Opinion The myth of Mao
Maoism did not succeed in China,and poverty among the Chinese started getting alleviated only after Maoist doctrines were repudiated by Deng Xiaoping.
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Maoism did not succeed in China,and poverty among the Chinese started getting alleviated only after Maoist doctrines were repudiated by Deng Xiaoping. India was a poverty-ridden nation of around 350 million at the time of Independence and now there are 1.2 billion Indians of whom even according to conservative estimates 62.73 per cent (more than 700 millions) are above poverty level. This has been achieved under democratic rule with all its corruption and misgovernance. While in China under Mao,30 million people died of starvation,that kind of catastrophe has not happened in India in spite of malnutrition amongst significant sections of the population. India has started growing at seven-eight per cent in this decade and the rate is expected to accelerate further. With such a growth rate it should be possible to attempt an inclusive programme of development with the right to education and right to food for all. That cannot,however,be done overnight. It will take time as it is taking in China and took in other countries which have alleviated poverty. Today the contribution of agriculture to the GDP is less than the services and industries sectors,though 60 per cent of the population is engaged in the agricultural sector. Poverty cannot be eliminated and inclusive development cannot take place unless people move out of rural areas and contribute to income generation in the industry and services sectors. Land is required for industrialisation and development of natural resources such as mining of minerals and for infrastructural development like highways and dams. While there has to be a balance in ecological terms,the present status quo cannot be maintained even as our population grows and its standard of living needs to be raised. Nor can exploitation of mineral wealth be neglected even while paying due attention to environmental considerations.
After the ideology catastrophically failed in China and Cambodia,the practitioners of the cult are now attempting to wage war against Indian democracy. The fellow Maoists in Nepal have entered mainstream democratic politics. The Maoists are mostly active in areas where both human and economic development have fallen behind the Indian average. Instead of using the democratic means available to fight corruption and misgovernance,they have made poverty their constituency,not to alleviate it but to sustain it so that they can practice and propagate their violent cult. In many respects these cultists of political extremism are analogues of the religious extremist cultists,the Wahabi Taliban. Both oppose modernisation,human and economic development,democracy,rule of law,individual human rights and have non-representative,authoritarian,self-perpetuating leaderships.
No doubt political and bureaucratic corruption and misgovernance are widespread all over India. Yet the achievement of building a nation and economy of 700 million people above the poverty line without violence in 60 years is an unparalleled one in history. Maoists dream of capturing power in the next 40 years. During this interim period will their strategy of armed struggle raise more people above the poverty line or plunge more people below it because of their hindrance to the economic and human development of the Indian state? Neither the Chinese nor the Cambodians or the Russians who all experienced Maoist egalitarianism would today opt for it. As Winston Churchill said,democracy is the worst form of government till you try others. Nothing will be more dangerous for the practioners of the Maoist cult than alleviation of poverty. That will deprive them of their cannon fodder. As the poverty alleviation and development programmes speed up,so does Maoist armed resistance to block them. Ineffective state governments cannot acquire land speedily enough for highway development or implement primary education programmes. Nor can they effectively prevent extortion by Maoists. There is a correlation between the misgovernance,lack of progress in literacy programmes,intense casteism in politics and prevalence of Maoism. Sections of the population which have been newly empowered in democratic politics are often the most oppressive in dealing with populations in the lower rungs of the caste hierarchy. This factor has been exploited by the Maoists for their violent ideology.
Building an India of 1.2 billion people free from poverty,pluralistic,multicultural,multilingual,multireligious and multiethnic and democratic would,in the words of Tamil poet Subramanya Bharathi visualized in the first decades of 20th century ,constitute the creation of an unrivalled polity and a novelty for the entire world. The rise and development of India and its poverty alleviation are taking place,unlike in the case of all other great powers,not before it became democratic but after it has done so. It should have been obvious to our leadership that this process could not be sustained totally free of resistance,both internal and external. And therefore this great experiment in human endeavour must be securely guarded during the period of its growth and development. Misgovernance and political and bureaucratic corruption are two major challenges in building a nation state. It is not going to be easy to overcome these two challenges overnight when they are further exacerbated by the casteist problems arising out of very rapid empowerment of hitherto disadvantaged sections of the population. Yet another complicating problem is the first past the post system of elections which has made vote bank politics and criminalisation in politics rampant.
The result is 200 districts being affected by the Maoist cult and its violence. Therefore the war against Maoism is likely to be a long one. The main battlefield will be the poverty alleviation programme which in turn calls for rapid industrialisation and urbanisation of these areas. The right to education and right to food will be the two major pincers in this campaign. One has to anticipate stiff resistance for such poverty alleviation efforts from the Maoists. One cannot rule out their receiving outside support from nations which would like to see India break up or Indian growth and development slow down. Industrialisation and development of these areas cannot be successfully implemented,welfare programmes enforced,unless the areas are brought under effective control of the Indian republic. That needs a well trained,well armed and well equipped combat-ready civilian force totally dedicated to that purpose.
As far as possible such a force should be raised from the areas themselves. So should the security forces to guard the industrial installations and infrastructural assets. The raising of such a force and the development programmes with consequent poverty alleviation should form the grand strategy for this protracted war against the Maoists. This is not the task of a single ministry nor that of a single service. This is the appropriate task of the National Security Council. Will it rise to the challenge?
The writer is a senior defence analyst
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