Separatist Insurgencies in India - News and Discussions.

[advaita]

What is required is more schools, hospitals to uplift tribal communities. What is not required are the SEZs and organizations like the Salwa Judum.

Your avtar forces me to write out my opinion. As you can well guess by now I am right of center Indian.

Salwa Judum is a concept to help people save themselves from these predators. Though it is true that the executive function requires a certain higher degree of control and locals (tribals or otherwise) cannot be trusteed with weapons with their limited perspective and their not being a disinterested party. Still the the concept was not morally reprehensible. Every citizen who is facing dire circumstances has a right to protect himself/herself. Those who joined Salwa Judum will form a part of the Intel network now.

And what have you got against SEZs. They work so well every part of the world except the heart of a facist commie. Is it so difficult for you to realise that SEZs and agrarian/forest based economies can easily coexist. When the fight should have been for better citizenship rights, these bloody commies have made it a this worses that fight.

India has survived infections much worse then this and Naxals will not be successful in creating a rift in the country but commie ideologues and socialist ideology has held back the true potential of India for so long that I cannot but feel anger towards you guys.

 

[Nemesis]

Allright advaita, i'll play along.

Salwa Judum is a concept to help people save themselves from these predators.

No, the salwa judum are full of feudal landlords who use the "threat of leftist terrorism" to subjugate the peasantry. What right do they have to take the law into their own hands? None. It is the responsibility of the state to protect tribals, not arm landlords to exacerbate the problem even further.

With the police and with para-military forces, there is at least a system of checks in place to make sure the tribal population is not oppressed - at least in theory - what rights and balances are in place for the salwa judum?

The fact that the Chattisgarh government is arming civilians to fight these insurgents shows that the state government is itself an abomination.

Though it is true that the executive function requires a certain higher degree of control and locals (tribals or otherwise) cannot be trusteed with weapons with their limited perspective and their not being a disinterested party. Still the the concept was not morally reprehensible.

Yes the concept is morally reprehensible. If the state cannot protect it's citizens then the state should quit. Moreover, what the state government is doing is illegal.

Hearing plea against Salwa Judum, SC says State cannot arm civilians to kill

The Salwa Judum movement in Chhattisgarh wherein civilians, allegedly armed by the state, counter Naxalites has come under the scrutiny of the Supreme Court which today observed: “You (the state) cannot give arms to somebody and allow him to kill.”

Hearing two petitions seeking a direction to the state government to refrain from allegedly supporting and encouraging the Salwa Judum, a Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice Aftab Alam said: “It is a question of law and order. You cannot give arms to somebody (a civilian) and allow him to kill. You will be an abettor of the offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.”

And what have you got against SEZs.

Everything.

hey work so well every part of the world except the heart of a facist commie.

Fascist commie? Isnt that a paradox? Do you even know what these words signify? Do not throw around words when you don't know their meanings.

Is it so difficult for you to realise that SEZs and agrarian/forest based economies can easily coexist.

In a country as unequal as India, the creation of SEZs would result in greater inequality. Moreover, SEZs are created to benefit who exactly? People like you and me? The billionaire businessman who would add another billion into his bank account? or the population of these areas? The former two yes, the latter, no.

When the fight should have been for better citizenship rights, these bloody commies have made it a this worses that fight.

Citizen rights? Laughable. Forced eviction is an example of citizen rights, is it?
For a farmer to be shot at for protesting the illegal sale of agricultural land is also citizens right, yes?

Capitalist enterprises don't give two hoots about citizens rights. They only care about is profit.

India has survived infections much worse then this

Yes, India continues to survive despite an awful RSS/VHP infestation.

and Naxals will not be successful in creating a rift in the country

Naxals are not interested in creating rifts in the country. Their aim is the overthrow of the political state to establish a "revolutionary government".

but commie ideologues and socialist ideology has held back the true potential of India

Amusing as neither commie ideology nor socialism has truly been enforced in India. Do you even know what socialism means? It is not Indira gandhi's license raj.

for so long that I cannot but feel anger towards you guys.

