Naxalism: Socio-Economic Dimensions

“Naxalism is the single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by our country. The movement has gained in strength and has now spread to over 160 districts all over the country...the extremists are trying to establish ‘liberation zones’ in core areas where they are dispensing basic state functions of administration, policing and justice,”. These are the words of our Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in 2006
The roots of naxalism, later termed as Maoism or left Wing Extremism(LWE) has now been labelled as pre date independence. Naxalism is pre-dominantly rural but has also witnessed urban menifestations such as in calcutta during the period 1967 to 1970. The LWE has extended across nearly half of indiacovering the hill-forest belt through middle and peninsular india.
The problem, as seen the socio-ecomic today, arose through zamidari system.In this system a Zamidar was told to cover thousands of acres of land, for which he had to pay so many lakhs to the company or to the state. The Zamidar did not cultivate the land. he had various people as subordinates, farmed them out, and they inturn farmed them out to others, and they in turn to others till to the actual cultivators. this way the actual tiller was sucked to get the money or produce from them to pay the rent to the state or to the company. Zamidar remained a rentier and not a cultivator and several layers of sub-infeudation existed and each one extracted his pound of flesh.
In case of forests, the process of reservation of forests and protected forests for conservation, reduced the tribal inhabitants to intruders and encroachers. these people lived in forest which was their home, their livelihood for generations. The state took away their rights. The symbiotic relationship between the tribals and the forest was scorned, in the name of creation of sanctuaries, tiger protection, nature and biosphere reserves and land acquisition for a hundred different reasons- dams, roads, refugee settlements, expansion of urban areas, expansion of agricultural land, mines, industries and so on. All of these at the cost of forest and tribals.
So they are removed from forest and aquired land with the promise of their resettlement and rehabilitation and payment of compensation. Well promises never materelised. Today when the state or a corporate body promises compensation, people laugh and scorn and say we have heard it before. For example people in orissa displaced due to construction of Hirakund dam are not compensated nor resettled.
Such actions by the state make people believe that the state really can’t think better of them and even suck out their lives as they are the easy to be removed, have no means, have no voice. There are also problem with the administration of remote and isolated areas which are defined underdeveloped and had poor connectivity. The Abujhmarh area in Chhattisgarh is bigger than Manipur state. The area is totally un-surveyed. It doesn’t have roads, schools, hospitals, no basic amenities. With nobody want to go their, the affluent indian doesn’t think of going to that place so why build roads.
Basically there has been a lack political will because the feudal class with vested interest is sitting at the top. Bihar was the worst case perhaps, there were issues like bonded labour and non payment of even basic minimum wages. The feudal class is well entrenched in the government jobs, media, judges, professors and so on. The freight equalisation policy introduced by govt. in 1950s, eliminated the adavantage the the rich mineral states could have. The state paid subsidy to ensure that the price of coal or iron was same be it Kerela or Nathula pass as in area where it is mined. Thus all triggering meachanism for development- connectivity, generation of employment and incomes disappered. And even where the oppputunities were, the tribals not educated and devoid of training.
Cumulative wrongs, deprivation and despair have given rise to naxalism which has grown in the interior. Naxalism came as protectors and Robinhoods. They set up Jan Adalats and dispenced. They were the protectors of common people against exploitation. They beacme bolder. After taking good control they said that every family would contribute on male or female to their squadrons. People came under an iron control. This in turn led to another kind pressure. The govt now is keen to develop the area by constructing roads, railways and so on. The naxalites do not want area development because this will give access to the state administration and threaten them and their power.
Law and order is neccessary to deal with criminal activites of people including extortionists of various kind. Well, one whole concept of law and order stand for the defence of feudalistic and oppressive system. So we need social and economic reform to ensure human dignity, fraternity, social justice, education and equal democratic rights to exercise. The current agitation is about displacement for various acquisations for mining and development projects. Over 50,000 people have been displaced to the Salwa Judum campaign in Chhattisgarh. So what we need is a new paradigm of development in which we have public, private and people’s participation.Development of backward areas is indeed a long-term solution to prevent expansion of naxalism. Naxalite problem requires putting the interest of the Adivasis and Dalits on the highest priority. It cannot be addressed by more displacement,Socio-economic development of the Naxalite affected areas requires a seperate ministry for undertaking development programmes, coordination with various state governments and involvement of the civil society groups for ensuring the right to entitlement of the of tribals.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh stated that “exploitation, artificially depressed wages, iniquitous socio-political circumstances, inadequate employment opportunities, lack of access to resources,under developed agriculture,geographical isolation, lack of land reforms, all contribute significantly to the growth of the Naxalite movement.”
As the agenda that the Naxals mouth is typically pro-poor and because the ‘development’ in India is not reaching all of the population, the Naxals are having a field day. The government seems to be waking up to the seriousness of the situation however and well, better late than ever.

In conclusion I want to say that the government has proposed a two-pronged strategy to combat Naxalism:
1.Gain confidence of local people by taking up more welfare related activities.
2.Build up infrastructure in naxal-affected areas and generate employment.