Can anyone shed light on this? I need to google...

Dhalgren? :P

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20100215/twl-suspected-maoists-kill-14-indian-pol-696b303.html

Suspected armed Maoist rebels riding motorcycles on Monday killed 14 policemen in a daring gun and bomb attack on a security camp in eastern India, police and officials said. Skip related content
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It was the deadliest Maoist raid on security forces since October, when the left-wing guerrillas gunned down 17 policemen in western India, one of a series of assaults in an increasingly lethal insurgency.

The latest deadly rebel attack came amidst a security offensive in several states to flush out the outlawed insurgents from their strongholds, Indian television reported.

Two Maoist guerrillas were also killed in Monday's raid in West Bengal state's Midnapore district following a gunbattle with security forces, local administrator N.S. Nigam told AFP.

"Nine policemen were shot dead and five others burnt alive in a fire which started following a landmine blast in their security camp," Nigam said by telephone from Midnapore.

Local television footage showed heavily armed policemen hunkering down on a road as the fire blazed in their camp.

West Bengal state police inspector general Surojit Purokayastha said some 20 Maoists on motorcycles had attacked the camp.

"The attack was to protest the crackdown on Maoist rebels in the district," he said, adding 100 policemen and security personnel were in the facility when it was hit.

"The withdrawal of security forces from the district is a long-standing demand of the Maoists," Purokayastha said.

Maoists in the area have so far not accepted responsibility for the attack.

Last October, Maoist-backed activists hijacked an express train in West Bengal to demand the release of a tribal leader arrested in September, but there were no casualties.

Little is known about the Maoist movement's shadowy leadership or its strength. It is said to number between 10,000 and 20,000 followers.

Maoist-linked violence claimed more than 600 lives last year, when the government slapped a ban on the rebels, officially designating them terrorists.

Arundhati Roy on Maoism and Democracy in India

http://marxistleninist.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/arundhati-roy-on-maoism-and-democracy-in-india/

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/maoists-justified-in-taking-up-arms-arundhati-roy/103902-3.html

The heart of India is under attack

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/30/mining-india-maoists-green-hunt

http://naxalrevolution.blogspot.com/

India’s Trail of Tears
To justify a land grab, Delhi has a new enemy—the Maoists.

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/5429/indias_trail_of_tears/

Plan to do some reading later.

I am not completely sure about these guys, but I like some of what they say...
ETA: I have screwed up the post (I think)...

2ETA: I had posted a link to a Nepalese Maoist organization that I have read in the past, but they seem to have "gone dark" except for an archive, so I pulled the "post trigger" too quickly. It is really amazing the type and amount of propaganda that is flowing out of the Indian establishment right now. I think that they are going to begin some serious killing and are setting up the dodge...

about cultural level, India sent one athlete to the Olympic games. If I remember correctly, their winter total was in the single digits alltime. US, China, and USSR were the far and away top three.

Granted, that doesn't cover the summer games, but I'm betting the same thing is true there too.

Interesting, a little startling, and definitely worth mulling over.

Humor me...

and yet its society remains very backwards and in many ways primitive. The Olympics is just one indicator.

Again, compare to China

You tell me what the difference was/is..

(granted, its not fair to assigne all of the blame/credit to China's socialist turn since they were had something like half of the worlds GDP before the "British invasion" but its still such a dramatic contrast that it nots something thats easy to overlook)

I think Chlamor posted a piece by Parenti that you commented on just recently that dealt with this as well -- the Indians supplanting the American south producing cotton.

A brief explanation from Gandhi (also note that they bankrupted Egypt in pursuit of cheap cotton during this same period, leading to its eventual annexation):


During this time cotton cultivation in the British Empire, especially India, greatly increased to replace the lost production of the American South. Through tariffs and other restrictions the British government discouraged the production of cotton cloth in India; rather the raw fiber was sent to England for processing. The Indian patriot Mahatma Gandhi described the process:
English people buy Indian cotton in the field, picked by Indian labor at seven cents a day, through an optional monopoly.
This cotton is shipped on British ships, a three-week journey across the Indian Ocean, down the Red Sea, across the Mediterranean, through Gibraltar, across the Bay of Biscay and the Atlantic Ocean to London. One hundred per cent profit on this freight is regarded as small.
The cotton is turned into cloth in Lancashire. You pay shilling wages instead of Indian pennies to your workers. The English worker not only has the advantage of better wages, but the steel companies of England get the profit of building the factories and machines. Wages; profits; all these are spent in England.
The finished product is sent back to India at European shipping rates, once again on British ships. The captains, officers, sailors of these ships, whose wages must be paid, are English. The only Indians who profit are a few lascars who do the dirty work on the boats for a few cents a day.
The cloth is finally sold back to the kings and landlords of India who got the money to buy this expensive cloth out of the poor peasants of India who worked at seven cents a day. (Fisher 1932 pp 154–156)

Note that we are also right back to the "efficiency" of cutting wood in Europe to burn in Florida.

