Despite the errors of the Indian revolutionary left, the basic fact is that the Indian bourgeoisie is indeed threatened significantly by revolutionary movements there.
It's time for the comrades to get their act together.
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I found this article by a reactionary bourgeois think-tank in India to be very interesting and useful. Anything in here, of course, should be taken with a grain of salt.
As Chairman Mao said, "I hold that it is bad as far as we are concerned if a person, a political party, an army or a school is not attacked by the enemy, for in that case it would definitely mean that we have sunk to the level of the enemy. It is good if we are attacked by the enemy, since it proves that we have drawn a clear line of demarcation between the enemy and ourselves. It is still better if the enemy attacks us wildly and paints us as utterly black and without a single virtue; it demonstrates that we have not only drawn a clear line of demarcation between the enemy and ourselves but achieved a great deal in our work."
What Maoists Want
Maoist ambitions in India now extend to the farthest reaches of the
country, and this is not just a fantasy or an aspiration, but a
strategy, a projection, a plan and a programme under implementation ...
Ajai Sahni
"Revolutionary warfare is never confined within the bounds of military
action. Because its purpose is to destroy an existing society and its
institutions and to replace them with a completely new structure, any
revolutionary war is a unity of which the constituent parts, in varying
importance, are military, political, economic, social and
psychological. "
Mao Tse-Tung on 'Guerilla Warfare'
The 'Red Corridor', extending from 'Tirupati to
Pashupati' (Andhra Pradesh to Nepal), has long been passé in
the Indian Maoists' (Naxalites) conception. Maoist
ambitions in India now extend to the farthest reaches of the country,
and this is not just a fantasy or an aspiration, but a strategy, a
projection, a plan and a programme under implementation.
A multiplicity of Maoist documents testify to the meticulous detail in
which the contours of the current and protracted conflict have been
envisaged, in order to "Intensify the peoples' war throughout the
country". These documents reflect a comprehensive strategy, coordinating
all the instrumentalities of revolution, "military, political,
economic, cultural and psychological," harnessed through the
"three magic weapons Comrade Mao spoke about": the Party, the
People's Army, and the United Front.
After a great deal of dissembling and vacillation, India's
security establishment, both at the Centre and in the
'affected' States, appears to have conceded, finally, that
the Maoist threat is, in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's words,
the country's "single biggest internal security challenge." But
the threat is still restrictively envisaged as afflicting only parts of
those States where Naxalite violence is visible, and is assumed to
follow the erratic trajectory of incidents and fatalities from year to
year. However, as the Chhattisgarh Director General of Police, O.P.
Rathor, recently observed at a Conference in Raipur, "Statistics of
incidents never give a real picture of the ground. Whatever is visible
is only the mere tip of the iceberg. Unless caution is exercised,
volcanoes can erupt."
It is necessary to recognize, crucially, that the phase of violence,
which is ordinarily the point at which the state takes cognizance of the
problem, comes at the tail end of the process of mass mobilization, and
at a stage where neutralizing the threat requires considerable, if not
massive, use of force. Within this context it is, consequently, useful
to notice not merely the current expanse of visible Maoist mobilisation
and militancy, but the extent of their current intentions, ambitions and
agenda.
Significantly, the CPI-Maoist has established Regional Bureaus across a
mass of nearly two-thirds of the country's territory (Map 1), and
these regions are further sub-divided into state, special zonal and
special area committee jurisdictions (Map 2), where the processes of
mobilisation have been defined and allocated to local leaders. As these
maps indicate, there are at least five regional bureaus, thirteen State
committees, two Special Area Committees and three Special Zonal
Committees in the country.
This structure of organisation substantially reflects current Maoist
organisational consolidation, but does not exhaust their perspectives or
ambitions. There is further evidence of preliminary activity for the
extension of operations to new areas including Gujarat, Rajasthan,
Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Meghalaya, beyond what is
reflected in the scope of the regional, zonal and state committees. A
'Leading team' recently visited Jammu & Kashmir to assess
the potential of creating a permanent Party structure in the form of a
State Committee to take the Maoist agenda forward in the State.
