Brief History
I have given sequence of events which were source of present day Naxalite movement.
- First communist party (CPI) was formed in 1924 by M N Roy in wake of Russian revolution.
- First sign of armed struggle by communist in Telengana(district of hyderabad) region in 1946.
- Followed by reorganization within ranks of communists and introspection.
- CPI split-ed and CPI (M) was formed in 1964, which was to follow chinese model of revolution.
- During same period peasants forcefully occupied lands in an anti-landlord movement on 1967 in small town of Naxalbari in West Bengal at Indo-Nepal border. The word Naxalism has been driven from word Naxalbari.
- From the shadows of two big parties, who had gone soft over period of time, emerged All India Communist Committee of Communist Revolutionaries (AICCCR) in 1968.
- Another party on principles of Lenin and Marx was formed by Charu Mazumdar in 1969
- Yet another party by name of MCC was formed under Asit Sen.
- Agrarian struggle in Srikakulam(Andhra Pradesh)
- Struggle started on 1959
- Meager wage of less than half a rupee and only 59 kg of grain a year.
- Land once mortgaged was not returned.
- Not allowed to use traditional method of farming.
Naxalite affected areas
- Bihar
- Jharkhand
- Madhya Pradesh
- Orissa
- Chhattisgarh
- Andhra Pradesh
- Maharashtra
- Karnataka
- Tamil Nadu
- West Bengal
- Uttar Pradesh
- Uttarakhand
Brief history above tells us that it is basically an agrarian movement started by peasants against the atrocities committed by landlords or so called high caste people against low caste people. Later all aggrieved people formed some kind of organisation under leadership of some leader, so that they can fight for injustice caused to them. So question is “what’s wrong in fighting for their basic rights”. Naturally answer would be “yes they should fight, but within constitutional means not by violence”. Well we will come back to same question little later.
Who is responsible?
Most people reply, would be, “its inapt handling by government”. Well, it is right to some extent. We must not forget that in democracy, government is ‘by the people’, so government reflects ‘we the people’. Therefore, we too are responsible for naxalism. I will put in better words, “ its, we the people, who have started the problem of naxalism and when it went out of control we want government to solve it, without realizing that such a problem should not have arisen at first place.”
Situations
Let us consider following hypothetical situations:-
- Mr, P owns a flat/house legally. He goes for vacation abroad for a month. When he returns back he is shocked to see his flat being occupied by some big shot politician’s son. You being good citizen you fight a case in court but you lose.
- Mr, Q gets phone call that his son has been kidnapped. He again, good citizen reports to police, to his utter dismay, police recommends him to pay ransom and show their inability to handle the situation, so Mr X has to fend for himself.
- Mr. R and his daughter were traveling in train. Few goons too boarded the train and molested his daughter in front of her father. Police again shows inability to handle the situation.
- Mr. S, seeing atrocities on rise files a PIL in Supreme Court to bring strong laws against rich and powerful and for safety of general public. Supreme directs government to take action. 10 years have passed but still legislation for having strong law is awaited.
Seeing no light at the end of the tunnel, Mr P, Q and R under leadership of Mr S forms the organization against a government where they kept, VIOLENCE, as one of the means to achieve their aim. Four situations cited above shows failure of judiciary, executives and legislators, these are three pillars on which edifice of democracy rests. Or in other words system of democracy or government has failed, so if it has failed why not change the system. So these fours gentleman started campaign to change the system with option of VIOLENCE.
Now, let’s go back to Naxalism. Land grab policy by land lord (equivalent to house grab of Mr P), failure of security, self respect and human dignity (equivalent to situation of Mr Q and R) and failure of constitutional means of waging war (equivalent to hypothetical situations mentioned above) has led to what Naxalism is today. Now back to previous question in paragraph 3 above. Now why not VIOLENCE be means to achieve aims, after all Chinese leader Mao Zedong had led Chinese revolution on Principle ‘power flow from barrel of gun’ and he was successful and in present day world US and China are only super power in the world. So is the case with Moaist of Nepal. Therefore naxalite, too follow principle and theory of Mao Zedong, hence Naxalite are also known as ‘Left Wing Extremist’ with insignia as sickle and hammer on red background.
Do I support Naxalism
No, I don’t support Naxalism but I know the problem. Nor I am in favor of changing the democratic system of government after all it has proved its worth since time immemorial. We must understand that Naxalite are the people who have been alienated from mainstream. Solution lies in rectifying the wrong which has been done to them (almost like returning house of Mr P or giving justice to Mr Q and R), ensuring safety and human dignity of all(Human Right Commission I hope you are listening).
What ‘we the people’ should do
I am very happy that ‘we the people’ fighting for Ruchika to get her justice in ‘molestation case by DGP Rathore’ (equivalent to atrocities committed by landlord or upper caste). Problem is, are we fighting for hundred of Ruchika who have been molested, raped and killed by DGP Rathore equivalents. No, we are not fighting for hundred of Ruchika residing in Naxal areas, so if we don’t fight then Naxalite will fight for them. And they are fighting with VIOLENT means (may be they are cornered with no escape route).Well I know we can’t go out of our ways and fight for justice, otherwise org will suffer for which you work, but at least we can do following, and act as retardant, so that Naxal like problem don’t arise and even if it arises, it does not proliferates.
- Be human and respect humans and not religion, color, caste he or she belongs to.
- Be careful when you choose words when communicating with colleagues, stranger, friends, it should not show your biased nature. For e.g avoid using “you chinki”, “tum log to aise hi hote ho”, “aukaat men reh”, “which religion/region/caste you belong to”, “whats your sur name”.
- Be analytical if human commits mistake and take required step with humane touch. Don’t be emotional (it can be anger, love, frustration, irritation, disgust, depression) as it may lead to inequality and biased solution to the problem.
- Don’t criticize someone’s custom, tradition, food and traditional attire rather respect it and show willingness to know more.
- Maintain human dignity.
- Remember no work is small or big. They may be tough or easy. Sorry, do not try to equate BIG with TOUGH and SMALL with EASY. It is almost like; LENGTH can never be equivalent to MASS.
- Remember, what you think is your RIGHT as human in order live on earth, same RIGHT holds good for every living human.
- Last BE GOOD.
I have tried to explain Naxlism in simple way, without going into theory of Marxism,
Leninism or Maoism; I have also not touched upon strategy: military, political or social to solve the problem, let government do it. I have written it for common men and women like you and me.
I was a kid, but I still remember the news flashes of Tiananmen Square massacre on 4th June, 1989. The protests were mainly led by students and intellectuals demanding political 
