Films

One film that was repeatedly screened was Do Bigha Zameen or Two Acres of Land, made in 1953 about the plight of a small farmer in Nehru's India.

Another popular film was The Axis of War which includes a depiction of Mao's long march.

Interestingly, Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon is a roaring hit among the young cadres.

The guerrillas often invited locals to join their late-night soirees when they stayed near villages.

Most villagers had never seen a film before the Maoists showed them one.

"Families finish dinner early and come here to watch the late-night show whenever there is one," said one villager.

At the end of the day, I would lie down with up to a dozen guerrillas in one of the cramped tents.

As I drifted off to sleep, I couldn't help thinking how the peace of the night - despite the snoring of sleeping rebels and the buzzing of countless mosquitoes - belied the dangers that surrounded us.

Camp routine

On days when we were not moving camp, I would rest on my makeshift bed of a plastic sheet, and watch the "comrade-soldiers" swinging their guns to instructions being shouted out by a platoon commander.

rebels are active in swathes of central and eastern India

Ganita, 18 and a deft hand with a rifle, also gave me a detailed account of their daily chores.

Maoists participate in "community service", she said, such as helping elderly farmers, digging village wells and providing basic health care to locals.

This week Ganita was assigned to kitchen work.

Her kitchen was spread under one tent. Breakfast was limited to rice cooked with turmeric and ground nuts, while both lunch and dinner were just lentil soup and rice.

However, during my stay, frog, wild boar and monitor lizard meat were served a few times.

Evenings were dedicated to the study of party literature.

Published by the publicity wing of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), the writings highlighted party strategy and criticised the Indian state. They have about 12 magazines and the main one is published in the local tribal language, Gondi.

Each camp had one or two solar-powered car batteries that were used to power LED lamps that lit tents at night.

A couple of times each week, everybody assembled for a singing session in one of the plastic tents.

Local Gondi tunes were fused with revolutionary lyrics and hymns were sung to the memory of martyrs. The singing session would end with the BBC's Hindi news bulletin on the radio - its future is in doubt because of spending cuts.

"This is our only source of objective information," Maoist spokesperson in south Chhattisgarh, Gudsa Usendi

Violent rebellion began in 1967 in West Bengal village of Naxalbari

·         Violent rebellion began in 1967 in West Bengal village of Naxalbari and spread over rural areas of central and eastern India

·         Led by elusive military commander Kishenji, supported by between 10,000 and 20,000 fighters

·         More than 6,000 killed since rebellion began

·         Bloodiest attacks on security forces include 76 killed in April 2010 ambush; 55 killed in 2007 attack on police post

·      

Every time a camp is set up, the commander conducts a roll-call and updates camp members about their responsibilities if they come under attack.

Akash, 18, was in charge of my security at the first camp. He also gave me a few lessons in self defence.

He slept for about four hours each night: two hours were spent guarding the camp from under a mohua tree in drenching rain.

Nonetheless, he never failed to wake me up early for my walks through several kilometres of rain-sodden forest.

Though the purpose of these walks was to take me to villages and camps in the Maoist-controlled Dandakaranya forest, I learned the rebels walked long distances every few days for their own safety.

"If we stay in a place for long, chances are that information of our stay will get out and we will get encircled."

The constant movement, he told me, also helps them gather information about the whereabouts of security forces from villagers.

The relationship with villagers in areas they control is generally positive, but not always. Maoist will kill suspected informers and that has the potential to create a climate of fear. But they are also aware that harming ordinary villagers will simply erode their support base.

But this is a highly polarised area. In areas controlled by the paramilitary units there is little support for the Maoists - and villagers who display such sympathies have uncertain fates.

INDIA'S MAOIST INSURGENCY

If we stay in a place for long, chances are that information of our stay will get out and we will get encircled” AkashMaoist rebel Somji, one of the men who collected me between a small town in south Chhattisgarh and the thick central Indian forest, picked up speed as we approached. A tall man standing guard with a rifle flung over his shoulder whistled and people started rushing towards us. In under a minute, the camp members stood in formation and began singing a welcome song. Each member in the queue raised their fist to whisper "lal salaam" - "red salute". Mostly aged between 15 and 30 years old, the men and women in the camp wore rubber sandals, olive green battle fatigues and carried guns of various makes. India's Maoist rebels say they are fighting for the rights of indigenous tribespeople and the rural poor. But the battle has been brutal: they frequently launch deadly attacks on India's security forces and those thought to support them. In April 2010 Chhattisgarh was the site of the bloodiest Maoist attack yet on the security forces - 75 troops were killed. Paramilitary forces also launched attacks on tribal communities to restrict Maoist activities.