Map 1
Map 2
In 2004, moreover, the Maoists also articulated a new strategy to target
urban centres in their "Urban Perspective Document", drawing up
guidelines for "working in towns and cities", and for the revival of a
mobilization targeting students and the urban unemployed. Two principal
'industrial belts' were also identified as targets for
urban mobilisation: Bhilai - Ranchi - Dhanbad - Calcutta; and Mumbai -
Pune - Surat - Ahmedabad.
Within this broad geographical spread, the Maoists include, in their
inventory of "immediate tasks", among others, the following:
* "Coordinate the people's war with the ongoing armed struggles
of the various oppressed nationalities in Kashmir, Assam, Nagaland,
Manipur and other parts of the Northeast.
* "Build a broad UF (United Front) of all secular forces and persecuted
religious minorities such as Muslims, Christians and Sikhs…
* "Build a secret party apparatus which is impregnable to the
enemy's attacks…
* "Build open and secret mass organisations amongst the workers,
peasants, youth, students, women and other sections of the people…
* "Build the people's militia in all the villages in the
guerrilla zones as the base force of the PGA (People's Guerrilla
Army). Also build armed self-defence units in other areas of class
struggle as well as in the urban areas."
The Maoist strategy is clearly to fish in every troubled Indian water,
and to opportunistically exploit every potential issue and grievance to
generate a campaign of protests and agitations. The principal vehicles
for these 'partial struggles' are 'front' or
'cover' organisations of the Maoists themselves, on the
one hand, and a range of individuals and organisations best described,
in a phrase often attributed to Lenin, as "useful idiots" , " well
intentioned and often gullible people who are unaware of the broader
strategy and agenda they are unwittingly promoting through their support
to specific and unquestionably admirable causes.
As the Political and Organisational Review of the erstwhile Communist
Party of India, Marxist-Leninist Peoples War (CPI-ML-PW, also
known as the Peoples War Group, which merged in September 2004 with the
Maoist Communist Centre to create the Communist Party of India-Maoist) noted,
Cover organisations are indispensable in areas where our mass
organisations are not allowed to functions openly…There are two
types of cover organisations: one, those which are formed on a broad
basis by ourselves; and two, those organisations led by other forces
which we utilize by working from within without getting exposed.
This strategy has already contributed to the 'eruption' of
a few unexpected 'volcanoes' in the recent past, with the
role of Maoist provocateurs often discovered much after the event. Two
of the most recent and impeccable causes that have been embraced in this
cynical strategy include the caste conflict in Khairlanji and the
escalating tensions and violence over the displacement and Special
Economic Zones (SEZ) issues, including Singur and Kalinga Nagar.Sources
indicate that current Maoist debates and documents condemn the "second
wave of economic reforms" as a "violent assault on the right to life and
livelihood of the masses", and call for "an uncompromising opposition to
the present model and all the policies that are coming up." Internal
debates on the issue have further underlined the "need to build a huge
movement against displacement and the very model of development itself",
and to unite all "genuine democratic and anti-imperialist forces…
to create a tornado of dissent that forces the rulers to stop this
juggernaut".
The issues at stake envisaged for potential mobilisation comprehend
"development driven through big dams, super highways and other
infrastructural projects… gigantic mining projects, Special
Economic Zones (SEZs), urban renewal and beautification" .
Within the same pattern, United Fronts and Joint Action Committees have
focused on "burning issues of the peasantry such as for water, power,
remunerative prices for agricultural produce, against exploitation by
traders, against suicides by the peasantry, against the WTO, and on
worker, student, women, Adivasi and Dalit issues." Thus, "Issue-based
joint activity with other forces has been the general form of UF (United
Front) undertaken by our Party at various levels…" Suitable
'issues' are not picked up randomly or opportunistically,
but are based on extensive 'investigations' into
'social conditions and tactics', and are meticulously
reconciled with the broader Maoist strategy and agenda.
