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Naxalite

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File:Naxal terrorists.jpg
Naxalites training with firearms for war
Map showing the districts where the Naxalite movement is active (2007)

Naxalite or Naxalvadi (meaning Terrorist in Hindi language) also calling themselves Maoists are a group of violent communists who have rejected parliamentary democracy and have vowed to rule the people by imposing dictatorship of their party.[1] Initially the movement had its centre in West Bengal. In recent years, they have spread into less developed areas of rural central and eastern India, such as Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh through the activities of underground groups like the Communist Party of India (Maoist).[2] They lead the Naxalite-Maoist insurgency. Naxals claim to hold sway in about 180 districts across ten states of India[3] accounting for about 40 percent of India's geographical area,[4] They are especially concentrated in an area known as the "Red corridor", where they control 92,000 square kilometers.[4] According to India's intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, 20,000 Naxalites were in April 2006 in operation,[5] and their growing influence prompted Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to declare them as the most serious threat to India's national security.[6]

The CPI (Maoist) and some other Naxal factions are terrorists in the eyes of people India but continue to enjoy some support from a section of the Indian intelligentsia using questionable means.[1] In February 2009, Central government announced its plans for simultaneous, co-ordinated counter-operations in all Left-wing extremism-hit states—Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal, to plug all possible escape routes of Naxalites.[7]

Recent Activity

History

The term Naxalites comes from Naxalbari, a small village in West Bengal, where a extremist section of Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) led by Charu Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal led a violent uprising in 1967, trying to develop a "revolutionary opposition" in opposition to the CPI(M) leadership. The insurrection started on May 25, 1967 in Naxalbari village when a farmer was attacked by local goons over a land dispute. Maoists in the guise of local farmers retaliated by attacking the local landlords and escalated the violence.[1] Majumdar greatly admired Mao Zedong of China and advocated that Indian peasants and lower classes must follow in his footsteps and overthrow the government and upper classes whom he held responsible for their plight. He engendered the Naxalite movement through his writings, the most famous being the 'Historic Eight Documents' which formed the basis of Naxalite ideology.[8] In 1967 'Naxalites' organized the All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries (AICCCR), and later broke away from CPI(M). Violent 'uprisings' were organized in several parts of the country. In 1969 AICCCR gave birth to Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist).

Practically all Naxalite groups trace their origin to the CPI(ML). A separate tendency from the beginning was the Maoist Communist Centre, which evolved out of the Dakshin Desh-group. MCC later fused with People's War Group to form Communist Party of India (Maoist). A third tendency is that of the Andhra revolutionary communists, which was mainly presented by UCCRI(ML), following the mass line legacy of T. Nagi Reddy. That tendency broke with AICCCR at an early stage.

During the 1970s the movement was fragmented into several disputing factions. By 1980 it was estimated that around 30 Naxalite groups were active, with a combined membership of 30 000.[9] A 2004 home ministry estimate puts numbers at that time as "9,300 hardcore underground cadre… [holding] around 6,500 regular weapons beside a large number of unlicensed country-made arms".[10] According to Judith Vidal-Hall (2006), "More recent figures put the strength of the movement at 15,000, and claim the guerrillas control an estimated one fifth of India's forests, as well as being active in 160 of the country's 604 administrative districts."[11] India's Research and Analysis Wing, believed in 2006 that 20,000 Naxals are currently involved in the growing insurgency[5]

Today some groups have become legal organisations participating in parliamentary elections, such as Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation. Others, such as Communist Party of India (Maoist) and Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Janashakti, are engaged in armed guerrilla struggles

Bengal insurgency

The Naxalites gained a strong presence amongst the radical sections of the students movement in Calcutta.[12] A few students left their education to join violent activities of the Naxalites. Taking note of this important development Majumdar adjusted the tactics of CPI(ML), and claimed that the revolutionary warfare was to take place not only in the rural areas but everywhere and spontaneously, to entice more students into his organisation. Thus Majumdar's 'annihilation line', a dictum that Naxalites should assassinate individual "class enemies" as a part of the insurrection was put into practice against landlords, innocent university teachers, police officers, politicians and other common people.