Here is a Parenti excerpt as well


What is called "underdevelopment" is a set of social relations that has been forcefully imposed on countries. With the advent of the Western colonizers, the peoples of the Third World were actually set back in their development sometimes for centuries. British imperialism in India provides an instructive example. In 1810, India was exporting more textiles to England than England was exporting to India. By 1830, the trade flow was reversed. The British had put up prohibitive tariff barriers to shut out Indian finished goods and were dumping their commodities in India, a practice backed by British gunboats and military force. Within a matter of years, the great textile centers of Dacca and Madras were turned into ghost towns. The Indians were sent back to the land to raise the cotton used in British textile factories. In effect, India was reduced to being a cow milked by British financiers.

By 1850, India's debt had grown to 53 million pounds. From 1850 to 1900, its per capita income dropped by almost two-thirds. The value of the raw materials and commodities the Indians were obliged to send to Britain during most of the nineteenth century amounted yearly to more than the total income of the sixty million Indian agricultural and industrial workers. The massive poverty we associate with India was not that country's original historical condition. British imperialism did two things: first, it ended India's development, then it forcibly underdeveloped that country.

Similar bleeding processes occurred throughout the Third World. The enormous wealth extracted should remind us that there originally were few really poor nations. Countries like Brazil, Indonesia, Chile, Bolivia, Zaire, Mexico, Malaysia, and the Philippines were and sometimes still are rich in resources. Some lands have been so thoroughly plundered as to be desolate in all respects. However, most of the Third World is not "underdeveloped" but overexploited. Western colonization and investments have created a lower rather than a higher living standard.

http://www.michaelparenti.org/Imperialism101.html

One of the things Mao always talked against was "Imperialism" and that was not limited to military oppression, but became even more of an admonition against foreign (i.e. Western) capitalist imperialism. I think that the fierce sense of Chinese independence has served them well (not that they currently are exemplars of socialist standards, but I have heard some defenses of the current gov.) - they would not even let the Soviets have very much influence or inroads...

If the Red Army were the shock troops of the world, the foot soliders of the international proletariat, that has to supercede whatever schisms existed between Mao and the Destalinsed and detente USSR

is a great thought), but you have to also understand where China was in 1948 and what was going on. And don't forget the Korean War. There were a lot of things and events that worked in favor of their taking their time, conserving their strength, consolidating their victories, struggling against the US dominated West that was relentless in its aggression, etc...

Yeah, they were "isolationist" by force, because all of the foreign capital has been withdrawn, both pre-war which greatly helped in ensuring who would eventually win the Civil War and then post-war to rebuild Japan and Western Europe and also to the ROC.

I am talking about the so-called Sino-Soviet split later on. Its not to say that their complaints were illegitimate (Soviets lose of their "revolutionary edge" and peaceful coexistence) but rather to say that those things don't constitute a break with socialism.

actually succeed? According to reports I have read (anti-communist propaganda, to be sure) there are "Maoist cells" in every Indian state.

They are attacking right-wing paramilitary encampments and destroying them (according to reports) - I can only hope the reports are true!

http://southasiarev.wordpress.com/2010/02/14/international-campaign-against-the-war-on-people-in-india-launched-on/

International Campaign against the War on People in India–Launched

This is an important new initiative that can play a crucial role in exposing and isolating the brutal Indian government, which has launched an unprecedented military offensive to seize the lands of this country’s poorest people, the adivasis or tribal peoples.

The International Campaign Against War on the People of India (ICAWPI) is being launched to work as a coordinating centre seeking international support for the resistance of the people of India against the all out military offensive of the Indian state against its own citizens.

ICAWPI is an international extension of widespread opposition and initiatives against this genocidal war to forcefully crush the heroic resistance of the tribal peoples in the heartlands of India and to hand over these lands rich in minerals and raw materials to international corporations such as Vedanta, Rio Tinto, Posco and others.

This overt war serving to facilitate the looting of the land and resources by Indian and international corporations for fabulous profits and the destruction of the livelihood of the countless numbers of the poorest of the poor in India is named as “Operation Green Hunt”. While in different regions of the country the same operation may be named differently, the Indian state shamelessly tries to hide this banditry against the people of India and utterly open servitude to the imperialism as “war against the Naxalites”– imposing a severe reign of terror and repression on progressive and democratic forces and individuals everywhere across the country.

Countless intellectuals, authors, film makers, academics, and other professionals such as lawyers and doctors who abhor the Indian state’s total lies and open disregard for civil and human rights have joined mass gatherings and rallies and various forums in India in order to raise their own voices and join forces to oppose the State and to defend the just cause of the oppressed tribal people in India.

In the course of this gathering movement countless people have been arrested and imprisoned. Untold suffering and restrictions have been imposed on the people.