These various causes, as already noted, are impeccable, and no one can
be faulted for extending support to demands for greater equity, justice
and access in these various spheres. For the Maoists, however, these
various causes, whether they relate to 'oppressed
nationalities', minorities, caste excesses, or other social and
economic issues, are an integral component of their strategy of
political consolidation, leading to military mobilisation.
In Maoist doctrine, these 'partial struggles' are no more
than a tactical element in the protracted war, and they have no
intrinsic value of their own. These 'struggles' create the
networks and recruitment base for the Maoist militia and armed cadres.
Where partial struggles thrive, an army is being raised. These
'peaceful' or sporadically violent movements are
eventually and inevitably intended to yield to armed warfare and
terrorism.
Their objective is to "isolate the enemy by organising the people into
various cover organisations and build joint fronts in order to mobilise
the masses into struggles to defeat the enemy offensive." Army
formation, the Maoists insist, "is the precondition for the new
political power", and "all this activity should serve to intensify and
extend our armed struggle. Any joint activity or tactical alliances
which do not serve the cause of the peoples' war will be a futile
exercise." Moreover, the integrity of the 'partial
struggles' and the overall aims of the protracted peoples war is
underlined by the fact that cadres of the Peoples Guerrilla Army (PGA)
are required to engage in these agitational programmes as well. As the
PGA's "Programme and Constitution" notes:
The PGA will participate in the propaganda and agitations programmes as
directed by Party Committees. It will organize the people. The PGA will
extensively employ people's art forms in its propaganda. It will
try to enhance the consciousness of the people.
The Maoists' Urban Perspective Document, moreover, envisages the
formation of 'Open Self Defence Teams' and armed
'Secret Self Defence Squads' in urban areas. The document
notes, moreover, that for the Secret Self Defence Squads,
One significant form of activity is to participate along with the masses
and give them the confidence to undertake militant mass action.Other
tasks are to secretly hit particular targets who are obstacles in the
advance of the mass movement.
It is useful to recall, in this context, that when talk of the
'Red Corridor' was first heard at the turn of the
Millennium, most security, intelligence and political analysts simply
scoffed, dismissing the very idea as a pipe dream and a propaganda ploy.
Since then, however, the Maoist consolidation has occurred precisely
along the axis of the then-projected 'Red Corridor'.
If the state is to prevent a further consolidation of Maoist subversion
and violence across the country, it is crucial that the futile debate
on, and disputable enumeration of, 'affected' States,
Districts and Police Stations, be abandoned, and the scope of the
state's defences be extended to cover the contours of the Maoist
projections. The Maoists are, " and have long been,"
working to a plan, and have explicitly rejected the 'Left
Opportunism' which they believe led to the failure of the
original Naxalite movement (1967-73).
This gives the movement great strength, "but to the extent that
this design is well know," makes it enormously vulnerable.
Regrettably, while there is a handful of officers in the security and
intelligence establishment who are aware of the details of this design,
the general grasp in the security and political leadership in the
affected and targeted states (the latter category now comprehends the
entire country) and at the Centre is, at best, poor. There is, moreover,
the added constraint that the Maoist strategy exploits the
vulnerabilities of constitutional governance and its freedoms to the
hilt, and the security apparatus has only limited instrumentalities of
containment available in the initial stages of subversion and mass
mobilisation.
The Maoists believe that there is, at present, an "excellent
revolutionary situation in India", and have clearly declared that "the
seizure of state power should be the goal of all our activity". Building
bulwarks against their complex strategy is a challenge, it would appear,
that is yet to be imagined by the national security establishment. The
fire-fighting responses of the past, the 'battalion
approach' of deployment of Central Paramilitary Forces (CPMFs)
from one theatre to another, and the preferential allocation of
financial resources to 'disturbed' States and areas, may
help fitfully contain the violence of Maoist armed cadres. However, if
the nation-wide campaigns of subversion are not addressed, and if
prevention, rather than containment, does not become the sheet-anchor of
national policy, there will be a tipping-point beyond which national
capacities for emergency management will begin to fall disastrously
short. That is the Maoist dream; it could become the [Red Heretic Edit: bourgeoisie's] country's nightmare.
