Articles
PWG’s Civil War On The Indian State
Dt: 28/4/21
PWG’s Civil War On The Indian State
Dr T.H.Chowdary*
Dr PV Ramana addressed a zoom meeting organized by Pragna Bharati on the evening of 24th April 2021 .The talk was titled,” India’s Maoist Movement: Trends Status And Way Forward” is known to be a policy analyst; was a Research Fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (Delhi). Presently he is a member of the Task Force formed by the Bureau of Police Research and Development , Ministry of Home Affairs, New Delhi to study, “ Indoctrination , Recruitment , Surrender and Conviction of Maoists”. The report is due to be submitted before end of April 2021. His talk dealt with the encounters/battles between Security Forces ( CRPF, State’s special units like Greyhounds….). No amount of information in such talks will help India to end the decade’s long “ Maoist movement without a knowledge of and exposition on the ideology and aims of the Maoist PWG”.
2. The self-description of the Maoists is “ People War Group (PWG)”; they are a guerrilla army; their armed men and women have been operating in the mostly tribal inhabitat forest areas of Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Maharashtra ,Telangana , AP and Jharkhand since the later 1970s. In the encounters/battels between them and Security Forces a few thousand police men and hundreds of informers” (civilians ) were killed by the PWG . So were some hundreds of Maoists – PWG soldiers killed. The underground PWG army has above - ground support structure. Unless we understand the true nature and aims of the PWG the battles and consequent loss of life will not end, just like the jihad in the Kashmir area of J&K in the Indian Union. We must get the facts right. Let me state them with candour.
3. Maoists are waging a civil war ; not merely indulging in “ left wing extremism” .The PWG is indoctrinated by Marxism - Leninism – Stalinism - Maoism (definitely its leadership) and aims to overthrow the governments and establish in their stead “dictatorship of the proletariat” which in their belief and theory is the highest form of democracy, as it will be rule of the poor - industrial and agricultural workers, toilers. As long as policy makers, journalists, politicians and governments don’t recognize and accept this fact , namely the Maoist PWG is waging a civil war, winning which they like to establish a dictatorship of themselves in the name the proletariat, as in Stalinist Russia and the Peoples Republic of China , the battels between the Maoist PWG and India’s Security Forces will not end and India would be offering canon- fodder of its Security Forces to the PWG.
4. The British rulers of India mercilessly eliminated the Thughs ( 1830s) and Pindaries (1817-18) who were, like the Maoists, parallel power t British rule and preyed on people. They could be eliminated once for all, as unlike Maoist PWG they were not ideologically motivated. Marxism-communism-Maoism is an ideology. Islamist jihadis are motivated and actualized by a theology. Like the Maoists , they are operating in Kashmir. The expulsion of Hindu Pandits from Kashmir Valley is their notable success. The inability of the government of mighty India to relocate the pandits in safety in their ancestral land fortifies the will of the jihadis to prevail in Kashmir. The decades long inability of Indian governments to put an end to foreign and local jihadis’ operations in Kashmir is because of the undying theological motivation of the jihadis . So are Indian governments’ “combing operations” unable to root out Maoist PWGs battles against India.
5. The Chief Ministers belonging to Congress , TDP( and even TRS) conducted parleys with the emissaries of PWG to end “ left wing extremism”. Some Chief Ministers flattered them by saying that they are “misguided patriots”! With such appalling mis-understanding of PWG’s ideology and aims it is no wonder that the 40 year long civil war will not come to an end.
6. Can Maoist PWG engage in battles with government’s forces without continues acquisition of arms , ammunition, communications equipment and a network for gathering information about the enemy , that is, government’s security forces? It is precisely these requirements that are provided by the above ground infrastructure of “ praja sanghas” peoples organizations, revolutionary writers/poets; people’s artists -singers, balladeers, actors, actresses, activists for human rights, freedom of speech, freedom to agitate, constitutional rights , writers and petitions in courts right to organize bandhs etc. Democratic and Progressive Teachers’ Associations , Revolutionary Students Union (RSU), Progressive Democratic Students Union(PDSU), Democratic Students Union (DFSU), Students Federation of India ( SFI), All India Students Federation (AISF), All India Democratic Women’s Association ( AIDWA) etc., are various forms and constituents of the above -ground infrastructure of the PWG to equip it with necessary financial , intellectual, legal , psychological, and public relations resources for the under-ground armed soldiers and battles. Those resources are constantly replenished, just as seized and lost weapons and ammunition of the security forces.
7. Is it not possible to defeat and destroy the PWG? I cited the British government wiping out these Thughs (1830s) and Pindaries ( 1817/18) who were larger in number than the PWG and their above ground accomplices. They were operating in much larger area than the PWG. Unlike our government for the last 40 years the British had the correct understanding and so the right resolve and the result of Tughs and Pindaries getting wiped out. In Malaya in the latter 1940s the communists took to arms against the British . The latter wiped them out by even engaging head -hunters , Dyaks in the operations.
8. In Telangana , communists waged war against Indian Union’s Security Forces from September 1948 till Aug 1951 . Sardar Patel had resolutely eliminated the gun and bomb wielding communist guerrillas. His work was continued after his death in Dec 1950. Under Com. B T Ranadive’s leadership and guidance of Stalin’s COMINFORM, India’s communists took to insurgency to throw out the Nehru government, characterizing it as a running dog of Anglo-American imperialism. Parts of Andhra besides Telangana, Malabar , Bengal, witnessed the communist insurgency. Enacting preventive detention laws the above-ground insurgent communists were put out of action. Special police hunted and finished the armed gangs . In mid 1951 under Stalin’s orders the communist insurgency was called off.
9. What should be done?
· There must be recognition that the Maoist PWG’s armed actions are not encounters but battels. That are part of the civil war .
· Endless battels are futile. We have no moral right to sacrifice hundreds of CRPF and other police men for no resolve to end the 40 year long civil war.
· The Prime Minister must hold a national conference of leaders of political parties, give them the history of the civil war , battels fought, lives lost, value of nations’ assets and properties and infrastructure destroyed etc., and invite suggestions how to end the war ; disabuse them of the facile notion that poverty and non-development can justify civil war. If that could be the reason, many areas can be scenes of civil war.
· The Prime Minister should lay bare the nature and constituents of the above ground infrastructure that sustains the civil war. He must hear all the opinions and suggestions.
· A deadline may be set for surrender of men and arms. If the PWG does not surrender their men and arms by the dead line set by the government , the government should declare war by all means either PWG and its above-ground infrastructure and wage the war to win by forcing surrender or inflicting death .
· If mighty India with the fourth largest armed forces can suffer and bleed in the war being waged by PWG , how can we withstand China/Pak war? India can end Kashmiri jihad only by invading POK. But that would mean nuclear war between India and Pakistan/ China. Therefore we don’t invade POK. We have no alternate to suffer the “thousand cuts “. But we can and must win the civil war PWG has been waging . As a prelude or along with the operation “ finish PWG” , their above -ground infrastructure must be eliminated. If necessary government should declare internal emergency (Article -352) of the Constitution. (1371 words) .
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