Naxalitemovement in india- cause and cure, Essays (university) of Law

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Naxalite Movement: Causes and Cure

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Table of Contents:

Acknowledgment Introduction ● Who are Naxalites? History Origin of Naxalite Movement Causes of the Movement ● Root Causes Naxalites and the Government Cure to Naxalism or Tackling Naxalism ● Laws made by the Government ● Approaches to tackle Naxalism Analysis Conclusion Bibliography

The Naxalite Movement: Causes and Cure Introduction: A Naxal or Naxalite is a member of any political organization that claims the legacy of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). Naxalites are a group of far-left radical communists who are supportive of Maoist political ideology. Their origin can be traced to the splitting of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 1967, leading to the formation of the Communist Party of India (Marxist -Leninist). The term Naxalism is derived from a village called ‘Naxalbari’ in West Bengal, where the Naxalite peasant revolt took place in 1967. Naxalbari was a stronghold of this revolutionary movement, hence, the entire movement is known as ‘the Naxalite movement’. A small group of peasants initially started it over a land dispute with the local landlords. It was the result of a series of splits between different ideological groups within the Communist Party of India. First, it was mainly focused in West Bengal, but soon it spread to the other parts, less developed areas of rural southern and Eastern India, like Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana. Some Naxalite groups have become legal organizations participating in parliamentary elections, such as the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, and Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Janashakti. Who are Naxalites? Naxalites are common people who want equal social and financial status for all. Their ideology is clear that they are fighting oppression and exploitation to create a classless society. They work for the centralization of power. They just want basic amenities for their survival; infrastructure and most importantly they want opportunities to grow. The Naxalites operate mostly in rural and Adivasi regions. They are usually found in the area where there is a forest cover. Their motto is to enlarge upon their ideology and if possible support the landless and poor.

History: The Communist Party of India is one of the oldest communist parties in Asia. It was formed at the first party conference in Kanpur on 26 December 1925. During the 1920s and the early 1930s, the party was badly organized, and in practice, several communist groups were working with limited national coordination. The first split of the Communist Party of India took place in 1964 giving birth to the second Communist Party of India called Marxist under the acronym of CPI(M). The Origins of the 1964 split in the CPI predate to the Sino-Indian border dispute and the Sino-Soviet ideological conflict which emerged from 1959 to 1962. At the time of the Chinese aggression with India in 1959 and 1962. There was a heated controversy concerning the attitude of the CPI towards China. A strong minority did not consider China as aggressive and justified all her claims. The result was that in 1964 at Tenali in Andhra Pradesh, the party was officially divided between two distinct groups- left and right, each claiming to be the true representative of the people. The moderate retained the old name of the CPI, while the radicals adopted the name of the CPI (Marxist), or the CPI (M). Another split happened in the Andhra group of the CPI (M) giving birth to another extremist and militant Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) or the CPI (M-L). The decision was taken to form a third community Communist Party of India the CPI (M-L), completely based on the teachings of Mao Tse-Tung. This movement would achieve a ‘People's democratic revolution’, through building militant rural bases and extending them to encircle the cities.

Causes of the movement: The discontent peasants and landless laborers in West Bengal got together to express their frustration in the form of organized efforts. The tenant was exploited at the hand of the landlords. The share of tenants was to undergo deductions on account of supply of cattle plow, seeds, and loan of paddy at a totally disproportionate rate. Free-of-cost maintenance of landlords’ laborers, stable and granary was also the burden of peasants. The ever-increasing burden of debt, loss, and fraud, in addition to feudal practices of social hierarchy, provoked the peasants to revolt against the system. Added to this were the anti-people activities of gardeners and estate owners. Thus the relation between the landlords and tenants had become deepened with the exploitative practices about crop sharing and money lending. According to Maoist sympathizers, the Indian Constitution "ratified colonial policy and made the state custodian of tribal homelands", turning tribal populations into squatters on their own land and denied them their traditional rights to forest produce. These Naxalite conflicts began in the late 1960s with the prolonged failure of the Indian government to implement constitutional reforms to provide for limited tribal autonomy concerning natural resources on their lands, e.g. pharmaceutical and mining, as well as pass 'land ceiling laws', limiting the land to be possessed by landlords and distribution of excess land to landless farmers and laborers. In Scheduled Tribes (ST) areas, disputes related to illegal alienation of ST land to non-tribal people, still common, gave rise to the Naxalite movement. Root Causes- The Naxalite movement derives the root causes of its formation from the inequalities and exploitation faced by the tribal communities. The following issues at the inception of the Naxals, form the plight of the sufferers: (i.) Zamindari System: The Zamindari system was adopted during the British rule wherein a piece of land was given to a Zamindar and in return, he was required to pay a certain amount to the company or the state. The Zamindar did not cultivate the land himself. He distributed and redistributed it till it reached the tiller of the land who was a tribal or a common man working hard in the field. At each stage, the poor people or the tribals suffered immensely because a certain amount was required to be paid to the renter of the land and it led to the exploitation of the poor tribal at each stage.