Camp security

Maoist platoons normally set up their camps in a semi-circle with one tent in the centre - the "headquarter".

India Maoist rebels 'killed in gun battle'

Six Maoist rebels have been killed in a gun battle in the Indian state of Bihar, police say.

One policeman was injured in the clash in East Champaran district late on Sunday.

Ten rebels, including three women, were arrested in possession of arms and ammunition, a senior police official said.

Indian forces are battling Maoists in several states. The rebels say they are fighting for the rights of the poor.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described the Maoist insurgency as India's biggest internal security challenge.

The police said that the gun battle began after policemen and paramilitary forces surrounded a rebel hideout in Dharmaha village in East Champaran.

Separately, three rebels were arrested from Rohtas district, police said.

A government offensive against the rebels - widely referred to as Operation Green Hunt - began last October.

It involves 50,000 troops and is taking place across five states - West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa and Chhattisgarh. 

Watch: Daily life inside a Maoist forest hideout in India

Thousands of people have been killed in the bloody Maoist insurgency across swathes of central and eastern India. The BBC's Suvojit Bagchi, who was granted unprecedented access to a Maoist camp in the depths of the Chhattisgarh jungle, describes the rebels' precarious life

Split of groups

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In 2004, a small group split from the CPN(M) to form Janatantric Terai Mukti Morcha.Till today this group has split up into more than five groups and said to have no specific ideological destiny. The group accused the CPN(M) of not guaranteeing the autonomy of the Terai region[2]. The name is in Nepalese which means "Terai Peoples Liberation Front"[3] in English. The Jwala Singh faction of the Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha (JTMM-J) was formed by Nagendra Kumar Paswan a.k.a. Jwala Singh in August 2006 after he broke away from the Jaya Krishna Goit led JTMM. Jwala Singh is a former CPN-Maoist cadre and had joined Goit when he floated the JTMM. Later, he developed differences with Goit over the strategies to be adopted for the liberation of the Terai and establishment of an independent Terai state. In 2009, a faction under Matrika Yadav split from UCPN(M) to reorganise the previous Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) i.e. CPN(M).

Linkage with fraternal parties

According to available information, the Maoists of Nepal have well-established linkages with Indian revolutionary communist organizations, primarily with the Communist Party of India (Maoist), currently leading a protracted "people's war" throughout the subcontinent. The first signs of contacts were reportedly registered during 1989-1990, when the two groups started collaborating in order to expand their influence. According to Indian government analysis, they began the process of laying a corridor, which is now widely referred to as the Revolutionary Corridor (RC) extending from Nepal to across six Indian States, including Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa andMadhya Pradesh. This entire area has been identified in Maoist literature as the Compact Revolutionary Zone (CRZ). The CRZ was organized by the Nepal and Indian members of the Naxalite movement, in a meeting at Siliguri in the Indian State of West Bengal during August 2001. Indian Maoists are known as Naxalites (or Naxals) in reference to a popular uprising that began decades ago centered in the village of Naxalbari.

Nepalese Maoists had sent their delegates to the March 2001 Congress of PWG held at Abuz Marh in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh. The establishment of CRZ gave a wider space and platform for all the proscribed Nepal and Indian Naxalite organizations to strengthen their bases in both the countries.

The CPN(M) is a participating organization of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM), a global association of revolutionary communist parties. In July 2001, ten regional Maoist groups formed the Coordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organization of South Asia (CCOMPOSA), in which the Nepalese Maoists, PWG, MCC, Purbo Banglar Sarbahara Party (Bangladesh), Communist Party of Ceylon(Sri Lanka) and other Indian communist parties became members. The appearance of graffiti in remote villages in Naxalite-strongholds, in Rayakal and Mallapur mandals (administrative unit) of Karimnagar district in Andhra Pradesh, hailing CCOMPOSA points the spread of the idea of a common front of revolutionary communist groups in South Asia. Moreover, the Central Committee of the Maoists, in late-January 2002, passed a resolution stating that it would work together with the PWG and the MCC in fighting the ban imposed on the latter two organisations in India, under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002. A year earlier, in 2001, the Maoists had sent a senior leader named Gaurav as a fraternal delegate to attend the 9th Congress of the PWG. Reports indicate that the Maoists and the PWG have also formed the Indo-Nepal Border Region Committee to coordinate their activities in North Bihar and along the India-Nepal border.

