February16, 2007:
For decades, India has had a problem with radical communist guerillas
("Maoists") out in the country side. Last year, Maoist violence left nearly 800
civilians, police and Maoists dead. While the government has never been able to
completely eliminate the Maoists (who are present in about two thirds of Indian
territory), it was never believed these political fanatics would grow to be a
major threat. That attitude has changed. The Maoists have adopted a more
effective, for them, strategy, that is enabling the rebels to gain more
support, more money, more guns, and more people using those guns.
The
Maoists began as armed groups siding with poor farmers and agricultural
workers, against the wealthy farmers and business owners in rural areas.
Although the huge feudal landholdings of traditional India were gone by the
1950s, a lot of that land ended up in the hands of a small number of able
and ambitious farmers, rather than spread evenly among the entire rural farming
population. Many of the major landowners took advantage of their less
successful neighbors, causing anger and resentment. The Maoists exploited this
to gain recruits, and build a network of people who would not turn them in. But
in the last decade, the Maoists have, like many revolutionary organizations,
gotten quite good at criminal activities, like extortion (or "revolutionary taxes").
The Maoists are also making progress creating "united fronts" with other
anti-government organizations (even though it is no secret that communist
revolutionaries consider these allies "useful idiots" and future victims.)
Moreover,
government development and education programs have helped as well. Rural
poverty has been reduced a lot in the last decade, but it's still 25 percent of
the population. Education, however, has increased the literacy rate in the
countryside, giving the Maoists more capable recruits. Growing rural prosperity
means more people have radios and TVs, and this enables media attention, on the
activities of the Maoists, to reach more people. Lastly, the Maoists have the
recent example of the Nepalese Maoists, who brought the government to its knees
and are now a major party in the government. The Indian Maoists intend to take
over the government and create a communist dictatorship. They are unlikely to
do that, but they are likely to cause lots of mayhem in the countryside. The
Maoists are also working on moving into the urban areas as well, but have so
far not had much success. Nevertheless, the government is probably correct is
believing that the Maoists are now a larger threat than Islamic radicalism.