Naxalite movement in India

Introduce with Naxalism as threat to internal security – highlight recent attacks

Naxal or Naxalites are members of political organization that claims the legacy of Communist Party of India, founded in Kolkata in 1969. Their origin can be traced to the split in 1967 of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) following the Naxalbari peasant uprising, leading to the formation of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) two years later. Naxalism is a threat to internal security of India and has taken away several lifes of soldiers. Few recent Naxal attacks are 2010 Dantewada massacre of 75 CRPF men, 2012 Jheeram Ghati attack that killed Congress leaders and 2017 Burkapal ambush that claimed 25 CRPF personnel. Naxal violence has resulted in the death of over 10,000 civilians and displaced 12 million people since 1980s with a significant rise in the number of killings in Naxalism-hit states.

Initially the epicenter was in west bengal but the movement has now advanced to the hilly and forest regions of around eight different states, with more than 150 districts are believed to be under its direct influence. It is mostly active in the tribal areas spreading from Andhra Pradesh to Bihar and Maharashtra, and also covering parts of Karnataka, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, and Tamil Nadu. Additionally, more than 200 of India’s 640 districts are indirectly under Naxal control.

Elaborate root causes of Naxalite movement

Root Cause:

- Unemployment, poverty and socio-economic injustices

- Commercialization of forest resources, reducing the traditional access to forest produce

- Destroying their natural environment, mining-based industries and the construction of large dams caused the wide-scale displacement of the tribals.

- In spite of the government laying down a clear plan to tackle the left-wing extremism like launching a Police Modernization Scheme in areas affected by Naxal movements, the bill for safeguarding land rights introduced by the UPA, etc which were all modest measures in the right direction, the local elites still continued to manipulate the Panchayati Raj structures, as it was noticed.

- The police and paramilitary organizations’ approach to the ‘Naxalite’ problem exposed the weakness within state governments. Various state governments, from time to time, banned Maoist outfits, without developing any consistent policy to deal with such elements. Without understanding their needs and issues, such bans, along with preventive detention or anti-terror laws that allowed the police to come down heavily on such groups, created a feeling of unrest amongst the Naxals.

Recent Government Initiatives:

"Due to the development work and the government policies over 3,500 Naxals have surrendered between 2014 and 2017," the Prime Minister said. He said that the government has improved development infrastructure in Maoist-affected areas.

The government has started surrender-cum-rehabilitation of Naxalites in the Naxal affected States  Security, as well as development, has to run hand in hand.