There are not enough brave politicians, honest officials and well-trained police to fight India’s Maoist insurrection

Inequitability leads to resistance and if the system resorts to oppression of the resistance instead of restoring/establishing equitability, then the struggle deepens.

Real culprit of rebellion of Maoist movement is upper caste of India.Caste system is curse to India.Religion give right to upper caste to treat lower caste most barbarically.There is no guilty feeling arise in the mind of upper caste treating this way to lower caste. India suffered very badly from outsiders because of this caste system.
Real wonder is that upper caste did not learned any lesson from past history and they behaving same way. This worse moral so much deeply rooted in psyche of upper caste, they will killed themselves but do not stop this decrement against lower caste.
There is no use of brave politicians ,honest officers and well trained police most of them coming from upper caste how can they change?

We have no property rights for the tribals.
We have not taken care of their deveopment.
While we became richer and richer, they became poorer and poorer.
We go on displacing them without compensating them.
Tomorrow if a small village boy from one of these tribal areas gets a TV and sees how we live compared to how he lives, he will be very angry. very very angry.
He will easily be attracted to another locus of power which may look better to him ..... because he has lost all faith in the givernment and the system.

The Maoist violence in various parts of India is caused by poverty and oppression. What is required is not mere police action, but strategies for bringing the marginalised people into the mainstream. Give them opportunities to lead respectable lives and the violence will disappear. There is no alternative to development.
www.matheikal.wordpress.com

I am happy to see that No Pakistani has come here and rejoiced over the fact that more than one third of India is in deep trouble. I have seen many articles in the Economist on India's predicaments/other issues (eg intereference
in Sri Lanka..) and have not seen negative comments showing 'wishful thinking'.

I am surprised that our neighbours leave no chance to express their 'wishful thinking' through their negative comments on every big or small problem faced in Pakistan.

Like elsewhere in India, truth is much different from what is (made)visible. The Naxal movement though started with a promise of 'rights' that the government has not been able to deliver, it is now, increasingly, a veiled front for politics.

A few naxals have made money by aligning to political bossses while using the larger base to sustain a 'phoney' revolution. Lofty ideals will always remain the glue since real rights can never be achieved in the current manner. However such ideals will remain emotional platforms for enrolling gullible masses.

Caste is just a color made visible. It is just money and power game with these naxals acting as pawns.

arohan:

You sure got that right! I also did my engineering from RIT(now NIT) Jamshedpur, in the late sixties, which is also a stone's throw from the much-maligned 'Naxalbari' & remember with anguish, the atrocities that the poor, the down-trodden & the landless masses suffered everyday of their sordid lives there.

The Maoists/Naxalites, may appear extreme to the the ignorant outsiders but were quite justified & fully warranted, in what they did, if any changes were to occur in feudal India of the sixties.

Well I went to IIT Kharagpur not more than 50 km far from the place where all this thing is happening and I doubt if government spent more on us 5000 souls in side the campus or rest of people in that entire district.
Grievances of Maoists are justified no matter which school of thought you belong to. One needs to go to these areas and see how we 'diku' have exploited our tribal bretheren

The only good thing that the Indian government can find in this situation is the knowledge that its soldiers are certainly experienced. As for the Naxalites and their allies, I'm more than a bit annoyed that so few news agencies and think tanks see any need to devote any time or study to the situation. They seem to believe that as long as Westerners don't die it isn't important.

The issue at Lalgarh (which ironically literally means Red Fort) is complex and there are no clear heroes or villains. As India progressed, condition of almost everyone improved except the Adivasis or tribal. In West Bengal, for example, land reform 30 years ago reduced poverty among rural people. But since tribal people live in forests or areas with little arable land, they were bypassed and ignored. A few years ago, there were reports of death by starvation in some tribal villages, a thing unimaginable in free India. Every government, be it at center or in states like Bengal, Jharkhand, Andhra has done little to improve the condition of the Adivasis. The funds allocated have been eaten up by corrupt bureaucrats, contractors and political party members. The villagers destroyed a two-storied building with marble floors that belonged to the local CPI(M) leader who was officially surviving on a Rs 1500 per month stipend from the party for being a full time worker.
Naxals or Maoists found a niche in the tribal people to pursue their Don Quixote like revolution. But police helped them in a big way. When a Maoist would hide in a tribal village by possibly threatening to kill few villagers, the police came and indiscriminately arrested and beat up tribal villagers who had nothing to do with Maoists and were just trying to survive another day. Some of these villagers became Maoist when they met some Maoist leaders in the prison cell where they should not have been in the first place. Chhatradhar’s brother was one such person.
The only way out of this Maoist menace is to provide the tribals the same facilities and opportunities that the average middle class Indian family gets. To begin with, the central government must start a NREGA type work-for-money program that ensures 200 days of work per year for them.
One person has confused Adivasis with lower caste people. They are the Santhals, Kols, Bhils, Mundas who had traditionally lived like hunter gatherers even 100 years ago. Today, many of them are jeans-clad like everyone else. It is absolutely imperative to start enough schools and provide them with enough jobs so that they can go up the ladder to become middle class like the rest of us.

