The presence and growth of the Maoist movement today is essentially due to the dire socio-economic situation of people living in the "affected" parts of the country. Like at the time of the Naxalbari upsurge 39 years ago, even today it is a combination of stark poverty, an indifferent or even exploitative state machinery and oppressive feudal/business elites in different parts of the country that has been at the heart of the Maoist insurgency.
The Spring and Its Thunder
The presence and growth of the Maoist movement today is essentially due to the dire socio-economic situation of people living in the “affected” parts of the country. Like at the time of the Naxalbari upsurge 39 years ago, even today it is a combination of stark poverty, an indifferent or even exploitative state machinery and oppressive feudal/business elites in different parts of the country that has been at the heart of the Maoist insurgency.
SAGAR
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he mainstream media is full of stories and analysis about the so-called “Naxal menace” – and the alleged attempt by Maoists to create a contiguous liberated corridor cutting through the tribaldominated belt from Andhra Pradesh to Bihar through Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Jharkhand. Maoist activities have been reported in over 160 districts around the country in many of which they are trying to establish “liberation zones” where they dispense state functions of administration, policing and justice. (Here the reference to Maoists is exclusively to the CPI (Maoist) formed through merger of the People’s War Group and the Maoist Communist Centre in 2004. There are other equally important streams of the Naxalite movement, chief among which is the CPI(ML) Liberation group with strongholds in Bihar and presence in many parts of India.)
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