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Indian Democracy and its revolutionary Maoists: Part One

A peal of spring thunder has crashed over the land of India. This is how the July 5, 1967 editorial of

Communist Party of China (CPC) mouthpiece Peoples Dailyhad described the peasant upsurge in a tiny

Bengal village Naxalbari.Peoples Dailywas endorsing the incidence where share croppers and landless

laborers rose in revolt with land to the tiller slogan against the local landlords. The editorial also went on

to predict that a great storm of revolutionary armed struggle will eventually sweep across the length and

breadth of India. Named after its birthplace, the Naxalbari movement soon evolved into an armed uprising

in Bengal and spread like wildfire in several Indian states, including Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa,

Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala. The movement reached its peak between May 1969 and June

1971 after the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) was founded on April 22, 1969. But the stormy

days didnt last for long. From 1972, the movement started losing its impetus. Between 1973 and 1975, the

central and the state governments, both under the Congress Party rule, jointly crushed the movement by

ruthless army and police operations. Most of the prominent Naxal leaders were captured and jailed or dead

in police encounter including the principle ideologue Charu Majumdar, who had died in police custody in

July 1972. After the first non-Congress Janata government came to power in 1977, the jailed Naxalites were

released along with other political prisoners imprisoned under Indira Gandhis Emergency. By then, many

of them were deeply frustrated over the failure of their movement and turned impassive about active radical

politics. After 1977, the Naxalites were fragmented into numerous small groups under different leaders,

organizations and ideological positions and were conflicting with each other over ideological-tactical

debates with elements of personal egotism but could not generate any significant impact in the socio-

political milieu of India. Evading from direct political linkage, many of the former Naxals started putting up

non-governmental organizations to stay entrenched with social, economic, cultural, environmental, legal,

human rights and gender related issues. The present day Indian Maoists trace their lineage back to this

iconic ultra left-wing rebellion.

*****

The Naxalite movement inflamed again after the resurgence of two potent Naxalite groups in the 1980s. In

Andhra Pradesh, the pro-Charu MajumdarPeoples War Group(PWG) was set up in 1982 under the

leadership of Kondapally Seetaramaiah. The other group was the Kanai Chatterjee, Amulya Sen and

Chandrasekhar Das led anti-Charu MajumdarMaoist Communist Centre(MCC). After been restructured in

the mid-1980s, MCC had extended its considerable influence in parts of central Bihar. Confined within theirrespective territory, the PWG and MCC had dominated the insurgency scene for some time and were also

frequently engaged in violent fights against each other over territorial disputes resulting in the death of

hundreds of cadres and sympathizers of both sides. But by 1992, counter-insurgency operations by the

government in Andhra Pradesh have largely tamed the activities of the PWG. The outfit was banned and its

erosion continued when large numbers of PWG cadres were either arrested or has surrendered before the

security forces. In Bihar, violence related with caste prejudices and regular clashes with the upper castes

private armies like the Ranvir Sena started showing signs of desperation among the MCC cadres. These

alarming ground realities forced the two once-rival groups to come together on September 21, 2004 to form

the Communist Party of India (Maoist) to act as a consolidated political vanguard of the Indian

Proletariat. After great debate and controversy, the term Maoism was adopted upholding Mao Zedongs

thought as the third and higher stage in the qualitative development of Marxism. Following the unification,

the cadre strength and gun power of the alliance increased substantially and the group became the most

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considerable Naxalite formation in the country to secure its influence and control over a large geographical

spread the Red Corridor.

From Andhra Pradeshs Telangana region to the Tarai region of Nepal, the Red Corridor stretches about

92,000 sq. km linking parts of Karnataka, Tamilnadu and Maharashtra, the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh,

Western Orissa, Jharkhand, Central and North Bihar, the far-eastern region of Uttar Pradesh and the

Bihar-Jharkhand border areas of Bengal. This vast stretch covers concentrated tribal pockets and comprises

some of the poorest, underdeveloped and oppressed regions of the country. While the region is rich with

mineral resources like coal and iron ore deposits, natural gases and forests, the Indian state has badly failed

to deliver minimum social-economic amenities and to considerately attend the largely unseen suffering of

the local people, particularly the tribals. This is the key reason why the Maoist movement has fairly

succeeded to penetrate in this region. Displacement due to large scale projects, inability to avail the benefits

from natural resources, failure of law and order and regular exploitation by local landowners, traders, police

and corrupt government officials has added to set the ideal condition for the Maoists to exploit the people.

