Naxalites: Oppressor or suppressed?
Fatima Syed
Maoists detained the New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express near
Jhargram in West Bengal’s Paschim Medinipur district on Tuesday for five
hours. Commenting on the incident Maoist Polit Bureau member Koteswar
Rao alias Kishanji said, “We want to teach the upper classes a lesson
and change their narrow class outlook through this incident”. The
incident came on the first day of a bandh (Strike) called by the Maoists
in protest against atrocities by security forces on villagers. On Monday
Security force personnel ransacked several homes and even molested women
in various villages of West Bengal. This is not the first incident of
this kind; Maoist rebels regularly attack goods trains and have in the
past even hijacked a few local passenger trains in remote districts of
India before fleeing.
The Maoist rebellion began four decades ago championing the cause of
poor peasants in the east, but has now spread to about 20 of India’s 29
states, with the rebels targeting police and government property in
hit-and-run attacks. Even the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
admitted that Naxalite activities are the single largest threat to
India’s security. Naxalites in India have repeatedly resorted to
violence, and their armed campaigns have resulted in loss of life and
property. Ever since 2005, India has been witness to an average of 1,500
incidents of Naxal violence, resulting in the death of over 750 people
i.e. five incidents of Naxal violence every day and sixty killings every
month. Naxal movement is gaining momentum with the passing time. It has
spread to both urban and rural areas, ranging 160 districts of India,
particularly affecting the entire eastern corridor; the states of Bihar,
West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and parts of Orissa,
Kerala and Madhya Pradesh.
All this raises the suspicions that whether Naxalites are irrational
people causing so much damage to life and property without any reason.
In reality, Naxalites are really working for the poor people and are
active in the areas where the poorest of the poor live. Primary
government facilities like schools and health care centers are
practically absent in the Naxal infested areas. Infant mortality rates
are among the highest in the world in the region, owing to malnutrition
and hunger. Estimates suggest the infant mortality rate to be at 47
percent in the Naxalite affected regions of the country, a condition
worse than Sub-Saharan Africa. According to ShankkerAiyar, “Each of the
80 worst Naxal affected districts have no schools, poor heath care,
exploitative feudalism, no employment opportunities, pathetic social
infrastructure”. Over three lakh villages have no road connectivity. For
example Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh is on the list of 100 worst
districts list for the past two decades. So despite well aware of the
reasons that are behind the rise of Naxalism Indian government is only
depending upon force to end that problem. It is paying no heed to the
problems that gave rise to Naxalism. In fact in the mind of Indian
administration Naxalism is a war that has to be tackled through force.
It most of the time forgot that Naxals are alienated Indian citizens and
once their grievances will overcome Naxal movement will come to an end.
India’s Naxal problem is complex and tends to find its justification in
the deep-rooted and centuries-old exploitation of the poor, particularly
the tribal community, by local landlords and corrupt politicians. There
is a high incidence of crimes committed against the tribal community.
These include bonded labour, rape of women and girls, and silencing any
opposition or dissent by murder and other violence. The landlords who
commit these evils escape prosecution and punishment due to the support
of corrupt and failing state agencies like the police. The Indian
government has made no attempt to reach out to these citizens and
address their problems, or to prosecute those who have committed crimes.
The poor are systematically denied official assistance to address issues
including food security, unemployment and the depletion of natural
resources. Neither the state nor the central government has attempted to
identify whether official schemes such as public food distribution shops
or government health services are available to people in the region.
In addition to the failure of public welfare schemes, the government is
also responsible for sponsoring indiscriminate mining and the
destruction of natural resources in the region all in the name of
development. In Chhattisgarh for instance, several large-scale mining
operations have been commissioned in the past six years with complete
disregard to the life and security of community members living there. A
government website highlights the state’s ‘red-carpet’ policy to private
entities extracting mineral resources, but makes no mention of policies
regarding people’s loss of livelihoods and displacement, or the
operations’ environmental impact. It is thus clear that state
governments in Naxalite affected regions have failed to address
deep-rooted issues plaguing the population living below the poverty
line. Haplessly, it is this deprived and oppressed population that falls
prey to the Naxalite ideology.
Naxal problem is a result of ignoring ‘basic realities’ such as
underdevelopment of their areas and their severe deprivation and
backwardness. The Naxal movement gets sustenance because the government
does not treat it as a politico-ideological and socio-economic problem
and that the movement is symptomatic of a society which is anxious to
usher in social change. Basically, it is the failure of the State
machinery and the bankruptcy of official policy which explains the
growing clout of the Naxalites. It is the rising consciousness of the
deprived sections of society, who are today more determined than ever
before to struggle for land, forest resources, minimum wages, social
dignity and self-governance. But Indian administration always handles
the issue through force by claiming that Naxals are involved in aimless
violence.
Repression and violence against a population forms fertile ground for
rebellious ideologies. The Naxalite movement is thus made up of
individuals who believe in and justify defensive violence. It is
unfortunate that the response by the Indian government has also been the
use of force, often brutal. However it is an established rule that
violence can neither resolve problems nor be a mode of communication.
Any call for violence negates the premise of rule of law.
Violence presupposes guilt and perpetuates disagreement. Moreover, it
affects and diminishes the space for dialogue, an essential component in
any democracy. The only way the Naxalite problem can be resolved is by
genuine negotiations and trying to provide answers to their age-old
problems.
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