India and Left Wing Extremism: Impending Battle

By Animesh Roul

I just published one in depth analysis on India’s planned offensive against the Naxalites in the face of increasing violence by the extremists.

Here is an excerpt:

In a brutal show of force, hundreds of left-wing extremists (also known as Maoists or Naxalites) attacked a police unit killing 17 officers in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district on 8 October, despite threats from state and federal governments of a strong military response if extremists failed to renounce violence. Earlier that week, Maoists extremists beheaded an abducted senior police official in Chhattisgarh state following a failed bid to swap jailed Maoists leaders.

Reacting to the latest Taliban-style execution, Minster of Home Affairs P Chidambaram told local media that the violence was a possible response to the arrest of some senior CPI-Maoist leaders. Samarji, Maoist leader in Jharkhand, had reportedly demanded through local media that the abducted police official be swapped for three recently arrested cadres — Kobad Ghandy, Chhattradhar Mahato and Chandra Bhushan Yadav.

Maoists have been targeting legislators, security officials and government properties in regular intervals in their so-called Red Corridor, which comprises swathes of territory including parts central and eastern India. According to government sources, the extremists control nearly 40,000 square kilometers across 20 states.

The Indian government now concedes that the Naxalites pose one of the greatest threats to the country’s security.

In India, left-wing extremism emerged from a place called Naxalbari in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal in 1967 under the leadership of Charu Mazumdar. Since then, the movement has come a long way from what was a rather small-scale local rebellion of farmers and tribal peoples. Maoists in India, as elsewhere, have adopted the ‘Protracted People’s War’ (PPW) as the strategy to achieve their political objective. The PPW is divided into three phases: occupy the land; step up the guerilla struggle; and bring power to the people.

Read Full Text Here.

[Originaly published in the ISN Security Watch (Zurich, Oct 12, 2009)]