Yes yes, please continue to feel angry towards me. It is quite irrelevant.

 

[ouiouiouiouiouioui]

internal issue i dont want to comment .....

 

[advaita]

@Nemesis, I would never have bothered to answer to your post had you not been an Indian.
Still

No, the salwa judum are full of feudal landlords who use the "threat of leftist terrorism" to subjugate the peasantry. What right do they have to take the law into their own hands? None. It is the responsibility of the state to protect tribals, not arm landlords to exacerbate the problem even further.

With the police and with para-military forces, there is at least a system of checks in place to make sure the tribal population is not oppressed - at least in theory - what rights and balances are in place for the salwa judum?

The fact that the Chattisgarh government is arming civilians to fight these insurgents shows that the state government is itself an abomination.

Yes the concept is morally reprehensible. If the state cannot protect it's citizens then the state should quit. Moreover, what the state government is doing is illegal.

Hearing plea against Salwa Judum, SC says State cannot arm civilians to kill

Your view. My view is that even the so called feudal landlords are Indian citizens just as much as Tribals. Exception to citizenship being only for Naxals/VHP/Bajrang Dal/Commies/Honorary Pakistanis and these are already loosing on all fronts though I must admit I would have liked the beating much more severe and much swifter.

Naxals are only exploiters of Tribals just as much as admittedly a small bunch but a virulent bunch of non-tribals. Whatever good they claim to be doing is exactly in the nature of the programs of VHP in India and JI in Pakistan. They just want to bury the natural abilities of tribals under tons of commie Ehsaan.

Also I have already admitted Salwa Judum in Indian conditions would not have worked. But morally reprehensible. Ok I see your point, Naxals taking up arms is ok but Salwa is not. I can see where you are going. Trying to build up a fight between Tribals and Non-tribals......Anyway Naxals are still going to loose, something they deserve.

Everything.

Poors of Bengal remained poor inspite of there agrarian economy and still they allowed Nano (and concommitent Industrialisation that was to come) to be denied entry. Nano went to Uttrakhand (admittedly in a limited manner) where the people were even worse off (because of poor mountain soil) but had an open mind towards libralisation and you just wait and see.....Uttrakand will overtake Bengal too (Bengal was at one time amongst the advanced states of India). Tatas have already asked its suppliers to bring in there investments into that state. We have a higher literacy rate compared to national average there, inspite of abject poverty and we will get our fair share of Indian dream also. Simply because we are ready to work hard and long and earn our due citizenship instead of believing in the get equal quick schemes a la the Libyan.
The natural human state is specialization to develop competitive survival skills and that is already on its way to restoration even in the most holiest of commie country (NK is resisting and BTW this commie has also turned fascist even by text book defination).

Fascist commie? Isnt that a paradox? Do you even know what these words signify? Do not throw around words when you don't know their meanings.

Commies have killed more people in history then any other bunch, they have also denied the rights of the largest number of people in history and denied equality to the largest number of people in history by denying the natural accumulation of the benefits of industry and hardwork over time, just so they could sell the chimera of instantaneous equality to the uneducated masses. Exactly like nay far far more then Fascist and they will meet the exact same fate. You go by what you read in books I go by the deeds. The choice is there but of course the consequences will also be there.

In a country as unequal as India, the creation of SEZs would result in greater inequality. Moreover, SEZs are created to benefit who exactly? People like you and me?

Don’t club me with yourself. I know what I have gone through to get what I have. And you have no idea what I am working towards.
Also just till 1 generation back pretty much everybody in this country was in the same boat as I was in my personal history.

The billionaire businessman who would add another billion into his bank account? or the population of these areas? The former two yes, the latter, no.

