Anand Teltumde and Gautam Nawlakha were recently arrested by National Investigation Agency for multiple charges under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. There are 9 more activists who are already in custody of NIA for their links with banned Maoist organisation. There has been much hue and cry about these arrests not just in our country but also in abroad where the term 'Urban Naxal' became fodder for debates. Against this backdrop, this article is an attempt to understand Maoism which is a clear & present danger to very existence of our Country.

 

 

The Maoists 'Strategy and Tactics of Indian Revolution' and Bloodshed. 

 

Everyday newspapers bleed with the news of Maoist attacks and their raw violence; chilling videos emerge on social media and make us feel numb. But do we know what exactly is 'Maoism'? What do the Maoists achieve out of this gruesome violence? Why does a particular section of the society always gather in support of such traitors? How could so-called Human rights activists defend Maoists and turn blind-eye to the slaughters of our innocent countrymen for the aims that are unjust?

 

 

 

 

 

A careful review of this book immediately dispels all our misconceptions about the Maoists. Hence, it would be appropriate to give here the important verbatim of this book for the general readers to understand Maoists conspiracy in India against the democracy. The diabolical and sinister aims & objectives of the Maoists would be clearly understood by perusing these extracts.

 

 

Objectives of the Maoists as per Strategy and Tactics of Indian Revolution (STIR)

 

The Maoists explicitly write at the beginning of Chapter 5 page 26 of STIR, "The central task of the New Democratic Revolution (i.e. Maoist revolution in India) is to establish the People’s Democratic State (i.e. the country ruled by the Maoists Regime and not by Indian constitution) by overthrowing the present state machinery through armed struggle."

 

 

Chapter-6 states “The Central Task of the Indian Revolution is the seizure of political power through Protracted People’s War; to accomplish this central task, the Indian people will have to be organized in the people’s army and will have to wipe out the armed forces of the counter-revolutionary Indian state (i.e. the Government that opposes Maoism) through war by destroying the present autocratic state machinery - the army, the police, and the bureaucracy and will have to establish, in its place, the People’s Democratic State and  their own political authority."

 

“The path of Indian revolution is the path of protracted people's war (PPW), the same path followed by the Chinese revolution. The Military Strategy of the PPW will be establishing revolutionary base areas first in remote/ rural area where the enemy (Indian Governing System) is weak & then to gradually encircle and capture the cities which are the bastions of the enemy forces and capture entire political power.”

 

About their Military tactics, they write "The military strength of the armed forces (Indian Army and Police) is weak in the countryside as compared to cities. Hence, we can transform these vast rural areas into our guerrilla zones (the base camp for armed wing of Maoists called as People's Liberation Guerrilla Army or PLGA) & liberated areas (the areas completely under de facto control of Maoist).

 

On page 35 of the book, they elaborate "The inferiority in arms and other things can be made up by relying on the mobilization of the vast masses. We are waging not the old type of conventional war but a people's war; by mobilizing the people on a massive scale both militarily & politically and by following the tactics of sudden attack, annihilation, it is absolutely possible to defeat the enemy forces (Indian Army, Police) and achieve victory."

 

 

In April, 2010 Maoists detonated a massive IED near CRPF camp in Mukarana forest. 75 men were killed, 7 were injured and all their weapons were looted.

 

When India was mourning her martyrs, the radical student organizations of Jawaharlal Nehru University held public meeting to celebrate this horrific incident. The slogans “India Murdabad, Maovad Zindabad” were raised in the heartland of the country’s capital! The Maoists’ guerrilla army had blazed our strength and their urban organizations poisoned our young minds!

 

In April 2017, 300 Maoists guerrillas attacked CRPF men tasked to provide security for a road construction work in forest area of Sukma district as any infrastructural development in there would have weaken their hold in the area. They killed 25 CRPF personnel using sophisticated weaponry and human shield!

 

As per STIR and by the reported incidents all over the country, it is proven that these attacks by Maoists are always sudden, annihilating those who serve to keep our country strong under the sun. It is evident that the Maoists have declared a war on India by targeting our Democratic system. Their writings and massacres prove
that the they want to seize the political power by plundering us economically, socially and psychologically, make us vulnerable to surrender our freedom by killing Indian army and police.

 

 

Maoist Front Organisation

Chapter 11 of STIR gives a deep insight into the wide activities carried out by various Maoist fronts in different parts of our country. Maoists write "The United Front mobilizes the masses politically for the capture of state power. The Maoist Party, the People's Army and the United Front (UF) are the three magic weapons. The Maoist party shall lead the Army and the United Front and together they must organise various sections of the population by giving leadership to their struggles and transforming them into armed struggle for the seizure of state power. A huge army of the toiling masses is raised and people’s militia is established.’’

 

On page 101, the Maoists clearly state "The war is the main form of struggle and the army is the main form of organization."

