Ending Naxalism: Not by guns alone

 

Naxals need to abjure violence, and state must be more equitable

Alok Tiwari

Last week security forces claimed notable successes in their continued operation against Left Wing Extremists (LWE), aka Naxalites, in the forests of Chhattisgarh. The forces have been pushing on in Abujhmadh, one of the last known strongholds of Naxalites, in dense forests bordering Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra. The success, including scalps of some top rebel commanders, was enough for home minister Amit Shah to reiterate his deadline of ending LWE threat in the country by March 31, 2026. That is far from given.

LWE has been a problem for decades. It began in late 60s in Naxalbari village of West Bengal as peasants’ armed uprising against the state led by extremist Communist leader Charu Mazumdar. Though that uprising lasted about a decade. The movement spread to forests of east and central India. The Naxalites have carried out some of the deadliest attacks on security and government establishments, sometimes claiming dozens of lives in a single operation. Not just that, they also targeted tribal villagers whom they suspected of being informers.

This invited retribution from the state that unleashed its own violence. The poor people of the entire region, mostly tribals, have long been caught between violence from both sides. Naxalites force their cooperation at gunpoint. This invites the wrath of police. The then prime minister Manmohan Singh had called LWE the biggest internal security threat in the country. He authorised launch of Operation Greenhunt in during first UPA government that saw large scale influx of CRPF in the jungles. The police forces of states like Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra raised their own units to counter the rebels, often made up largely of local tribals. This effectively pitted tribals against each other with them perishing regardless of which side succeeded in a particular encounter.

Now there appears to be a renewed push to decisively tilt the balance. Given the history, it is difficult to hazard a guess whether it will be ‘successful’. One thing is clear; it will lead to shedding of more blood. This is extremely tragic. The Naxalites have been as misguided in their embrace of violence as they have been right in espousing the issues of justice and control of local resources. Nobody can deny that local population, tribals or not, have been at the receiving end of thrust for ‘development’.

The country has been building huge dams, steel and power plants, mines, roads, and canals to power its dreams since Independence. This has resulted in large scale displacement of local people. The rehabilitation efforts, at least in early years, were woefully inadequate. Though they have got better with time, they are still not ideal. Naxalites main push, after their initial fight against rural feudalism, has been against this expropriation of resources by the state. Where they erred was in choosing armed rebellion to set this right. Once you pick up the gun, you give justification to the state to retaliate. And the state has unlimited resources and staying power.

A far better way to seek justice was the one shown by the likes of Medha Patkar and Baba Amte. Their work in Narmada Bachao Andolan and elsewhere, largely on Gandhian lines, made visible difference in the rehabilitation packages for the displaced. While earlier the state used to just give paltry monetary compensation for land acquired, their movement led to emphasis on more holistic rehabilitation. The monetary compensation has also been hiked to a level where many times landowners themselves are keen to offer their land. While this works for land-owning population who know and understand money, it is not of much relevance to tribals many of whom have no concept of ownership as well as expertise to handle money. This is largely the region where LWE still thrives and where the state is trying to quell it.

Naxals, or whatever rump survives the current onslaught, must think about what decades of armed uprising has got them. It is largely nothing except a terrible body count on both sides. Generations of youths have been lost trying to pursue the dream of some revolution that will never be realized. It is time they highlighted their grievances in a peaceful manner. While the state-industrialist nexus is strong and can adopt devious ways, it is difficult for it to go outright against a popular but non-violent movement. A non-violent movement will not lead to revolution, but it will result in incremental improvements. Those, over time, can add up. The benefit in the form of lives saved is incalculable.

The state too must rethink its strategy of treating LWE as purely a security problem. Merely killing Naxalites will not end the movement. It needs to address the fundamental injustices in current development model that provide recruits to the movement. First, there should be a real rehabilitation of the project-affected persons, not just throwing money at them or building unliveable rehab sites. Secondly, it must think more than just building roads and industrial projects. These often bring either none or marginal benefit to local people while enabling rapacious exploitation of their resources by outsiders.

Every time huge projects are brought into pristine sites, the locals suffer bad air and water quality, disappearance of green cover, and total uprooting of their lifestyle. In turn they get low level jobs like security guards, drivers, peons, or domestic help. The real benefit goes to urban population both by getting to use the resources and in good quality employment. A model that prioritizes welfare of local population over benefits to others will go a long way in ending the pipeline that brings recruits to Naxalites. This would involve having more sensitivity towards need of the displaced locals and less hurry to push through the projects. The project proponents need to have far more sincere dialogue with them instead of perfunctory and often sham public hearings. The development that will emerge might be a little slow, but it will be more equitable, sustainable, and peaceful.