Question

Examine the conditions responsible for the growth of Naxalite Movement in India. Suggest ways and means to crush it.

Answer 1

1. Conditions responsible for the growth of the Naxalite Movement in India:-

1. A peasant uprising took place in the Naxalbari police station area of Darjeeling hills district in West Bengal in 1967. This movement spread very fast to several states under the leadership of the local cadres of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and was known as the Naxalite Movement. A new party known as the CPI-ML was formed under the leadership of Charu Majumdar. This party argued that Indian democracy was a deception and planned to follow a strategy of protracted guerrilla warfare to create a revolution. The Naxalite Movement has used force to snatch land from the prosperous landowners and distributed the same among the landless and the poor. To achieve their goals, the Naxalites used violent means.
2. At present, there are about 75 districts in nine states which are severely affected by Naxalite violence. Most of these areas are backward and inhabited by Adivasis. In these areas, the share croppers, under-tenants and small cultivators are denied their basic rights. They are hit by forced labour, expropriation of resources by outsiders and rampant exploitation by moneylenders.

2. Ways and means to crush the Naxalite Movement:-

1. The West Bengal government’s strong methods and preventive detention technique to crush the movement remained unsuccessful.
2. Various governments had taken stern measures to crush the Naxalite Movement. So far, thousands of people have lost their lives in the unabated violence by the Naxalites and the anti-Naxalite violence by the government.