One would be vastly surprised to see the starkness of poverty in some of the drier parts of India compared to the irrigated and greener tracts.The tribal population is largely found in places with little or no organized agricultural activities and crafts that support and supplement it.The redistribution of lands that were acquired under state laws that curbed large family holdings never took off.With influence peddling,corruption and in some cases corporatizing large holdings remained and even grew.This affected the landless who depended on seasonal sustenance and a bare livelihood.
To top it all the government at the local and central levels failed to reach out and bring these tribes into the national fold.
Ideology mixed with hope,hatred laced with retribution and disregard for laws that never helped and action to avenge,so you have the potent mixture.The labels can be many and political leanings often convenient and surprising,the reality is forgotten people asking for their place in society,economy and history.
If attention that is due is not directed,then many parts of India could become lawless and wanton.It is easy for politicians to talk eloquent in election meetings and make loads of promises and simply disappear from their constituency,but some who think and reflect hard get angry and the result is mob frenzy.

indica,
I hope you captured my disdain for CPI(M). That guy built a house with marble floors in the middle of absolute poverty. Now you know where those subsidies for the poor go. A recent news report talked about a tribal family who got a total of about Rs 1000 for working in NREGA this year. The left front government returned few hundred million of rupees of NREGA fund because of sheer incompetence.

'raghuvansh1'

You are saying that most of the police force fighting the Maoists are from the 'upper caste'? If you are, how do you know? You are NOT guessing are you?

May be it will fit in with your theory on the cause of India's ills?

Majumdhar, who started the Naxal Movement in the 1960s, was he from the 'upper' or 'lower' caste?

It is an expression of tragedy of Indian revolution which got stunted because of myths very close to the hearts of Indian communists from their very inception.Having a common enemy the effective liberation struggle needed a united struggle of all anti imperialist forces but communists had nourished a misconception that congress was a capitalist party and it could not be a sincere fighter against imperialism;it was the main hurdle in the growth of freedom movement.So it had to be isolated and be considered the main enemy.United liberation movement might have ensured the defeat of two nation theory and partition might have been escaped.After the independence in 47 they declared Nehru their main enemy and fought a suicidal struggle against the friendly forces instead of cooperating with the Nehru Government in the construction of national liberation society.And then More rabid stalinists split the party forming CPI(M) in 64.In those conditions of worldwide emergence of new left Maoism spread on Indian soil.After that they scattered in many groups fighting each other.India needs communist movement more than ever before but they are working more for defaming communism than for he growth of the movement.What is happening in Lalgarh is a further blow for their survival.The left front rule in West Bengal has provided a fertile ground for more distortions of the movement.

