Naxalites

Indian regions with Naxalite activities in 2007

Indian regions with Naxalite activities in 2013

Naxalites is the common name for Maoist parties, movements or activists in India .

history

The Naxalites emerged in the late 1960s and are named after the place Naxalbari in the Darjeeling district in West Bengal . A peasant uprising took place there in 1967 under the leadership of some members of the left wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) - CPI (M) - which was crushed by the police. Other peasant uprisings took place during the same period, the most important one in Srikakulam , Andhra Pradesh . The main reasons for the peasant uprisings were the concentration of the land in the hands of a few large landowners, which essentially originated from the British colonial era, as well as the social and economic discrimination against non-Hindu "natives" and tribes of India ( Adivasis ) by the Hindu society with theirs Caste system . There was also some resistance from local ethnic groups to resettlements that were carried out because of large building projects.

The high phase of the Maoist struggles was from 1967 to 1972. During this time the most important organizations of the Naxalites were founded:

1968: the All-India Coordination Committee of (Communist) Revolutionaries , which was more oriented towards grassroots work (dissolved today)
1969: the stronger Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) - CPI (ML), which initially placed the armed struggle in the foreground

The founding members mostly came from the CPI (M).

The chairman of the CPI (ML), Charu Majumdar , propagated the " annihilation of class enemy" , which was expressed in numerous attacks on large landowners, officials and members of the police. In 1972 Majumdar was arrested and died in prison about two weeks later. The revolts were largely put down by the police and the military , and Naxalite activities largely declined by the end of the 1970s.

Around 1980, various groups, most of which bear the name CPI (ML), managed to regain a foothold. Most of the groups had renounced the extermination strategy by now, the focus was on grassroots work, i. H. mainly placed on the building of organizations of peasants, workers, students, women and adivasi. Two main directions can be distinguished among the approximately 20 larger Naxalite organizations: A part of the movement has meanwhile concentrated on working in a legal framework, including participating in elections, without giving up its revolutionary claim, while another part combines the grassroots and the Mass work with classic guerrilla fighting methods .

The Indian Ministry of the Interior estimated the hard core of the armed Naxalites at around 9,300 in 2004. According to Judith Vidal-Hall, more recent statements about the numerical strength of the group are in the range of around 15,000. The latest estimates by the Indian intelligence service in 2009 spoke of about 50,000 members and 20,000 armed fighters.

Again and again, spectacular terrorist acts attracted the attention not only of the Indian but also of the world. More than 70 police officers were killed in an attack by more than 350 Maoist fighters on a unit of the Indian federal police in Chhattisgarh state on April 6, 2010. On May 29, 2010, Naxalites killed 26 police officers in a gun battle in Chhattisgarh. A serious train accident with at least 70 fatalities on the Mumbai-Kolkata railway line on May 28, 2010 was attributed by the Indian authorities to a Naxalite attack. At least 23 people died and at least 30 were injured in a Naxalite attack on a motorcade of the ruling Congress Party in Chhattisgarh state on May 26, 2013. In a reaction to the attack, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh named the Naxalites as India's greatest internal security threat. The attack is rejected as anarchist by parts of the Naxalite movement .

Since around 2007 the activities of the Indian security forces against the Naxalites have increased significantly. But in the states of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, as well as in some other parts of central and eastern India, the Naxalites are still strong.

