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Maoist insurgency rocks India

By Nauman Asghar
The Indian society is suffering from simmering religious and ideological dissensions that have the potential to jeopardise the economic development of the country. In late May 2009 the Naxalites (Maoists) took up arms against the communist government in West Bengal and threw out the police personnel occupying the Lalgarh Police Station. The state operation started in early June to regain control of the area. The Maoist leader claimed in a recent interview the mass Naxalite movement in 2009 aimed at creating a 'liberated zone' and that they 'will have an armed movement going in Calcutta by 2011'. 
The genesis of the Maoist insurgency in India lies in the peasants' movement and the agrarian discontent. The movement began in March 1967 when a group of revolutionaries launched an uprising at Naxalbari, a small village of West Bengal, after a hapless tribal youth was attacked by local landlords over a land dispute. In its early stages the movement had its centre in West Bengal but now it has spread into less developed areas of rural Central and Eastern India such as Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. Now the Maoists have a presence in 40 percent of India's geographical area and are especially concentrated in a region commonly known as 'Naxal belt' comprising 92000 square kilometres. In 1969 the Naxalites organised themselves into the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). The CPI (Maoists) was formed in 2004 with the merger of two prominent Naxalite outfits, the People's War Group and the Maoist Communist Centre. In the early 1970s, the movement seemed to be reaching the peak of its influence with the creation of vast guerrilla zones. Some years later the movement was split into several opposing factions. Today out of total of 620 districts above 200 have been declared Maoist-infested by the Indian government. 
In recent attacks during the last two months the Maoist rebels killed almost 110 policemen in Chhattisgarh. PM Manmohan Singh has described the Maoist uprising as 'the biggest internal security challenge ever faced by our country'. The writ of the state has been given a serious blow in Lalgarh area where the Maoist People's Committee is in full control of everyday affairs. The Maoists in Chhattisgarh recruit adolescent girls as a stepped-up drive to increase the membership of the women's wing. They also induce minor children to join their cause as it is easier to brainwash them and infuse their minds with extremist ideology.