During the people’s war, the Maoists also gathered a lot of support from organizations in South Asia, which was very important in carrying out the struggle with certain pace. Having visited several districts in India, Maoist chairman Prachanda studied the challenges of launching an armed struggle. Chairman Prachanda drafted war policies and tactics staying in India. Chairman Prachanda says, “First and foremost, there was the RIM Committee. There were important ideological and political exchanges. From the RIM committee we got the experience of theCommunist Party of Peru, the two line struggle there, and also the experience in Turkey, the experience in Iran and the experience in thePhilippines.” The CPN Maoist also participated in a South Asian Conference where they held discussions with the people’s war group and Maoist communist Centre groups. The party believes in achieving a lot from this meet about conducting a people’s war.

Having realized the necessity of spreading the party’s message to the world, the party came up with a decision to host a website which was to spread the knowledge about Nepalese revolution. Thus, www.cpnm.org was hosted with the help of some of the fraternal Maoist organization in Europe. The CPN Maoist currently after the jump into the ‘mainstream’ politics played an initiative role in introducing a Maoist Communist Party in Bhutan as well. The new party in Bhutan is said to have greatly inspired from the Nepalese People’s War and want to have a same practice there.

The Kharipati meeting

The national conclave of the Maoist cadres held recently in Bhaktapur, Kharipati has ended up happily. Opposing chairman Prachanda's document, another senior leader Kiran produced a document contrary to it. The conclave ended up when a consensus was made to incorporate the spirit of both the documents and produce a new one. The cadres were split up into groups and then discussions were held about the documents produced. Majority groups including senior leaders C.P.Gajurel, Hari Bhakta Kandel, Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Netra Bikram Chand supported Senior Leader Kiran's document. While Chairman Prachanda and his supporters as Baburam Bhattarai, Barsaman Pun got shocked seeing the majority in favour of Leader Kiran. Leader Kiran presented a document which claimed that a suitable time has come for popular uprising and setting up a people's republic contrary to Chairman Prachanda who produced a document stating that the party should move ahead creating a new statute in the favour of people and a tactical slogan for people's republic.

The conclave held several level of discussion where some disputes regarding the team leader had arisen. The team who supported Kiran's document had a leader who favoured Prachanda's document and vice-versa. The meeting ended up compromising both documents which will again be presented in the National Convention. The groups supporting Kiran's document blamed Prachanda's group for betraying the spirit of people's war and being more into luxury after holding the power. Chairman Prachanda is also blamed for sidelining the revolutionary leaders from important positions of the party and filing them up with those who support his steps. The conclave is most awaited after the Chunbang meeting which decided the party's slogan of 'Federal democratic republic'.

End to the People's War

After waging the People’s War for ten years, the CPN (Maoist) sat down for peace talks after the success of the People’s Movement in 2002/03. The Twelve-Point Agreement reached between the then seven-party alliance and the Maoist rebels in Delhi created a path for peaceful agitation against the direct rule of the king and to end autocracy in Nepal. The people’s war conducted by the CPN(M) created the foundation for the establishment of a republic in Nepal. It also created political consciousness among the people at the grassroots level and, to some extent, awareness of the need for national socio-economic transformation.

After the declaration of the king to reinstate the parliament, the CPN(M) insisted that the declaration was a betrayal to the people. Instead the king should bring down his institution for his deeds. But there was no hearing from the other parties in the alliance. Maoist chairman Prachanda appeared at the prime minister’s residence, Baluwatar for the peace talk and said that he was there to establish a new kind of democracy in Nepal, but he didn’t reveal details.

After the peace talks held between the CPN(M) and the Government of Nepal, the Maoist rebels were ready to put an end to the ten-year-long People’s War. Signing the Comprehensive Peace Accord, Maoist chairman Prachanda said that the People’s War had come to an end and a new revolution was to be waged by the reinstated parliament. The peace accord was signed on September 21, 2006 ending the Maoist revolution. However, Prachanda was able to provide legacy to the 19,000-member People’s Liberation Army that was kept in the cantonment under the supervision of the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN).

