NAXALISM : LEFT-WING EXTREMISM – Everything You Need To Know For UPSC

 

• Naxalism, also known as Left Wing Extremism (LWE) or Maoism, is a type of armed rebellion against the State that is driven by leftist/maoist ideas.
• A 1967 rebellion by the Communist Party of India in Naxalbari, West Bengal, is when the Naxal insurgency in India began (Marxist).
• They are a group of people who adhere to the political philosophy derived from Mao Zedong’s political writings in China.
• The Eastern region of the nation, particularly the Red Corridor, which spans the states of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, and Andhra Pradesh, is where the conflict is most intense.

Data & Stats

• Counter-insurgency operations by the Centre and affected states have helped to bring down Maoist sponsored violence. Covid-19 pandemic and the national lockdown also proved a massive blow for Maoists, as it cut critical supplies for many months.
• As a result, LWE related incidents were down by 47 per cent between 2015 and 2020 as compared to incidents in the preceding six years from 2009 to 2014.
• Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand continue to account for 69.10% incidents of Naxal violence across the country. Districts affected by Naxal violence reduced from 96 in 2010 to 60 in 2018.
• Over the decades since, the LWE movement is assessed to have impacted 40 percent of India’s territory and 35 percent of its population.
• In 2016, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), 106 districts in 10 states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, were intensely affected by the LWE movement.

 

Origin

• In the three communities of Naxalbari (from which the term “Naxal” derives), Phansidewa, and Khoribari in West Bengal’s Darjeeling District, the LWE first appeared in 1967.
• Members of the Communist Party of India Charu Majumdar, Kanu Sanyal, and Jangal Santhal spearheaded the initial insurrection (Marxist).
• Peasant revolt was the primary form of the initial insurrection. The Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of India was established in 1969.
• Despite having its roots in West Bengal, the movement has since moved to India’s less-developed rural areas in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh. Nearly all Naxal organisations today can be traced back to the CPI (M-L).

 

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF LWE AND MODUS OPERANDI OF THE NAXALISM             

• It aims to overthrow the government through people’s war.
• It creates conditions for non-functioning of the government and actively seeks disruption of development activities as a means to achieve its objective of ‘wresting control’. It spreads fear among the law-abiding citizens.
• The ultimate objective is to attain political power by violent means and establish what they envisage as “The Indian People’s Democratic Federal Republic”. They attack government symbols like police stations and other establishments.
• While impeding development works and challenging state authority, the Naxalites simultaneously try to derive benefit from the overall under-development and they try to fill the governance gap by providing basic facilities to tribal peoples.

MAOISM

• Maoism is a form of communism developed by Mao Tse Tung. It is a doctrine to capture State power through a combination of armed insurgency, mass mobilization and strategic alliances.
• The Maoists also use propaganda and disinformation against State institutions as other components of their insurgency doctrine. Mao called this process, the ‘Protracted People’s War’, where the emphasis is on ‘military line’ to capture power.

CENTRAL THEME OF MAOIST IDEOLOGY             

• The central theme of Maoist ideology is the use of violence and armed insurrection as a means to capture State power. ‘Bearing of arms is non-negotiable’ as per the Maoist insurgency doctrine.
• The Maoist ideology glorifies violence and the ‘People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army’ (PLGA) cadres are trained specifically in the worst forms of violence to evoke terror among the population under their domination.
• They also use the subterfuge of mobilizing people over issues of purported inadequacies of the existing system, so that they can be indoctrinated to take recourse to violence as the only means of redressal.
• They use violence as their primary tool to destabilise the state through various communist guerrilla groups.

