Insurgent & Secessionist movements in India

[Ali.009]

Maoist Rebellion: Why Is India Helpless? | The Moderate Voice​

Prof. John K. Galbraith, a former US ambassador, once described India as a “functioning anarchy”. Galbraith’s famous quote comes to mind on hearing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s recent helpless cry that the country’s fight against Maoists/Naxalites is failing.

Such public display of vulnerability appears pathetic, although it is a fact that governing a large democratic and diverse country like India is a big challenge. This strange admission came when the Prime Minister was speaking to the heads of police forces from different States and Union Territories in India.

Agreed that the challenges are mighty (what with 20 out of 28 States under the shadow of Maoist/Naxalite movement), but one is tempted to ask why this concern and alarm now. Four decades ago, the Maoist rebellion began in Naxalbari in the east. It has now spread as a major rebellion that champions the cause of extremely poor peasants in several States.

Is this alarm because of the Western nations’ pressure that the foreign investments would be hurt in this uncertain environment? Has this rebellion virtually put a “vast swathe of the countryside rich in minerals out of official control, hurting potential business worth billions of dollars?”

To quote the Prime Minister again: “Despite its sanguinary nature, the movement manages to retain the support of a section of the tribal communities and the poorest of the poor in many affected areas. It has influence among certain sections of the civil society, the intelligentsia … all this adds to the complexity of the problem.” (See here&#8230

If the Maoist/Naxalite movement enjoys the support of the poorest of the poor, as well as the intelligentsia, as Mr. Manmohan Singh admits, then the question arises what were the Federal and the State governments doing to address issues of public concern, and to alleviate the poverty and suffering of the people in the past 40 years.

By this inference, the rebel movement has become the voice of the suffering people. The respective governments, by abdicating their responsibilities, have themselves contributed to the strengthening of the mass rebellion. Over the years, the legitimate public protests were generally ignored (as it is New Delhi seems so far away, and caught up in its own machinations/corruption).

Unfortunately, the political leadership generally wakes up when the situation appears to be spiraling out of control. Then the typical response is to use the “danda” (or the stick) in a liberal fashion in the hope that the rebellion would fizzle out by the use of sheer force.

Obviously, this has not happened this time. To quote the Prime Minister again: “I would like to state frankly that we have not achieved as much success as we would have liked in containing this menace. It is a matter of concern that despite our efforts the level of violence in the affected states continues to rise.”

This movement has become the “biggest home-grown threat to India’s internal security” and, in the words of India’s Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, the rebels have “increased attacks on railways, power and telecommunication networks to halt economic development.”

Earlier Chidambaram had said that last year alone there were 1,591 incidents of Maoist violence resulting in 721 killings; this year until August there had been 1,405 incidents, resulting in 580 deaths spread over 11 states.

What Mr. Manmohan Singh and Mr. P. Chidambaram seem to be implying is the State force/tyranny is now no match to Rebels force/tyranny. Another spell of The Emergency in the offing (just a wicked thought)?

The leadership has opted for a Western model of armed solution to a highly complex problem/challenge. They have not learnt the lesson despite the West’s mindless intervention in Afghanistan/Pakistan (not to forget Iraq).

What causes great worry is that the top leadership is prone to rushing to Washington to sort out any (including the country’s) problems. However, Maoists/Naxalites are no militants/terrorists from Afghanistan/Pakistan. They are home-grown manifestations of the deep grievances of a large section of the Indian population.

Poverty and hunger are big issues and no cosmetic relief measures, announced periodically with great fanfare, are going to help. In an interview with The Times of London, the director of the British-based Institute of Development Studies (IDS) said: “It’s the contrast between India’s fantastic economic growth and its persistent malnutrition which is so shocking. An average of 6,000 children died every day in India; 2,000-3,000 of them from malnutrition.”

India’s economic boom has “enriched a consumer class of about 50 million people, but an estimated 880 million still live on less than $2 (Rs 100) a day, many of them in conditions worse than those found in sub-Saharan Africa.”

The Times reports: “Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister, described malnutrition as ‘a curse that we must remove’ in an Independence Day speech last year. Since then his Government has quadrupled funding to tackle the problem — but the IDS report said that the money would be wasted unless steps were taken to improve governance at every level.”

The IDS report can be read at this website…

However, the point is that India has survived (and progressed) despite mind-blowing challenges. The country has gone through traumas such as the Partition, the Emergency, and the Babri Masjid demolition (and in recent times the Mumbai terror attacks), and still retained its unity.

The challenges will always remain in this highly complex and diverse country. Yet, the nation expects the political leadership to build public morale and exhort people and public servants to meet those challenges, and not cry out publicly and express helplessness.

Well, if a leader appears so helpless, then perhaps it is time for him/her to pack up the bags and let someone else pick up the baton. Who will it be?

Meanwhile as long as India is a functioning democracy/anarchy (as aptly described by Prof Galbraith), so be it.