Throughout Calcutta, schools were shut down. Naxalites took over Jadavpur University and used the machine shop facilities to make pipe guns to attack the police. Their headquarters became Presidency College, Kolkata. The Naxalites soon found ardent supporters among some of the educated elite, and Delhi's prestigious St. Stephen's College, alma mater of many contemporary Indian leaders and thinkers, became a hotbed of Naxalite activities.

The strategy of individual terrorism soon proved counterproductive. Eventually, the Chief Minister, Siddhartha Shankar Ray, began to institute counter-measures against the Naxalites. The brave officers and constabulary of the West Bengal police fought back to stop the terror unleashed by the Naxalites. After suffering losses and facing humiliation on the public rejection of Majumdar's 'annihilation line' the Naxalite began a campaign of leveling baseless accusations of human rights violations on the West Bengal police.

In a matter of months, the Naxal violence was stopped by the exemplary work of the police. The view of the police, common people and the state was that the only language the Naxals understood was that of deadly force. They also argued that effectively the state was fighting a civil war with these communists and democratic pleasantries had no place in a war, especially when the opponent did not fight within the norms of democracy and civility. This violence permanently tarnished the image of the Maoists and their support dwindled.[1]

Moreover, the violent movement was torn about by internal disputes. Large sections began to question Majumdar's line of struggle. In 1971 CPI(ML) was split in two, as Satyanarayan Singh revolted against Majumdar's leadership. In 1972 Majumdar was arrested by the police and subsequently he died in Alipore Jail. After his death the fragmentation of this violent movement accelerated.

Lalgarh, West Bengal had emerged as a region close to coming completely under control of the Naxalites after the group threw out the local police and staged random attacks against ruling communist government in late May 2009. The region became increasingly under assault by Maoist guerrillas. The state government initiated a huge operation with central paramilitary forces and state armed police to retake Lalgarh in early June. Maoist leader Kishenji claimed in an interview that the mass Naxalite movement in Lalgarh in 2009 aimed at creating a 'liberated zone' against "oppression of the establishment Left and its police" has given them a major base in West Bengal for the first time since the Naxalite uprising was crushed in the mid-1970s and that "We will have an armed movement going in Calcutta by 2011". [13]

Naxal attacks in India: A bloody timeline

Following is the chronology of major Naxal attacks in the country in the last five years:

Oct 8, 2009 : Seventeen policemen killed in an ambush by Maoists at Laheri police station in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra.

Sep 30: Naxalites set ablaze Gram Panchayat offices at Korchi and Belgaon in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra.

Sep 26: Naxals kill BJP MP from Balaghat Baliram Kashyap's sons at Pairaguda village in Jagdalpur (Chhattisgarh).

Sep 4: Naxals kill four villagers in a forest in Aaded village in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district.

Jul 31: Two persons, including a special police officer (SPO), killed by Naxals in Bijapur district.

July 27: Six people killed when Naxals trigger a landmine blast at Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh.

July 23: A 40-year-old tribal killed by Naxalites at Ettapalli taluka in Gadchiroli district.

July 18: Naxalites kill a villager in Bastar and in a separate incident torch a vehicle engaged in road construction work in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh.

June 23, 2009: A group of motorcycle-borne armed Naxal rebels open fire on Lakhisarai district court premises in Bihar and free four of their comrades including the self-style Zonal Commander of Ranchi.

June 16, 2009: Maoists kill 11 police officers in a landmine attack followed by armed assault. In a separate attack, four policemen killed and two others seriously injured when Maoists ambush them at Beherakhand in Palamau district.

June 13: Naxals launch two landmine and bomb attacks in a small town close to Bokaro, killing 10 policemen and injuring several others.

June 10: Nine policemen including CRPF troops and officers ambushed by Maoists during a routine patrol in Saranda jungles in Jharkhand.

May 22: Maoists kill 16 policemen in the jungles of Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra.

April 22: Maoists hijack a train with at least 300 people on board in Jharkhand and force it to Latehar district before fleeing.

April 13: 10 paramilitary troops killed in eastern Orissa when Maoists attack a bauxite mine in Koraput district.

July 16, 2008: 21 policemen killed when a landmine blast hits a police van in Malkangiri district of Orissa.

June 29: Maoists attack a boat on the Balimela reservoir in Orissa carrying four anti-Naxalite police officials and 60 Greyhound commandos, killing 38 troops.