PHILOSOPHICAL BACKGROUND OF NAXALISM/MAOISM/LWE

• The writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels served as the ideological foundation for violent movements. Marxism or Communism is the name of this ideology. Marxism encourages a bloody class struggle to eliminate the capitalist bourgeoisie.
• Naxalism in India, like every other communist movement worldwide, derives its ideological inspiration from the Russian Revolution, in which Lenin triumphed over the Czar by combining a peasant movement with an armed uprising.
• This leftist ideologies believe that all existing social relations and state structures in an elite/capitalist society are exploitative by nature and only a revolutionary change through violent means can end this exploitation.
• The moist ideology glorifies violence and therefore, the bearing of arms is non-negotiable as per the Maoist insurgency doctrine.
• Naxalites are far-left radical communists who derive their political ideology from the teachings of Mao Zedong.
• Maoism’s political orientation emphasises the ‘revolutionary struggle of the vast majority of people against the exploiting classes and their state structures’.
• Key slogan of Maoists – “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun”.

 

  PHASES OF NAXALISM

First	Organization, consolidation, and preservation of regional base areas situated in isolated and difficult terrain;
Second	Progressive expansion, which includes attacks on police stations, sabotage, terror tactics, elimination of persons with alternate viewpoints, and procurement of arms and ammunition from the enemy.
Third	Destruction of the enemy through conventional battles including mobile warfare, protracted conflicts, negotiations, and unified command and control structures.

  EVOLUTION OF NAXALISM IN INDIA

First Stage (1967- 75)

• In 1967 a peasant uprising took place in the Naxalbari.
• In 1969, CPI (M) was broken and a new party, Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) (CPI-ML), was formed under the leadership of Charu Majumdar.
• Formation of All india Coordination Committee Of Communist Revolutionaries (AICCCR).
• Arrest of Charu Mujumdar (1972).

Second Stage (1975-2004)          

• Continued their struggle under the “Strategy of Protracted War”.
• CPI (ML) converted into People’s war group in 1980
• At the same time Moist Communist Centre of India strengthen in Bihar (MCCI)

Third Stage (2004 onwards)

• People’s War Group combined with Moist Communist Centre of India and Formed CPI (Moist)
• CPI (Moist) has been listed as a Terrorist organisation under the unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act since 2009.
• This whole contiguous zone where CPI (Moist) was active, which is spread in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Maharashtra and Telangana is known as ‘Red Corridor’.

RED CORRIDOR

• The Red Corridor is the area in central, eastern, and southern India where a serious Naxalite-Maoist insurgency is taking place.
• The majority of the region has a strong tribal population; the districts affected by this and a portion of the Corridor are among the poorest in India. Severe social and economic inequities are also present in the area.
• The Corridor roughly extends from the Indian border with Nepal to the northernmost reaches of Tamil Nadu. Additionally, the area’s literacy rate is much lower than the national average.

VARIOUS STRATEGIES USED BY NAXALITES TO SPREAD THEIR IDEOLOGY

• Reallocation of land resources;
• Ensuring minimum wages for the labour working in the farms;
• Running a parallel government and impose tax and penalties;
• Run parallel Kangaroo Courts;
• Destruction of government property and abduct its officials;
• Attacks on police and law enforcing machinery;
• Enforce its own social code of conduct.

REAL POSITION OF NAXALITE MOVEMENT

• The Maoists claim to be fighting for the poor and the marginalised and demand loyalty and shelter from villagers, while government forces seek public support in defending those same villagers from the Maoists.
• Many civil society activists working in Maoist-affected areas are similarly finding themselves under attack from both sides.
• The Indian Prime Minister has described the fight with the Maoist insurgents as India’s “biggest internal security challenge.”
• In recent years the Maoist movement has spread to nine states in central and eastern India. The Maoists have a significant presence in the states of Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Bihar, and West Bengal, and a marginal presence in Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
• The Maoists assert that they are defending the rights of the marginalized: the poor, the landless, Dalits, and tribal indigenous communities. They call for a revolution, demanding a radical restructuring of the social, political, and economic order.
• Various state governments have responded to this challenge by carrying out security operations to defeat the Maoist movement, provide protection for local residents, and restore law and order. The police in these states receive support from central government paramilitary forces.
• Various state and national forces often conduct joint operations, in part to deny the Maoists sanctuary in other states. Because of the ineffective response by states, in 2009 the central government started to coordinate security operations.
• The situation in Chhattisgarh is undoubtedly deeply distressing to any reasonable person. They often fight by technique of Guerrilla warfare techniques.