 

[Spring Onion]

Faiz, Iqbal Bano resonate in India’s Maoist heartland

By Arundhati Roy

Walking with the comrades

Very recently, quietly, unannounced, Arundhati Roy became a rare writer to visit the forbidding and forbidden precincts of Central India’s Dandakaranya Forests, home to a melange of tribespeople many of whom have taken up arms to protect their people against state-backed marauders and exploiters. She recorded in considerable detail the first face-to-face journalistic “encounter” with armed guerillas, their families and comrades, for which she combed the forests for weeks at personal risk. The essay was published on Friday in Delhi’s Outlook magazine. Here are some highlights from the 20,000 word essay she wrote on the doubts, hopes and struggles of a people who are known to the rest of the world only as dreaded Maoists. The full text of the essay is expected to be available on dawn.com on Sunday.



“The antagonists in the forest are disparate and unequal in almost every way. On one side is a massive paramilitary force armed with the money, the firepower, the media, and the hubris of an emerging Superpower. On the other, ordinary villagers armed with traditional weapons, backed by a superbly organised, hugely motivated Maoist guerilla fighting force with an extraordinary and violent history of armed rebellion. The Maoists and the paramilitary are old adversaries and have fought older avatars of each other several times before:

Telengana in the ’50s, West Bengal, Bihar, Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh in the late ’60s and ’70s, and then again in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra from the ’80s all the way through to the Present…

“It’s easier on the liberal conscience to believe that the war in the forests is a war between the Government of India and the Maoists, who call elections a sham, Parliament a pigsty and have openly declared their intention to overthrow the Indian state.

It’s convenient to forget that tribal people in Central India have a history of resistance that pre-dates Mao by centuries. (That’s a truism of course. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t exist.) The Ho, the Oraon, the Kols, the Santhals, the Mundas and the Gonds have all rebelled several times, against the British, against zamindars and moneylenders. The rebellions were cruelly crushed, many thousands killed, but the people were never conquered…

“…This legacy of rebellion has left behind a furious people who have been deliberately isolated and marginalised by the Indian Government. The Indian Constitution, the moral underpinning of Indian democracy, was adopted by Parliament in 1950. It was a tragic day for tribal people. The Constitution ratified colonial policy and made the State custodian of tribal homelands. Overnight, it turned the entire tribal population into squatters on their own land. It denied them their traditional rights to forest produce, it criminalised a whole way of life. In exchange for the right to vote it snatched away their right to livelihood and dignity…

“…We pass Kanker, famous for its Counter Terrorism & Jungle Warfare Training School run by Brigadier B.K. Ponwar, Rumpelstiltskin of this war, charged with the task of turning corrupt, sloppy policemen (straw) into jungle commandos (gold).

“Fight a guerilla like a guerilla”, the motto of the warfare training school, is painted on the rocks. The men are taught to run, slither, jump on and off air-borne helicopters, ride horses (for some reason), eat snakes and live off the jungle. The Brigadier takes great pride in training street dogs to fight ‘terrorists’. Eight hundred policemen graduate from the Warfare Training School every six weeks. Twenty similar schools are being planned all over India. The police force is gradually being turned into an army. (In Kashmir it’s the other way around. The army is being turned into a bloated, administrative, police force.) Upside down. Inside out. Either way, the Enemy is the People…

“…In the morning Kamla presents me with a yellow polythene packet with one corner snipped off. Once it used to contain Abis Gold Refined Soya Oil. Now it was my Loo Mug. Nothing’s wasted on the Road to the Revolution…

“… (Even now I think of Comrade Kamla all the time, every day. She’s 17. She wears a homemade pistol on her hip. And boy, what a smile. But if the police come across her, they will kill her. They might rape her first. No questions will be asked. Because she’s an Internal Security Threat.)…

“… In April, the BJP government in Chhattisgarh signed two MOUs to set up integrated steel plants (the terms of which are secret). One for Rs7000 crore with Essar Steel in Bailadila, and the other for Rs10,000 crore with Tata Steel in Lohandiguda. That same month Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made his famous statement about the Maoists being the “Gravest Internal Security Threat” to India. (It was an odd thing to say at the time, because actually the opposite was true. The Congress government in Andhra Pradesh had just out-manoeuvred the Maoists, decimated them. They had lost about 1600 of their cadre and were in complete disarray.) The PM’s statement sent the share-value of mining companies soaring. It also sent a signal to the media that the Maoists were fair game for anyone who chose to go after them…

“…It’s dark. There’s a lot of activity in the camp, but I can’t see anything. Just points of light moving around. It’s hard to tell whether they are stars or fireflies or Maoists on the move. Little Mangtu appears from nowhere. I found out that he’s one of a group of ten kids who are part of the first batch of the Young Communists Mobile School, who are being taught to read and write, and tutored in basic communist principles. (“Indoctrination of young minds!” our corporate media howls. The TV advertisements that brainwash children before they can even think, are not seen as a form of indoctrination.) The young communists are not allowed to carry guns or wear uniforms. But they trail the PLGA squads, with stars in their eyes, like groupies of a rock band...