In remote and rural areas where socio-economic deprivation and exploitation are common, the Maoist

approach to address long existing grievances through the barrel of the gun deeply influences the people to

strike a sympathetic chord among them. It is therefore relatively easy to stir up the anger and resentment of

the underprivileged, particularly the women and youth to join the guerrilla army and fight the class

repression, class exploitation and class rule of the Indian State. In their own way, the Maoists have also

dealt with a core grievance of the rural poor their lack of land rights. By forcefully acquiring land from the

oppressive landlords at gunpoint and redistributing them to the landless peasants has significantly helped

the growth of their support base among the poor rural peasantry.

*****

After the massive counter-insurgency operations in Andhra Pradesh, the Maoists had suffered considerable

losses and have gradually shifted their focus to Dandakaranya (a 35,600 square miles spread over the states

of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, and Andhra Pradesh), Bihar and Jharkhand. However, in the

Bastar and Dantewada districts of Chhattisgarh, the Maoists were harshly confronted by a unique form of

resistance from the local tribals theSalwa Judum. Steered by Mahendra Karma, a local tribal leader

belonging to the Congress party, the movement came up in the year 2005 as a spontaneous reaction by the

tribals to defend themselves against the reign of terror unleashed by the Naxalites. (National Human

Rights Commissionreportto the Supreme Court of India) TheSalwa Judum recruited its members from

the villages, built-up local vigilante groups and was supported by the Chhattisgarh government as a counter

insurgency force. Its members, mostly tribal youths were recruited as Special Police Officers (SPOs) by the

Chhattisgarh state Police and trained in using arms.

The secretive and illegal activities of the Maoists have kept their political outlook and motives mostly

distant from the larger Indian population living outside their sphere of influence. Though there are

instances which illustrate that the Maoists are trying to spread their influence outside their customarystronghold, in reality, their influences are still concentrated in the poorest regions inhabited mostly by the

tribal population. For obvious reasons, the invisible Maoist leaders have kept their focus confined on the

relatively inaccessible rural belts. The reasons are not only tactical as stated in their party documents. It is

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also due to the fact that for conducting their acts of individual violence and terror these places are good as

safe shelters from the counter-insurgence forces. Except among the habitual woolgathering intellectuals, so

called human-right groups and sections of the middle-class student population in the cities, the Maoists

have minimal influence among the urban petty bourgeoisie and the industrial working class. After the

unceasing rise of Dalit politics and the ominous growth of Hindutva-communal forces, chances for the

Maoists to make a greater impact on the general course of Indian political sphere has become marginal and

the prospect of expanding into unexplored zones is steadily shrinking.

Killing a handful of class enemies, clashing with the mining and steel companies, attacking police posts

and jails, damaging vital infrastructures like roads, bridges, and railroads, blasting landmines to wipe out

the armed forces of the counter-revolutionary Indian state or establishing parallel governments

ofJanathana Sarkarin the liberated zones of remote tribal pockets to encircle citi es while being isolated

from the majority of the people are the fantastic Maoist tactics to establish the Peoples Democratic State. In

the extremely complicated composition of a multi-national, multi-religious, and caste-divided Indian

society, the Maoist proposition to shape the revolution by seizure of political power through protracted

Peoples War sounds thrilling and romantic but is far away from the prevailing reality of contemporary

India.

Misinterpreting Maos annihilation theory and embracing the peoples war theory of Lin Biao which the

Chinese Communist Party has discredited long ago, the Maoists turn into a real nuisance when they start

forcing their erroneous doctrinarism on the masses to bear the brunt of their revolutionary actions.

Democratic struggle and mass-political programs have no place in their credo. Instead, they are obsessed

with armed activities and military programs that include sabotage and annihilation of enemies through

individual assassination. Maoist leaders also have a typical tendency to justify their actions of individualterror by parroting quotations of Mao like Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun out of context.

