Union Home Minister Amit Shah stated recently said Naxalism will be eliminated by March 2026. While chairing a review meeting in Chhattisgarh a few days ago, he stated that a final assault is underway to wipe out left-wing extremism in India. Can such a historic socio-economic problem be fixed with such an exact timetable?
Both the state and left-wing extremists have engaged in an armed confrontation for over five decades with neither side having any permanent victory.
There are times when a massive crackdown by security forces results in the state machinery having the upper hand. But soon the armed cadres of the Naxalites recuperate only to indulge in a massive attack on the security establishment inflicting heavy losses on security forces.
The obvious fallout of such a push-and-pull was that innocent people, often tribals, were caught in the crossfire. Why has the solution remained elusive ever since the Left adventurist deviation crept into the Indian communist movement in the late 1960s?
Thanks to the state resorting to a reign of repression and a host of internal and external factors, left-wing extremism has certainly weakened in India. Globally, the accent of right-wing politics made the Left, let alone left extremism irrelevant, especially among the youth that provides the new cadres to any insurgent group. The discontent among the youth around joblessness is now being channelled into several reactionary mobilisations, but not towards left-wing extremism.
Besides, Naxalism has suffered a self-disruptive disintegration with continuous dissensions and splits. Quite often, armed Naxalite groups indulge in internecine battles giving an opportunity to the state to exploit such vulnerabilities. Individual differences among leaders are often portrayed as serious ideological differences only to fragment the Left adventurist movement in India.
In the late 1960s and the 1970s, Naxalite parties used to attract young educated cadres, fired up by revolutionary fervour, even from some of the premier institutions. Revolutionary literature and cultural activism were the sources of inspiration. This is no longer the trend these days. Trigger-happy cadres with little or no ideological insight are largely filling in the numbers for these groups.
Earlier, urban centres used to provide shelter for underground insurgents. Documents retrieved during police operations also indicate that such urban support has largely dried up.
The post-liberalisation political sociology marked by brazen commercialism, consumerism, and the trivialisation of the public sphere etc, all have made society infertile for any serious ideological discourse, especially for the Left. The media and social media ecosystem are defining the worldview of this generation, making the ground much more unfavourable for left-wing extremism to thrive and advance.
Notwithstanding such hostile socio-political trends, armed Naxalite groups are still wedded to the philosophy of armed rebellion to establish what they believe to be an egalitarian society.
Thus, grassroots mobilisation is replaced by activities of armed squads. The ideological disputes over a host of issues, especially caste, have further crippled these outfits.
While some groups have entered the democratic mainstream and contest in elections, the Maoists are still steadfastly committed to boycotting elections, though there are no signs of the masses refraining from exercising their adult franchise in a big way, even in Naxalite strongholds, revealing the futility of such a call. In fact, the left-wing extremists are unable to realise that even the Marxist ideologues have not totally rejected the idea of democratic elections.
Refusing to learn from the experiences of their Nepali comrades, Indian Maoists still adhere to the path of individual annihilation and swear to overthrow the Indian state through armed struggle, that too at a time when the exploited masses are rallying behind ruling class parties lured by freebies, distribution of cash and kind on the eve of voting.
The Sri Lankan Tamil extremists were decimated as they refused to give up violence. These experiences should serve as a lesson for the Left's extremists in India. In fact, there is a greater asymmetry of military power between the state and Naxalites, compared to the state and Maoists in Nepal or the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka.
What was missing in the home minister’s assertion of a final assault on Naxalism was the appreciation of the social and economic dimension of such an armed Left insurgency in the interior forest and tribal-dominated areas.
Naxalism, despite serious aberrations, continues to be a political movement. The violence thrown up by a political movement cannot be challenged only by the use of force as the state alone does not have a monopoly over the use of force.
Several studies acknowledge that Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes constitute a significant chunk of the Left extremist cadres. Though the professed welfare state spends billions on these sections, rampant discontent and deprivation continue to be evident among these marginalised groups.
The acute agrarian distress, the changing modes of production that make these skills possessed by them irrelevant, high levels of pilferage in welfare spending, displacement in the name of development etc, have further strengthened the sense of discontent and alienation among such oppressed sections, especially in the interior forest and tribal-dominated areas.
A Planning Commission expert group report, titled Development Challenges in Extremist Affected Areas, gave a detailed account in 2008 of the socio-economic dimension of the Left insurgency in India which largely holds even today, despite some improvement. Thus, Jal Jangal Jameen, the slogan of Left extremists, still finds resonance in certain parts of the country.
As the Planning Commission expert group said, “Dalits continue to face wide-ranging economic, social disadvantages, and day-to-day humiliation and degradation, denial of justice and violent atrocities. By and large, the Dalit's condition is marked by a high incidence of poverty, low education, limited employment opportunities and marginalisation in all spheres of public life. These deprivations are compounded by diverse types of violence that they are subject to.”
Left extremism is still strong in certain tribal areas. The failure to effectively implement protective legislation in Scheduled Areas like the Forest Rights Act has contributed to further tribal discontent.
Thus, tribals are deprived of unhindered access to land, water and forests, which they enjoyed for centuries. This provides a breeding ground for Left extremists as they could rally tribals on the issues of Jal (water), Jangal (forests) and Jameen (land). Tribal culture is disrupted. Hamlets are disintegrated. Their habitat is dismantled. Those who were the masters of resources given by Mother Nature are turning into wage labourers in urban and semi-urban agglomerations.
The failure to realise the intricate relationship between the dominant development paradigm, democratic deficits, and the rise of left-wing extremism may provide a temporary respite for the state in its war.
Expanded state largesse due to political populism, intense offensives by the security forces, and ideological dilution within the Naxalite movement have certainly yielded the ground for the state to have an upper hand. The socio-economic milieu that breeds such activities, however, cannot remain unaddressed to usher in enduring peace in the areas rocked by the crossfire.
(Prof K Nageshwar is a senior political analyst, faculty member of Osmania University, and a former MLC. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)
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