“…The dancing will go on all night. I walk back to the camp. Maase is there, awake. We chat late into the night. I give her my copy of Neruda’s Captain’s Verses (I brought it along, just in case). She asks again and again, “What do they think of us outside? What do students say? Tell me about the women’s movement, what are the big issues now? She asks about me, my writing. I try and give her an honest account of my chaos. Then she starts to talk about herself, how she joined the Party. She tells me that her partner was killed last May, in a fake encounter. He was arrested in Nashik, and taken to Warangal to be killed. “They must have tortured him badly.” She was on her way to meet him when she heard he had been arrested. She’s been in the forest ever since. After a long silence she tells me she was married once before, years ago. “He was killed in an encounter too,” she says, and adds with heart-breaking precision, “but in a real one.”…

“…I lie awake on my jhilli, thinking of Maase’s protracted sadness, listening to the drums and the sounds of protracted happiness from the grounds, and thinking about Charu Mazumdar’s idea of protracted war, the central precept of the Maoist Party. This is what makes people think the Maoists offer to enter ‘peace talks’ is a hoax, a ploy to get breathing space to regroup, re-arm themselves and go back to waging protracted war. What is protracted war? Is it a terrible thing in itself, or does it depend on the nature of the war? What if the people here in Dandakaranya had not waged their protracted war for the last thirty years, where would they be now?...

“…Article 2 of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines it as:

“Any of the following Acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (or) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group…

“…Jungle post arrives. Two biscuits for me. A poem and a pressed flower from Comrade Narmada. A lovely letter from Maase. (Who is she? Will I ever know?)

“Comrade Sukhdev asks if he can download the music from my Ipod into his computer. We listen to a recording of Iqbal Bano singing Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s ‘Hum Dekhenge’ (We will Witness the Day) at the famous concert in Lahore at the height of the repression during the Ziaul Haq years. Fifty thousand people in the audience in that Pakistan begin a defiant chant: Inqilab Zindabad! Inqilab Zindabad! All these years later, that chant reverberates around this forest. Strange, the alliances that get made.

“…The Home Minister has been issuing veiled threats to those who ‘erroneously offer intellectual and material support to the Maoists’. Does sharing Iqbal Bano qualify?...”[/

DAWN.COM | Front Page | Faiz, Iqbal Bano resonate in India?s Maoist heartland

 

[Windjammer]

The Struggle Within: India's Red Corridor

By Alexandra Mahler Haug, 29th January 2010
Executive Summary

- There is an ongoing struggle in the middle of India’s tribal belt; a conflict which, many say, is intensified by the Indian government’s efforts to secure the area’s natural resources and raw materials.

- The Naxalites, a violent movement in control of roughly 92,000 square kilometers known as the Red Corridor, a section of territory that stretches across India, are illustrative of the challenges India faces from within its own borders, as it continues to grow and develop economically.

- While other movements seem to attack the Indian state at its strong points (its secularism, its inclusiveness, or its democracy), the Naxalites attack India’s weakest point: the government’s failure in delivering basic government services to those who need them the most.
- So far, the government’s actions (combined with the Naxalites’ reactions) have had the effect of sharpening inequity, which many see as the biggest danger facing India in the next few years, as it strives to cultivate its democratic identity on the world scene.


There is an ongoing struggle in the middle of India’s tribal belt; a conflict which, many say, is intensified by the Indian government’s efforts to secure the area’s natural resources and raw materials. In recent years, India's biggest companies have moved stealthily into the forest areas, buying up land and acquiring the rights to extract the natural wealth, efforts deemed necessary by the government to enhance economic growth and create new jobs. However, others take issue with this purely economic view of the forests and lands, seeing these extraction efforts as attempts to ensure economic gain for few while further marginalizing many peoples. Unfortunately for the government, the majority of the dissenters are the Naxalites, a violent movement in control of roughly 92,000 square kilometers known as the Red Corridor, a section of territory that stretches across India from Andhra Pradesh to the Nepalese border. Heirs to the revolutionary ideology of Mao, the growing influence and strength of the Naxalite movement prompted the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, to describe the rebels in 2006 as the single biggest internal security challenge faced by India.

It seems that the Naxalite problem, however, is more than a security concern. The violence—as well as the casualty count—attributed to the Naxalites has been increasing steadily since 2004. But in trying to quell the movement, the Indian government may be shooting itself in the foot, for its militaristic efforts to trounce the Naxalites so far seem to be feeding the problem. By narrowly focusing on strong military efforts and extractive economic development, the Indian government is alienating the people they need most desperately to reach: some of India's most impoverished people within the Red Corridor, most of which are semi-literate tribes who exist in near-destitution and who are the Naxalites’ most avid supporters. In these villages, the Indian state is almost invisible and the vacuum is eagerly filled by the Naxalites. It is certain that continued extreme poverty and malnutrition help motivate these people to support a movement that is trying to bring attention to the region’s plight and marginalization.

