Tackling Maoist Violence
| Author | Satya Pal Singh |
| Published date | 01 November 2001 |
| Date | 01 November 2001 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X0107400408 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
DR SATYA PAL SINGH
Deputy Director, Maharashtra Police Academy
TACKLING MAOIST VIOLENCE
Communist rural insurgency in various parts of the world is generally
known as left-wing extremism or specifically as Naxalism in India and
Maoism in Nepal. In India it has proliferated on a phenomenal scale in
its ideology, logistics and territories since the Naxalbari uprising of
1967 in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal province. Union and
state governments' efforts to contain and curb it have not been
successful. The divergence of perceptions in diagnosing the problem
and regional political compulsions in tackling it have, in fact, helped
move the left-extremist movement ahead. A few years ago in the
CBI
Bulletin (Singh, 1993c) oflndia, I emphatically stated that half-hearted
measures are destined only for defeat. Recently, the murders of many
ministers and public representatives by use of automatic weapons and
land-mines, the string of systematic kidnappings and fatal attacks on
police personnel and damage to private and public property in different
parts of India and Nepal have jolted authorities into realising the
urgency of initiating effective counter-measures (IE, 2000 and 2001a-d;
TOI, 2000 and 200la-f).
The students of Communism know that Mao Tse-tung, the mentor
and torchbearer of left-wing extremism said, 'Politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed' (1938). Left-wing
extremists are engaged in a political war, a struggle that might go on
for hundreds of years. Ups and downs are the accepted phases of this
politico-social revolution (or revolutionary war as extremists call it).
Every little contribution and every single martyrdom is a ladder taking
them forward. Any defeat or set-back is viewed as an experience from
which to learn to rectify mistakes in the long march to power for the
have-nots.
I.
What is NaxalismIMaoism?
Inspired by the leftist ideologies of Marx, Lenin and Mao Tse-tung, it is
a politico-socioeconomic movement.
It
manifests itself in the disrup-
tion of law and order that threatens, or is capable of threatening, the
very foundations of a democratic society (Singh, 1993b).
II. Extent of the Problem
Since its inception in 1967 in West Bengal, the Maoist movement has
split into more than two dozen groups with different names and slightly
varied ideological roots. The movement in India has now spread its
tentacles into the provinces of West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Madhya
Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and
Karnataka (Singh, 1993b). The extent of the problem in Bihar, Orissa,
Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh has seriously
330 The Police Journal, Volume 74 (2001)
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