Naxalites have been criticized and condemned by the landlords, the bureaucrats and the politicians. The elites are totally against them. Their activities in rural Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Bastar district of Chattisgarh have been increasing.

The reason is very clear. The agriculturists in the planes are gradually turning to education. It is not possible for the landlords (although there should be no landlords after the abolition of Zamindari system) to exploit the educated people and their relatives. Education is still not in the reach of the tribal’s. Thus they are still exploited.

Naxalism is basically an agrarian movement. As the movement was based on violence it was crushed by the government and went underground. But it took the fancy of some highly educated people in Andhra Pradesh.

Many people belonging to the urban areas—specially students—leaving their studies—joined the movement to help the forest dwellers and the poor farmers. Their sympathy for the farmers is backed by their hatred for the politician—bureaucrat—landlord—contractor—mafia—police combine. They have access to arms and ammunitions. They have small manufacturing units too and sometimes loot police stations too to procure arsenal.

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Although the Naxalites have a firm base in the tribal area of Andhra Pradesh they have infiltrated into the Bastar district of Chattisgarh and have organized villagers to oppose the oppressors in a violent way. It is rather an old story now. They have not achieved success in eliminating the landlords yet they are a driving force. Sometimes the activists are on the run after pressure from police. As they are generally welcomed by the tribal farmers they have no difficulty in migrating to other areas.

Of late they have concentrated their activities in the Palamau district of Jharkhand. Being a draught prone district it has become the hub of agrarian unrest. More than 6, 00,000 landless laborers and marginal farmers have been exploited by contractors to become bonded laborers. Till 1970 they ere just slaves exploited socially, economically and sexually.

In early seventies two groups Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) and Communist Party of India Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML) group started working in 15 blocks of the district. Both are banned.

The groups used their muscle power and did what the government proclaimed but could never do. They took thousands of acres of benami or illegally owned land forcibly from the landlords and distributed among the farmers. They brought the civil and forest contractor/mafia to their knees. They compelled the employers to pay Rs. 20 to the laborers in north Palamau area. Earlier they used to pay only Rs. 2 = to Rs. 5 = as wages. The People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) has appreciated it.

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The naxalites have formed their own courts too. The MCC Commander acts as judge and the guilty is punished. The activists have their strongholds in almost all the villages. They stay in families too and have secured safe residing places.

Power corrupts. This illegal power gained by them brought corruption to their fold too. Certain groups in Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand have turned looters and oppressors. They extort money from businessmen, kill their own dissidents and indulge in wayward killings and looting. In 1991- 92-93 they killed 200 persons including 50 villagers. It was natural that the landlords too formed a Kisan Morcha in 1989 and formed Sunlight Sena. They have been fighting the Naxals on the same lines.

As the Naxals are more in a mood of retaliation than of humanitarianism they may lose ground. The only way out to eliminate the landlord is to educate the tribal’s, open hospitals, school plus hostel complexes, pay them right wages, acquire land for them and arrange purchase of their forest products at a reasonable price.

As the present regime is quite corrupt NGOs (Non-Government Organizations) can do a lot in this direction. Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram having a large number of dedicated workers including many medicos is doing a lot throughout the tribal belt from Nagaland to Maharashtra in this direction. They organize their branches based on project works in a totally peaceful atmosphere. They have a large number of branches. Still the money crunch is there. If some other NGOs too start working among the ten crore tribal’s they can ameliorate their condition and force the governments of different states to pay more attention to this vital part of the population of our country.