(ii.) Status of Tribals: The government decided to declare certain forests as reserved forests for the purposes of conservation, scientific research, sanctuaries, and land acquisition for dams, roads, industries, etc. It was done directly at the cost of the tribals who the inhabitants of these forests for many generations were. Thus, the state government, the contractors, and lower-level officials fully exploited the tribals, bringing down their status to that of encroachers in the forests. (iii.) Resettlement and Rehabilitation: The records of resettlement and rehabilitation reveal that payment of compensation for lands and assets acquired from the people for various purposes are very rarely compensated to them. For certain poor families, it has meant generations of resettlement without being given any compensation. This has led to the deprivation and marginalization of the people. Although industrialization did take place in the country, the tribals were deprived of the basic benefits of education and training. Therefore, they could not avail of new opportunities in the industries and remained marginalized. Administration in Remote Areas Being very poor and unmonitored, these areas were developed but had poor connectivity. Even post-independence, the agrarian reforms did not reach these areas. Corruption, vote bank politics, and atrocities against the Scheduled Castes wreaked havoc in the economic and social fabric of the society. (iv.) Governance Related Factors: The malfunctioning of government machinery in terms of inefficiency, corruption, and exploitation was largely considered as the main factor behind the creation of a power vacuum as well as space for Maoists to take root in and find legitimacy amongst the deprived and impoverished sections of the population in the country. Since the demand of the poor people for change was not coming from the government, a natural recourse was to look for an alternative. Mass mobilization has been possible only due to the inherent disenchantment with the prevalent system. The Naxals reached out to the people, understood them, took up their issues, and fought for their dignity and rights. They earned goodwill among the tribals and the downtrodden. Globalization and liberalization are seen as challenges to socialism. It is common knowledge that in most Naxal-affected regions, there is a total lack of governance. (v.) Socio-Economic Inequalities: The Naxal affected areas are severely affected by the disparities in economic and social terms. The rich and Zamindars consider poor people and tribals as people with no dignity and, hence, socially exploit them. All kinds of social discrimination are practiced against them. These inequalities in society force them to take recourse to violence and join Naxalism. Economically, there is a large gap between the haves and have nots. Lack of employment opportunities for the youth in the relatively deprived regions of the country further allows Naxal groups to recruit more and more people. Hence, the primary incentive to join the Naxals was to ensure an adequate income. The poverty levels in the Naxal affected states of Orissa, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand are much higher.

Naxalites and the Government: When the Naxal uprising began in 1967, the Indian government looked at it as a law and order problem. It did not analyze the causes of the movement and the extent of mobilization of people. Hence, it believed that it could and would put an end to it in a short period using force. “During the outbreak of the armed clashes in Naxalbari, the then Home Minister Y B Chavan, addressing the Lok Sabha on June 13, 1967, described them as mere “lawlessness” – a transgression to be repressed and contained. So, while Charu Mazumdar named the 1970's the “Decade of liberation”, the Indian state chose to make it the “decade of repression”. The United Front government in West Bengal, confronted by the Naxal violence, was in a dilemma about the nature and scope of its response. It recognized the crucial need to address the problem of monstrous iniquity. As a government, it could not let any violent uprising threaten its legitimacy, even if the cause was morally valid. The government chose to react based on the latter point and so launched a massive police operation that drove the movement underground and brought most of its leaders under police custody within four months of the uprising. The emergency in 1975 was a period of carte-blanche to the state authorities to crush the movement. It leads to the legitimization of the violation of human rights by the state. But ironically, the movement arose again in a more violent form after the emergency. Police excesses like extra-judicial killings and extortion, misappropriation, and harassment of the Naxal support base are public secrets, which governments have turned a blind eye to. However, in-spite of the government's muscle power and legal teeth, the Naxal movement has continued to spread its base because the rural poor and oppressed identify with its ideology. In other words, its inception, ideology, spread, and sustenance are deeply rooted in socio-economic factors. National and state governments in India consistently have labeled Naxalite groups as terrorist organizations and declared them to be illegal. The original CPI-ML has not operated as a legal political party (though several offshoots of it have), and the more recent Communist Party of India-Maoist (formed in 2004 by the merger of the MCC and the PWG) has been outlawed. Police and security forces have responded to the Naxalites with various raids and military campaigns aimed at counteracting the guerrilla attacks and flushing the rebels out of their sanctuaries. Those operations have had mixed success, in part because authorities often have not provided adequate services in the territories where they have reestablished control. Besides, the fighting frequently has reverted to the government and Naxalite sides each retaliating against the other. Thousands of people have been killed during the decades of the insurgency, and tens of thousands have fled the fighting to become refugees.