Ajai Sahni is Editor, SAIR; Executive Director, Institute for Conflict
Management. Courtesy, the South Asia Intelligence Review of the South
Asia Terrorism Portal
Despite the errors of the Indian revolutionary left, the basic fact is that the Indian bourgeoisie is indeed threatened significantly by revolutionary movements there.
It's time for the comrades to get their act together.
"Yes, the brutalities of progress are called revolutions. When they are over, this fact is recognized---that the human race has been treated harshly, but it has progressed."
(Victor Hugo, in "Les Miserables")
Join me in discussing the rise of revolutionary anti-imperialist movements worldwide and in the India-Pakistan region, on my blog:
www.wrathofhephaestus.wordpress.com
Maoists can't win at current situations. India is not like Mao's China.Their strategy of people's war conducted from the countryside is just wrong. The cities(most major industrialised) here do not depend on villages(counts far more in number) it is the vice versa. Maoists can't win this war without winning the cities which they don't care primarily.Indian government with largest paramilitary forces will not be surrender simply IMO.
Even if(at all)they win it will not be a victory of the Proletariats or Peasants.It will be a victory only for elite Maoist cadres.
Anyway The Indian ruling elite has something to worry about them,which is not a news. The author of the above article has many times called for taking more power regarding security measures from states to the centre for various reasons. Maoists just feature in one of their article.
It is possible to build gigantic factories according to a ready-made Western pattern by bureaucratic command – although, to be sure, at triple the normal cost. But the farther you go, the more the economy runs into the problem of quality, which slips out of the hands of a bureaucracy like a shadow. The Soviet products are as though branded with the gray label of indifference. Under a nationalized economy, quality demands a democracy of producers and consumers, freedom of criticism and initiative – conditions incompatible with a totalitarian regime of fear, lies and flattery.
-Trotsky
Marx & Engels ! Lenin ! Trotsky
Actually they do. Agriculture is one example. Also, the Naxalites have been one of the most successful guerrillas so far present day.
wtf?? typical sectarian bullshit.
"Love Other Human Beings like you would Yourself"
-- Ho Chi Minh
"We Don't Care who gets elected, because whoever it is will be Overthrown"
-- Subcomandante Marcos
Agriculture is haevily dependent on Cities.
Really ??? Too bad I live here i dodn't know about it.
Unfortunately truth and reality is always bullshit for you.
It is possible to build gigantic factories according to a ready-made Western pattern by bureaucratic command – although, to be sure, at triple the normal cost. But the farther you go, the more the economy runs into the problem of quality, which slips out of the hands of a bureaucracy like a shadow. The Soviet products are as though branded with the gray label of indifference. Under a nationalized economy, quality demands a democracy of producers and consumers, freedom of criticism and initiative – conditions incompatible with a totalitarian regime of fear, lies and flattery.
-Trotsky
Marx & Engels ! Lenin ! Trotsky
Yeah, that's what I said.
You're right. You don't. You'd rather sit here and critiscize them admitting you don't know much about them while they're at your backdoor.
Yeah, like the truth that trotskyism is a ultra-left deviant that has failed at every nook and cranny while Maoism is at your backdoor while trots like you make baseless critiscism like that. Oh yeah of course.
"Love Other Human Beings like you would Yourself"
-- Ho Chi Minh
"We Don't Care who gets elected, because whoever it is will be Overthrown"
-- Subcomandante Marcos
If you can't reply with out attacking the person you should shut up.
You meant the other way round.
This has nothing to do with Trotskyism. Maoism regardless your imagination is not at my backdoor. An argument with you is totally useless
It is possible to build gigantic factories according to a ready-made Western pattern by bureaucratic command – although, to be sure, at triple the normal cost. But the farther you go, the more the economy runs into the problem of quality, which slips out of the hands of a bureaucracy like a shadow. The Soviet products are as though branded with the gray label of indifference. Under a nationalized economy, quality demands a democracy of producers and consumers, freedom of criticism and initiative – conditions incompatible with a totalitarian regime of fear, lies and flattery.
-Trotsky
Marx & Engels ! Lenin ! Trotsky
Lal Salaam, comrade...
