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The Red Corridor is the region in the eastern, central, and southern parts of India that experienced considerable naxalite–Maoist insurgency. The naxalite group mainly consists of the armed cadres of the Communist Party of India (Maoist). These areas also suffer from the greatest illiteracy, poverty, and overpopulation in modern India and span parts of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, West Bengal and eastern Uttar Pradesh states. 

  • As per the Ministry of Home Affairs, altogether, 1048 violent incidents of Leftwing extremism (LWE) took place in these ten states in 2016.  
  • According to the data provided by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in Lok Sabha during Question Hour, Left Wing Extremism (LWE) violence has decreased from 2,258 in 2009 to 509 in 2021.
  • While incidents of Naxal violence in the country have dropped by 77 per cent between 2009 and 2021, deaths of security force personnel due to Maoist violence have more than doubled in states like Chhattisgarh in the past three years.
  • All forms of naxalite organisations have been declared terrorist organisations under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of India (1967). According to the Government of India, as of July 2011, 83 districts (this figure includes the proposed addition of 20 districts) across ten states were affected by left-wing extremism, down from 180 districts in 2009. 

Origins

  • To comprehend the origins of the naxalite movement, one must examine it through the lens of India’s Communist Movement, which culminated in one of our country’s most serious security threats. 
  • The Communist Party of India was founded in 1925 by a group of young patriots inspired by the Great October Revolution, with the goal of liberating India from Capitalist and Colonial Oppression. The Telangana Struggle provided the most significant boost to communist movements. It was a watershed moment in the Communist Party’s evolution.  
  • This struggle helped the communist Party in learning the experiences of the Chinese revolution and also developed a strategy for India’s democratic revolution.  
  • The revolution against oppressive feudal lords began in 1946 in the Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh, which was then part of the princely state of Hyderabad, and swiftly extended to the Warangal and Bidar districts, affecting over 4,000 villages. The revolt was also taken up by the local peasants and labourers against their landlords in their respective villages, which was also referred to as ‘Samsthans’. 
  • By the end of 1947, the communists had set up gram ‘Rajyams’, or village republics, as a parallel administration in 4,000 villages. The Dalam, a volunteer force, was organised and armed to combat the Razakars (Nizam’s Army) and the police. 
  • The entry of the Indian army into the state of Hyderabad under the pretext of “police action” on 13 September 1948 altered the trajectory of the Telangana Movement. The Dalams, an inexperienced, naive, and disorganised peasant army, were no match for the Indian army’s fifty thousand well-trained warriors. The Dalams were wiped out and forced to flee into the woods. Only small insurgent organisations persisted by the end of 1950. The movement weakened due to a lack of coordination among gram rajyams. The Nehru government made many conciliatory overtures toward the CPI by early 1951, and on 21 October 1951, after several rounds of negotiations, the CPI formally withdrew from the struggle.  

Impacts

  • Because of its multi-layered impacts, the naxalite threat is the most severe security threat to India’s future. The Maoist movement draws attention to India’s internal flaws, making it vulnerable to external attacks. 
  • As a result of globalisation, challenges such as the naxalite movement can no longer be considered solely domestic, as they now influence both internal and external security. The struggle against Maoist militants has been dubbed India’s “greatest domestic security threat” by the Indian prime minister. 
  • The way the issue impacts India’s economic development is why the naxalites are the most dangerous threat to security. This is seen in a number of ways. For example, the more the Maoists concentrate on India’s poor and disadvantaged regions, the more economic growth (critical to improving those areas’ conditions) will be delayed. 
  • Furthermore, the naxalite insurgents are no longer concentrating their efforts in isolated jungles but instead spawning in urban areas.