Brief History of Naxalism and it's solution

 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:

1. Andhra Pradesh: Vishakhapatnam
2. Bihar: Gaya, Jamui, Lakhisarai
3. Chattisgarh: Bastar, Bijapur, Dantewada, Kanker, Kondagaon, Narayanpur, Rajnandgaon, Sukma.
4. Jharkhand: Bokaro, Chatra, Garwa, Giridh, Gumla, Hazaribagh, Kunti, Latehar, Lohardaga, Palamu, Ranchi, Sindega west, Singhbhum.
5. Maharashtra: Gadhchiroli, Aurangabad
6. Odisha: Koraput and Malkangiri
7. Telangana: Bhadradri, Kothagudem

(Source: Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India)

​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.  

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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.

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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.

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High gap between the Government schemes and actual implementation makes people angry

 
State and Naxalites

​In July 1971, Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India, took advantage of President rule to mobilize the army against the Naxalites and launched a colossal combined army and police counter insurgency operation, termed “Operation steeplechase” Killing hundreds of naxalites and imprisoning more than 20,000 suspects and cadres, including senior leaders. The paramilitary forces and of para commandos also participated in operation steeplechase. The operation was choreographed in October 1969, and Lt. General J.F.R. Jacob was enjoined by Govind Narain, the home secretary of India, that “there should be no publicity and no records” and Jacob’s request to receive the orders in writing was also denied by Sam Manekshaw.

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Situation during 2001-2011

​Between 2002 and 2006, over three thousand people had been killed in Naxalite government conflicts, and by 2009, the conflict has displaced 350,000 members of tribal groups from their ancestral lands. In 2006, India’s intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis wing (R&AW), estimated that 20,000 armed cadre naxalites were operating in addition to 50,000 regular cadres. Their growing influence promoted Prime Minister Manmoham Singh to declare them to be most serious internal threats to India’s security. Naxalites, and other anti-government militants, are often referred to as “ultras”.
 
In February 2009, the Central government a new nationwide initiative, to be called the “Integrated Action Plan” (IAP) for abroad, co-ordinated operations aiming at dealing with the naxalite problems in all affected states (namely Karnataka, Chattisgarh, Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal). Importantly this plan included funding for grass-roots economic development projects in naxalite affected areas, as well increased special police funding for better containment and reduction of naxalite influence in these areas. 

​In 2009, naxalites were active across apporoximately 180 districts in ten states of India. In August 2010, after the first full year of implementation of the national integrated action plan (IAP) program, Karnataka was removed from the list. The naxalite-affected areas was reduced to 83 districts in 2011, In December 2011, the national government reported that the number of naxalite related deaths and injuries nationwide has gone down by nearly 50% from 2010 levels.

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NDA government and Naxalism

​After 2014 elections, The NDA government launched ‘National Policy and action plan’ in 2015, covering security and development aspects India ranked 137th globally in the global peace index 2017, prepared by the Australia-based institute for economic and peace (IEP). Naxalism was once called by the government as the biggest internal security threat faced by the country, However, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Maoist influences has been gradually shrinking. New report released on 16th April, 2015. The number of districts affected is reduced from 106 to 90, spread across 11 states.
 
Earlier 11 of the 36 Worst affected areas has no Kendriya vidyalayas (Central schools), and only 6 Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalas (JNVs). Now all 36 Districts have JNVs and eight districts have functional Kendriya Vidyalayas. 

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How to solve the Naxal Problem?

 
Naxalism can only be removed from India if we as a society and government understand the real problems of tribals and common people out there.
 
1. Less interference: Indian government needs to stop interfering in the matters of tribals and snatching away of their lands to give to corporate houses for mining. The mining which takes place should be done only by taking tribals into confidence and giving them Jobs in the projects involved. 
2. More Schools and Hospitals: There is an urgent need to open more quality government schools and hospitals in the areas concerned so that tribals don’t feel alienated from the rest of the India. There is also an urgent need to send tribal students to areas like Delhi and Mumbai for their higher education to give them outside exposure along with full government scholarship and support. 

Tribal people demand right of their land

3. Attract Maoist to Surrender: Although many schemes are already running but there is again a better deal and talks needed to surrender Maoist who has taken guns and government support for their families. 
 
 
4. Land redistribution: Maoist have taken to arms because the government has completely neglected their needs and trying to snatch away the last thing they are having i.e. Land. The root of Naxal movement is land redistribution. They have taken to arms because they are repressed by the big landlords. If the government brings out schemes which give them the right of having their lands then it will attract them to move towards normal times. 
5. Dialogues: There is a need for dialogues with the rebel group and government, which leads to healthy environment. Guns won’t solve the problem. Only talks with the parties involved can solve the problem and bring normalcy to the affected areas.

​The root of the problem is simple. There is a huge gap between what the government talks and what it delivers. There are many schemes which are meant for naxals but due to their bad implementation because of the huge corruption and actual will of the government, Tribals aren’t benefitted as much as their needs. 

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