CURRENT DEVELOPMENT:

1. INTELLECTUAL SUPPORT TO NAXALISM

• Because it confused people, intellectual support for Maoists made combating them “extremely tough.”
• The CPI (M) sources weapons from a number of insurgent organisations in the North-east, particularly the RPF/PLA of Manipur and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM).
• The majority of these organisations are connected to foreign forces that are hostile to India.
• The CPI (M) has also expressed support for various insurgency groups in the North East as well as terrorist organisations in Jammu and Kashmir.
• CPI (M) also has close links with foreign Maoist organisations also they arranges foreign funding.
• The Coordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organizations of South Asia (CCOMPOSA) is an umbrella organization of various South Asian Maoist parties and movements and its purpose is to coordinate their activities throughout South Asia which always create instability in this region.
• Top intellectuals like Arundhati Roy and Binayak Sen regularly support naxalism, advocating an egalitarian society, human rights and tribal rights.
• Use of violent means cannot be supported to achieve a noble cause in a democratic setup. Rather than a blind support, the intellectuals should also encourage Naxals to eschew violence, fight elections, join mainstream society and learn the art of give and take of democratic bargaining without aggression.

2. URBAN NAXALS

• Urban Naxals are the ‘invisible enemies’ of India. One common thread amongst all of them is that they are all urban intellectuals, influencers or activists of importance.
• It is an old Maoists strategy to focus on urban centres for leadership, organise masses, build a united front and engage in military tasks such as providing personnel, material and infrastructure.
• These urban Naxal influence the middle-class employees, intellectuals and students with Maoist ideology and radicalize them against the government.
• Urban naxalism is a product of CPI (M) “Urban perspective: Our work in urban areas”. It is aimed to mobilise urban poor like industrial work etc and other like-minded organisations which creates rift between government and tribals.
• The phrase of Urban Naxals is loosely attributed to the people with Naxalite bent of mind residing in urban areas and working as activists, supporters and protectors of the ideology while the active Naxals battle it out in the jungles and vast swathes of Maoist-dominated areas.
• A systematic approach was initiated by the CPI-M to mobilise resources and achieve the following objectives through urban mobilisation, taking advantage of their anonymity in the urban centres:-
• Mobilise masses and strengthen organisational structures in urban Areas: Under this programme, the Maoists mainly targeted students, workers, middle-class employees, and focused on social issues like women’s rights, the grievances of Dalits, and religious minorities and politicised issues in accordance with the communist ideology.
• Formation of United Front: The main focus of the Maoists’ urban work is to organise the masses, including the working class, students, middle-class employees, intellectuals, women, Dalits and religious minorities. Naxals create front organisations for extending the reach of the organisation.
• Legal Aid to Military Task: The military wings of CPI-M, PGI and PLGA, were to carry out the military tasks in the rural and least developed regions of the country while the urban Naxals were to complement their efforts by recruiting cadres and sending them into the countryside. Urban naxals tried every possible step to give legal aid.

FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR RISE OF NAXALISM

Land Related Factors    

• Evasion of land ceiling laws.
• Existence of special land tenures (enjoying exemptions under ceiling laws).
• Encroachment and occupation of Government and Community lands (even the water- bodies) by powerful sections of society.
• Lack of title to public land cultivated by the landless poor.
• The Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 deprives tribals, who depend on forest produce for their living, from even cutting a bark.
• Massive displacement of tribal population in the naxalism-affected states due to development projects, mining operations and other reasons.

Political Factors             

• Nature and apathy of the political system towards Tribals remained one of the most important factors that led to such uprisings.
• Inability of political authority in India to provide avenues for structural uplift to the deprived sections of society in the affected states.
• Lack of political participation by the tribal community.

