Tuesday, May 28, 2013

The Naxalite Insurrection

Take a map of India which shows its mineral resources – iron, bauxite, coal. Take another map which shows regions affected by extreme poverty. Take yet another map which shows areas where Naxalite guerrillas hold sway. Now compare these three, and you’ll realise they are the same. Corrupted politicians who are hand in glove with business and corporates, who exploit poor, who amassed huge land and other natural resources, hail from these regions.

In more than 60 years since its independence, this natural wealth has fuelled India’s growing GDP. But for the people in the areas that provide it, little has changed. In the absence of help from the state, people died of hunger and disease. There has been rampant exploitation by businessmen from cities.

Radicals inspired by failed peasant uprisings of the 1960s in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. believe in Maoist-type ideology and want to create guerrilla zones that would lead them to overthrow the “imperialistic” Indian state. The Naxalite movement began in 1967 as a network of left-wing ideologues and young recruits in the village of Naxalbari outside Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal state. Two of the main factions merged in 2004 to form the Communist Party of India (Maoist). They speak of uplifting the poor. The rebellion has grown so big that 11 of India’s 28 states are affected, five suffering near-civil war. As the security forces combat the rebels innocent people will become the collateral damage.
In the central state of Chhattisgarh up to 200 guerrillas fought a 2 hour battle that left leading Congress Party politicians dead, wounded or kidnapped. Human rights campaigners, while denouncing their attacks, have argued that exploitation by corporations and grinding poverty create conditions which allow the Maoists to recruit from tribal communities. The pro-government militias, called the Salwa Judum, created to fight the Naxalite insurgents are repeatedly accused of human rights abuses. They have been termed as illegal and directed to be disbanded by Supreme Court, but State government responded by making them part of the regular police. Salwa Judum burnt houses, raped women, maimed and killed adivasis.

Much less publicity has been given to the case of the brutal killing of 8 Adivasis by the security forces in an alleged encounter took at Aarespeta village of Bijapur district in Chhatisgarh. As the villagers were celebrating seed festival all of sudden without any signal, the security forces fired on them. Consequently, 8 Adivasis/Tribals including three children got killed in the massacre as a result of the cross firing among the Security forces. Nor was the world’s press interested on 28 June, 2012, when in a similar incident 17 Adivasis/Tribals of Kottaguda, Sarkeguda and Rajpenta village of Bijapur district had been killed by the Security Forces.

If hundreds of districts of India are under Naxalite influence then who stops them from contesting elections. If they think they have the people’s support without the need of a AK 47 then why not engage in the political process. Those who pick up the gun can only expect the state to respond in kind. The Maoist violence can only strengthen the military minds in the government and make it more difficult for all those whose rights are violated particularly on the most marginalized sections of society. The latest Maoist action will only invite even more state repression in the area. The CPI(Maoist) leadership seem to have cynically calculated that such increased repression will swell their numbers and help their movement grow.

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