While other movements seem to attack the Indian state at its strong points (its secularism, its inclusiveness, or its democracy), the Naxalites attack India’s weakest point: the government’s failure in delivering basic government services to those who need them the most. So far, the government’s actions (combined with the Naxalites’ reactions) have had the effect of sharpening inequity, which many see as the biggest danger facing India in the next few years. The problem of inequity is the Naxalites' most effective recruiting device, and the government seems to be playing right into their hands. Additionally, as Indian troops have used school buildings as part of their operations (thereby inviting attack by the Naxalites), the conflict has had the unfortunate effect of disrupting the education of some of India’s most marginalized children, who will determine the area’s stability or unrest in the future.

As the Indian government intensifies its campaign against the Naxalites, human-rights groups argue that the problem cannot be solved by brute force. It is evident that the Naxalite movement is a complex social issue, with roots in the tremendous deprivation of millions of rural Indians. But further hasty and ill-strategized military efforts are certain to only exacerbate the violence. Negating the power of politics of development could help turn Naxalism into more of a mass movement in India, thereby increasing the unrest in an area that so desperately needs basic governmental support and stability.

India is often extolled on the international stage as the world’s largest democracy, a place where plurality, inclusivity, and diversity are evident in many ways. But the Naxalites remind us that threats to democracy are never far away and moreover, that these threats can be easily ignited with a simple catalyst if safeguards are not in place. The struggle between the Naxalite movement and the Indian government is illustrative of the tension that is inherent in trying to balance between national economic development efforts and sustaining (and hopefully enhancing) local populations’ health and happiness. It is important, and indeed, necessary, to note that this tension is not easily dissolved by mere violence or force. The tension between the Naxalite movement and the Indian government highlights the importance of integrating national development strategies with local practices; it highlights the importance of encouraging grounds-up involvement in development efforts and local inclusion in development practices; and it highlights the power that can result from alienation, showing how easily a marginalized group of people can be persuaded by their dissatisfaction to resort to violent actions with devastating outcomes.

The Naxalite movement is a domestic security concern for India, but it is also a matter of greater significance. India should not further antagonize the Naxalites by merely cracking down in an effort to continue their extractive economic development policies. Violence alone will not suffice, especially in a democracy. India needs to recognize that unmitigated economic development at the cost of all else is not a viable–or smart–option. To ensure a better, future nation, India should invest in the individual futures of its citizens by guaranteeing basic freedoms and services, such as education and infrastructure, to all – including those that challenge its basic practices and premises. By guaranteeing that the minority voice will always be heard and considered (so long as the minority does so in a non-violent fashion), India can show the Naxalites – and the world – that it is truly a nation of the people; that economic and business interests will not run rampant over all other concerns; and that it has the capacity – and the integrity – to be a strong, democratic participant on the world scene.
The Struggle Within: India's Red Corridor - The Henry Jackson Society

 

[RobbieS]

These people are like the people forgotten by India's mainstream. Nobody talks about them. They are not a part of lunch-time conversations or current affairs discussions over coffee in metros. Most educated middle class people wont even know what the Maoist demands are. Just the other day I tried hard to convince a colleague that the Naxal movement is not an independence struggle but a struggle for rights.

Regarding the problem itself, I think it all boils down to economics. These tribals need to have a stake in the steel plants and power stations coming up on their lands. The biggest factor is education. My grandpa worked for Tata Steel and he had very few tribal colleagues and the number isn't that huge now. The GoI should have matched the push for private players with an equal push for education and development in those regions. Sadly factors like corruption and short-sightedness have not let that happen.

 

[Tu tu]

Faiz, Iqbal Bano resonate in India’s Maoist heartland

By Arundhati Roy

Walking with the comrades

Very recently, quietly, unannounced, Arundhati Roy became a rare writer to visit the forbidding and forbidden precincts of Central India’s Dandakaranya Forests, home to a melange of tribespeople many of whom have taken up arms to protect their people against state-backed marauders and exploiters. She recorded in considerable detail the first face-to-face journalistic “encounter” with armed guerillas, their families and comrades, for which she combed the forests for weeks at personal risk. The essay was published on Friday in Delhi’s Outlook magazine. Here are some highlights from the 20,000 word essay she wrote on the doubts, hopes and struggles of a people who are known to the rest of the world only as dreaded Maoists. The full text of the essay is expected to be available on dawn.com on Sunday.



