By Atta
Rasool Malik
On night
22/23 April 2018, at least 39 Maoist were killed in an “encounter” with Indian
security forces in district Gadchiroli on the north bank of indravati river
that divides Maharashtra and Chhattisgarth. Many social activists and human
right organizations termed it a fake encounter and called it a planned mass
murder. Apart from Kashmir, the Naxalite-Maoist insurgency is another serious
ongoing struggle in India. High intensity conflict zones like Jammu &
Kashmir, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur seem safer than the Maoist
strongholds of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh or Orrissa, where security personnel and
tribesmen are killed on daily basis. In all insurgency-affected areas of Jammu
and Kashmir, the Indian official death toll in the year 2017 was 327 but in the
same period 3,123 tribal civilians and security personnel were reported killed
in Naxalite-Maoist insurgency. Naxalism originated in India as a rebellion
against poverty and ill-treament by upper caste Hindus at the local level in
the rural parts of eastern India. Maoists on the other hand fundamentally
wanted to transform India towards socialism. Now, Naxalite also follow Maoist’s
theory to chieve the same.
Currently
Naxalite work mostly under the influence of the Communist Party of India-Maoist
(CPI-M). It is labelled as a terrorist organization by the India government for
fighting against security forces and preventing development in the area. In
April 2006, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, described the Maoists as the
“single biggest security threat” – and advocated a purely military solution to
the conflict. He also coined a new term to describe all resistance group of
Naxlite and Maosist as Left Wing Extremism (LWE). Thereafter, Singh allocated
special budget to crush the movement. The history of loody social movement of
Naxalite and Maoists goes back to Brithish era of colonization in India. When
British through East India Company eatablished its rule in India. They created
a loyal group of landlords/zamindars who supported the British in their rule in
India. They were given large tracts of land.
These people were hardly involved in
cultivation of crops and agricultural activities themselves. They instead
employed a large number of laborers and tenant farmers who worked for them.
This originated under the British but unfortunately continued once India
(Bharat) became independent. The shrewd land lords exploiting the loophole
present in the Land Reforms Act of India-1955, which stated that
farmers/tenants had permanent rights on leased land but under certain
conditions, these rights could be forfeited if the landlord wanted to take the
land back for personal cultivation. Using this route, many landlords evict
their farmers/tenants regularly and keep them on a leash in West Bengal, with
the local administration working to the benefit of the influential landlords.
When Mao
Zedong, the main leader of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), became the
ideological powerhouse of the movement it was alleged that he encouraged Indian
landless tribal to revolt against the Indian government which was only
protecting the interests of upper caste Hindus. Although in Bihar unlike in
other states, it was not so much tribal but Dalits who were foot soldiers of
Maoists and had been oppressed by upper castes under the caste system which has
prevailed in India for centuries. The famous event occurred on 25 May 1967 when
in Naxalbari, West Bengal, 9 adults and 2 children were killed when police
fired on a group of protesters who were demanding their right to crops grown on
a particular piece of land. And this changed the direction of the movement in
many ways. It was a movement more to ensure fair distribution of land among
all. So it was a Communist movement, but not necessarily directied against the
Indian state or government to overthrow it. The slogan of the Naxalbari
uprising was “land to the tiller”. However, the Naxalbari rising was met with a
strong reaction by the police. Tribal have been living on forests for
generations but they are gradually being disposed by ‘timber mafia’ in the name
of development and mine exploration missions.
“At the
behest of the mining corporations, the government takes away the land and the
forests of the tribal people and thereby their livelihoods,” A tribal explains.
“But when the corporation set up shop, they don’t even employ the local people!
There is nothing in this for the tribal!” India’s mining industry has, infact,
is known for systematic corruption. With little to no government oversight or
regulation. The influential with political clout have pilfred iron ore at
prices far below market rates and above legal quotas and ever faced legal
action. When it comes to unemployment and low wages, the regions in the Maoist
conflict zone are some of the worst affected. Farmers are even charged for
cutting branches of dead trees to lighted their stove for cooking meals.
BJP is
fully aligned with the upper caste Hindus and rich corporate firms and
therefore, there is absolutely no hope that it will solve the problem of Tribal
or Dalits. Indian officials are also comfortable that the Indian security
forces are winnig against insurgents. Their main argument that Maoists are on
the run. They are short of arms and ammunition and afraid to attack high
profile targets for fear of reprisals. Naxilite-Moaist movement is social
movement and it only evaporate if its grievances are addressed. Indian govt
should refrain from staging state sponsored massacre scripted as ‘Maoists
Encounter’ in Gadchiroli and Bijapur’. This is gross human rights violation and
amount to genocide.
