If we have to understand the present role of Maoists, we have to go back a bit into the history of the Maoist movement in India. Right from the beginning, the Naxalite movement which emerged in the late 60s, claimed that it was the genuine marxist revolutionary force in India and it was the only Marxist Leninist organisation which can mobilise the people to overthrow the Indian state and liberate the Indian people from feudalism and imperialist exploitation.

When we look back at the 40 year history of Naxalism in India, we should not be surprised that such a phenomenon arose in India. Because in every country where the left movement has existed or grown, we have seen the emergence of left sectarian and left sectarian anarchist trends and much before all these happened in India, in the world in the 1960s and 1970s, Lenin, analysing the rise of left sectarianism in the international communist movement had zeroed in to the essence of the problem and it was Lenin who had said, ‘A petty bourgeois driven to frenzy by the horrors of capitalism is a social phenomenon which like anarchism is characteristic of all countries’.

So, particularly in countries like India, which are predominantly petty bourgeois in character, where capitalism had begun to develop, you had this phenomenon of some strata of the petty bourgeoisie who, having experienced the horrors of capitalism, get into a frenzy of activity, which generally ends up in sectarian adventurist violence and it is very important to understand this. Because now in our country, when the activities of the Maoist party are being talked about, the tendencies of our recent experiences with terrorism is to characterise these organisations as terrorist. Yes, in some sense, this organisation resorts to terroristic attacks and violence. But it is fundamentally wrong to label the Maoist groups and parties into a terrorist organisation.

First of all, what is their ideology and what is their world view? They situate themselves within the Marxist framework, they claim. And it is on the basis of a Marxist approach that they view our society and the world. But what is their worldview today? … they think that South Asia is on the verge of a great revolutionary upsurge. That the national liberation movements in South Asia are forging ahead and they draw a comparison – they say that today in the world, West Asia is the focus of the national struggles against imperialism. And next to West Asia, South Asia is the centre – the hotbed.

But what is the reality today? What is happening in South Asia? We have Pakistan… which everybody knows is a subordinate ally of the USA. The Pakistani state at present, cannot survive without sustenance of the US of A. The US has gained India as a major strategy ally… it is entrenched in Bangladesh, it is entrenching itself in Sri Lanka and so on. And imperialism and NATO is waging a war in Afghanistan. But apart from that, is this South Asia a focal point for resurgent fight against imperialism and are the people in these countries on the verge of overthrowing their comprador ruling classes and thereby also imperialism?

The essence of Maoist ideology and polity today is that they are divorced of reality. That is why when they talk of West Asia, they see the Islamist fundamentalist forces… they see the Taliban and the other forces that are there in West Asia and in Afghanistan as their allies in the fight against imperialism. In fact they say it is a setback.. the offensive against Islamic/jehadist forces in Swat Valley in Pakistan.. and the Pakistani Army actions in FATA and South Waziristan… all these places are considered as centres for the anti-imperialist national liberation struggle. And that is why the Maosits are very upset when the LTTE was militarily defeated and crushed and their leader Prabhakaran was killed. They see that as another setback in South Asia in their fight against imperialism. So this is a very warped view to consider the LTTE as a national liberation struggler against imperialism. An LTTE which went about systematically eliminating all democratic and left struggles within the Tamil polity and society within Sri Lanka…which decided to institute an authoritarian military setup within the Tamil speaking areas. Its downfall is seen as a great setback.. while we view it as something which was necessary to start rebuilding a strong democratic movement within the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

So, just as their worldview is totally distorted and warped, as far as India is concerned they have always talked about the comprador ruling classes of India.. But what has actually happened is that their ideology is comprador and their outlook is comprador. They borrowed wholesale what was being put out by the Communist Party of China in a period when the CPC was itself in the grip of left sectarianism. In the period of the so called, Great Cultural Revolution. If you look at all the concepts which they have, they find their origins in the period of left sectarianism and adventurism. It is that outmoded and warped and distorted ideology which still drives them.

What is the outcome of that? When you say India is a semi-colonial, semi-feudal country, you deny what happened in India, what exists in India in terms of classes; and you deny that India has one of the strongest bourgeoisies of all the countries that got liberation in the 20th century. India has developed a strong capitalist base and state; it denies that state. It denies the development of capitalism in agriculture. Here’s a party which talks about being the revolutionary vanguard which has no place for the working class!

Theoretically also, it cannot conceive of that working class because they don’t recognize that that type of capitalism has developed in India. Neither will you see in all their political pronouncements, statements and practice, any place for the working class. Of course, sourcing themselves, basing themselves from Maoism, they talk about the peasantry, how the peasant classes are marching toward the revolutionary path.

But if you look at them carefully, there is hardly any place where they have developed a strong peasant movement. The only place where they have been active and they have been able to succeed in mobilising some people are in the tribal areas in the most remote, hilly and thickly forested terrain. Which are most backward in terms of development, communication and where it is possible to maintain or sustain to some extent armed squads and guerillas taking shelter in this type of terrain. But where is the great revolutionary movement based on the working class and the peasantry? That is outside their realm of thinking. In fact they make no distinction when they are talking about the annihilation of the class enemies, which is not new and present since the original Naxalite movement, particularly after they failed to mobilise the peasantry of West Bengal. And you find that their main targets are ordinary policemen and many of the people whom they kill are those they claim are agents of the state or informers to the police, are ordinary people.

What has happened is, over a period of years and years of this style of sectarian adventurist politics, they rely purely on their armed squads and their guns and other weapons. And today if they are able to operate in these areas, they have also tried these earlier in Andhra Pradesh. It is after their debacle in AP, when the state and police effectively snuffed out their bases and their shelters and their squads, they were moved out into Chhattisgarh and then the Dandakaranya. You can see a pattern… they have spread out to around AP. From AP to Orissa, Chhattisgarh, to pockets in Maharashtra and in Jharkhand and from Jharkhand to adjoining areas in West Bengal.

The claim that they make that they are the only party or force which is taking on the ruling classes and the state is hollow. Because the very people who are subject to class exploitation and oppression are not in the picture at all. They are not part of their strategy to mobilise the people against the state.

If you look at the recent history, in the 80s they had more or less disintegrated (what was known as the Naxalite movement) but ever since the merger of the Peoples War Group (mainly based in AP) and the MCC in 2004, they have acquired a striking power in terms of the armed squads, in terms of the weapons they possess, in terms of knowhow- planting explosive devices etc. which they got from the LTTE. Training and collaboration with/from the LTTE people in camps in AP that time, this is what got them their striking power. Therefore the loud claims that they are making, that they have spread all over and the “spring thunder of revolution is approaching because the masses are being roused” – even the terminology is reminiscent of what was there and used in the Great Cultural Revolution. This is the worldview and ideology of the politics of the Maoists today

The author of this artic le  is the general secretary of the communist party of the India ( Marxist)

Read More here. .

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• ANATOMY OF MAOIST VIOLENCE IN WESTBENGAL
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