Economic Factors          

• Problem of poverty and economic inequality and underdevelopment in the Naxal affected regions.
• Skewed distribution of land and economic growth.
• Encroachment of forest lands by and wealth controlled by contractor-politician nexus.
• Entry of mining companies in Tribal lands and forests, posing threat to the livelihood of the tribals.
• Indigenous tribal population deprived of their lands, uprooted from their traditional source of livelihood. Globalization is accused to have led many MNCs making inroads in tribal areas owing to their resource richness. The benefits of resource exploitation are not passed on the tribals.
• The tribal villages have no medical facilities, no schools, low literacy, and high poverty.
• The Naxalite movement is supported by the grievances of the tribals and the dalits.

Environmental Degradation      

Environmental degradation in the form of destruction of land and water resources due to mining and industrial activities.

Lack of basic facilities

• Lack of basic facilities like education, freedom, sanitation and food.
• The socially backward tribals form the major support base for Naxalites because of inequality, illiteracy and lack of opportunities.

Governance Deficit       

• Lack of routine administration
• Incompetent, ill-trained and poorly motivated public personnel
• Mismanagement and corruption in the government schemes
• Poor implementation of special laws
• Perversion of electoral politics and unsatisfactory working of local govt.

Social deficit     

• Violation of human rights
• Abuse of dignity of life
• Disconnect with mainstream society
• Discontent against government

Development Deficit     

• Lack of Infrastructure
• Lack of health and education facilities
• Huge gender and income gap

Jal-Jangal- Jameen (3Js)

• Encroachment and occupation of govt and community lands
• Non-regularisation of traditional land rights
• Land acquisition without appropriate compensation and rehabilitation
• Evasion in ceiling laws
• Disruption of the age old tribal-forest relationship.

Issues of agrarian community   

• The Maoists point to the farmer suicides in Vidarbha, Andhra Pradesh etc. and have included in their programme signing off the peasant’s debts, restoration of farm subsidies, investment in irrigation, proper prices of farm produce and ban on Multi- National Companies.

 ISSUES IN HANDLING LWE/NAXALISM

• Ignorance of established Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) can occasionally result in the loss of security personnel’s precious lives.
• Some weaknesses, such as poor planning, insufficient manpower, a lack of intelligence backup, etc., still exist.
• Deficits and structural flaws, such as the placement of IPS deputations in nearly every senior position within the CRPF while neglecting the decades of expertise held by current members of the Force.
• Sluggish capacity building of police forces, as seen by the approximately 10,000 open positions in the state police of Chhattisgarh and the absence of 23 authorised police stations.
• Laundering of funds: Naxal leaders operating in Bihar and Jharkhand are laundering extorted money through acquiring movable and immovable assets.
• Inefficient technology of mine detection: Present technology is unable to detect deep planted mines under the road.
• Complex locations: This is very difficult in given circumstances and terrain of deep forest and hilly areas.
• Delay in acquisition of technology: For example- Out of the 157 sanctioned MPVs, only 13 have been supplied by OFB to CAPFs so far.
• Central Police Forces cannot alone tackle the problems as they lack terrain knowledge and are unknown of local language.