Cure to Naxalism or Tackling Naxalism: The government has constituted an 'Empowered Group of Ministers' to counter the problem of Naxalism headed by the Home minister and select chief ministers. The government under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 1967 amended in 2004 has banned the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) - People's War and all its associated formations, and the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) and its front organizations. The government has also constituted a Task-force which will comprise of Nodal officers from the Naxal affected areas and officers from the IB, SSB, and the CRPF. There is also a Coordination Centre that was set up in 1998 headed by the Union home minister with Chief Secretaries and DGPs of the Naxal affected areas for the coordination of steps taken to control Naxal activities. The government has laid down a clear plan to tackle left-wing extremism. It has formulated a two-pronged strategy to solve the problem of Naxalism. The Laws Made by the Government Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy, 2007 The main aim of this act is to minimize the displacement of people and to promote non-displacing or least displacing alternatives. The Government issued a rehabilitation policy on 11 0ctober 2007 for the easy displacement of people who lose their land for industrial growth. Under this policy land in change for land will be given, job perspective to at least one member of the family, vocational training and housing benefits including houses to people in rural areas and urban areas will be some of the benefits. Forest Rights Act, 2006 The Scheduled Tribe and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006 or the Forest Rights Act recognizes the rights of the scheduled tribes and forest dwellers who have been living in the forests for years but their rights have still not been recognized. The Ministry of Environment and Forests has also allowed the use of 1 hectare of land for nonforest purposes and the conversion of kutcha roads into pukka roads.

consisting of Central Paramilitary Forces, state police, and ex-servicemen from areas affected by Naxalism. At present 36 battalions of Central Para Military 33 Forces are deployed in Naxalite affected areas. The government, to strengthen the security network in the states, has set-up the Indian Reserve (IR) battalions. These forces along with providing additional security provide youth with employment opportunities. The Centre has also raised the amount provided to each battalion to Rs.20 crores from the previous Rs.13 crores. In April 2006, the government authorized the formation of nine more Indian reserve battalions of 1000 35 personnel each. In order to ensure that the activities by the Nepalese Maoists don't affect India, SSB has been deployed along the Indo-Nepal border. They have been given a massive fund of Rs.444 crores for their modernization. The revision of the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) Scheme in 2005 included many security-related items that were not included in the Police Modernization Scheme like insurance scheme for police personnel, community policing, expenditure incurred on publicity to counter the propaganda of Naxalites, rehabilitation of the Naxals who surrender and the level of reimbursement which 37 was raised from 50% to 100%. Presently 76 districts in 9 states which are badly affected by Naxal activities are covered in this scheme. Plans have been set in motion for the formation of three to four specialized Anti-Maoist Centres at critically important locations at inter-state boundaries which will be equipped with five helicopters each and would be manned by the CRPF and the pilots would be called from the Army/BSF/Air Force. The use of UAVs for reconnaissance missions and collection of intelligence from Naxal-affected areas has been authorized by the Centre. Ex-servicemen have also been called for the formation of an auxiliary force which will primarily be supervising the work of detecting mines and explosives laid by Naxalites. Around 4,800 ex-servicemen have already joined the fight and an expected 5,000 are expected to join. The government of Chhattisgarh started the Counter-Terrorism and Jungle Warfare College in Kanker imparts training to counter the well-trained and motivated guerrilla force of the Naxals, where police personnel are given rigorous training in guerrilla warfare and are made to live in the open and taught how to live off the land. Even the Army who as such are not very interested in getting themselves dragged into tackling Naxalism has been training 16 companies of paramilitary and state personnel in counter Naxalism operations. States have also established their own special security force like Andhra Pradesh has formed the Greyhounds which are said to be one of the most effective police force to combat the Naxal problem and the government of Uttar Pradesh has also raised a battalion of the Provisional Armed Constabulary 40 consisting of the local

