Red and Green

This study shows the evolution of the Naxalite movement in India from pre-organisational in the first decade of its existence to the current stage of the CPI (Maoist) as an organized movement that has been described by the former Indian Prime Minister as the “greatest internal security threat faced by the country”. This book contains in part one, an in-depth analysis of the peasant uprising in Naxalbari and Srikakulam and assessing it in a theoretical framework of Maoist revolutionary strategy. Part two carries essays that review the course of the movement at various points of time.

This account brings out the strategic differences among the various streams of the Naxalite movement and shows how the CPI(Maoist) emerged as the most powerful challenge to the Indian state and its neoliberal development strategy during the past decade. The author points out that the Maoists have expanded their support base by raising the issues of displacement of Adivasis and farmers and violation of civil liberties of Adivasis and other common people in the movement areas. He argues that the Indian government’s policy to counter the Maoist challenge would continue to fail as long as the state does not address these basic issues and instead relies on liquidating the Maoists and their alleged supporters by deploying securing forces.

This book will be essential reading for scholars and policy-makers and students of Politics, Sociology, and Anthropology and also of interest to the general readers.