The interim constitution of Nepal 2063, gave a constitutional position to these Maoist cadres. There was a provision for providing monthly allowance for the Maoist armies staying at the cantonment. The Maoist leaders believe that the revolution has not ended here but only the form of struggle was changed.^{[citation needed]}

Areas of operation

During the Nepalese Civil War the guerrillas of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) operated to varying degrees in 68 of the 75 districts that comprise Nepal. Their influence varied between moderate to very strong in these districts. In the districts of Rolpa, Rukum, Jajarkot, Salyan, Pyuthan and Kalikot in mid-western Nepal, The Governments presence was limited to the district headquarters with the rest of each district under Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) control. The Nepalese Home Ministry had designated these districts as 'sensitive class A'. Nine districts, namely Dolakha, Ramechhap, Sindhuli, Kavrepalanchowk, Sindhupalchowk, Gorkha, Dang, Surkhet and Achham, had been classified as 'Sensitive Class B', while 17 'Sensitive Class C' districts where Khotang, Okhaldhunga, Udaypur, Makwanpur, Lalitpur, Nuwakot, Dhading, Tanahu, Lamjung, Parbat, Baglung, Gulmi, Arghakhachi, Bardiya, Dailekh, Jumla and Dolpa. The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) insurgency initially commenced in the three districts of Rolpa, Rukum and Jajarkot and eventually spread throughout Nepal. The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) had very strong bases in Western and mid-Western region and partially in the Eastern region.

Children in the party

During the Nepalese Civil War, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) resorted to mass under-age recruitment, particularly of young students, usually between 12 and 16 years old. At the conclusion of the war, an estimated 12,000 Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) soldiers were below 18 years of age, and Human Rights Watch estimates that the majority of the current militia joined as minors. The United Nation Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) has verified that there were nine thousand child soldiers in Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) cantonment training camps.

The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) used children as soldiers, messengers, cooks, porters and suppliers. Regardless of role, all children received rudimentary military training concerning explosives, so they would be able to recognize and avoid land mines. The current Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), however, continues to deny that any of its soldiers during the war were less than 18 years of age. They also claim that they have cared for orphans of adult soldiers killed in the war, and that these children were not placed in danger.^[7] However, not all of these children were forced into the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist); thousands joined up themselves. Large numbers of girls and boys tried to rejoin after their release because they thought that their standard of living was better for them under the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist).

Women in the party

Women have been prominent in the recruiting profile. Available reports indicate that one-fifth to one-third of the cadre and the combatants during the Nepalese Civil War may be women. Reportedly, every village under Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) control had a revolutionary women’s organization. According to a Jane’s Intelligence Review report of October 2001, there were usually two women in each unit of 35-40 men, and they were used to gather intelligence and act as couriers. Baburam Bhattarai was quoted as saying in Spacetime on April 18, 2003, that fifty percent of cadres at the lower level, thirty percent of soldiers and ten percent of members of central committee of the outfit were women. Durgha Pokhrel, then Chairman of National Women’s Commission, who visited more than 25 Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) controlled districts, stated on July 3, 2003, during a talk delivered at the Nepal Council of World Affairs that percentage of women cadres could be as high as forty. A women’s group, the All Nepal Women's Association (Revolutionary), is alleged to be a front outfit of the CPN-M.

Prachanda Path, a new doctrine

In second conference of the CPN (Maoist), a post for chairman was created for the Maoist chief Prachanda. Until then, the chief of the organization had been its general secretary. A report titled “The great leap forward: An inevitable need of history” was presented by Prachanda. This report was in serious discussion in the central committee and the top leaders of the party. Based on this report, the CPN (Maoist) adopted Prachanda Path as its ideology. After five years of armed struggle, the party realized that none of the proletarian revolutions of the past could be carried out on Nepal’s context. So having analyzed the serious challenges and growing changes in the global arena, and moving further ahead than Marxism, Leninism and Maoism, the party determined its own ideology, Prachanda Path.

