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Debating the Maoist challenge: Part One

In the public domain, a frequent argument is taking place to find out whether the extremism of Indian

Maoists is an act of terrorism or not. In fact, there is a very thin line which divides the Maoists extremism

from other typical forms of terrorism. Mindless mass killing, brutal extermination of detractors and critics,

destruction of state property are among the many common features of the terrorist doctrine that fits well

with the Maoists revolutionary strategy. Maoists, like the terrorist groups cling to a fanatic socio-political

and cultural belief, prefer supreme loyalty from their cadres and favor absolute totalitarianism. Both have

trained themselves to use sophisticated weaponry and have grown more adapted these days to pathological

killing. Both believe in oppositional terror and try to achieve it by intense violence. Where religious

terrorism is inspired by religious dogma, Maoist political terror is inspired by a rigid form of political

dogma. Both have practiced mastery to cunningly utilize rival mainstream political groups against one

another to pursue their goal while the mainstream political groups stupidly think the reverse. Both have

grown to be a lucrative media catch and perfected the art to make use of the extreme double standards of

the fourth estate. Reluctant to renounce violence from a deliberate choice of applying terror tactics to force

political concessions, Maoism in India is incessantly getting synonymous with terrorism.

The gun-cult

To neutralize the strengths of conventional law enforcement forces and capture areas from political parties

who have the potential to raise an unyielding challenge to them, Maoists are frequently applying tested

terrorist methods of macabre violence. The Maoist guerrilla squads perpetrate ambushes on security force

convoys, kidnap and gruesomely assassinate individuals from poorly protected police stations in remote

regions, plant booby traps of homemade improvised explosive devices or chic landmines, carry out a

programme of individual annihilation of grass-root workers, supporters and sympathizers of rival politicalparties after terming them class enemies or renegades. Most of their victims, notably, belong to the poor

section of the society.

Their petty-bourgeois cheer-leaders and intellectual sympathizers believe that there is nothing wrong in this

gun-cult as it is only a consequence of mass anger and so cannot be labeled as premeditated terroristic

attack. They consider this politics of terror as a socio-economic phenomenon, created impulsively as a

response to a particular social and economic situation. To them, this risky belief seems to be convenient at

the moment. However as Bob Dylan has once said People seldom do what they believe in. They do what is

convenient, then repent.

Democracy at Gun point

A lot has been said about the admirable development works that the Maoists have put up in the forests of

south Bastar's Dantewada in Chhattisgarh where they are running a parallel government theJanathana

Sarkar(Peoples Democratic State). Here, the Maoists have gone all out with their experiment to build a

model classless society. TheJanathana Sarkaris an elected body but Landlords, anti people hierarchs,

stooges of exploiting government and anti revolutionary forces are disqualified to participate in elections.

As we learn from the lofty Maoist document Policy programe of Janathana Sarkar (Source)the PeoplesDemocratic governments have deployed a robust revenue collection system to run their expenses,

distributed lands confiscated from landlords to poor and landless peasants. It has formed a forest

protection committee to protect the natural livelihood of the tribals, running schools to raise political

http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/maoist/documents/papers/JANATHANA%20SARKARS.htmhttp://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/maoist/documents/papers/JANATHANA%20SARKARS.htmhttp://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/maoist/documents/papers/JANATHANA%20SARKARS.htmhttp://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/maoist/documents/papers/JANATHANA%20SARKARS.htm

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consciousness and scientific knowledge among the masses. To deliver summary justice to the oppressed

masses, peoples courts reinforced with new principles of justice, class line and mass line often tries and

punishes landlords, hierarchs, heads of the ruling class parties, exploiting government officers, police,

paramilitary, military forces, goondas, anarchists, thieves, deceivers, conspirators, police agents. To

successfully control every aspect of the lives and livelihood of the tribal inhabitants and to maintain its

absolute authority, theJanathana Sarkarshas built up a considerable guerrilla base equipped with

sophisticated arms and ammunition.