While you make some valid points about the unwise strategy of the Maoist comrades, i.e. they have focused too much on violent guerilla activities in the countryside, as opposed to mobilizing urban workers in the cities, I fear that some of your criticism is indeed unfounded.
As a Maoist myself, I feel that its the urban workers in the sprawling industrial cities of India who must lead the revolution, even though the peasantry are a revolutionary class and an essential part of the revolutionary struggle.
But I disagree with you when you say that the victory of the Naxalites would be a victory of the "elite Maoist cadres".
They can't win unless they have mass support.
And if they have mass support, then it is the victory of the oppressed workers and peasants of India, not of "elite cadres".
We're talking about protracted people's war and urban insurrection...not some sort of coup d'etat by the Maoists.
Bhagat Singh Shaheed zindabad!
Naxalbari zindabad!
Inquilab zindabad!
(couldn't resist)
"Yes, the brutalities of progress are called revolutions. When they are over, this fact is recognized---that the human race has been treated harshly, but it has progressed."
(Victor Hugo, in "Les Miserables")
Join me in discussing the rise of revolutionary anti-imperialist movements worldwide and in the India-Pakistan region, on my blog:
www.wrathofhephaestus.wordpress.com
Exactly what I was going to bring up. If they did win in this revolution they're not going to win by just a handful of cadre, they'll need millions of oppressed masses to join the struggle for liberation.
People's War is that joining of thousands and then millions.
Spirit of Spartacus
Lal Salaam.
My analysis is not opposed to you Comrade. More to add without the Indian Peasantry who are thrice the number of workers the later cannot carry out a revolution.And India's 80 percent of Indian peasantry don't have a Land and cannot be classified as peasantry in the sense of other countries. Most of them should rather be called Agricultural Proletariats.
That is not my point.The Naxalites whom this article refer to(CPI(Maoist)) cannot win the war against the Indian Government. If at all they win it will not be a victory for workers and peasants it will a victory for them just like Mao's victory in 1949.
Which certainly is not happening other than in the propaganda pieces of Naxalite websites.
Naxalites to say literally have captured the tail of the tiger in 70's when they took up the guerilla strategy which failed to catchup in the entire country. Some of them have abandoned it completely(Like Kanu Sanyal) and have started participating in elections and trade union activities. We have wait and see what they are really capable of.
Certainly what the subcontinent needs is a movement which is rooted from the grass-roots.To solve the problems revolution in India alone is not enough but also in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
It is possible to build gigantic factories according to a ready-made Western pattern by bureaucratic command – although, to be sure, at triple the normal cost. But the farther you go, the more the economy runs into the problem of quality, which slips out of the hands of a bureaucracy like a shadow. The Soviet products are as though branded with the gray label of indifference. Under a nationalized economy, quality demands a democracy of producers and consumers, freedom of criticism and initiative – conditions incompatible with a totalitarian regime of fear, lies and flattery.
-Trotsky
Marx & Engels ! Lenin ! Trotsky
If the untouchables that mostly live in the urban slums rose, the government would eaisly be overthrown.
There is also the question of India's Muslim and Sikhi populations, in the result of a nation wide revolution, who would they join?
Firstly you have to stop taking facts from Dalit organisation websites. The feudal system of caste structure has blurred greatly thanks to British and Indian governments and it is fast disappearing. And among dalits there is a portion that wants capitalism to survive.
Sure workers don't even have countries to defend why would they defend the capitalism. Again there is a section of Muslims and Sikhs who want the current property relation to continue.
You better read the Manifesto again.
It is possible to build gigantic factories according to a ready-made Western pattern by bureaucratic command – although, to be sure, at triple the normal cost. But the farther you go, the more the economy runs into the problem of quality, which slips out of the hands of a bureaucracy like a shadow. The Soviet products are as though branded with the gray label of indifference. Under a nationalized economy, quality demands a democracy of producers and consumers, freedom of criticism and initiative – conditions incompatible with a totalitarian regime of fear, lies and flattery.
-Trotsky
Marx & Engels ! Lenin ! Trotsky