That poor material conditions may have encouraged Indian extremist movements but patronage of political parties for maoists cannot be ruled out and the so called maoists offering their services for dirty jobs in politics is always a possibility. Almost complete lack of resistance to onward march of joint forces of West Bengal and CRPF in the the jungles- supposed to be maoist stronghold - and outside in open, shows Maoists are an overly hyped rebel group, which is hardly prepared to to confront government determination to obliterate them to restore peace, law and order. It is true that part of West Bengal, where Naxalite violence has surfaced also happens to the place, which is close to so to say a industrial development hub, which state government sought to develop but in vain. TMC made a big issue of wrongful land acquisition in Singur and Nandigram and thwarted setting up of industries. It is difficult for leftist to admit but this could not have happened if people were not rubbed the wrong way by their cadre, who were intoxicated by a sense of unchallenged power. In last parliamentary elections, it was expected that poll alliance between Congress and TMC would fare better but no one was too sure the verdict would be as decisive against leftists as it turned out to be. This has understandably given TMC in particular bright hopes of capturing power in state. They need to fuel the fire of discontent. They are now using the same people and groups to maintain anti left tempo for next two years and left seems to have resorted to police action finally as it sees it's support base dwindling anowards and shifting towards TMC. In this vague situation, significantly a Maoist leader- Kishenji- appeared on TV to seem help from Ms. Mamata Banerjee for the help Maoists had given to TMC in Nandigram and Singur, which she finds difficult to deny convincingly and non CPM constituents of left govt are championing the cause of Maoists as if to embrace their old friends back post Lalgarh operation and gain lost ground for next state election. Congress, which is minor though significant player in WB, has no alternative but to wait and watch. It's national agenda being to strengthen itself in states on it's own, would try use TMC's alleged connections with Maoists to bargain hard with Ms. Banerjee politically to it's advantage. In short what is happening has traces of lot of craft. Left government has much to gain from a succesful Lalgarh operation. Hence, TMC is crying foul and pleading in Delhi. But left are old UPA friends and can share evidences of TMC Maoist connections. Be as it may, W est Bengal has entered another long phase of bad politics, which won't encourage investment and economic regeneration. Swimming against national mainstream politics, which carries India forward, is an old habit of Bengali politicians. It is a habit which is hard to die. And there are enough vested interests in competitive commercial and industrial conditions in India to take advantage of India. So as far as Bengal is concerned, left has failed to deliver development and is combination parties with great deal of ideological pretentions, TMC is proving far less promising already and is already erring by being in unnecessary hurry. Hopefully, Bengal shall have to fall back on Congress.

Ah Maoists...big deal...who cares. That's the attitude in most of India. BTW, anyone who thinks that this movement is a result of "social marginalization" lives in la-la land. See their leaders, they are all elites from upper castes LOLZ!! And if these guys blame GOI for all their ills, then they should "fight" through the ballot box and try to change the system from within instead of burning buses and destroying public property.

BTW the flush-out operation has begun against these guys in WB. If Indian Army can handle the insurgency in Kashmir for 6 decades, these guys are nothing!! India is like an elephant, minor ant bites and pin pricks do not bother her. But then there is a limit to this patience. Even the elephant, when things are pushed too much, takes cognizance, starts moving (everyone will take notice when the elephant moves), will destroy everything in the path and make a clean sweep, and go back to sleep!!

'apu2'

Thanks for the background. You have said,

"The villagers destroyed a two-storied building with marble floors that belonged to the local CPI(M) leader who was officially surviving on a Rs 1500 per month stipend from the party for being a full time worker."

With Rs.1,500/- monthly 'offcial' income, it is possible to own a two storey building with marble flooring? 'Khu balo'!! No wonder the tribals targeted that building.

Remember my earlier post on another thread? The Congress party, the party of 'Aam Aadhmi', which has ruled the country for 60 over years, and Bengal for much of that time, has NOT built A School, or A Hospital, for the tribals? What did Jyothi Bashu, the Stalinist do for them?

All talk.... no action from our 'secular', 'socialist' parties.

I wish the Maoists well. I hope they throw out the hypocrites I have referred to above.

Sadly, the Maoists are, as The Economist says, a ragtag bunch of people with no sustainability in ideas, finance or intellectual power. In any case, they will not find the tribals supporting them for long.

The Left Front government has not given education to the scheduled tribal [STs] and scheduled castes [SCs], who live mostly in villages. In urban areas education in English medium is well organized and availed of by the urban people and their wards. Rural areas are bereft of it.
There are thousands of educated unemployed among the SCs and STs many of whom have been working as agricultural labourers, cultivator, in fisheries, dairies, with illiterate people in West Bengal. The government is opposed to education reaching the lowest strata.

*** ***** ****

The buildings of Pandeys were damaged to certain extent. The State Secretary of West Bengal in an interview this week to an English fortnightly of Chennai has given minute details of the Pandeys which shows how close they are. Anybody in the Party hierarchy has amassed wealth under communist rule over three decades. In the tribal heart land why there is no palatial building belonging to a tribal? They are a terribly exploited and deprived lot.
A. K. Biswas

India's multiethnic and multiracial society has always had problems, but this is worse. According to some writing over at Asia Chronicle (www.asiachroniclenews.com), this could destabilize India in a way nothing recently has.

Maybe one day, when social and economic development is guaranteed for all, when there is no one pinching the purse for their own fief, a group such as the Naxalite won't be able to sway disillusioned people under their banner.

It seems that there are some indications that the returning police are going back to their old abuses (http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090629/jsp/frontpage/story_11172478.jsp). Simply setting the stage for a comeback, let's be frank. Until Jharkand is able to clamp down, the West Bengal periphery will continue to be in trouble.