In the year 1967 a group of peasants who toiled the
land for Jotedars (Landlords) in a small village called Naxalbari in West
Bengal took to violence against their landlords. The peasants started
harvesting crops in the land belonging to Jotedars in the region and this
started a tussle between the peasants and landlords. In the violence the
peasants ended up killing the police officer on 24 May 1967. In retaliation the
police open fired killing nine women and one child on 25 May 1967. The event
triggered Naxalism and its ideology advocated the peasants and daily wages labourers
to resort to use of force and violence to overthrow the landlords. This unfortunate armed peasant revolt was itched as “Naxalbari
Uprising” on the walls of Indian history.
Personally though I feel why was this revolt let to happen in
the first place??? Were the Jotedars protected by the then Bangla Congress Government
lead by Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee which was co-governed with the Communist Party of
India (Marxist). Or were the peasants so staunch believers of violence and
bloodshed that they did not care for the loss of lives of their own people???
Naxalism has grown multi-fold over the years due to
the problems from both sides and marched down to central and southern India. The basic problem is lack of trust from peasant’s
side and the failure on the part of the system to get them into confidence. The
administration over the decades has failed to create a sense of trust among them,
making it seem to them that it is only interested in grabbing their lands and selling
it to Investors, and not caring about their development at all. The peasants
too are deprived of basic amenities like good schools, proper sanitation,
roads, and even a proper house.
After 70 odd years of Independence we need to analyse
why Naxalism exists even today when the situation now is not as bad as it was
in 60s. However this issue has another
dimension too. If observed carefully we can see that there is a specific group of
people who are up against the government opposing its policies. They are seeds
sown by the Non-State Actors who use this Naxal movement which primarily was
fighting for the oppressed. In recent times the Naxalite movement has been a
brain child of a bunch of anti-nationals who refuse to co-operate with the
democracy of the country. They are supporting the forces which does not want the
government to stay in power.
Any movement cannot survive without funds. To
purchase weapons and maintain an army of mischief mongers funds are necessary.
The funds were flowing freely to them through NGO’s and the current government
with its policies has thrown a spanner to this arrangement. The flow of funds
for the movement has been immobilised. The so called “Intellectuals” who were waiting
for an opportunity to go against the current government have found it appropriate
to jump into the arena as volunteer and be sympathisers to those seeds of Naxal movement. They are now labelled as “Urban Naxalites.” Unlike
the Naxals they don’t use weapons; instead they use Media (Print, Electronic & Social), Mike and Movies to spread their propaganda.
Now the question is, what is their agenda???
They are not concerned about the oppressed lot but
their aim is to liberate Kashmir, Manipur, Nagaland from my India. And it is
unfortunate that our major educational institutions are under the clutches of these
Urban Naxalites as majority of them are professors in the institutions.
I personally came across many saying Naxals took to weapons because of poverty, hunger and unemployment, but their argument doesn’t hold much value to
me because these Urban Naxalites are against development. They support those who scream, “Bharat tere tukde tukde honge Inshallah-Inshallah.”
Hence they hate my Pradhan Sevak because he says, “Sabka
Saath, Sabka Vikas.”