“The antagonists in the forest are disparate and unequal in almost every way. On one side is a massive paramilitary force armed with the money, the firepower, the media, and the hubris of an emerging Superpower. On the other, ordinary villagers armed with traditional weapons, backed by a superbly organised, hugely motivated Maoist guerilla fighting force with an extraordinary and violent history of armed rebellion. The Maoists and the paramilitary are old adversaries and have fought older avatars of each other several times before:

Telengana in the ’50s, West Bengal, Bihar, Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh in the late ’60s and ’70s, and then again in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra from the ’80s all the way through to the Present…

“It’s easier on the liberal conscience to believe that the war in the forests is a war between the Government of India and the Maoists, who call elections a sham, Parliament a pigsty and have openly declared their intention to overthrow the Indian state.

It’s convenient to forget that tribal people in Central India have a history of resistance that pre-dates Mao by centuries. (That’s a truism of course. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t exist.) The Ho, the Oraon, the Kols, the Santhals, the Mundas and the Gonds have all rebelled several times, against the British, against zamindars and moneylenders. The rebellions were cruelly crushed, many thousands killed, but the people were never conquered…

“…This legacy of rebellion has left behind a furious people who have been deliberately isolated and marginalised by the Indian Government. The Indian Constitution, the moral underpinning of Indian democracy, was adopted by Parliament in 1950. It was a tragic day for tribal people. The Constitution ratified colonial policy and made the State custodian of tribal homelands. Overnight, it turned the entire tribal population into squatters on their own land. It denied them their traditional rights to forest produce, it criminalised a whole way of life. In exchange for the right to vote it snatched away their right to livelihood and dignity…

“…We pass Kanker, famous for its Counter Terrorism & Jungle Warfare Training School run by Brigadier B.K. Ponwar, Rumpelstiltskin of this war, charged with the task of turning corrupt, sloppy policemen (straw) into jungle commandos (gold).

“Fight a guerilla like a guerilla”, the motto of the warfare training school, is painted on the rocks. The men are taught to run, slither, jump on and off air-borne helicopters, ride horses (for some reason), eat snakes and live off the jungle. The Brigadier takes great pride in training street dogs to fight ‘terrorists’. Eight hundred policemen graduate from the Warfare Training School every six weeks. Twenty similar schools are being planned all over India. The police force is gradually being turned into an army. (In Kashmir it’s the other way around. The army is being turned into a bloated, administrative, police force.) Upside down. Inside out. Either way, the Enemy is the People…

“…In the morning Kamla presents me with a yellow polythene packet with one corner snipped off. Once it used to contain Abis Gold Refined Soya Oil. Now it was my Loo Mug. Nothing’s wasted on the Road to the Revolution…

“… (Even now I think of Comrade Kamla all the time, every day. She’s 17. She wears a homemade pistol on her hip. And boy, what a smile. But if the police come across her, they will kill her. They might rape her first. No questions will be asked. Because she’s an Internal Security Threat.)…

“… In April, the BJP government in Chhattisgarh signed two MOUs to set up integrated steel plants (the terms of which are secret). One for Rs7000 crore with Essar Steel in Bailadila, and the other for Rs10,000 crore with Tata Steel in Lohandiguda. That same month Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made his famous statement about the Maoists being the “Gravest Internal Security Threat” to India. (It was an odd thing to say at the time, because actually the opposite was true. The Congress government in Andhra Pradesh had just out-manoeuvred the Maoists, decimated them. They had lost about 1600 of their cadre and were in complete disarray.) The PM’s statement sent the share-value of mining companies soaring. It also sent a signal to the media that the Maoists were fair game for anyone who chose to go after them…

“…It’s dark. There’s a lot of activity in the camp, but I can’t see anything. Just points of light moving around. It’s hard to tell whether they are stars or fireflies or Maoists on the move. Little Mangtu appears from nowhere. I found out that he’s one of a group of ten kids who are part of the first batch of the Young Communists Mobile School, who are being taught to read and write, and tutored in basic communist principles. (“Indoctrination of young minds!” our corporate media howls. The TV advertisements that brainwash children before they can even think, are not seen as a form of indoctrination.) The young communists are not allowed to carry guns or wear uniforms. But they trail the PLGA squads, with stars in their eyes, like groupies of a rock band...

“…The dancing will go on all night. I walk back to the camp. Maase is there, awake. We chat late into the night. I give her my copy of Neruda’s Captain’s Verses (I brought it along, just in case). She asks again and again, “What do they think of us outside? What do students say? Tell me about the women’s movement, what are the big issues now? She asks about me, my writing. I try and give her an honest account of my chaos. Then she starts to talk about herself, how she joined the Party. She tells me that her partner was killed last May, in a fake encounter. He was arrested in Nashik, and taken to Warangal to be killed. “They must have tortured him badly.” She was on her way to meet him when she heard he had been arrested. She’s been in the forest ever since. After a long silence she tells me she was married once before, years ago. “He was killed in an encounter too,” she says, and adds with heart-breaking precision, “but in a real one.”…

“…I lie awake on my jhilli, thinking of Maase’s protracted sadness, listening to the drums and the sounds of protracted happiness from the grounds, and thinking about Charu Mazumdar’s idea of protracted war, the central precept of the Maoist Party. This is what makes people think the Maoists offer to enter ‘peace talks’ is a hoax, a ploy to get breathing space to regroup, re-arm themselves and go back to waging protracted war. What is protracted war? Is it a terrible thing in itself, or does it depend on the nature of the war? What if the people here in Dandakaranya had not waged their protracted war for the last thirty years, where would they be now?...

