By Dr. Rajkumar Singh
Within months the Naxalbari uprising was crushed by the Indian police forcefully, it however expanded soon in other parts of the country with its ideology and methods. The writings of Charu Mazumdar – the most famous being the ‘Historic Eight Documents’ formed the basis of Naxalite ideology.
In the same year (1967) the Naxalites organised the All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries (AICCCR) followed by the birth of the most notable Naxalite organisation, the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist), in 1969, which defined the objective of the party as, ‘seizure of power through an agrarian revolution’. The strategy was the elimination of feudal order in the Indian countryside to free the poor from the clutches of the oppressive landlords and replace the world order with an alternative one that would implement land reforms.
Planning and expansion of base
The tactics to achieve it was through guerilla warfare by the peasants. Gradually, they would set up a “liberated zone” in different parts of the country that would eventually coalesce into a territorial unit under Naxalite hegemony. By the early 1970s, the Naxalite movement had spread from far-flung areas like Andhra Pradesh and Kerala in the south, to Bihar in the east, and Uttar Pradesh and Punjab in the north. But in Andhra Pradesh and in West Bengal, the Naxalites found their main support among the aboriginal tribal communities, who had been the most oppressed and marginalised in Indian society- the Girijans in Andhra Pradesh and the Santhals in West Bengal. Its continuity can be explained by the persistence and exacerbation of the basic causes that gave it birth – feudal exploitation and oppression over the rural poor.
The Maoists draw their sustenance from existing inequalities. Due to the existence of problems relating to land, in the absence of land reforms the small farmers, landless labourers and the tribals continue to suffer. The Naxalism, its ideology and means to achieve the object expanded rapidly in all parts of the country only because the fundamental factors behind the alienation persist: poverty, inequality, illiteracy, economic exploitation, uncertainty of the farm sector, unresolved issues of land relations and land acquisition, a large army of unorganised labour in the farm sector,’ exclusion and exploitation of Dalits and Adivasis, failure to rehabilitate those displayed by development and so on. Although the Naxal movement underwent much churning in the succeeding decades, organisationally and politically, yet the emphasis on agrarian revolution remained at the core.
All India organisations
In post – 1967 Naxalbari movement, the works and objectives of Naxalism were fulfilled by its two groups – the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI), originally formed in the early 1970s and CPI (ML) People’s War Group founded in 1980. Both groups are referred to as Naxalites, and prior to their consolidation in 2004 the MCCI ran a virtual parallel government in remote areas, where it collected a ‘tax’ from the villages and, in turn, provided infrastructure improvements such as building hospitals, schools, and irrigation projects. It ran a parallel court system wherein allegedly corrupt block development officials and landlords–frequent MCCI targets–had been punished by amputation and even death. While People’s War Group conducted a low–intensity insurgency that included attempted political assassination, theft of weapons from police stations, kidnapping police officers, assaulting civilians extorting money from construction firms, and vandalising the property of multinational corporations.
In addition, the newly formed Marxist group–The Communist Party of India (Maoist) is conducting people’s war’, a strategic line developed by Mao Zedong aims to establish a Compact Revolutionary Zone from which to advance the people’s ‘New Democracy Revolution’. Like the CPI (ML) People’s War, it rejected Parliamentary democracy and capturing political power through protracted armed struggle based on guerilla warfare. It believed to be enlarging the scope of its influence and operates in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and parts of West Bengal. It has also a presence in Bihar–Nepal border.
The Maoist outfit has also been making attempts to establish and expand its presence in several other states such as Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh. While the MCC’s areas of influence extend over Bihar and Jharkhand, with some sway in Uttar Pradesh, the PWG’s areas of dominance include Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Thus the various groups of Maoists, be they called Naxalite or People’s War Groups or otherwise adjective, all have declared very clearly that they have no faith in the constitution of India, in the multi–party democracy and elections.
Status in globalisation
For the expansion of the supporter base of Naxalism and other forms of Maoists the process of globalisation is heavily responsible as it has polarised the world today than even before. Following the adoption of globalisation the society, at large, stood divided in two classes or categories–a small section that has enjoyed the benefits of globalisation and the second – a major category that is poor and devoid of facilities.
For instance, between 1970 and 2000 the level of poverty rose from 20 per cent to 70-85 per cent. Six out of eight children died before their first birthday, while eight die before 8th birthday. In year 2000, 2.8 billion people all over the world over, earned less than 2 $ per day while 1-2 billion earned less than 1 $. It appeared that globalisation does not about human development, which is restricted to small elite only.
This inequality, not only creates disintegration, but also causes the emergence of social and national divisive forces. Globalisation also goes against the process of nation–building so far as the case of developing country, like India, is concerned and the concept itself has become irrelevant. Violence, intoxication, terrorism, civil war, ecological degradation, economic disparity and terrorism have been globalised.
Neither democracy nor civil society is meaningful for globalisation. Peasants, instead of producers are being turned into consumers. This kind of development is creating the feeling of loneliness in which the individual is getting cut off from his society and non material sources of his life. It has paved the way for the rise of cultural colonisation. Drug, violence, sex and artists of Rock–enroll have become the ideals of youths and there is no left for traditional, social and ethical values.
Author: Dr. Rajkumar Singh, Professor and Head, University Department of Political Science, B.N.Mandal University, Madhepura, Madhepura-852113, Bihar, India.
(The views expressed in this article belong only to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy or views of World Geostrategic Insights).