Important Naxalite organizations

Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) : emerged in 2005 from the union of CPI (ML) [Kanu Sanyal] and CPI (ML) Red Flag , combined legal and illegal forms of struggle, was represented by a member of parliament in Bihar.
Communist Party of India (Maoist) : Went in 2004 from the union of CPI (ML) People's War Group (founded around 1980, focus on the Adivasi regions in Andhra Pradesh ) and Maoist Communist Center of India (focus on the south of Bihar and in Jharkhand ), pursue a classic Maoist guerrilla strategy known as People's War combined with the development of front-line organizations, good relations with the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) in Nepal , 2004 failed peace negotiations with the Indian government. The CPI (Maoist) is responsible for various attacks (including murders) on police officers and supporters of competing (including Maoist) parties. The CPI (Maoist) is affiliated with the All India People's Resistance Forum , a not insignificant alliance of farmers, human rights, women's organizations, trade unions and NGOs.
Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Janashakti: Founded in 1992 as an amalgamation of seven smaller groups, with a focus on Andhra Pradesh, won a seat there in the 1994 elections (where the party officially nominated 13 candidates who were “non-party” due to illegality) in the regional parliament, at the end of the 1990s more focus on armed underground work, unsuccessful peace talks with the regional government in 2004.

The Naxalites do not include the primarily nationalist , Maoist-inspired movements in northeast India such as the United Liberation Front of Asom , the National Socialist Council of Nagaland in Nagaland or the People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak in Manipur .

literature

German speaking

Andreas Becker: In the shadow of the economic boom. The uprising of the Adivasis and Dalits in India. Draupadi, Heidelberg, 2019 ISBN 978-3-945191-41-5
Gerhard Klas: It started in Naxalbari. Naxalites, Maoists and the Armed Struggle ; in: South Asia. Journal of the South Asia Office , Volume 26, No. 4, Bonn 2006, ISSN 0933-5196 pp. 31–33

Jan Myrdal : Red Star over India. When the damned of this earth arise - impressions, reflections and preliminary conclusions. Frankfurt 2011, ISBN 978-3-88975-179-9

Arundhati Roy : Walk with the comrades. With the guerrillas in the jungle of Central India , Zambon Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 2011. ISBN 978-3-88975-180-5

Satya Sivaram: Echoing the rumble of thunder. Departure, defeat and new beginning of the Naxalite movement in India. In: Fantômas , Winter / Spring 2005/2006 (No. 8), pp. 21–23.

English speaking

Mohan Ram: Maoism in India. Naxalite. Barnes & Noble , NY 1971 ISBN 0-389-04198-X
Sumanta Banerjee: In the Wake of Naxalbari. A History of the Naxalite Movement in India. Calcutta 1980
Sumanta Banerjee: India's Simmering Revolution. The Naxalite Uprising. London 1984
Edward Duyker Tribal Guerrillas. The Santals of West Bengal and the Naxalite Movement. Delhi u. a. 1987; ISBN 0-19-561938-2
Sankar Ghosh, The Naxalite Movement: A Maoist Experiment , KL Mukhopadhyay, Calcutta 1975. ISBN 0-88386-568-8 .
JC Johari, Naxalite Politics in India , Institute of Constitutional and Parliamentary Studies, New Delhi 1972
Sohail Jawaid, The Naxalite Movement in India. Origin and Failure of the Maoist Revolutionary Strategy in West Bengal, 1967–1971. Associated Publ., 1979
Judge Paramjit S .: Insurrection to Agitation. The Naxalite Movement in Punjab. Mumbai 1992, ISBN 81-7154-527-0
Louis Prakash: People Power: The Naxalite Movement in Central Bihar. New Delhi 2002, ISBN 81-87412-07-0
Prakash Singh: The Naxalite Movement in India. New Delhi 1995, ISBN 81-7167-294-9

Web links

Commons : Naxalite - collection of images, videos and audio files

German speaking

Red Star beyond China. Maoism in South Asia. By Eric Töpfer, South Asia Information Network , in print: ISSN 1863-6063

Will Mao Tse Tung win in Mahatma's land? Strengths and Weaknesses of the Maoist Movement in India. By Klaus Julian Voll, South Asia Information Network, print as above

Naxalites in Indian feature films , focus of the website "Terrorism & Film"

The Naxalites video from the series With Open Cards by Arte , 12 min.

Red uprising in India. The Swedish writer Jan Myrdal on his visit to the Naxalites , in New Germany , April 23, 2012 (see also lit., Myrdal)