“…Article 2 of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines it as:

“Any of the following Acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (or) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group…

“…Jungle post arrives. Two biscuits for me. A poem and a pressed flower from Comrade Narmada. A lovely letter from Maase. (Who is she? Will I ever know?)

“Comrade Sukhdev asks if he can download the music from my Ipod into his computer. We listen to a recording of Iqbal Bano singing Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s ‘Hum Dekhenge’ (We will Witness the Day) at the famous concert in Lahore at the height of the repression during the Ziaul Haq years. Fifty thousand people in the audience in that Pakistan begin a defiant chant: Inqilab Zindabad! Inqilab Zindabad! All these years later, that chant reverberates around this forest. Strange, the alliances that get made.

“…The Home Minister has been issuing veiled threats to those who ‘erroneously offer intellectual and material support to the Maoists’. Does sharing Iqbal Bano qualify?...”[/

DAWN.COM | Front Page | Faiz, Iqbal Bano resonate in India?s Maoist heartland

its a shameful reality ..........
but there are 2 side of this coin too....
whenever any government official or police official goes to naxal area.. they just kill them no questions asked......recently i was in chattisgarh..... ( CG is an Indian state infested by Naxal Movement)

i had this conversation with the person who was driving my car (he was a localite)

ME: Why do you think Naxal movement is growing so rapidly in this area....

Driver: There is no development in this area and people are fed up of government....

ME: but millions of rupees have been sanctioned for the development in these areas.......

Driver : If that money is used properly there wont be any naxal movement..... so no more special allotments...... also half of the money is taken up by corrupt government officials..... rest is done by naxals.. anything that is developed is blown up in pieces by them...
(gave me a few examples)

ME: but dont they need basic facilities like hospitals , schools for their children......

Driver: if they get those facilities naxal movement would have no support from locals......and naxal leaders know it...... its basically the poor who is suffering ... government and naxal leaders both are living happily ........

Driver: i have seen these poor villagers who support naxal movement ..... there seems no flash on them just skin wrapped on bones.......children suffering ...... deaths happening from easily curable diseases ......

ME: but not all government officials are corrupt there must be some who are not corrupt..... dont you think so?

Driver:yes there are... (he told me a few names of non corrupt officials..) ..but how could they work..... naxals kills EVERY official who stays in there area after 5 pm.... they are scared to even go there.....
it is a fight between naxal leaders and corrupt officials.... but the one suffering is common poor villager......


......................................................

i had also asked him if they are this weak and poorly trained why cant our para military forces control them.... he said "if they are allowed to stop this movement how would our corrupt officials would earn millions of rupees....."

---------------------------------------------------------
but that in no way justifies killing of innocent people by our para military forces.....
justice must be done ......
we should not forget that these naxals are our brothers and sisters ... who are left behind due to some corrupt idiots....

Jai Hind.

 

[Spring Onion]

From Indian source




With Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu narrowly escaping an attempt on his life on Wednesday, October 1, the spotlight is once again on the Naxalites, their ideology, and their violent movement. We present a brief primer:

Who are the Naxalites?

The Naxalites, also sometimes called the Naxals, is a loose term used to define groups waging a violent struggle on behalf of landless labourers and tribal people against landlords and others. The Naxalites say they are fighting oppression and exploitation to create a classless society. Their opponents say the Naxalites are terrorists oppressing people in the name of a class war.

How many Naxalite groups are there?

Many groups operate under different names. The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) is the political outfit that propagates the Naxalite ideology. There are front organisations and special outfits for specific groups such as the Indian People's Front.

The two main groups involved in violent activities, besides many factions and smaller outfits, are the People's War, the group many believe is responsible for the attempt on Naidu, and the Maoist Communist Centre.

Where do they operate?

The most prominent area of operation is a broad swathe across the very heartland of India, often considered the least developed area of this country. The Naxalites operate mostly in the rural and Adivasi areas, often out of the continuous jungles in these regions. Their operations are most prominent in (from North to South) Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, eastern Maharashtra, the Telengana (northwestern) region of Andhra Pradesh, and western Orissa. It will be seen that these areas are all inland, from the coastline.

The People's War is active mainly in Andhra Pradesh, western Orissa and eastern Maharashtra while the Maoist Communist Centre is active in Bihar, Jharkhand and northern Chhattisgarh.

