Their families are left to starve and they don’t even have access to hospitals or doctors and our society moves on without a care in the world. The saddest part is that political parties have understood this and have stopped caring too.
I am not speaking for the Naxals but I feel very strongly about people abusing their positions of power in this country, whether they are leaders, actors, cricketers, doctors, whatever. I am not related to Naxals in anyway but I think I understand where they are coming from because we, as a society, left them with no other alternatives to draw our attention to the things that really need to be changed. They are not terrorists and they need compassion before dialogue. That is my belief.
Good work Rahul, well written.
You have covered almost all the needed point to understand the Naxalism i.e. what is Naxalism, their origin, why they exist and how they work and what can be the possible solution to resolve it.
Accoring to me what you can add is, what government is actually doing?
Well, Government is training and preparing the para-military, intelligence and police forces for head-on collisions with the Naxalites, but there are little signs of deep success that can be celebrated. And for every success, there is a crushing defeat that follows almost immediately. Despite interesting and partially successful government interventions like the Salwa Judum, there are bigger threats that Naxalites keep posing.
Very good and informative article on the burning issue.
This article was really very informative and .It was great reading this article , good job done Rahul .
Good work Rahul. Keep me posted with your subsequent writeups.
great job man …. horizon is blurry right now but will not stay this way for too long…
great job !!!!
well written rahul n keep writng, it ws quiet informative………..
n i feel dats a real hot issue n needs attention of all…..n its just dat wn u dnt get d respect n authority to live ur lyf ur way…..a feeling of insecurity…..a sense of being marginalised n boycotted 4m d society…..make u go insane n dn u tend to act rationally nt known dt in the process u demean urself…….!!!
Heya … too good man …
from the begining to till date.. everything is in note .. but something is in mind.. i do not know whether right or wrong .. i would like to tell some thing on that points ..
Naxal movement started for the people but nowadays …. they are for the politicians …. they are sharing a major part of many states.. and with the consent of local politics …. some one might say that i am no one to blame politicians … but one very contrasting feature of naxal is .. it is flourished in only that state which are
1) rich in natural resources .. ex. bihar … and andhra …
2) where people are very active in politics but illiterate .. again… bihar as an example
3) where caste system or religion is on the top most on social straucture …. andhra and bengal and bihar … no exception
These all are engine for the politics and naxalism …..
hey sorry .. some misspelled .. i like to know ” your’ point of view …
Thanx everyone for reading and appreciating my work.
@shashank: What i personally believe is that its not all but some who is carrying the said ideology for their political desires. For most of the naxals, naxalism is just a decent means of employment. But there are people on the top who want s to rule by the means of naxalism. May be illiteracy actually inhibits them to think of a better means to rule.
good work rahul ,excellent written