Ref the Nano and Uttrakhand example. Also how do you explain the migration of tribals to cities in search of livelihood if the Naxals/Commies are giving them a heaven in there. Must be a RAW conspiracy.

And besides Do you even have an idea about the kind of risks that need to be taken in business and the kind of exertion that goes into making a good one. And BTW do billionaires eat money or do they invest it back into productive and efficient assets.

Citizen rights? Laughable. Forced eviction is an example of citizen rights, is it?

You probably don’t understand that our agricultural productivity levels are amongst the lowest in the world even in the well irrigated areas. This is only because of the poor adaptablity to new technology and methodologies and persisting with old ideas which clubbed with increasing populations (tribal and non-tribal) is what brought the diffulties in our food security.

For a farmer to be shot at for protesting the illegal sale of agricultural land is also citizens right, yes?

What about shooting non-tribals? What about undermining the offsprings of tribals themselves? Today we have to export ore (99% mitti) simply because we don’t have installed capacity to refine it and this inspite of the fact that we are fairly competitive in metals and metallurgy.

Capitalist enterprises don't give two hoots about citizens rights. They only care about is profit.

Strange the whole world is critical of US and Europe for there welfare budgeting.

Naxals are not interested in creating rifts in the country. Their aim is the overthrow of the political state to establish a "revolutionary government".

Yup by preventing the tribals from integrating into the industrialization process of India.

Amusing as neither commie ideology nor socialism has truly been enforced in India. Do you even know what socialism means? It is not Indira gandhi's license raj.

Strange every single person I read said that Indirajis License Raj preventing entrepreneurial development, were leftist Ideas. IMO your ideas of left are something like Wahabis how also claim that whatever they don’t agree with is not Islam.

Yes yes, please continue to feel angry towards me. It is quite irrelevant.

Your comment about the state quiting. Well try it….. Many like you commies came and went. India is only poor not a giver upper.

 

[Nemesis]

Advaita, this would be my last reply on this topic. I do not think a foreign forum is a proper place for this discussion.

Your view. My view is that even the so called feudal landlords are Indian citizens just as much as Tribals.

and? The point is not whether they are Indian citizens, the point is whether they have been treated fairly. Feudal landlords have throughout the years exploited the poor in these areas. While these landlords live in mansions, the majority live in small huts. I find that morally reprehensible.

Exception to citizenship being only for Naxals/VHP/Bajrang Dal/Commies/Honorary Pakistanis and these are already loosing on all fronts though I must admit I would have liked the beating much more severe and much swifter.

Commies again!! You really need to stop using American lingo.

Naxals are only exploiters of Tribals just as much as admittedly a small bunch but a virulent bunch of non-tribals.

Naxals have exploited tribals yes. But the problem did not start with the Naxals, it started with a "virulent bunch of non-tribals".

Whatever good they claim to be doing is exactly in the nature of the programs of VHP in India and JI in Pakistan.

No, it is not the same. If you cannot grasp that, that is entirely your concern.

They just want to bury the natural abilities of tribals under tons of commie Ehsaan.

Natural abilities of tribals? What pray might they be? Do they have some inherent abilities in them when they are born? Don't talk nonsense. Nobody has "natural abilities". What we are, what we will be - is a result of socio-economic conditions we are born in.

Also I have already admitted Salwa Judum in Indian conditions would not have worked.

What does work mean exactly? Arming one segment of citizens so that they can kill another segment?

But morally reprehensible.

Yes, morally reprehensible. You see, in a democratic society, people vote for governments so that they provide law and order. We don't vote for them so that they make the situation worse. I believe the Supreme Court agrees with me.

Ok I see your point, Naxals taking up arms is ok but Salwa is not. I can see where you are going. Trying to build up a fight between Tribals and Non-tribals......Anyway Naxals are still going to loose, something they deserve.

No, you do not see my point. Please quote me where i have said that naxals taking up arms is okay. No seriously, quote me.