Most of the victims of their so called revolutionary tactics of crushing the heart of the enemys state

machinery is always the poor and the ordinary. Their annihilation theory has also been extended toward

rival Naxalite groups and members or supporters of mainstream Left parties. To fund their revolutionary

operations, the Maoists extract levy from the landlords, the village rich and government contractors, get

involve in racketeering of forest resources, force farmers to cultivate poppy crops to harvest opium that

fetches lucrative price and also helps the class enemy bourgeois parties towin elections in exchange for a

substantial amount of money.

A classic example of this strange ultra-left adventurism is evident from the role they played in the so called

liberated zone of Nandigram. Here, the outfit took the initiative on behalf of the Trinamool Congress to

build-up an armed resistance against the conspiracies and treacherous policies of the Left Front

government of Bengal. As claimed by Koteswar Rao, CPI (Maoist) politburo member in charge of Bengal,

Jharkhand and Orissa, the Maoists were armed by the Trinamool to spearhead the movement. (Source)

According to the CPI (Maoist) General Secretary Ganapathy, Maoist cadres were in the forefront to lead

the movement in the correct direction and stall the alleged land grab of the state government which was

acting at the behest of the comprador Salim Group. Eleven months of their stupendous effort has

immensely helped the Trinamool Congress to seize political grip in the area. Soon after their victory in the

Panchayat polls, the Trinamool Congress has completely disregarded them and pushed them out from

Nandigram. Thereafter, no news of any Maoist activity has been reported from there. Since the revolution

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in Nandigram is over, the Maoists have thus shifted their focus on Lalgarh in West Midnapore leaving

behind Nandigram in the safe hands of Trinamool!

On November 2, 2008 a landmine was detonated on the convoy route of Chief Minister Buddhadev

Bhattacharjee and Union Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan who were returning from Salboni after the

foundation stone ceremony of Jindal steel plant. The landmine wire was found to be originating from

Lalgarh. As a result, the Police entered the adjacent villages and picked up some local tribals as suspects. A

protest movement sparked off in Lalgarh over allegations of police high handedness during the raids and

almost immediately, thePulishi Santrash Birodhi Janashadharaner Committee(Peoples Committee

against Police Atrocities) was floated. Led by a 45 year old local tribal leader Chhatradhar Mahato with

obvious Maoist links, Lalgarh is brewing for a remarkably similar Nandigram style movement. To recreate

another liberated zone, the local tribals are mobilized with arms; roads are dug and blocked at several

places by felled trees to resist the oppressive and autocratic state incursion. Maoist sympathizer

organizations like theAssociation for the Protection of Democratic Rights(APDR) andLalgarh Andolon

Sanhati Mancha(Solidarity Forum for Lalgarh Movement) are fueling this unique form of democratic

politics from their backyard at Kolkata. While media report (The Times of India, 22 April 2009) has

suggested that sophisticated and indigenous firearms have been sneaked inside Lalgarh, local tribals are

seen brandishing traditional weapons in front of television cameras to put up the impression of a genuine

tribal revolt.

Bengal is a difficult terrain for the Maoist to bloom. When the central and other state governments believe

that the Maoist problem is largely a law and order issue, the Left Front government has carefully

comprehended the socio-economic aspect of the problem and tried to tackle it through ideological and

political means. In other states, the Maoists have capitalized from the existing grievance among the ruralpoor concerning land rights. But in Bengal, land reform and redistribution has been a remarkable success.

This achievement has mostly isolated the Maoists from the larger section of the rural populace. In other

states where 4 per cent of families owned 60 per cent of lands, in Bengal 40 per cent of the families own 80

per cent of the land. Not been able to win over the people, the vengeful Maoists have thus targeted the CPI

(M) workers. The recent Maoist incursions are mostly visible in some regions of Purulia, Bankura and

Midnapore districts where lack of development remains to be a relevant aspect even after the successful

implementation of land reforms. Bengal still has poor, landless and marginalized people who exist without

any access to agriculture and depends on the forests for their livelihood. The Maoists are been able to

penetrate and influence this section through the gap created by inadequate development and lack of basicamenities.

(End of Part One)

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