[BRIEF NOTE] On South Asian Maoism and indigenous peoples

[rfmcdonald]

Open Democracy's Rakesh Mani wrote a provocative article, "On Red Alert", suggesting that India's Maoist guerrillas, the Naxalites, are strongest in the Adivasi, India's tribal peoples, in eastern and central India. Why? India's tribal populations are terribly disenfranchised.

In the public lexicon, the narrative of the Naxalites being a grassroots reaction to decades of economic neglect has become an unchallenged truism. It is true that in the tribal areas of states like Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, poverty is so desperate that joining the Naxalite factions is often the only way out. There are no other alternatives to make a livelihood.

Many argue that the answer lies in investment and infrastructural development on a massive scale, which will create jobs, bring economic advancement and draw the tribal areas closer to the union.

As Aaradhana Jhunjhunwala, the Kolkata-based writer, once pointed out, it is not simply underdevelopment and economic backwardness that lies at the heart of people’s distress. It lies in the deficiency of efficient and democratic governance. Why have Naxalites had the most success in tribal districts over the last decade? It is not accidental. There are clear correlations between areas of tribal habitation and sub-standard levels of socio-economic conditions. The helplessness of tribals in their own matters makes them perfect breeding grounds for revolutionary ideology.

[. . .]

As part of their strategic and tactical approach, the Naxalites have consistently presented themselves as a better alternative by taking up battles on tribal issues and drawing up pro-tribal governance policies.

As the historian Ramachandra Guha has argued, “what the Naxalites have going for them is their lifestyle – they can live with, and more crucially, live like the poor peasant and tribal, eating the same food, wearing the same clothes, eschewing the comforts and seductions of the city. In this readiness to identify with the oppressed, they are in stark contrast to the bureaucrat, the politician and the police officer.”

Mani's thesis doesn't seem so far-fetched to me. Indigenous peoples--especially badly-off indigenous peoples--might be generally attracted to oppositional ideologies if only because they might offer them space to organize their lives. Maoism in Nepal was strongest among the country's non-Nepali populations, offering them self-government and language rights.