India's Naxalite Insurgency Grows, Targets Landowners, Business
By Jay Shankar
Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) -- India's communist rebels, known as Naxalites,
are winning support from the rural poor as they expand an insurgency
into 17 of the country's 28 states, targeting landowners and industry,
Mehda Bisht, a defense analyst, said.
The government has deployed a force of 1,500 soldiers and policemen in
the eastern state of Orissa where the rebels last week killed 14
policemen.
``Naxals are very incipient now,'' said Bisht of the independent
Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses in New Delhi. ``Down the
line, it may become a body like'' the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam, which has waged a 25-year fight for a separate homeland in Sri
Lanka, she added.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Dec. 20 the extremists are
the ``single biggest security challenge to the Indian state'' and
called for a special force to tackle the groups. The rebels operate
across India in regions that contributed about three-quarters of the
country's $775 billion gross domestic product in the financial year
ending March 2006, according to government figures.
The states include Maharashtra in the west, Uttar Pradesh in the
north, the eastern state of West Bengal and the southern state of
Andhra Pradesh.
The rebels, inspired by China's former leader Mao Zedong, have killed
598 security personnel and 1,894 civilians in the four years until
Oct. 31, according to the Indian government. They operate in tribal
and rural areas and fight for jobs and land for the poor.
Rebel Attacks
At least 25 people were killed and 80 others injured in an attack by
Naxalites in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh in July last year.
Last March, rebels shot dead a member of parliament, Sunil Kumar
Mahato, in Jharkhand state. Former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh,
N. Janardhan Reddy, and his wife, escaped an assassination attempt in
September, the Times of India newspaper said in a report at the time.
A group of about 500 gunmen attacked five police posts late on Feb. 15
in Nayagarh in Orissa, stealing arms and ammunition, state-run
broadcaster Doordarshan reported Feb. 17. The attack left 14 policemen
dead.
The Naxalites have their origin in Naxalbari village in West Bengal
state. An uprising led by communist leaders Charu Majumdar and Kanu
Sanyal began in May 1967 after a laborer was attacked by a landlord in
the village.
Groups such as the People's War Group, Maoist Communist Centre and
Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) merged in September 2004
to form the Communist Party of India (Maoist).
Fighting Back
``In the short term, the problem will continue,'' M.L. Kumawat,
special secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, said in a telephone
interview from New Delhi. ``In the long term, the states'
comprehensive strategy will succeed. People will not allow those
elements who want the democracy of this country to be lynched. They
cannot capture power with weapons. No state will ever allow that.''
Chhattisgarh, a state with mineral resources such as iron ore,
bauxite, diamonds and coal, is the ``epicenter'' of the rebels now,
Kumawat said.
The economic opportunities that are opening now ``are being shut by
the Maoists,'' especially in Chhattisgarh, said Ajai Sahni, executive
director of the Institute of Conflict Management, an independent
organization researching internal security in South Asia. ``By far
this is the most serious problem that is confronting the country.''
In Chhattisgarh, 311 security personnel and civilians were killed by
the rebels last year while 123 people were killed in neighboring
Jharkhand state, according to the government.
New Strategy
There are about 80,000 supporters of Maoists in India and 7,000 are
armed, said Paul Soren, a researcher at the New Delhi- based Observer
Research Foundation. After targeting industries, rebels are now
attacking government establishments and policemen.
``They have a presence in urban centers such as New Delhi,'' he said.
Hundreds of thousands of poor people, particularly from India's tribal
belts, are joining the Naxalite militia to conduct raids and
participate in attacks, Varavara Rao, 67, a communist and Naxalite
sympathizer based in the southern city of Hyderabad, said in a
telephone interview. ``The main reason is globalization.''
Economic Zones
So-called special economic zones are displacing people in India and
even the communist-ruled state of West Bengal is trying to give away
land to international companies, Rao said.
``The poor have no land, no water, no clothes, no food and no
shelter,'' he said. ``The movement will gain momentum as more peasants
are joining in. They are the people who are marginalized by
globalization. Now they are fighting back.''
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya's government in
March last year abandoned a plan to acquire land for trade zones after
protests led to the deaths of at least 14 people in Nandigram.
The Maoists are getting more sophisticated weapons and forging links
with groups in Nepal and Bangladesh, Soren said.
``This is not a terrorist module. It is an insurgency'' and the Maoist
strategy is to mobilize people and then arm them, Sahni said. ``The
hiatus between these two can be anything between three to five years.
The government thinks it is a peripheral issue which they can manage
through an emergency response.''