Who do they represent?

The Naxalites claim to represent the most oppressed people in India, those who are often left untouched by India's development and bypassed by the electoral process. Invariably, they are the Adivasis, Dalits, and the poorest of the poor, who work as landless labourers for a pittance, often below India's mandated minimum wages.

The criticism against the Naxalites is that despite their ideology, they have over the years become just another terrorist outfit, extorting money from middle-level landowners (since rich landowners invariably buy protection), and worse, even extorting and dominating the lives of the Adivasis and villagers who they claim to represent in the name of providing justice.

Who do the Naxalites target?

Ideologically, the Naxalites claim they are against India as she exists currently. They believe that Indians are still to acquire freedom from hunger and deprivation and that the rich classes -- landlords, industrialists, traders, etc -- control the means of production. Their final aim is the overthrow of the present system, hence the targeting of politicians, police officers and men, forest contractors, etc.

At a more local level, the Naxalites have invariably targeted landlords in the villages, often claiming protection money from them. Naxalites have also been known to claim 'tax' from the Adivasis and landless farmers in areas where their writ runs more than that of the government.

When did this movement start? How did it get its name?

The earliest manifestation of the movement was the Telengana Struggle in July 1948 (100 years after the Paris Communes were first set up, coining the word Communist). This struggle was based on the ideology of China's Mao Zedong, with the aim of creating an Indian revolution. Not surprisingly, the ideology remains strong in this region of Andhra Pradesh.

But the Naxalite movement took shape after some members of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) split to form the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), after the former agreed to participate in elections and form a coalition government in West Bengal. Charu Mazumdar led the split.

On May 25, 1967, in Naxalbari village in Darjeeling district, northern West Bengal, local goons attacked a tribal who had been given land by the courts under the tenancy laws. In retaliation, the tribals attacked landlords and claimed the land. From this 'Naxalbari Uprising' came the word Naxalite.

Was it ever popular?

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Naxalite movement was popular. There were reports of brilliant students, including from the famed IITs, dropping out of college to join the struggle for the rights of the tribals and landless labourers. But as has been the case with many movements set up with high principles, over the years the Naxalite movement is seen as having lost its vision and having compromised its principles. Nevertheless, the fact that it has an endless supply of men and women joining its ranks shows that many still believe in its cause.

Do the Naxalites face much opposition?

Yes they do, almost from the entire Indian political spectrum. Noticeably, when the Naxalite movement first started in the late sixties in West Bengal, it was the CPI-M that cracked down hardest on the Maoist rebels, with ample support from the Congress at the Centre. At village levels, the Naxalites' terror tactics have spawned local armies to provide protection to the landlords and others. The most infamous of these is the Ranvir Sena in Bihar and Jharkhand, formed by Bhumihar caste landlords, which kill tribals, Dalits and landless labourers either in retaliation or to enforce their domination.
Primer: Who are the Naxalites?

 

[Justin Joseph]

Arundhati Roy is a foreign puppet and Maoist.

She is defender of terrorism, she was who have written in a British newspaper that 26/11 was done by India to blame pakistan.

She will say anything in against of India that will do some bad to us, as she will not be harmed.

As India is a soft state and does not shoots bastard who abuses us and remain using our nationality.

Her earning is depend on India bashing.

 

[Tu tu]

Arundhati Roy is a foreign puppet and Maoist.

She is defender of terrorism, she was who have written in a British newspaper that 26/11 was done by India to blame pakistan.

She will say anything in against of India that will do some bad to us, as she will not be harmed.

As India is a soft state and does not shoots bastard who abuses us and remain using our nationality.

Her earning is depend on India bashing.

dude its not about her being maoist or naxalite supporter.....

we have to accept that problems do exist in those area..... and the only solution to this naxal problem is DEVELOPMENT!!!


and PS if we start shooting every single person who talks against us ... then the great concept of 'INDIA' would blow into pieces.....

we chose democracy and we know how to handle criticism....


beside a lil critic is good for health ... dont you think so?.....

cheers



Jai Hind!

 

[Justin Joseph]

Yeah, it is right that our resources have been looted by invaders and Britishers.

And their rule resulted in mismanagement and poverty.

And after 1947 due to sheer size of India and corruption in bureaucracy the gift of british, many areas remain less developed.


But Maoist don't want development and want poor remain poor as the Maoist are supported and funded by China.

Maoist are anti people and anti development.


Maoist bomb blasts schools.

Maoist bomb blasts hospitals.

Maoist bomb blasts railway station.

Maoist burns villages.

Maoist kills tribal.

Maoist kills engineers so no village road can be build.

Maoist looted food grains mend for poor.

 

[HAIDER]

Arundhati Roy is a foreign puppet and Maoist.

She is defender of terrorism, she was who have written in a British newspaper that 26/11 was done by India to blame pakistan.