Yet, international public opinion is kept grossly in the dark about these issues while the mainstream media continue to follow and repeat the Indian State’s claims that “India is the largest democracy in the world” and that the Maoists, as the biggest security threat to this “democracy” must wiped out at all costs. Thus they justify their silence and bless the Indian State in perpetrating these crimes in the name of a “war on terror”.

Already more than one hundred tribal people have been killed in Chhattisgarh, Orissa, West Bengal and Jharkhand as part of this brutal war, “Operation Green Hunt”. Several thousand tribal people have been tortured, maimed, and pushed out of their villages, women raped, houses burnt and villages burnt to ashes. Though the Government of India unofficially imposed a censor on media to publish reports from the killing fields, democratic journalists, and civil rights bodies have been making efforts to bring the facts of this war out for the public.

ICAWPI aims to reach out to all democratic and freedom loving people across the world concerned about the plight of the people in India to unite and take initiative to break this silence internationally and to rally much needed support and solidarity to the just struggles of the people of India.

Information on Operation Green Hunt and the people’s resistance are available through www.icawpi.org – a website designed to carry material related to this issue and the campaign.

We request all democratic and progressive formations to take initiative and coordinate their efforts with ICAWPI. All reports of actions, meetings and letters of solidarity and concern will be published at this site.

In order to launch this campaign, ICAWPI calls on everyone to join demonstrations and protest actions in front of Indian embassies and consulates on February 5, 2010 where ever possible. A list of organized events will be published on the website as they become available. Further actions, events and meetings are being planned and will be announced soon after.

The website will also publish information about events in Europe and elsewhere, for discussion about the issue and to find ways of raising local awareness and taking joint actions.

Please contact ICAWPI through info@icawpi.org to inform us of your proposals to bring the campaign to your area.

Feb 3, 2010

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Operation-Green-Hunt-launched-against-Maoists/H1-Article1-482847.aspx

Operation Green Hunt launched against Maoists - (from Dec. 09)

India has launched a major offensive codenamed ''Operation Green Hunt'' against Maoist rebels in Bastar on Thursday.

The assault "Green Hunt" was launched against insurgents in Chhattisgarh -- the epicentre of violence between Maoist fighters and security forces.

Officials said there was least resistance from some of the Maoist strongholds, which could be a ploy.

"We are handling the ''Operation Green Hunt'' in a more decisive way. And as on today the operation is on in districts like Bijapur and Dantewada. According to the information that we have, the police are not facing any resistance in the interior areas of the Maoist strongholds. It maybe an operational tactics of Maoists; we are still discussing this issue with our officers," said S R P Killuri, Deputy Inspector General (Police).

Thousands have been killed during the Maoist insurgency, which began in the late 1960s, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described the Maoist threat one of the gravest homegrown threats to India''s internal security.

The rebels claim they are fighting for the rights of poor farmers and landless labourers.

Dhalgren - The last line - the "rebels" "claims" are evident by the apparently growing support for the commies...

http://southasiarev.wordpress.com/

2,000 Take to the Streets of Kolkata against Green Hunt

Posted by Ka Frank on February 16, 2010

Murderer Chidambaram, Go Back!

This article appeared in Sanhati on February 9, 2010.
Citizens protest against war orchestration of Chidambaram and chief ministers in Kolkata

Partho Sarathi Ray, Sanhati

The citizens of West Bengal again came out on the streets, braving state repression, to loudly declare that they will not allow P Chidambaram and the chief ministers to plot their genocidal plans in the heart of the city.

Around 2000 people participated in a lively and militant march from College Square to the Metro Channel. Many organizations such as MKP, IFTU, APDR, Bandi Mukti Committee, SEZ-Birodhi Prachar Mancha, Lalgarh Mancha, Samrajyabadbirodhi Mancha, various students’ organizations and numerous individuals participated.

Also participating was a large contingent of the people from Nonadanga, who have been evicted there from the slums, and who identify their eviction with the eviction of adivasis from their land and resources.

Mahasweta Devi was present in College Square from where the march began. In the beginning, the police set up a barricade with lathi and shield-wielding policemen in front of the gates of College Square and said that they would not allow the march to proceed. After rounds of altercations and negotiations, there was direct physical confrontation between the police and the protesters and when protesters forcibly broke the barricades and went forward, they had to allow the march to proceed. Read the rest of this entry »

and see if any lessons can be learned or if there are any insights that can be gleaned. The Chinese people dealt with what they were faced with in the best way they could at the time. Their history as a people, their recent history, their current situation, their plans for the future all worked together with mistakes, errors, fortuitous happenstance, etc. to create what took place. I think that criticism of all actions and behaviors, of everyone, everywhere (and everywhen) are right and good, as long as the purpose of the criticism is correct...

and its not a blame game. But the Chinese withdrew (and the Koreans too for that matter) at exactly the time when an international outlook was vitally necessary.