My point is, the only way to end the naxal insurgency is to improve the lives of our rural population. We, right now, are following economic policies that benefit people who live in cities, creating greater inequality, and increasing alienation.

Poors of Bengal remained poor inspite of there agrarian economy and still they allowed Nano (and concommitent Industrialisation that was to come) to be denied entry.

Please have a look at land reforms done in Bengal. They are a model to be followed. And the only people who denied them entry were farmers who did not wish to sell their land. Is that so despicable?

Nano went to Uttrakhand (admittedly in a limited manner) where the people were even worse off (because of poor mountain soil) but had an open mind towards libralisation and you just wait and see.....Uttrakand will overtake Bengal too (Bengal was at one time amongst the advanced states of India). Tatas have already asked its suppliers to bring in there investments into that state. We have a higher literacy rate compared to national average there, inspite of abject poverty and we will get our fair share of Indian dream also. Simply because we are ready to work hard and long and earn our due citizenship instead of believing in the get equal quick schemes a la the Libyan.

Ironic that you ridicule socialist ideology as being a "get equal quick scheme" when in fact it is capitalist industrialization that tries to seduce the world with its "get rich quick schemes".

The natural human state is specialization to develop competitive survival skills

Natural human state? Now, you throw these words around like they mean something but they don't. Many people throughout the years have said what the natural human state is - Aristotle, Erasmus, Locke, Engels and Marx, etc. Whether there is such a thing as a natural human state is debatable. What is not is that the natural human state is certainly not developing "competitive survival skills."

and that is already on its way to restoration even in the most holiest of commie country (NK is resisting and BTW this commie has also turned fascist even by text book defination).

You just contradicted yourself.

Commies have killed more people in history then any other bunch,

No. That would be religion.

they have also denied the rights of the largest number of people in history

Capitalism.

and denied equality to the largest number of people in history by denying the natural accumulation of the benefits of industry and hardwork over time

Benefits of industry and hard work? Seriously dude, what is wrong with you? Even an American citizen - who have perfected the rhetoric of hard work - would not talk like this. Especially after having faced an economic meltdown.

To use your logic against you, a farmer works a million times harder then any Ambani ever could. So why is it that Mukesh Ambani lives in a skyscraper and spends more money in an hour then most farmers would in ten years?

just so they could sell the chimera of instantaneous equality to the uneducated masses.

Socialism doesn't talk of equality. It talks of equal opportunities. And even Communism doesn't say that equality would be instantaneous. I suggest you properly read up on these ideologies.

You go by what you read in books I go by the deeds. The choice is there but of course the consequences will also be there.

Deeds are done by men. The difference is the idea.

Don’t club me with yourself. I know what I have gone through to get what I have. And you have no idea what I am working towards.
Also just till 1 generation back pretty much everybody in this country was in the same boat as I was in my personal history.

You and i are in the same boat. Whether you like it or not, we are both beneficiaries of India's economy. What i want is that all people receive the same opportunities that i have.

Also how do you explain the migration of tribals to cities in search of livelihood if the Naxals/Commies are giving them a heaven in there. Must be a RAW conspiracy.

or it could be as a result of the inequality i was talking about. Cities develop while the rural countryside remains behind. So why wouldn't they migrate to the cities?

And besides Do you even have an idea about the kind of risks that need to be taken in business and the kind of exertion that goes into making a good one. And BTW do billionaires eat money or do they invest it back into productive and efficient assets.

Risks? Don't make me laugh. A Billionaire loses a couple of million in a bad investment is no risk at all. The real risk is to take loan in order to buy better seeds, not knowing whether you'll be able to pay back the loan. The farmers in Vidharba know all about this kind of risk.

You probably don’t understand that our agricultural productivity levels are amongst the lowest in the world even in the well irrigated areas. This is only because of the poor adaptablity to new technology and methodologies and persisting with old ideas which clubbed with increasing populations (tribal and non-tribal) is what brought the diffulties in our food security.