 

"When the masses are politically aroused through the efforts of our organizations, they become the main source of recruitment into the party. Intensification of armed struggle against the State further increases the Mass mobilization and mass struggle, this in turn raises the recruitment of cadre and soldiers for the party and PLA" __Page 103

 

 

 

31st December, 2017 a day before the 200th anniversary of battle of KoregaonBheema, the Elgaar Parishad was held at Shaniwar Wada, Pune where arousing speeches, hateful plays, fiery songs and slogans, and every possible act was made that would sharpen the age-old caste divide in our society. People were encouraged to undertake unlawful activities like violent acts and later that week a statewide bandh was called wherein the aroused people vandalized the public and private properties; people were injured and a life was lost! The Maoists write “The Military strategy should be formulated based on the specific characteristics of the revolutionary war in India… The United front shall politically arouse the masses, arm the masses and lead the masses to defend the political power and gains made by the Maoists party.’’ When we, the new India, together beyond the caste and creed, are marching towards the economic and social progress, few, such as the Maoists at the Elgar Parishad, are aiming to promote disharmony, hatred with an intention to topple the Government!

 

Urban Naxals - Maoists activities in urban areas

 

It is the biggest misconception that the gun wielders in forests are called Maoists. The Maoists are not just active in jungle and rural areas but work extensively in urban areas where they are known to have raised whole cadres of highly trained professionals, the pen-wielding Maoists who provide not just intellectual support but also aid to get finances for their jungle warfare. Hence, it is very important to know exactly what is written in STIR about their urban operation.

 

The Chapter 13 Work in Urban Areas states "The urban movement is one of the main sources, which provides cadres & leadership having various types of capabilities essential for the People's War (Maoist revolution) &
for establishment of liberated areas (the areas under de facto control of Maoists). Moreover, the responsibility for the provision of supplies, technology expertise, information etc. to the People's War, too lies on the shoulders of the urban revolutionary moment itself. Hence, Maoist party has to pay special attention to allocate leadership cadres accordingly to work in Urban Movement. We should not forget the dialectical relationship between the development of the urban movement & the development of the Armed Agrarian Revolutionary War. In the absence of a strong revolutionary urban movement, the growth of the people's war will face limitation & difficulties."

 

This is the picture of G N Saibaba. A Ph.D. scholar and a professor of English at Delhi University who is convicted for waging a war against our country and now serving a life imprisonment for Maoist insurgencies in India.  A wheeled professor from the capital city of India travelled all over the country and beyond to speak in support of liberation movement and Maoist ideology, recruited country’s youths for Maoist’s jungle warfare!

 

To prevent the loss of leadership due to lack of seriousness in technical matters, STIR specifically mentions "The Party has to function through secret methods, very cautiously, with an organizational structure impregnable, to the enemy (Indian Government). As the revolutionary movement in towns, has to play a key supporting role in many ways to the guerrilla zones and liberated areas, it is very essential in such towns that the underground network of Party should spread extensively and people’s support should be mobilized in a big way. There is a danger of our Party members (part-timers and professional revolutionaries) getting exposed to the enemy (India's governing body) due to mistakes committed by our subjective forces, lack of understanding and experience. Under such circumstances all such comrades should be sent underground and ensure that the party organization is not put to loss."

 

This implies that the Maoist is not just the gunslinger from the wilds but could be a well-known professor, human rights activist, a journalist, advocate, a political worker or anyone from the city who secretly provide cadres & leadership for Maoist insurgencies. Propagating the name of Phule-Ambedkar-Kabir in Pune city, Maoists have been reported to incite youths to be rebellion and join the Maoist army camps in Gadchiroli! Not just in Pune but all over the country there are numerous such cases where these Maoists have recruited youths by misleading them in the name of patriotism, helping poor and downtrodden!

 

Special Social Sections and Nationalities

 

It is important to understand what the Maoists say about focusing on specific elements in the society as these sections of the society are targeted by them mainly for social agitation, recruitment in their party and their illegal militia.

 

Chapter-12 states “Women, Dalits, Adivasis and Religious Minorities are the most important of the social sections. All these sections have special problems of their own and specific types of the economic oppression apart from the class oppression. We have to evolve the necessary forms of organizations and forms of struggle for the widest mobilization of these sections on their special problems. We must educate these sections how their problems are essentially class questions; how the material basis for the final solution their problems can be laid only by liberating themselves from class oppression; and hence, there is imperative need for waging war against the common enemies (elements of democratic system).
(i)    Women: Special effort should be made to bring more and more women into the revolutionary movement…. mighty struggles.

(ii)    Dalits:  We must expose the opportunist Dalit leaders who build their own electoral fortunes in the name of taking up Dalit issues. We may work jointly with these Dalit organisations but at the same time conduct ideological and political debate on issues like reservation, conversions, equal rights etc. and expose the reformism and opportunism of their leadership.