GOVERNMENT APPROACH TOWARDS NAXALISM IN THE COUNTRY

• The National Policy and Action Plan, which the MHA has been implementing since 2015, is a multifaceted plan to combat left-wing extremism. It addresses security, development, ensuring rights and entitlements of local populations, among other things.
• Major Sub-Scheme under the 2017–20 Police Force Modernization Scheme
• Strengthen infrastructure development initiatives: Since 2009, the MoRTH has been implementing the Road Requirement Plan-I (RRP-I) to increase road connectivity in the 34 LWE-affected districts of 8 States.
• Road Connectivity Project for LWE affected areas (RRP-II): It was approved in 2016 for further improving Road connectivity in 44 districts of 9 LWE affected States.
• LWE Mobile Tower Project to improve mobile connectivity in the LWE areas.
• Approval of Projects under Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) supported scheme to provide mobile services.
• The National Technical Research Organization (NTRO) is assisting the Security Forces in anti-Naxal operations by providing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).
• ROSHNI Scheme (Ministry of Rural Development) is a special initiative under Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana which provides placement linked skill development for rural youth in 24 LWE affected districts in India.
• Skill Development in 34 Districts affected by Left Wing Extremism under implementation from 2011-12 aims to establish ITIs and Skill Development Centres in LWE affected districts.
• Black Panther combat force: A specialised anti-Naxal combat force for Chhattisgarh on the lines of Greyhounds unit in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
• Bastariya Battalion: A newly formed battalion of CRPF with more than 534 tribal youth from four highly naxal infested districts of Chhattisgarh along with adequate female representation in sync with the Government’s policy of 33% reservation for women making it the first composite battalion in any of paramilitary forces.
• Monitoring the funding of Naxalites: The Union ministry of home affairs has formed multidisciplinary groups with officers from central agencies, including from the IB, NIA, CBI, ED and DRI, and state police to choke the financial flow to Maoists.
• Aspirational District: The Ministry of Home Affairs has been tasked with the monitoring of Aspirational districts programme in 35 LWE affected districts.
• Accelerate Employment Initiatives Measures: the GOI is executing several schemes under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) that are empowering the citizens with the required skill sets to earn their livelihood.
• Surrender and rehabilitation programmes: State Governments have their own policy, while the Central Government supplements the efforts of the State Governments through the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) Scheme for LWE affected States.
• Engage youth through education: Seeing the success of the educational hub and a livelihood centre in Dante Wada district, the government has now opened up livelihood centres, known as Livelihood Colleges, in all the districts.
• Other measures: Successful implementation of various development initiatives focusing on critical issues of Jal (water), Jameen (land) and Jungle (forest), has been perhaps the single most important factor in making it difficult for the LWE movement to attract large numbers of fresh recruits.

SAMADHAN STRATEGY

• S– Smart Leadership
• A– Aggressive Strategy
• M– Motivation and Training
• A– Actionable Intelligence
• D– Dashboard Based KPIs and KRAs
• H– Harnessing Technology
• A– Action plan for each Theatre
• N– No access to Financing

REASONS FOR THE REVERSALS FACED BY CRPF IN FIGHT AGAINST NAXALS

• Lack of a common plan across the states
• Lack of coordination between state police and Central forces.
• Inadequate training and combat capability of forces in Maoism affected states.
• Lack of modernized law enforcement agency.
• Lack of institutionalized intelligence sharing between states and regions.
• Naxalites are well versed with terrain which gives them a substantial upper hand in armed struggle.
• The naxals ambushes the CRPF troops at a place and time of their choice, leaving little chance for them to defend themselves even as they fought heroically.

WAYS TO END NAXALISM IN INDIA

Good governance

• The presence of Naxals in the country also reveals the loopholes in the law and order of the country which has failed to curb the menace.
• Central government needs to implement a coherent national strategy to end Naxalism.
• Dialogues between the Naxal leaders, and the government officials can be a way to work out a solution.
• The government should initiate sincere dialogue with Naxalites.

Job creation and increase wages            

• Insecure livelihood and unemployment in the areas have left the people with no option but to join the Naxals.
• If we are actually thinking of ways to end Naxalism, we’ll first have to provide the people of the area with proper employment opportunities with increased wages.

Resettlement and Rehabilitation programmes  

• mining grounds, irrigation areas, industries, etc., in the area without any provision for the resettlement of the displaced people has only added to the woes of the poor
• There needs to be more emphasis on rehabilitation of these affected population.

Prevent environmental degradation     

• Environmental degradation in the form of destruction of land and water resources due to mining and industrial activities.
• The locals are left with disrupted lives and adversely affecting tourism

Stop the political marginalization

• Weaker sections of the society, the schedule castes and schedule tribes still face discrimination from the upper class.
• These downtrodden sections don’t enjoy equal participation in casting and contesting politically, making them soft targets of Naxals.