To contact the reporter on this story: Jay Shankar in Bangalore at
jshankar1@bloomberg.net
Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) -- India's communist rebels, known as Naxalites,
are winning support from the rural poor as they expand an insurgency
into 17 of the country's 28 states, targeting landowners and industry,
Mehda Bisht, a defense analyst, said.
The government has deployed a force of 1,500 soldiers and policemen in
the eastern state of Orissa where the rebels last week killed 14
policemen.
``Naxals are very incipient now,'' said Bisht of the independent
Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses in New Delhi. ``Down the
line, it may become a body like'' the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam, which has waged a 25-year fight for a separate homeland in Sri
Lanka, she added.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Dec. 20 the extremists are
the ``single biggest security challenge to the Indian state'' and
called for a special force to tackle the groups. The rebels operate
across India in regions that contributed about three-quarters of the
country's $775 billion gross domestic product in the financial year
ending March 2006, according to government figures.
The states include Maharashtra in the west, Uttar Pradesh in the
north, the eastern state of West Bengal and the southern state of
Andhra Pradesh.
The rebels, inspired by China's former leader Mao Zedong, have killed
598 security personnel and 1,894 civilians in the four years until
Oct. 31, according to the Indian government. They operate in tribal
and rural areas and fight for jobs and land for the poor.
Rebel Attacks
At least 25 people were killed and 80 others injured in an attack by
Naxalites in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh in July last year.
Last March, rebels shot dead a member of parliament, Sunil Kumar
Mahato, in Jharkhand state. Former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh,
N. Janardhan Reddy, and his wife, escaped an assassination attempt in
September, the Times of India newspaper said in a report at the time.
A group of about 500 gunmen attacked five police posts late on Feb. 15
in Nayagarh in Orissa, stealing arms and ammunition, state-run
broadcaster Doordarshan reported Feb. 17. The attack left 14 policemen
dead.
The Naxalites have their origin in Naxalbari village in West Bengal
state. An uprising led by communist leaders Charu Majumdar and Kanu
Sanyal began in May 1967 after a laborer was attacked by a landlord in
the village.
Groups such as the People's War Group, Maoist Communist Centre and
Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) merged in September 2004
to form the Communist Party of India (Maoist).
Fighting Back
``In the short term, the problem will continue,'' M.L. Kumawat,
special secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, said in a telephone
interview from New Delhi. ``In the long term, the states'
comprehensive strategy will succeed. People will not allow those
elements who want the democracy of this country to be lynched. They
cannot capture power with weapons. No state will ever allow that.''
Chhattisgarh, a state with mineral resources such as iron ore,
bauxite, diamonds and coal, is the ``epicenter'' of the rebels now,
Kumawat said.
The economic opportunities that are opening now ``are being shut by
the Maoists,'' especially in Chhattisgarh, said Ajai Sahni, executive
director of the Institute of Conflict Management, an independent
organization researching internal security in South Asia. ``By far
this is the most serious problem that is confronting the country.''
In Chhattisgarh, 311 security personnel and civilians were killed by
the rebels last year while 123 people were killed in neighboring
Jharkhand state, according to the government.
New Strategy
There are about 80,000 supporters of Maoists in India and 7,000 are
armed, said Paul Soren, a researcher at the New Delhi- based Observer
Research Foundation. After targeting industries, rebels are now
attacking government establishments and policemen.
``They have a presence in urban centers such as New Delhi,'' he said.
Hundreds of thousands of poor people, particularly from India's tribal
belts, are joining the Naxalite militia to conduct raids and
participate in attacks, Varavara Rao, 67, a communist and Naxalite
sympathizer based in the southern city of Hyderabad, said in a
telephone interview. ``The main reason is globalization.''
Economic Zones
So-called special economic zones are displacing people in India and
even the communist-ruled state of West Bengal is trying to give away
land to international companies, Rao said.
``The poor have no land, no water, no clothes, no food and no
shelter,'' he said. ``The movement will gain momentum as more peasants
are joining in. They are the people who are marginalized by
globalization. Now they are fighting back.''
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya's government in
March last year abandoned a plan to acquire land for trade zones after
protests led to the deaths of at least 14 people in Nandigram.
The Maoists are getting more sophisticated weapons and forging links
with groups in Nepal and Bangladesh, Soren said.
``This is not a terrorist module. It is an insurgency'' and the Maoist
strategy is to mobilize people and then arm them, Sahni said. ``The
hiatus between these two can be anything between three to five years.
The government thinks it is a peripheral issue which they can manage
through an emergency response.''
To contact the reporter on this story: Jay Shankar in Bangalore at
jshankar1@bloomberg.net