Feb 16, 2008 : A group of 50 rebels including women cadre raid a police training school, a police station and an armoury in Orissa killing 12 policemen and leaving four wounded.

Sept 7, 2007: Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Janardhan Reddy and his wife N Rajyalakshmi, escape unhurt while three Congress workers killed in a Maoist attack in Nellore district in Andhra Pradesh.

July 10: Naxalites attack a police team with light machine guns and mortar bombs in a dense forest area of Chhattisgarh, killing at least 24 security personnel.

July 1: Nine persons, including five policemen, killed and as many wounded as CPI-Maoist rebels carry out simultaneous attacks on a police station and an outpost in Sasaram in Bihar's Rohtas district and flee with arms and ammunition.

Apr 28: Five security personnel killed in a landmine blast triggered by Maoist rebels in Michgaon village of Kanker district, about 175 km south of Raipur in Chhattisgarh.

Mar 16: Maoists attack a police post in remote jungles of Rani Bodli in Chattisgarh with guns, hand grenades and gasoline bombs, killing at least 49 people.

March 5: Naxalites shot dead Jharkhand Mukti Morcha's Lok Sabha MP Sunil Kumar Mahato. Two of his bodyguards and a party colleague also killed in the attack when they were witnessing a football match at a village in Jamshedpur in Jharkhand.

July 17, 2007: At least 25 people killed and 80 injured, 32 of them seriously, while about 250 people went missing following an attack by some 800 armed Naxalites in Dantewada district of Chattisgarh.

Feb 9, 2006: Eight Central Industrial Security Force personnel killed and eight others injured when Naxalites raid a godown of the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) and take away explosives from a village near Bailadila in Jagdalpur in Chattisgarh.

November 13, 2005: Hundreds of activists of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) attack the police lines in south Bihar's Jehanabad district.

Mar 1: Naxalites kill eight villagers and blow up a forest rest house, injuring a CRPF constable in Andhra Pradesh.[14]

Cultural references

Template:Terrorist organisations active in India The British musical group Asian Dub Foundation have a song called Naxalite. This song was part of the soundtrack to the 1999 film Brokedown Palace. In 2005 a movie called Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi directed by Sudhir Mishra was released with the backdrop of Naxalite movement. In August 2008, Kabeer Kaushik's Chamku starring Bobby Deol and Priyanka Chopra explored the story of a boy who is brain-washed to take arms against the state.

There is a reference to a character, in the novel, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, joining with the Naxalites.

The 1998 film Haazar chaurasi ki Maa (based on the novel, "Hazar Churashir Maa" by Mahasweta Devi) (Mother of 1084-the number assigned to her son) starring Jaya Bachchan gives a very sympathetic portrayal of a Naxalbari militant killed by the state.The 2009 malayalam movie 'Thalappavu' portrays the story of Naxal Varghese, who was shot dead by the police during the 70s.

The Kannada movie Veerappa Nayaka directed by S.Narayan portrays Vishnuvardhan - a Gandhian with his son becoming a Naxalite. The 2007 Kannada movie Maathaad Maathaadu Mallige directed by Nagathihalli Chandrashekhar again portrays Vishnuvardhan as a Gandhian, confronting a Naxalite Sudeep showing that the ways adopted by Naxals will only lead to violence and will not achieve its objective.

Eka Nakshalwadya Cha Janma, (Marathi: The birth of a Naxal), a novel written by Vilas Balkrishna Manohar, a volunteer with the Lok Biradari Prakalp, is a fictional account of a Madia Gond Juru's unwilling journey of life his metamorphosis from an exploited nameless tribal to a Naxal.[15]

Violence has peaked in India from Maoist or Naxalite separatist violence being more dangerous to India's national security, as declared by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

From the Ministry of Home Affairs it has been stated that:

  • 1996: 156 deaths [16]
  • 1997: 428 deaths[16]
  • 1998: 270 deaths[16]
  • 1999: 363 deaths[16]
  • 2000: 50 deaths[16]
  • 2001: 100+ deaths[16]
  • 2002: 140 deaths[16]
  • 2003: 451 deaths[16]
  • 2004: 500+ deaths[16]
  • 2005: 892 deaths
  • 2006: 749 deaths
  • 2007: (as of September 30, 2007) 384 deaths[17]

