End to Extremism Needed in India

Troubled by religious, ideological, sectarian, and caste-based violence, India ranks among the most violent countries in the world.

Two days before the elections in India that were announced on 16 May, professor Tej Pratap Singh from the Department of Political Science at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India, currently Visiting Fellow at the Department of International Relations and European Studies at CEU spoke about Maoism and left wing Extremism in India at a talk organized at SPP’s Center for Conflict, Negotiation and Recovery.

Maoism, popularly known as Naxalism in India, has become the ideology of the most radical groups of Indian Communists. The movement began with the peasant upsurge in the village of Naxalbari, West Bengal in 1967 and soon spread to other Indian states. Naxalism caught the imagination of young people who joined the movement in large numbers before it was ruthlessly crushed by the state.

Since the underlying causes of the insurgency were not addressed, it erupted again in the 1980s and since then it has spread to one third of the country. Right now both the state and the Maoists/Naxals are engaged in a bitter battle for area domination and to win over the heart and mind of people. Both have unleashed unprecedented levels of violence and indulged in serious human rights abuses.

What is the solution? “Maoists and the state both have to surrender their extremism and begin a peace process,” Singh contends. “But both have to be serious about these peace talks”.

Singh believes that neither Maoists, nor the state can prevail in the current situation. The only option left is dialogue and for the Maoists to give up extremism and enter the Parliament as a political party.