Elite bleeding-heart Maoist sympathizers have been provided enough space in the liberal bourgeois media

to continuously drum on their admiration and paint a romantic picture of the constructive programmes of

this illegal Maoist governments which is run by the principles of democracy where individuals shall be

committed to the government, minority to the majority. They are ecstatic about how the Maoist governance

has made the oppressed tribals feel proud of their identity and has brought back their self-respect. How the

Maoist gunmen have protected them from the exploitation and harassment by local feudal lords, village

chiefs, forest and police personnel, businessman and contractors. How the Maoists have empowered the

marginal tribal farmers by teaching them agricultural skill, affiliated tribal families into cooperative

farming, organized them to volunteer for digging tanks for irrigating land and breeding fish and has

provided primary education and health care facilities to fight illiteracy and endemic diseases like malaria

and diarrheoa. Above all, the sympathizers are delighted to describe how the Maoists have reignited the

tribals against state sponsored atrocities and endowed them with guns the ultimate symbol of power. The

tribal voice under theJanathana Sarkars, they exclaim, is the real voice of peoples power. Here the voice

grows out, literally, from the barrel of gun.

Are the Maoists really interested about the genuine problems of the tribal inhabitants of these regions orthey are using the tribals as a pawn in their game? Do the Maoists represent the entire tribal population of

these regions? These remain pungent questions which does not have an easy answer. The tribal heartland of

India was not really selected by the Maoists because they had any special affection and empathy for the

underprivileged tribals. It was a strategic choice for its geographical advantages. To build up a safe base and

getting prepared for their so called revolutionary war, the Maoists required a secured hideout for

themselves which will be inaccessible to the state security forces. There could be no argument at all that the

tribals have remained the most neglected people in India and has encountered endless state apathy during

both pre-independence and post-independence time. The tribal regions are among some of the most

backward regions of the country. The Maoists have simply exploited the situation by seducing a majorsection of the inhabitants to achieve their own gory interests. Improvement of tribal life has little

significance in the broader context of the Maoist strategy. The secluded tribal lands are important for them

as self-sufficient base areas, for consolidating their strength to later expand and unleash protracted

Peoples War against the Indian state and subsequently overthrow it.

What is actually going on inside these jungles? How do we, who live outside the liberated zones, learn

about the effectiveness of these classless Maoist governance when much of their functioning inside the

jungle hideouts is invisible? Fortunately, we have two important sources of information.

The stinking dissenters

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The Central task of the Indian revolution is the seizure of political power. To accomplish this Central task, the

Indian people will have to be organized in the peoples army and will have to wipe out the armed forces of the

counterrevolutionary Indian state through war and will have to establish, in its place, their own state - the

Peoples Democratic State from the CPI (Maoist) document:Strategy & Tactics of the Indian Revolution.

The first unambiguous source of information is the several fact-finding reports by civil liberties groups and

accounts of social activists and NGO organizations mostly comprising the liberal and radical left. This is a

special mix of aware and awake people who essentially believes that people have a right to defend

themselves against state violence and certifies Maoist violence as the very last option of a desperate people

pushed to the very brink of existence. These are the people who validate the killing spree of Maoists by

citing that Hindu mobs led by the Bajrang Dal and the VHP had killed more people than the Maoists and

unquestionably believes that the Maoists dont kill without a good reason. They feel that the Maoists

cannot lay down arms as it will only allow the State to crush them. These are the people who believe that the

people's courts of the Maoists only existed because India's courts are out of the reach of ordinary people

and love to talk persistently about police repression, the arrests, the torture, the killing, the corruption.

These are the people who inform us about how state governments, from an absolute paranoia of the Maoist

specter, are branding every dissenter as Maoists and thus pushing activists as well as ordinary people to

take up arms and join the Maoists. These are the aware people who knows about the dangers of trying to

extract a simple morality out of individual incidents of heinous violence. These are the sensitive and

concerned citizens of India who turn blind when the Maoists carry out cold blooded murder of CPI(M)

activists in Bengal or behead police inspector Francis Induwar in Jharkhand. These are the people who get

extremely angry when the Vanvasi Chetana Ashram in Dantewada was demolished by the state forces

because this neutral outpost had virtually became the base camp of city-bred outsiders to exchange useful

information and support with the Maoists but do not get angry at all when the Maoists blow up schools.

These are the same group of people who talks about human rights violation during every action of state

security forces but maintain absolute silence when the Maoist and their frontal organizations unleash

mindless violence on common people.

These Indian dissenters are the champions of the oppressed, who couldn't help looking (and smelling)

cheap! These are the people among whom Arundhati Roy has found that a humane heart still beats.

(Source)

(End of Part One)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/30/mining-india-maoists-green-hunthttp://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/30/mining-india-maoists-green-hunthttp://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/30/mining-india-maoists-green-hunthttp://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/30/mining-india-maoists-green-hunt