Most often we tend to get confused between the terms Naxalism, Terrorism, Extremism, Militancy. Militancy is an umbrella term, all of the above is a type of some kind of militancy. Naxalites on the other hand are the people who have been exploited by aristocrats and bureaucrats later they took up arms against them. To understand Naxalism you first need to be familiar with few terms:
- Communism: “Communism is a theory or system of social organization in which all property is owned by the community and each person contributes and receives according to their ability and needs”.
- Maoism: “Maoism is a doctrine that teaches to capture State power through a combination of an armed insurgency, mass mobilization, and strategic alliances. Mao phrased this as ‘Protracted Peoples War’. He further added Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”
Naxalites follow the Ideology of Maoism that’s why they are also known as Maoist or Left-Wing Extremists. The term Naxal has its genesis in the village of Naxalbari of district Darjeeling in West Bengal. In 1967 Charu Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal started this movement. Their plan was to destabilize the state through various communist guerrilla groups. From time to time various parts of the country have been affected by various Naxal Groups. What separates Maoists from Insurgents is that, unlike Insurgents, Maoists do not believe in power-sharing formula and wanted to establish people’s government through armed struggle.
Some of the experts believed that Naxalism has evolved in India through 3 phases. The first phase started in 1967-68 when peasants and tribals were exploited by bureaucrats and politicians. This first phase was curtailed by the end of 1975 when National Emergency was proclaimed. The second phase started after an emergency during 1980 and was more violent than the first one. In 1980 CPI (Marxist-Leninist) was converted into People’s War Group (PWG) was involved in many incidents in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. The final and third phase started in 2004 and is still in progress. In 2004 People’s War Group (PWG), and the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI) merged to form the CPI (Maoist). CPI (Maoist) is the largest left-wing extremist outfit responsible for most incidents of violence and killing of civilians and security forces.
The influence of Maoists has become so significant that PM Manmohan Singh in 2006 had to declare Naxalism the single biggest internal security challenge being faced by India. Up until now, the Red Corridor comprised of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and some parts of Andhra Pradesh has been the most affected by Left-Wing extremism. The ultimate aim of Maoists is to create ‘The India People’s Democratic Federal Republic’ an egalitarian state in which means of production will be governed by the State through peasants and workers. This is against the spirit of Democracy and threatens an open market economy.
With time government has realized that LWE is a result of poor governance, lack of development in the tribal belt. The government has realized that these Maoist groups recruit poor youth and brainwash them. It is the need of an hour to start the development of Naxal-affected areas, we need to make them realize that they are part of the nation and they have the same responsibility when it comes to national security. The government has started taking reforms, in 2017 it had launched the SAMADHAN doctrine.
S- Smart Leadership,
A- Aggressive Strategy,
M- Motivation and Training,
A- Actionable Intelligence,
D- Dashboard Based KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and KRAs (Key Result Areas),
H- Harnessing Technology,
A- Action plan for each Theatre,
N- No access to Financing
If implemented properly SAMADHAN can solve this problem to some extent.
Now let’s see on a strategic level how the government is figting LWE. There are Special Forces that have been created by the Center as well as some states to find Naxalism.
- Greyhounds by Andhra Pradesh in 1989
- C-60 commando unit of Maharastra Police in 1991
- Jharkhand jaguars by Jharkhand in 2000
- Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (COBRA) by CRPF in 2008
- District Reserve Guard or DRG by Chhattisgarh.
The famous Salwa Judum case is related to the DRGs of Chhattisgarh. For a moment let’s talk about Salwa Judum.
Salwa Judum Movement:
Chhattisgarh government during 2005-06 deployed a force name Salwa Judum or Koya Commandos as part of anti-insurgency operations in Chhattisgarh to counter Naxalite violence in the region. The force, consisting of local tribal youth, received support and training from the Chhattisgarh state government. In 2011 Supreme Court has declared as illegal and unconstitutional the deployment of tribal youths as Special Police Officers. The state government renamed the SPOs they are now known as DRGs or District Reserve Guards. There has been an allegation that most of the recruits of DRG are Maoists who surrendered earlier and gone through rehabilitation. Nandini Sundar one of the petitioners from the Salwa Judum case had filed contempt petition in the court and the matter is still in the court.
Current State of LWE in India
In the end, I would like to conclude that Naxalism started as a movement to achieve equality later has been politicalized and soon it became one of the biggest threats to National Security. State Governments and Center are working with synergy in this matter and trying to find a cordial solution to this problem.
References:
- Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA)
- Observer Research Foundation (ORF)
- Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)
- The Hindu
- Indian Express