Origin and History of Naxalism in India
A Naxal or Naxalite is a member of any political organization that claims the legacy of the communist party of India (Marxist-Leninist), founded in Calcutta in 1969. Communist party of India (Maoist) is the largest existing political groups that lineage today in India.
Some Naxalite groups become legal organizations participating in parliamentary elections, such as the CPI (ML) Liberation, Communist party of India(Marxist-Leninist) liberation, Communist party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Janashakti.
Tribal schools are a need of the hour
As of April 2018, areas where the Naxalits are most visible are:
Naxalbari, a small village in West Bengal, where a section of Communist party of India (Marxist), led by Charu Majumdar, Kanu sanyal and Jangal santhal initiated an uprising in 1967. On 8 May 1967, the siliguri Kisan Sabha, of which Jangal was the President, declared their support for the movement initiated by Kanu sanyal, and their readiness to adopt armed struggle to redistribute land to the landless and given slogan “Land to the tillers”.
The following week, a sharecropper near Naxalbari village was attacked by the landlords’ men over a land dispute. On May 24, when a police team arrived to arrest the peasant leaders, it was ambushed by a group of tribals lead by Jangal Santha, and a Police Inspector was killed in a hail of arrows. This event encouraged many Santhal tribes and other poor people to join the movement and to start attacking land lords.
These conflicts go back to the failure to the implement the 5th and 6th schedule of the Constitution of India. In theory these schedules provided for a limited form of tribal autonomy with regard to exploiting natural resources on their lands, e.g. pharmaceutical and mining, and the ‘land ceiling laws’; limited the land to be possessed by landlords and distribution of excess land to the landless farmers and laborers.
Mao Zedong provided ideological leadership for the Naxalbari movement, advocating that Indian peasants and lower class tribals overthrow the government of the upper classes by force. A large number of urban elites were also attended to the idealogy, which spread through Charu Majumdar’s writings, particularly the ‘Historic eight documents’ which formed the basis of Naxalite ideology. Using people’s courts, similar to these established by Mao, Naxalits try opponents and execute with axis or knives, beat, or permanently exile them.
At the time, the leaders of this revolt were member of the CPI(M), which joined a coalition government in West Bengal just a few months back, leaders like land minister Hare Krishna kumar had been until recently ‘trumpeting revolutionary rhetoric, suggesting that militant confiscation of land was integral to the party’s programme. However, now that they were in power, CPI (M) did not approve of the armed uprising, and all the leaders and a number of Calcutta sympathizers were expelled from the party. Subsequently, in November 1967, this group led by Sushital Roy Chowdury, organized the All India coordination committee of Communist revolutionaries (AICCR). Violent uprisings were organized a several parts of country. On April 22, 1969 (Lenin’s births) The AICCR gave birth to the communist party of India (Marxist Leninist) CPI (ML).
Practically all naxalite groups trace their origin to CPI (ML). A separate offshoot from the beginning was the maoist communist centre, which evolved out of the Dakshin Desh group. The MCC later fused with the people’s war group to form the Communist party of India (Maoist). A Hind offshoot was that of the Andhra Revolutionary communists, mainly represented by the unity centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India, UCCRI (ML), following the mass line legacy of T. Negi Reddy, which broke with the AICCR at the early stage. The early 1970s saw the spread of Naxalism to almost every state of India, barring western India. During this period, the movement was fragmented into disputing factors, By 1980, it was estimated that around 30 Naxalite groups were active, with combined membership of 30,000.
Contention was the development of Minerals and raw materials in the area, and development of a paved road to transport them, along with the order the road brought. If the government could construct a road the rebels would have lost. If the rebels could continue thwarting road development, the government would have lost.
Around 1971, the naxalites gained a strong presence among the radical sections of the student movement in Calcutta. Students left school to join the naxalites. Charu Majumdar, to entice more students into his organization, declared that revolutionary warfare was to take place only in the rural areas as before, but now everywhere and spontaneously. Thus Majumdar declared an “annihilation line”, a dictum that Naxalites should assassinate individual “class enemies” (such as landlords, businessman, university teachers, police officers, politicians of the left and right) and others. Large section of the Naxal movement began to question Majumdar’s leadership. In 1971 the CPI (ML) was split, as Satyanarayan Singh revolted against Majumdar’s leadership. In 1972 Majumdar was arrested by police and died in Alipore Jail presumably as a result of torture. His death accelerated the fragmentation of the movement.
High gap between the Government schemes and actual implementation makes people angry
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Dharmendra yadavDharmendra Yadav is the editor in chief of lawtycoon and an expert of Politics ArchivesCategories |