(iii)    Adivasi: The regions inhabited by the Adivasis are rich in mineral deposits and forest wealth. These regions have strategic importance for the Indian revolution from the military viewpoint due to their favourable terrain that facilitates the establishment of base areas. Hence the Party should organise Adivasis with the slogans, "Right over the forest belongs to people and Adivasis", "Political Autonomy to the Adivasi territories’ and transform the territory as ‘red land’ unite them against enemy for ’right over all the resources including water, forest etc.’ ‘right for protecting their own culture and development’, and draw up a specific plan for work among them to mobilise them against economic, political, social and cultural oppression by imperialism…”

 

In this chapter Maoist also talk about how to unite separatists and use them in their fight against law and order of the country. They write “Lakhs of enemy’s armed troops have been deployed since long in Kashmir and the North Eastern states alone. As a considerable part of the enemy’s armed forces will inevitably be engaged against the growing tide of struggles by these various nationalities, it will be difficult for the Indian ruling classes to mobilise all their armed forces against our revolutionary war. If our Party can lay down the correct basis to win over these nationalities and tribes, we can spread the flames of armed struggle to almost all the strategic regions in the country. We must try to give a revolutionary orientation to the nationality movements”. Further they write, “If the entire people of that nationality insist on seceding, we must not oppose it. It will become easier for us to unite with them gaining their confidence. We ourselves should lead the struggle for a voluntary union of the Indian nationalities.”

 

In order to bring the remote area under their regime, the Maoists try to halt or delay socio-economic development of that area. The reports indicate that the Maoists destroy schools and coerce kids to join children' unit/ Bal Dasta, where they are trained and used as couriers and messengers, to plant explosives and also in their army to rebel against our security forces! The reports also confirmed horrific sexual exploitation of children and women by them. Once the area is under Maoists control, they extort money from contractors and builders and continue to exploit the civilians. To create terror among the civilians of ‘red areas’, the Maoist run ‘Kangaroo Courts’ / ‘Jan Adalat’ and kill people who do not subscribe to their ideology by labelling them as police informers!

 

It is therefore apparent that the Maoists are not saviours of tribes, poor or deprived as painted by some authors but the terrorists who negate cultural freedom, national wellbeing and rejects democracy.

 

 

Five decades ago, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar strongly opposed the communism saying “the Buddha would not allow violence, and the communists do.” He said the Buddha was a great democrat whereas the communist establish by means of violence what they call the dictatorship of the proletariat.  The communists deprive all people, who have property, of political rights; they cannot have representation in the legislation, they cannot have the right to vote, they must remain what they call second great subjects of the state, ruled, not sharing in the ruling authority or power. Not just Dalits, Babasaheb also tried to keep workers protests away from the Communist ideology.

 

 
It was since then these Maoists turned bitter against Dr. Babasaheb and not just criticized him as the divider of the working class, misleader of Dalit masses, a stooge of imperialists, they also adopted a special resolution on the Scheduled Castes Federation (SCF), a political group founded by Babasaheb asserting “The party must sharply expose the policies of Ambedkar and wean the SCF masses away from his influence by boldly championing the democratic demands of the Scheduled Caste masses, by fighting caste-Hindu oppression against them and by drawing them into common mass organisations.”

 

It’s evident that Maoists want to disrupt, dismantle and destroy the established Dalit leadership of a great visionary Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar and use Dalit / Buddhists organizations for Maoist revolution in India.

 

The careful review of STIR revels that discussion, debates & dissent are alien to Maoists. They do not believe in democracy. The Maoists ideology that they adhere to, run counter to Indian constitution wherein their primary aim is to overthrow constitutional governance through bloodshed and crush the voices that differ with them
by disruption, threats and violence.

 

The reports suggest that at present there are around 8000 armed Maoists roaming free in the country who have been successful in holding lawless ‘no-go zones’ for years are now also successful in adding a significant number of sophisticated weapons to their arsenal. The recent investigation reports of Elgar Parishad that reveled the plot to kill PM Narendra Modi in ‘Rajiv Gandhi type incident’ in a ‘road show’ also unearthed the Maoists plan to procure M-4 assault rifles along with 4 lakh rounds of ammunition worth Rs. 8 crores!

 

Nearly a half century ago the poisonous seed of Maoism was planted, nurtured and spread all over India by so called revolutionists and city-bred intellectuals. Their fight is not for the poor and downtrodden but for the control over the people- the human resource and the vast Indian soil that is rich and fertile.

 

In spite of various measures by our Government such as infrastructure development, measures to chock funds to Maoists activities, implementation of surrender and rehabilitation schemes for left-wing extremists, deploying special trained forces to red zones, these intellectuals have successfully continued to foster the culture of guns only because we, the educated Indians, have failed to understand these satanic strategies and tactics of Maoists. Its high time we understand that the internally challenged weak country cannot withstand such systematic conflict for a long! We must unite against Maoism and build deeper support for our security forces and democratic system as the guns are still booming in the land of wisdom!

 

Priya S
Pune

 

Reference:
Based on Maoist Document- Strategy & Tactics of Indian Revolution and the various newsreports.