(related to Naxalite insurgency)[18]

  • 2008: 938 casualties (including 38 Maoists).[19]

[20]

  • 2009: Naxalites separatists struck at the first phase of elections on 16 April, 2009 in Bihar, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand killing 18 civilians and security forces. Later, on 23 April, 2009, they also struck in the second phase of polling in Jamshedpur and surrounding areas in Jharkhand injuring several member of the polling party. May 2009: 16 police die in suspected Maoist attack [21]

The BBC maintains that upwards of 6,000 people have died in the Naxal uprising.[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Diwanji, A. K. (2003-10-02). "Primer: Who are the Naxalites?". Rediff.com. Retrieved 2007-03-15. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  2. ^ Ramakrishnan, Venkitesh (2005-09-21). "The Naxalite Challenge". Frontline Magazine (The Hindu). Retrieved 2007-03-15. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ Handoo, Ashook. "Naxal Problem needs a holistic approach". Press Information Bureau. Retrieved 2009-08-08.
  4. ^ a b "Rising Maoists Insurgency in India". Global Politician. 2007-01-15. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  5. ^ a b Philip Bowring Published: TUESDAY, APRIL 18, 2006 (2006-04-18). "Maoists who menace India". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved 2009-03-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ a b "South Asia | Senior Maoist 'arrested' in India". BBC News. 2007-12-19. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  7. ^ Co-ordinated operations to flush out Naxalites soon Economic Times, Feb 6, 2009.
  8. ^ Hindustan Times: History of Naxalism
  9. ^ Singh, Prakash. The Naxalite Movement in India. New Delhi: Rupa & Co., 1999. p. 101.
  10. ^ Quoted in Judith Vidal-Hall, "Naxalites", p. 73–75 in Index on Censorship, Volume 35, Number 4 (2006). Quoted on p. 74.
  11. ^ Judith Vidal-Hall, "Naxalites", p. 73–75 in Index on Censorship, Volume 35, Number 4 (2006). p. 74.
  12. ^ Judith Vidal-Hall, "Naxalites", p. 73–75 in Index on Censorship, Volume 35, Number 4 (2006). p. 73.
  13. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8127869.stm
  14. ^ "Naxal attacks in India: A bloody timeline". Zee News. 2009-10-08. Retrieved 2009-10-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ "Who's who of Indian Writers, 1999 By K. C. Dutt, Sahitya Akademi". Books.google.com. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  16. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Armed Conflicts Report - India-Andhra Pradesh". Ploughshares.ca. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  17. ^ "Asian Centre for Human Rights". Achrweb.org. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  18. ^ "Reuters AlertNet - Indian Maoist violence". Alertnet.org. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  19. ^ Govt. of India " the number of incidents of violence and police/civilian casualties were 1435 and 658 as compared to 1420 and 636 for the corresponding period of the year 2007"[1]
  20. ^ www.ipcs.org/pdf_file/issue/IB93-Kujur-Naxal.pdf
  21. ^ [2]

Further reading

  • Naxalite Politics in India, by J. C. Johari, Institute of Constitutional and Parliamentary Studies, New Delhi, . Published by Research Publications, 1972.
  • The Naxalite Movement, by Biplab Dasgupta. Published by , 1974.
  • The Naxalite Movement: A Maoist Experiment, by Sankar Ghosh. Published by Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay, 1975. ISBN 0883865688.
  • The Naxalite Movement in India: Origin and Failure of the Maoist Revolutionary Strategy in West Bengal, 1967-1971, by Sohail Jawaid. Published by Associated Pub. House, 1979.
  • In the Wake of Naxalbari: A History of the Naxalite Movement in India, by Sumanta Banerjee. Published by Subarnarekha, 1980.
  • India's Simmering Revolution: The Naxalite Uprising, by Sumanta Banerjee. Published by Zed Books, 1984. ISBN 0862320372.
  • Tribal Guerrillas: The Santals of West Bengal and the Naxalite Movement, by Edward Duyker. Published by Oxford University Press, 1987.
  • The Naxalite Movement in India, by Prakash Singh. Published by Rupa, 1995. ISBN 8171672949.
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