Eliminate disparity among people          

• Economic disparity and the growing distance between rich and the poor is one of the main problems that has contributed to the growth of Naxalism
• This distance needs to be filled to an extent hastily to stop Naxalism

Access of resources by local people

• One of the major reasons for unrest is the exploitation of forest and lands of the tribal people for industrial purposes.
• The loss of land and the lack of basic facilities like education, freedom, sanitation and food

Proper welfare steps for the tribals

• The socially backward tribals form the major support base for Naxalites because of inequality, illiteracy and lack of opportunities.
• It’s important to prevent these people from falling in the Naxal trap.

Modernize and well- equipped law enforcement agencies         

• The major policing lies in the hands of the state governments
• At federal level, many agencies are under the command of Union Ministry of Home Affairs
• Central government must inroads into these disturbed states with their agencies well-equipped with modern artillery and assist the usually poorly-equipped agencies of the state.

WAY FORWARD: CONVERTING VICIOUS CYCLE INTO A VIRTUOUS CYCLE OF DEVELOPMENT

• Adopting best methods, such as those used by the Chhattisgarh police: Greyhounds in Andhra Pradesh have been beneficial in significantly reducing Maoist activity.
• Similar to this, the Chhattisgarh police are now working with the neighbouring States to increase intelligence and ground presence because they have expertise fighting Maoists in Bastar.
• Get rid of the sense of alienation among tribal peoples by addressing the underlying issue that is causing them to feel alienated in this region.
• Now, the emphasis should be placed on constructing roads, expanding tribal members’ access to political and administrative positions, expanding the scope of government programmes, etc.
• Better Cooperative federalism: Centre and states should continue with their coordinated efforts where Centre should play a supportive role with state police forces taking the lead.
• Forest Rights: Effective implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act, 2006.
• Financial empowerment: Introduce measures to encourage formation of ‘Self Help Groups’ (SHGs) and cooperative societies to improve access to credit and marketing and empower the disadvantaged.
• Accelerate Infrastructure development: For implementing large infrastructure projects, particularly road networks that are strongly opposed by the extremists can be undertaken with the help of specialised Government agencies like the Border Roads Organisation instead of local contractors.
• Leveraging the use of technology: Such as micro or mini-UAVs or small drones, high-resolution PTZ cameras, GPS tracking, hand-held thermal imaging, radar and satellite imaging to minimize loss of lives of security personnel.
• Choke funding: The nexus between illegal mining/forest contractors and transporters and extremists which provides the financial support for the extremist movement needs to be broken through establishment of a special anti-extortion and anti-money laundering cell by State Police.
• Need to spread awareness through media: Support of media must be taken in order to change the sympathetic attitude of people towards the Maoists, to dispel the fear created by the Naxalites in the minds of people and instil confidence among them that the State is by their side.
• Open the channels for political dialogues: With their domination being very weak and confidence low, it is the best time to have a peace dialogue with rebels. Peace dialogue will give confidence to the tribal people and then only they can discuss their problem with the government.
• Implement Various schemes for discontent tribes: Special efforts are needed to monitor the implementation of constitutional and statutory safeguards, development schemes and land reforms initiatives for containing discontent among sections vulnerable to the propaganda of violent left extremism.

PREVIOUS YEAR QUESTIONS     

 

• What are the determinants of left-wing extremism in Eastern part of India? What strategy should the Government of India, civil administration and security forces adopt to counter the threat in the affected areas? 2020
• Left Wing Extremism (LWE) is showing a downward trend, but still affects many parts of the country. Briefly explain the Government of India’s approach to counter the challenges posed by LWE. 2018
• The persisting drives of the government for development of large industries in backward areas have resulted in isolating the tribal population and the farmers who face multiple displacements with Malkangiri and Naxalbari foci, discuss the corrective strategies needed to win the left-wing extremism (LWE) doctrine affected citizens back into the mainstream of social and economic growth.2015
• Article 244 of Indian Constitution relates to Administration of Scheduled areas and tribal areas. Analyze the impact of non-implementation of the provisions of fifth schedule on the growth of Left-Wing Extremism. 2013