Agreed. But what does that have to do with the topic in question?

What about shooting non-tribals? What about undermining the offsprings of tribals themselves? Today we have to export ore (99% mitti) simply because we don’t have installed capacity to refine it and this inspite of the fact that we are fairly competitive in metals and metallurgy.

So why isnt the government setting up industries in Jharkhand and Orissa to refine ore and other metals? Why is it giving contracts to refine our natural resources to foreign companies?

Yup by preventing the tribals from integrating into the industrialization process of India.

I'm not against industrialization.

Strange every single person I read said that Indirajis License Raj preventing entrepreneurial development, were leftist Ideas.

Read where? The Times of India? The economist? Please don't read toe-rag publications that are basking in the glory of our economic reforms.

IMO your ideas of left are something like Wahabis how also claim that whatever they don’t agree with is not Islam.

You think all leftist ideology is the same? That socialism = Communism = anarchy? Once again, read a proper book.

Your comment about the state quiting. Well try it….. Many like you commies came and went. India is only poor not a giver upper.

Once again, your opinions and advice are quite irrelevant.

 

[quriosity]

internal issue i dont want to comment .....

Thank you my Indian fellow.

 

[Khajur]

and? The point is not whether they are Indian citizens, the point is whether they have been treated fairly. Feudal landlords have throughout the years exploited the poor in these areas. While these landlords live in mansions, the majority live in small huts. I find that morally reprehensible.

Who are the landllords in tribal belt of orissa,chattisgarh and Jharkhand??

Naxalites of AP or west Bengal might had faced feudal landlord problems in the past.

But the current maoists groups are trying to occupy the indias mineral rich pristine of tribal belt jungles of orissa,Chatishgarh and Jharkhand at the gun where modern communication links arenot well developed gving perfect hideouts to maoists to launch their attacks.Also it provides very good oppurtunities to extort crores of rupees from private coal mine field operators .

Naxalites and Maoists have left the ideology behind the struggle long time ago ,now its about power struggle ,money,international terrorism backed by foreign anti indian elements.

 

[Coolyo]

THE leader of India's Maoist rebels has vowed to unleash a "tornado" of violence if the government goes ahead with a planned large-scale offensive against his insurgent forces.

In an interview published in the latest edition of the weekly magazine Open, Mupalla Laxman Rao, better known as Ganapathi, said any offensive might secure some early gains but insisted final victory would lay in the hands of the rebels.

"Although the enemy may achieve a few successes in the initial phase, we shall certainly overcome and defeat the government offensive," Ganapathi said.

The interview was conducted at an undisclosed jungle location in eastern India, part of a vast, Maoist-affected region known as the "red corridor," which includes areas of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal states, and runs south through Orissa, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

These states and their police and paramilitary forces will be in the frontline of the planned anti-rebel offensive, which is expected to begin in November, with the involvement of hundreds of thousands of security personnel.

Ganapathi, a 59-year-old former school teacher, said the operation would provoke a mass response.

"People will rise up like a tornado under our party's leadership to wipe out the reactionary blood-sucking vampires ruling our country," he said, branding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P. Chidambaram "terrorists".

Manmohan Singh has described the Maoist insurgency, which began as a peasant uprising in 1967, as the single greatest threat to India's internal security.

The Maoists say they are fighting for the rights of the rural poor and local tribes, but officials accuse them of using intimidation and extortion to collect money and to control impoverished villagers.

Indian Maoists vow 'tornado of violence' | The Australian

 

[gogbot]

Let go of weapons, or be destroyed is the Message from Delhi.

India's resolve cant shaken, Maoists are at the end of their rope
.
Soft targets will be at risk but leaving them out there will not make things any safer.

