Communist Terrorism in Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and the neighbouring country, Nepal

Ideologies and aggression of Communism soon rained down on the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh in the form of Naxalism.

In Bihar, the Baara Police Post of Naubatpur Police Station of Patna was raided by Naxalites half an hour before midnight. Around eight hundred armed Naxals of the People’s War Group (PWG) had attacked the Force, leading to a gunfire which lasted for 4 hours.

The Policemen had to run away from their post when their bullets were exhausted. The attack resulted in six injured policemen, the death of a constable, and the loss of sixteen rifles, one carbine and one wireless set at the hands of the Naxalites.

This was a carefully planned attack by the PWG as sources state that the attackers were accompanied by a ‘relief team’ which included doctors, essential medicines, and the equipment for operation.

The injured policemen stated no aid came from other police stations although information was given to the nearby them during the attack.

The argument came from the other side that they did not deploy forces due to the fear of explosives laid down on the narrow roads by the Naxals. Before this clash, in another incident, the Naxals had robbed off 22 rifles.

In the year 2000, after Jharkhand’s separation from Bihar, 28 out of 40 districts (including 3 police districts) of Bihar were declared to be suffering from the Naxal terror.

The government had no authority over 150 blocks of the state and the blocks were under Naxal control. In the matter of barbarism, Naxalite's laws and punishments were worse than those of medieval times.

Lands were seized, people were abducted, and ‘public courts’ were conducted in the name of ‘justice,’ with a pre-decided verdict.

The alleged offender’s facial features like nose and ears were cut off, hands and legs were chopped off, or they were murdered by slitting of throats. Aside from the slaughter, money was also extorted from both common people and government employees.

Three Maoism supporting groups, the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCC), People’s War Group (PWG), and Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist (CPI-ML) had a stronghold in Bihar during the early 2000s, each party having their area to dominate.

Anyone who opposed these groups in any way was punished in the ‘people’s court’ of Naxals, and granted with a lifetime disability or death. The Naxalite organization had started with the cause of fighting for the rights of the poor against the money-grabbing landlords but became an organization to exploit the same poor.

The Naxals have ample money to purchase resources for violence and carry on their reign of terror but not enough morals to provide resources and help the needy. On May 29, 1987, 700 armed Naxalites carried out a horrifying massacre in Aurangabad, Bihar.

Popularly known as the Dalelchak-Baghora Massacre, the massacre resulted in the deaths of 57 people in the village, all beheaded, ages ranging from a two-and-a-half-year-old child to a 105-year-old woman. Since then, the Naxals have not stopped their bloodshed and the town of Naxal affected areas have been painted red whenever the Maoist desired.

In Jharkhand two districts were the most affected by Naxalism; Palamu and Lohardaga. In Palamu, Naxalism had spread during the 1970s and in the Lohardaga it was the 1990s. During the early times, the fear of Naxalites was so high that people preferred to encounter a wild animal than a Naxal cadre.

Youth who disagreed with Naxal policies had to migrate out of their places and those who stayed had to give all their support. The police used to arrive after violent episodes but failed to catch any Naxalites as the culprits used to enter the Chhattisgarh border before the squad could enter the village. Both districts are now declared moderately affected.

Maoist incidents have been common in the state of Chhattisgarh since its foundation in the year 2000. The state fell prey to Naxalism because of its deep woods, rough terrain, and poor administration control in many areas of its districts.

Soldiers, Political leaders, journalists, and villagers, all have been a victim of the Naxal communist terrorism done under the guise of ‘righteousness.’ On April 6, 2010, a group of 120 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) soldiers had to fight a thousand Naxalites in an ambush which resulted in the martyrdom of 75 soldiers in the Tademetla forests of Dantewada.

No reinforcements could reach the security personnel during the attack due to the fear of coming across Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) on the narrow roads and shooting their persons.

On 25 May 2013, a convoy of top Indian National Congress leaders was attacked by Naxalites when they were carrying out the ‘Parivartan Yatra’ or Change Rally and travelling in the Jhiram Ghati (valley) in the Sukma district of the state.

The convoy comprised 25 vehicles with 200 ministers. The attack began when the vehicles had to stop in the middle of the road due to a deliberate blockage by a tree, after the stoppage of the vehicle around 200 Naxalites started firing at the vehicles, giving no time to the people to come in terms with the attack.

The attack resulted in the death of more than 30 Congress leaders. It was said that the main target of the attack was Mahendra Karma who had led the Salwa Judum, a state campaign aimed at countering Naxalite activities. The Naxalites had fired about 100 bullets on his body and stabbed him more than 50 times, showcasing their savagery.

The barbarism of Communist terrorism had also spread its wings in the neighbouring country, Nepal. According to a report by Tarun Vijay, the Maoist ideology grew in the country due to three reasons, first – social, economic poverty and impact of feudalism, second – political, administrative disarray and third – corruption and connection of terrorists with the communist ideology.

During the Maoist revolt to gain power in Nepal, around five thousand people including Maoist Cadres, Police, army, and civilians were killed in the conflict. Even during the state emergency, the number of people killed was around four thousand. In 1996, the Maoists presented a memorandum which listed 40 demands related to "nationalism, democracy and livelihood".

These included among others the elimination of royal privileges, the declaration of a new constitution, and the abolition of a treaty with India on the distribution of water and electricity and the delineation of the border between the two countries.

To put pressure on the government to fulfil their demands, the Maoists deemed it correct to senselessly kill the Police, army, political leaders and even the citizens. Exhausted from violence all around, many citizens took refuge in India, stating they no longer felt safe in their own country.

It is crucial to note that every time a communist revolution takes place in any country for the ‘betterment of people’ it somehow ends up taking the lives and increasing the miseries of the same people it had promised to protect. To conclude in the words of Madhav Sadashivrao Golwalker, an influential former Sarsanghchalak of RSS, ‘Communism is failed in theory and disastrous in practice.’