could cause a serious drop in your IQ levels !
One of the most preposterous assumptions he makes is this
No seriously... I wonder if the author wrote this article while living in an igloo in antartica ?
Those who think that Naxalism has failed are right in that it does not ignite the imagination of present-day youth. They are preoccupied with mainstream politics where considerations are within the confines of religion, region, caste and language. Or, they are just busy building their careers, earning money and looking after their families.
We sympathizers are living proof of the fact that the author is wrong.And there
are thousands of us if not lakhs.
A failed revolution enjoys a new breath of life
Bull Shit MeterMANY Indians are celebrating the 40th anniversary of "a failed revolution" when it has actually moved away from their comfortable urban milieu to the vast countryside, and is spreading.
They are wearing blinkers of convenience and of their new globalised existence, wishing it would disappear. They come face to face with it when they try to set up industries and economic zones.
Unable to do anything to ward off the voodoo, they look to the government to use force.
The government, too, is helpless in that it has no clear solution. The politician wants to tackle it "politically", while the bureaucracy, especially the policeman, wants it bullet-for-bullet. The armed forces, taking only an academic interest, are nevertheless concerned.
May 25 marked four decades of a movement founded on the prescriptions of Marx, Lenin and Mao Zedong. A peasant uprising in Naxalbari village, until then an unknown spot on West Bengal’s northern map, snowballed when radical members of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) broke away in support of the revolt and two years later formed the CPI (Marxist-Leninist).
In the communist world then, China and the Soviet Union never saw eye to eye. So, the Chinese promptly supported the Naxalbari uprising, adding a new word to the left-wing lexicon: Naxalites.
Kanu Sanyal, 78, one of the pioneers of the movement, is still around leading a faction of the party he founded. But it is not what he started with.
He abhors the violence unleashed in the name of revolution in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh provinces. "Terror cannot solve problems. A single conspiratorial killing cannot bring change. Such actions will only harm the movement and alienate the masses," Sanyal said in an interview in Naxalbari.
The presence of the Naxalites depends upon which way one looks at the movement. It is almost like the hourglass: You decide whether it is half-full or half-empty. Actually, it is both.
Those who think that Naxalism has failed are right in that it does not ignite the imagination of present-day youth. They are preoccupied with mainstream politics where considerations are within the confines of religion, region, caste and language. Or, they are just busy building their careers, earning money and looking after their families.
But what about those who depend on land that does not belong to them, or do not produce enough and have run debts they cannot pay back? Suicide by scores of indebted farmers is one consequence; the other is Naxalism in tribal areas where forests are being encroached on or occupied.
Disapproval by mainstream political parties, a total lack of support from the communist parties at home and abroad and the decidedly hostile attitude of the state, have not affected the spread of the movement.
Like the ultra-left in neighbouring Nepal, Naxalites swear by Mao. That embarrasses Beijing no end.
Despite their factional and ideological shenanigans, the Naxalites violently fight those they consider "class enemies". The government acts in fits and starts, alternating between a "political approach" and wanting to establish its hold by force.
Dipankar Bhattacharya, a leading light of the movement, says the government uses the interregnum to infiltrate and weaken the revolutionaries. But equally true is the government’s charge that the rebels use the lull to regroup and rearm.
After three decades of rule by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), many thought, erroneously, that Naxalism had died in the land of its birth. But the recent peasant activism in Singur and Nandigram, where thousands protested the takeover of their farmland for industry, has given a new lease of life to revolutionary ideals.
Most certainly, the public protests in these rural pockets were taken over by the Naxalites, to the delight of the protesting groups and parties and to the chagrin of the ruling CPI (Marxist).
While Tata’s automobile project has just about managed to escape public wrath and got underway, that of Indonesia’s Selim Group has been shelved, for the moment, at least. Protests have now spread to other, even non-Naxal parts, wherever the government is trying to set up economic zones.
Armed only with idealism and Mao’s Red Book, some of the brightest youth in Indian academia embraced Maoism four decades ago, determined to usher in a communist revolution, even at the cost of their careers. Many suffered and died. The survivors wonder today if it was all worth the pain.
At one time, it was thought that revolution would come to India from Moscow to Kolkata, via Beijing. It did come to Naxalbari, but got lost in the complexities of a vast land that has absorbed every race, religion and invader.
India is unlikely to go through the Russian or Chinese experience.
But localised revolutionary movements abound, especially in the tribal areas and where exploitation is naked. Unless there is a solution to socio-economic problems and measures are undertaken to narrow disparities that are widening.
The political class would need to adopt a role that is not just carrot-and-stick. Above all, those who want to set up industries would need to realise their corporate social responsibilities.
NST.com
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In Europe, capitalism fought against feudalism for hundreds of years to win. Capitalism also faced defeats from feudalism some times and they strengthened against and they defeated feudalism. Capitalism and feudalism, both are oppressive systems. Building socialism without any oppressions is difficult process than building capitalism. So, 40 years of naxalbari movement is not failure of socialist movement in India.
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