 

[hembo]

If Taliban attack India, we'll fight them, say Maoists
Tue, Oct 20 11:05 AM

Jamshedpur, Oct. 20 -- When it comes to the threat posed by the Taliban, India's extreme Left wants to be seen on the right side. The Maoists now seem to be saying that India's enemy is not necessarily their friend, and want to get rid of the 'terror' tag attached to them. "If the Taliban attack India, we will stand with the people and rally against the attack," CPI (Maoist) politburo member and their combat forces' second-in-command Koteswar Rao alias Kishenji (51) told HT. He was reacting to the Pakistan Taliban's threat to attack India once their objective of turning their own country into a hardline Islamist state was achieved. Kishenji, however, has claimed that the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) or CPI (Maoist) has strong ties with ultra-Left wing and alleged terrorist outfits, including Kashmiri separatists, from at least 36 countries. The beheading of Jharkhand special branch inspector Francis Induwar earlier this month has been seen as a Taliban-style execution. Under pressure from various quarters for waging war against the state and killing innocent people - at least 445 people were killed in Naxal violence in the first six months of this year alone - underground Maoist leaders are now trying to dissociate themselves from being associated with terror.

"How can they be patriots when they are there to destroy the Constitution?" said Pankaj Khamboj, a young Jharkhand cadre IPS officer, who arrested Naxal leaders Ravi Sharma and his wife Anuradha last week from Hazaribagh district.

 

[arihant]

this is alarming propaganda. Once Taliban comes in India, then might fight but once they leave, who knows we may lose democracy.

 

[RiazHaq]

Here are excerpts from a NY Times story today about growing Maoist insurgency in India:

India’s Maoist rebels are now present in 20 states and have evolved into a potent and lethal insurgency. In the last four years, the Maoists have killed more than 900 Indian security officers, a figure almost as high as the more than 1,100 members of the coalition forces killed in Afghanistan during the same period.

If the Maoists were once dismissed as a ragtag band of outdated ideologues, Indian leaders are now preparing to deploy nearly 70,000 paramilitary officers for a prolonged counterinsurgency campaign to hunt down the guerrillas in some of the country’s most rugged, isolated terrain.

For India, the widening Maoist insurgency is a moment of reckoning for the country’s democracy and has ignited a sharp debate about where it has failed. In the past, India has tamed some secessionist movements by coaxing rebel groups into the country’s big-tent political process. The Maoists, however, do not want to secede or be absorbed. Their goal is to topple the system.

Once considered Robin Hood figures, the Maoists claim to represent the dispossessed of Indian society, particularly the indigenous tribal groups, who suffer some of the country’s highest rates of poverty, illiteracy and infant mortality. Many intellectuals and even some politicians once sympathized with their cause, but the growing Maoist violence has forced a wrenching reconsideration of whether they can still be tolerated.

“The root of this is dispossession and deprivation,” said Ramachandra Guha, a prominent historian based in Bangalore. “The Maoists are an ugly manifestation of this. This is a serious problem that is not going to disappear.”



Related Links:

Haq's Musings: Taliban or RAW-liban?

Haq's Musings: Bloody Revolution in India?

Haq's Musings: The 21st Century Challenges of Resurgent India

 

[Nemesis]

and? there is nothing in your post that can be considered new info. Already been discussed to death.

 

[bigmoneymaker]

Oh,my!!!!!emerging robin hood of india is going to save the day of the massive poor!!!!

 

[deathfromabove]

Maoist Rebels Widen Deadly Reach Across India

November 1, 2009

Jim Yardley

BARSUR, India — At the edge of the Indravati River, hundreds of miles from the nearest international border, India effectively ends. Indian paramilitary officers point machine guns across the water. The dense jungles and mountains on the other side belong to Maoist rebels dedicated to overthrowing the government. Indigenous women walked to a market in Chattisgarh State, where villagers are caught between the Indian government and Maoist rebels.

