Kolkata (West Bengal), 1972: A family shifts base to New Delhi to protect their teenage son from becoming a part of the Naxal Movement.
Raipur (Chhattisgarh), 2011: A family continues to reside in the city and operate its business, occasionally faced with the methods of the Naxal Movement.
The former was my grandfather while the latter is my uncle. Both faced the Naxal Movement in their own ways and found their own solutions. Not much has changed from 1972 to 2011. Each day, many like them, are finding their solutions in the face of this silent revolution. And yet very few know the core of this movement.
History tells us that the movement took root with the Telangana Movement (1946-51). But it was not until 1967 that it adopted its name from the remote village of Naxalbari in West Bengal. It was here that a tribal youth, Bimal Kissan obtained a judicial order to plough his land but was attacked by the local landlord and his men. The local tribes retaliated and started recapturing their lands. A rebellion followed and gained support from the existing Communist revolutionaries in West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir.
What has followed after nearly 40 years is a state of confusion and contradictions; an unorganized movement that began as a peasant revolution but turned into a nationalist movement. Taking hint from the guerrilla warfare, Naxal Revolutionaries today operate throughout the country through hidden locations and trenches. And yet they seem to be fighting an unending battle. Is it purely because of the contradictory demands or is it to do with the Indian Government or are they the parallel system of governance?
The last presents itself as the most likely possibility in the face of the current situation. Naxal Revolutionaries today operate their own system of governance along with the state and central government. In states where they have a strong foothold, they are at times above the ruling parties and gain complete support from the surrounding villages. They are no less than the Mafia but largely unorganized. It is due to this nature of the rebels and the movement that the ruling parties continue to escape their demands.
Nevertheless, the fact that the revolution has survived nearly 40 years of onslaught forces one to count its merits. In regions of Chhattisgarh, Orissa and West Bengal it is due to the stronghold of the rebels that the villagers continue to lead a normal life. To many it is an ‘uncivilized’ life. But to them civilization might come at the cost of their livelihood.
The tribes are rarely provided with the proper means of education and yet they are expected to show reason and rationale in their methods and demands. There are two major threads of Naxals – one who believe in armed annihilation and the other who support mass organizations. History has been witness to the fact that the ruling parties are masters of the divide-and-rule policy. For those supporting the armed annihilation, the ruling party proposes the excuse of self-defence and acts against terrorism. For groups supporting mass movements the government has stopped thinking of excuses.
40 years of struggle is not a small period of time in the history of any country. And yet they find prominence either when a Naxal member is ‘assassinated’ or an armed personnel is killed. Why is it that the government and the media have lost interest in this movement and treat it as nothing more than a fly on the wall that needs to be swatted when buzzing too much. A plausible reason seems to be the fact that these men and women are no Anna Hazare. They do not go on hunger-strikes at Pragati Maidan and garner attention. The nation is not watching their death.
Naxal revolutionaries are forced to resort to violent means of immolating buildings and killing armed soldiers because their hunger strike will not move the nation. Their conditions compel them to be on a hunger strike nearly each day. And yet they do not lose steam. Generations after generations believe in the cause and join forces; hoping that they would be able to change India, if not the world, one day.
Before taking sides, we need to step back and think, are these men and women fighting for a lost cause? Or are they the next step in political evolution of India? Looking at the state of affairs the former seems to be the case. But when recalling Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement that the government has plans to strengthen the development work in the Naxal-affected areas, the latter looks like a hopeful possibility.
Does writing against the latest national hero, Anna Hazare, and supporting the biggest and longest internal challenge to the Indian Government, Naxal Movement, make me an anti-patriot? Maybe, maybe not! But what it does make me is a rationale human being who has decided to weigh both sides of the argument before blindly following one. I definitely cannot support the Naxal Movement when they put entire government buildings to fire. But neither can I support the government bodies when the men assault and use men, women and children for their own benefits and discard them in the name of patriotism.
Naxals require a unified representation of their causes and demands to fight the ‘people’s war’.