youth. Even the Central government has formed the COBRA which is a special force formed to deal with Naxalism in any state. Social Integration approach: Social Economic Development: The government started the Backward Districts initiative in 2003-2004 and the Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) under which 55 of the worst affected areas in 9 states were to be provided with funds to the tune of Rs. 2475 crores to tackle the problem of Naxalism. Around 250 districts have been included in the BRGF scheme to accelerate socio-economic development in these districts which are to be administered by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj. Various state governments have allocated funds to the areas affected by Naxalism. The government of Bengal allocated Rs.50 crores for the underdeveloped rural areas of the state. A separate fund of Rs.5 crores was set aside for Paschimanchal comprising of 74 blocks of Bankpura, Purulia, West Midnapore, Burdwan, and Birbhum districts. They also created a separate department for Paschimanchal development to expedite the implementation of poverty alleviation programs. The government of Karnataka also allocated special funds for development in villages affected by Naxal activities. Grama panchayats were provided with Rs. lakhs a year for two years to develop the villages within their jurisdiction. Other grants from the government, Zilla and taluk panchayats were also included to be used in the development of these villages. The government also requested the planning commission to include other Naxal affected areas under the Scheme of Backward Regions Grant Funds for which Rs.5000 crores have been set apart. The government of Chhattisgarh has also announced houses worth Rs.1 lakh and employment to the kin of who got killed in the Maoist violence and the Jharkhand government increased the insurance amount to be given to the kin of jawans to 21. lakhs 45 from the 10 lakhs. Various schemes launched have been launched by the government like the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) which offers tremendous opportunities for rural road connectivity. For certain districts affected by Naxalism which have a population of 500 and above in plain areas and 250 and above in tribal areas for 3 years, perspective plans are being formulated to cover all habitations. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP) is being implemented in 330 districts affected by Naxalism so as to universalize the demand-driven program for wage-employment. Other schemes which are in addition to the above-mentioned

Analysis: The Naxalite Movement in India emerged to address the exploitation faced by the tribal community in India. Reasons like exploitation of tribals by the rich zamindars, corruption by the government officials, displacement of tribals from the land by falsely alleging encroachment, and failure of proper governance in the areas like Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, etc lead to the formation and continuance of the movement. It later spread due to the effective propaganda used by the Naxalites in mobilizing people, which they made sure appealed to them, and pointed out the flaws in the existing governance. The Naxalites derive strength from the failure of governance mechanisms. It wins over people by pointing out that the elected government cannot effectively govern them and picks up such issues to use in their own favor. The underdeveloped state of education and employment opportunities in the affected areas also contribute to the recruitment of people into the outfit, The Naxalites finance themselves through taxes and levies collected from the local people, looting of government treasuries and banks, and also extort vast amounts from businessmen, miners, industries, political leaders, government officials, rich landlords, and professionals. The funds must first be cut off for the outfit to stop functioning for without it will be impossible to carry out attacks. There must be awareness created to prevent the Naxalites from securing finances for the sustenance of the movement. The government must extend its sovereignty upon the ‘liberated areas’ captured by the Naxals and prevent them from capturing or accessing more areas. The government must also include the support of the Government of Nepal to curb the influence of its Nepali counterpart on it and prevent the extension of the proposed ‘red corridor’.

Conclusion: The Naxals reached out to the people, understood them, took up their issues, and fought for their dignity and rights. They earned goodwill among the tribals and the downtrodden by fighting for them. The Naxalite Movement started with a noble objective to protect the rights of the tribals, but its extremism and violence deterred it from becoming an accepted revolution. The tackling of the threat to internal security, as a result of this movement, must start with the government addressing the problems faced by the tribals and ensure that their rights are protected. The central and eastern parts of the country are relatively underdeveloped as compared to other parts of India, both industrially and agriculturally. The areas also lag behind in almost all human development indicators. Hence, efforts must be made by the government to tackle the disparities in the social system. The government must take immediate steps to eliminate poverty, ensure speedy development and enforce law and order strictly and initiate welfare programs for the tribals in all parts of India. Naxal groups have been raising mainly land and livelihood related issues. If land reforms are taken up on a priority basis and the landless and poor in the Naxal areas are allotted the surplus land, this would go a long way in tackling the developmental aspects of the Naxal problem. Greater attention on this area and also speeding up developmental activities and create employment opportunities in the Naxal affected areas, with special focus on the creation of a physical infrastructure in terms of roads, communication, power as also social infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, etc would go a long way in tackling the issue. In my opinion, the Naxalites today are far more radicalized than they were when they first began and this leads to a greater chance of increased violence. Before the government retaliates, it must address the core issues on which this movement is based, eradicate or solve them and then further work towards restricting the existence and spread of Naxalism. The government must also resort to publicity campaigns in order to expose the unlawful activities and misdeeds of Naxal outfits and their leaders, use of violence and armed struggle, loss of human life and property, and absence of developmental activities in the affected areas due to fear of, and extortion by, Naxal cadres, etc. It must aim at finding loopholes in the strategy and tactics in the modus operandi of Naxalites in the State. Furthermore, an attractive and all-encompassing surrender-cum-rehabilitation policy will have a great psychological effect on the Naxals who seem far removed from their ideology.