“That is their liberated zone,” said P. Bhojak, one of the officers stationed at the river’s edge in this town in the eastern state of Chattisgarh. Or one piece of it. India’s Maoist rebels are now present in 20 states and have evolved into a potent and lethal insurgency. In the last four years, the Maoists have killed more than 900 Indian security officers, a figure almost as high as the more than 1,100 members of the coalition forces killed in Afghanistan during the same period. If the Maoists were once dismissed as a ragtag band of outdated ideologues, Indian leaders are now preparing to deploy nearly 70,000 paramilitary officers for a prolonged counterinsurgency campaign to hunt down the guerrillas in some of the country’s most rugged, isolated terrain.

For India, the widening Maoist insurgency is a moment of reckoning for the country’s democracy and has ignited a sharp debate about where it has failed. In the past, India has tamed some secessionist movements by coaxing rebel groups into the country’s big-tent political process. The Maoists, however, do not want to secede or be absorbed. Their goal is to topple the system. Once considered Robin Hood figures, the Maoists claim to represent the dispossessed of Indian society, particularly the indigenous tribal groups, who suffer some of the country’s highest rates of poverty, illiteracy and infant mortality.

Many intellectuals and even some politicians once sympathized with their cause, but the growing Maoist violence has forced a wrenching reconsideration of whether they can still be tolerated. “The root of this is dispossession and deprivation,” said Ramachandra Guha, a prominent historian based in Bangalore. “The Maoists are an ugly manifestation of this. This is a serious problem that is not going to disappear.” India’s rapid economic growth has made it an emerging global power but also deepened stark inequalities in society. Maoists accuse the government of trying to push tribal groups off their land to gain access to raw materials and have sabotaged roads, bridges and even an energy pipeline. If the Maoists’ political goals seem unattainable, analysts warn they will not be easy to uproot, either.

Here in the state of Chattisgarh, Maoists dominate thousands of square miles of territory and have pushed into neighboring states of Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand and Maharashtra, part of a so-called Red Corridor stretching across central and eastern India. Violence erupts almost daily. In the past five years, Maoists have detonated more than 1,000 improvised explosive devices in Chattisgarh. Within the past two weeks, Maoists have burned two schools in Jharkhand, hijacked and later released a passenger train in West Bengal while also carrying out a raid against a West Bengal police station. Efforts are under way to open peace negotiations, but as yet remain stalemated. With the government offensive drawing closer, the people who feel most at risk are the tribal villagers who live in the forests of Chattisgarh, where the police and Maoists, sometimes called Naxalites, are already skirmishing

Earlier,” said one villager, “we used to fear the tigers and wild boars. Now we fear the guns of the Naxalites and the police.” The counterinsurgency campaign, called Operation Green Hunt, calls for sending police and paramilitary forces into the jungles to confront the Maoists and drive them out of newer footholds toward remote forest areas where they can be contained. “It may take one year, two years, three years or four,” predicted Vishwa Ranjan, chief of the state police in Chattisgarh, adding that casualties would be inevitable. “There is no zero casualty doctrine,” he said. Once an area is cleared, the plan also calls for introducing development projects such as roads, bridges and schools in hopes of winning support of the tribal people. Also known as adivasis, they have faced decades of exploitation from local officials, moneylenders and private contractors, numerous government reports have found. “The adivasis are the group least incorporated into India’s political economy,” said Ashutosh Varshney, an India specialist at Brown University, calling their plight one of the “unfinished quests of Indian democracy.” The Maoist movement first coalesced after a violent 1967 uprising by local Communists over a land dispute in a West Bengal village known as Naxalbari, hence the name Naxalites.

