Posted to Web: Thursday, Dec 30, 2010 04:38PM
Appeared in print: Thursday, Dec 30, 2010, page A7
Appeared in print: Thursday, Dec 30, 2010, page A7
India’s Maoist guerillas have held monthlong celebrations in December to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the People’s Liberation Guerilla Army. Yet another surreal feature of India’s landscape!
If the name of the guerilla group sounds oddly familiar, well, it is only one word removed from the name of China’s military force — the People’s Liberation Army.
Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, the leaders of China’s Communist revolution, were ardent proponents of guerilla warfare. Mao deemed such violence a necessary component of a revolutionary war, and he described this warfare as “The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue.”
India’s guerillas are keen on following Mao’s preaching, despite the fact that his demise paved the way for the reforms initiated by Deng Xiaoping, which have transformed China in rapid fashion into a global economic powerhouse.
According to the Maoists, the base force of about 30,000 guerillas have all been trained in the technical skills needed for making and planting improvised explosive devices — the notorious IEDs that Americans face in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Maoists are not fighting for imaginary reasons. Easily identifiable pockets of poverty and deprivation are home to millions of people in India, including members of tribal groups.
The traditional home of many of India’s tribal groups is also rich in various minerals, such as bauxite and iron ore. The guerillas contend that the disadvantaged tribal groups are being forced to relocate without adequate compensation and then become unskilled contract workers in a new economic system — which further increases their insecurity and severely threatens their traditional ways of life.
For the reborn Maoist guerilla groups in India, also known locally as Naxalites, the Indian government is the principal enemy.
State support for industrial activities then results in the government apparatus and its employees becoming targets for the guerillas.
Even tribal groups are targeted if the guerillas deem that they have worked with the government and businesses.
Maoists are estimated to have a presence in more than half the state of Orissa, where I am attending an academic conference in its capital city.
Recently, the Maoists blew up an abandoned police station using land mines. An IED blasted an ambulance in a remote forest road in the hills, killing five people, including two women and two children.
Over the years, the Indian government has been fighting fire with more fire. There are allegations that the government has even sought, and received, advice and training from Israel because of its experience with fighting terrorists.
In a controversial article earlier this year, noted writer and social activist Arundhati Roy described the government’s response as war.
Roy asked: “When a country that calls itself a democracy openly declares war within its borders, what does that war look like?”
The war, by all accounts, has been bloody. But despite its superiority in numbers and technology, the Indian government is nowhere near a significant victory over the rebels. It is no surprise that the highly focused guerillas are able to outmaneuver the government’s paramilitary forces.
We Americans know this all too well from our lengthy and costly engagement in Afghanistan and the earlier experience in Vietnam, where our military superiority was negated by the opponent’s ability to merge into the local geography.
Perhaps realizing the futility of such a war, the Indian government recently announced an “integrated action plan” through which significant resources will be committed for a “quick resolution of problems concerning health care, drinking water, education and roads” in 60 districts — equivalent to American counties — where the Maoists are a significant presence.
In 2010-11 alone, the 60 districts combined will get the equivalent of $350 million from the Indian government.
The government’s renewed effort to address the economic insecurity of the poor is certainly a move in the right direction. Of course, it is only a proverbial slip between the cup and the lip.
I wish for a quick and peaceful resolution of these problems in India. And I am all the more thankful for my serene life by the Willamette River.
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