The Wrong Side of Red

Naxalism - what started as a protest has turned out to be what the Indian PM says is the biggest threat to its nation. Arising from a little known place called Naxalbari in for notoriety, it should be noted that it was the breeding ground for feudal land relations and hapless poor in the thousands were oppressed by landlords. Their needs have remained the same ever since they began in West Bengal and Kerala in the late 60’s – a classless society. But in the past couple of years, they have become bloodier than ever.
According to the Naxalite ideology, India as a nation is yet to acquire freedom from hunger and deprivation. They believe that the current system should be overthrown. The general notion that to change the system, we need to be the system seems to make not much of a choice among Naxalites.
The current issue of Telangana is said to be the manifestation point for the Naxal movement. But the movement caught fire after the Naxalbari Uprising, where the tribal’s attacked the landlords. This was in retaliation to the attack of a tribal by local goons for acquiring land under the tenancy laws.
The Naxalites in India are against entering the political scene and complain the basic democracy of India, which according to them has rotted to the core and is being ruled by the elite. Only a revolution according to them can set up a true democracy.
Nepal, one of India’s closest neighbors were faced with a similar kind of problem, but after a decade of ‘People’s War’, the guerilla warfare came to an abrupt halt with the Communist Party of Maoist Nepal finally entering the political scene.
But the Naxal movement in india seems to be going violent day after day. As many as 455 persons have been killed by Naxal violence in 2009 alone. The more they go on with these violent acts like the gruesome murder of 37 police personnel, and giving messages in bloodshed will eventually make people lose interest in it.
The Indian government is still on its stand that they will have no negotiations with Naxalites. But instead of widening disparities, the ignorance tends to grow and with that a rise in violence and poor souls at stake. The sooner done, the more lives saved.