Some Communists would enter the political system; today, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is an influential political force that holds power in West Bengal. But others went underground, and by the 1980s, many found sanctuary in Chattisgarh, especially in the region across from the Indravati River known as Abhujmad. From here, the Maoists recruited and trained disgruntled tribal villagers and slowly spread out. For years, the central government regarded them as mostly a nuisance. But in 2004, the movement radicalized, authorities say, when its two dominant wings merged with the more violent Communist Party of India (Maoist).
A woman stepped over a downed tree in a village in Maharashtra State. Maoist rebels have sabotaged roads in their campaign to topple the government. Authorities in Chattisgarh then deputized and armed civilian posses, which have been accused by human rights groups of terrorizing innocent villagers and committing atrocities of their own in the name of hunting Maoists. Now, violence is frequent, if unpredictable, like the ambush near the village of Laheri, in Maharashtra State, carried out by the Maoists on Oct. 8.

That morning, following a tip, a police patrol chased two Maoist fighters and stumbled into a trap. Two hundred Maoists with rifles and machine guns lay waiting and opened fire when the officers came into an exposed area of rice paddies. Seventeen officers died, fighting for hours until they ran out of ammunition.

“They surrounded us from every side,” said Ajay Bhushari, 31, who survived the ambush and is now the commanding officer in Laheri. “They were just stronger. They had more people.”

The Maoists felled trees across the only road leading to the village. The police, already wary of using roads because of improvised explosive devices, marched their reinforcements 10 miles through the jungle, arriving too late at the scene.

Officer Bhushari said violence in the area had risen so sharply that the police now left the fortified defenses of their outpost only in large groups, even for social outings. The Maoists also killed 31 police officers from other nearby outposts in attacks in February and May.

“It’s an open jail for us,” he said. “Either we are sitting here, or we are on patrol. There is nothing else.”

About 40 miles from Laheri, a processing plant owned by Essar Steel has been closed for five months. Maoists sabotaged Essar’s 166-mile underground pipeline, which transfers slurry from one of India’s most coveted iron ore deposits to the Bay of Bengal. “I’ve told my management that I’ll take a team and do the repairs,” said S. Ramesh, the project manager for Essar. “But I can’t promise how long it will last.”

The Essar plant is part of broader undertaking by the government and several private mining companies to extract the resources beneath land teeming with guerrillas. Mr. Ramesh said 70 percent of India’s iron ore lay in states infiltrated by Maoists; production in this area is stalled at 16 million tons a year even though the area has the potential to produce 100 million tons.

Mr. Ramesh fretted that India’s growth would be stunted if the country could not exploit its own natural resources. Yet he also cautioned that the counterinsurgency operation was no cure-all. “That alone is not going to help,” he said. “We are not fighting an enemy here. We are fighting citizens.”

With police officers dying in large numbers and Maoists carrying out bolder attacks, the debate around the insurgency has sharpened in India’s intellectual salons and on the opinion pages and talk shows.

The writer Arundhati Roy recently called for unconditional talks and told CNN-IBN that the Maoists were justified in taking up arms because of government oppression. Others who are sympathetic to the plight of the adivasis say the Maoist violence has become intolerable.

“You can’t defend the tactics,” said Mr. Varshney, the Brown University professor. “No modern state can accept attacks on state institutions, even when the state is wrong.”

Local people are caught in the middle. On a recent market day in the village of Palnar, women balancing urns of water on their heads and bare-footed, emaciated men came out of the forests to shop for vegetables, nuts or a ******* fruit fermented to produce local liquor. As peddlers spread their wares over blankets, the nearby government office was locked behind a closed gate.

“It’s a bad situation,” said one villager who asked not to be identified, fearing retribution from both sides. “The Naxalite activities have increased. They have their meetings in the village. They tell the people they have to fight. The people here do not vote out of fear.”

Another man arrived on a motorcycle from a more distant village. Several months ago, the police raided his village and arrested more than a dozen people after accusing them of being collaborators. A few were Maoist sympathizers, the man on the motorcycle said, but most were wrongly swept up in the raid. Now, Operation Green Hunt portends more confrontation.

“Life is very difficult,” the man said. “The Naxalites think we are helping the police. The police think we are helping the Naxalites. We are living in fear over who will kill us first.”