Maoist rebels or "Naxalites" killed an estimated 55 people in an attack on a police camp in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh on March 15th. The Maoists' enduring foothold across many parts of India remains a serious concern for the central government, so much so that the prime minister last year called it the "single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by our country". But the Maoist insurgency is not just a law-and-order issue: it also has implications for the energy and minerals sectors, and highlights dilemmas inherent in the central government's current high-profile drive to bring economic development to the rural poor.
The government is finding the Naxalite problem stubbornly difficult to eradicate. The Naxalites are so named after Naxalbari, a town in West Bengal where a communist rebellion erupted in 1967. The 40-year-old insurgency is thought to have a presence in as many as half of India's 28 states and is a major political force in poor tribal states such as Chhattisgarh, Jharkand and Orissa. By some estimates, the movement has spread to nearly 40% of the country's geographical area. A large number of people have been displaced as they have fled the Maoists, although the movement also benefits from support in rural villages, making policing its activities difficult. Also feeding the conflict has been the relatively recent emergence of an anti-Naxalite tribal militia known as Salwa Judum, which has assisted local police and security forces.
The Maoists' revolutionary ideology aside, the government believes that the heart of the Naxalite problem lies in many of the same issues—poverty, lack of economic opportunity, poor public services—that currently dominate its national-level economic policy thinking. Last year the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, identified exploitation, low wages, unemployment, a lack of access to resources, geographical isolation and an underdeveloped farm sector as the main factors that have contributed to the growth of the Naxalite movement.
Herein, however, lies the dilemma. The areas in which the Naxalites operate are in dire need of economic development, but experience has shown that investment in infrastructure or industry requires care to avoid the perception that is just perpetuating the very exploitation it is intended to address. Villagers are often suspicious, not without reason, that new projects will not provide as many local jobs as promised or are simply an excuse for rapacious developers to seize land from farmers without adequate compensation. It is noteworthy that the latest attack in Chhattisgarh coincided with an outbreak of rioting in the state of West Bengal that left 14 villagers dead. The protesters were complaining about plans to develop a chemical complex. Similar concerns have fuelled resistance to the spread of special economic zones—based loosely on the successful Chinese model—throughout India in recent months.
The government's handling of the Naxalite rebellion also has implications for India's energy security. The rebellion is strongest in states that have reserves of the natural resources, especially coal, that are required to fuel India's industrial boom. The five states in which the movement is strongest account for 85% of India's coal deposits. India's electricity generation is predominantly coal-based. Naxalite rebels have, on occasions, made direct attacks on companies in the sector.
-- Yoshie