She will say anything in against of India that will do some bad to us, as she will not be harmed.

As India is a soft state and does not shoots bastard who abuses us and remain using our nationality.

Her earning is depend on India bashing.

That's the nature of few human right activist, we have alot of em in Pakistan too, who think and look public problem through little different dimension. Millions problem emerge when we ignore certain segment of society, because they around us, but we never look down. We got agitated when they make us to look down. That's where the struggle begins.

 

[Justin Joseph]

dude its not about her being maoist or naxalite supporter.....

we have to accept that problems do exist in those area..... and the only solution to this naxal problem is DEVELOPMENT!!!


and PS if we start shooting every single person who talks against us ... then the great concept of 'INDIA' would blow into pieces.....

we chose democracy and we know how to handle criticism....


beside a lil critic is good for health ... dont you think so?.....

cheers



Jai Hind!

No, i don't think.

As you don't know about Arundati Roy and Maoist you can't judge.

They want terrorism and spoil the image of India and that's truth

 

[Justin Joseph]

Her shitty cheap, third class novel got Booker award, it is old tactics make you agent who is no one into a celebrity and carry on your agenda.

These are the foreign funded people, who are their to bring bad name for country and derail the growth.

India is very rich in Minerals but if govt. tries to used our mine they will campaign, if we builds a dam they will campaign they are their just to make us poor and undeveloped.

 

[Spring Onion]

Volume 21 - Issue 16, Jul. 31 - Aug. 13, 2004
India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU
The naxalites' demands


Here is a set of demands of the People's War (P.W.), listed under 10 categories.

I. A democratic atmosphere should be created in the State. The government should respect people's right to fight for their democratic demands.


The government should not prevent agitations, peaceful demonstrations and meetings.

Lift the ban on the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) P.W. and other organisations.

Scrap the system of rewards on workers of P.W., People's Guerilla Army and other mass organisations.

Scrap Grey Hounds, Special Security Forces, and the Special Intelligence Branch (SIB) and withdraw the Central paramilitary forces.

Release all political prisoners.

Scrap the system of giving acceleratory promotions and unofficial incentives to police officers who kill naxalites in fake encounters.

Scrap the informant network in villages. The government should end the practice of winning over P.W. workers and using them as covert agents.

Control `lumpen' gangs such as Green Tigers, Kranti Sena, Palnadu Tigers, Tirumala Tigers and Nayeem Gang.

Order a judicial probe into all fake encounters and punish the police officers responsible.

Lift all cases registered against workers of mass organisations and other revolutionary parties.
II. Implement reforms in the agricultural sector.


Implement land reforms. Handover to the occupants the endowment, government, and forest land and lands belonging to landlords already occupied by people.

Implement the Land Ceiling Act.

Complete all pending irrigation projects. Farmers should be given irrigation facilities and supplied adequate power.

Waive all private loans taken by the farming community to stop suicides by farmers.

Prepare a permanent and integrated plan for tackling the drought situation.

Scrap corporate agriculture.
III. Implement policies of industrialisation and other schemes based on local resources in place of the liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation policies being followed now.


Withdraw all World Bank projects and schemes supported by imperialists.

Stop the retrenchment of workers and the privatisation of public sector enterprises (PSEs).

Protect small- and medium-scale industries from competition by multinational companies (MNCs) and revive cooperative and other PSEs.

Withdraw user charges on drinking water, education and health services.

Scrap all agreements with the World Bank, MNCs and other countries.
IV. Recognise the tribal people's rights on forest.


Announce autonomy for the tribal people.

Implement the "1/70 Act", which provides protection against the alienation of land held by tribal people in scheduled areas to non-tribal people. Stop settling of non-tribal people in areas inhabited by tribal people.

Initiate steps to develop and support tribal languages.
V. Form a separate Telangana State.

VI. Formulate an integrated plan for the development of backward regions of North Coastal and Rayalasseema areas.

VII. Punish those who belittle the self-respect of Dalits. Take action against police officers and upper-caste members responsible for attacks on Dalits in Karamchedu, Tsundur, Neerukonda and Vempenta.


Provide job reservation for Dalits in the private sector.
VIII. Equal property rights for women.


Reservation for women in the private sector.

Stringent punishment for those who commit atrocities on women.
IX. Implement total prohibition.

X. Order a probe into the illegal amassing of wealth by officials, politicians and capitalists; corruption scandals by officials and politicians.


Recover money from the affluent who evade taxes.

The naxalites' demands

 

[HAIDER]

Faiz and Bano amazing contribution to struggle of oppressed people. Amazing poetry.
In Urdu.

 

[Spring Onion]

Faiz and Bano amazing contribution to struggle of oppressed people. Amazing poetry.
In Urdu.
YouTube - Hum Dekhenge ( Iqbal Bano ) Complete Poem

Thank you haider i was looking for it