Prachanda Path in essence is a different kind of uprising, which can be described as the fusion of a protracted people’s war strategy which was adopted by Mao in China and the Russian model of armed revolution. Professor Lok Raj Baral, in his writing about Prachanda Path says that this doctrine doesn’t apparently make an ideological break with Marxism and Leninism but finds that these doctrines' strategies aren’t able to be replicated in Nepal as it was done in the past. Most of the Maoist leaders think that the adoption of Prachanda Path after the second national conference is what nudged the party into moving ahead with a clear vision ahead after five years of ‘people’s war’.

Senior Maoist leader Mohan Vaidya alias Kiran says, ‘Just as Marxism was born in Germany, Leninism in Russia and Maoism in China, Prachanda Path is Nepal’s identity of revolution. Just as Marxism has three facets- philosophy, political economy and scientific socialism, Prachanda Path is a combination of all three totally in Nepal’s political context.’ The adoption of Prachanda Path was inspired truly from the Shining Path. In fact, the bringing up of new doctrine worked out with the concept of giving a new identity to Nepal’s revolution. Talking about the party’s philosophy, Maoist chairman Prachanda says, ‘The party considers Prachanda path as an enrichment of Marxism, Leninism and Maoism.’ After the party brought forward its new doctrine, the government was trying to comprehend the new ideology, Prachanda Path. Meanwhile CPN Maoist intensified their armed operations against the security forces.

People's Liberation Army, Nepal

People's Liberation Army, Nepal is the armed wing of the party. The PLA was founded in 2001, in the midst of the Nepal Civil War initiated by the Maoists in 1996. The chief commander of the PLA during the war was Prachanda (Pushpa Kamal Dahal). On September 12, 2008, Nanda Kishor Pun was appointed new chief commander of the PLA, as Prachanda had become Prime Minister of Nepal. This move was in line with a pledge issued by the CPN(M), issued prior to the 2008 Constituent Assembly election, that their members elected to the Assembly would leave their PLA positions.[1][2]

Following the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the PLA soldiers stay in seven major and 21 satellite cantonments that are spread throughout the country.^[5] The party stands by the agreement whereby it states that PLA and the Royal Nepal Army should be integrated. Integration of the two armies is a one of the issue that is lagging behind with the downfall of the Prachanda government. The government claims the PLA to be under its supervision and chain of command. On the other hand, the party claims that the PLA is still under the party's chain of command and are ready to work for the party when it faces hard times.

Senior Maoist and PLA leaders say they are following the agreements of the peace process, and that the former combatants remain within the confines of these cantonments. Inside these camps, members of the PLA train every morning, discuss national politics, and say that if their demands are not met, they won't hesitate to pick up arms again.^[6]

People's Power

A considerable number of retired Gurkha soldiers of the British and the Indian Army inhabit many of the areas previously controlled by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) during the Nepalese Civil War and Nepalese security agencies have suspected that these former soldiers along with those retired and deserters from the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) were involved in training the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) insurgents. Government estimates provided in early 2003 on the CPN-M strength indicated that there were approximately 31,500 combatants, 48,000 militia, 150,500 active cadres and 100,000 sympathizers. The main fighting and support forces consisted of ethnic groups like theMagars, Tharus, Limbus, Tamangs, Dalits, Brahmins and Chhetris, the last two also providing the political and military leadership). These communities are also an important vote-bank for the CPN(M) Among the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) fighters – about 60 per cent – were deployed in the mid-west and west in their strongholds. Another 10 per cent were in the far west with around 10 percent in Gorkha, and the rest were located in Kathmandu valley and east of it.

Having become the largest party of Nepal in the Nepalese Constituent Assembly, the UCP(M) has a large number of active members and a large back up of general people. After the Prachanda led government chose to leave government over a dispute concerning the sacking of an Army General, the party led a year long peaceful movement raising the voice for the people's superiority, National collective government and nation's integrity. However, this could not produce a conclusive result. The party's youth organization Young Communist League, Nepal (YCL) plays an active role in mobilizing people for the movements held by the party. It was believed that almost 200000 people entered the state's capital on May 1 on the occasion of Labor Day. But, despite this May movement repeatedly being claimed by the Maoists as a 'final push' to be continued until the government was forced out, the mass mobilization was kept on hold considering the worsened situation of the people in the Capital city and within days peasants began drifting back to the villages to get on with the important tasks of planting crops along with the party's decision to hold talks with the opposing parties. The conclusion to stay away from the on-going strike came so as to end up the disastrous situation resulting from the government intervention in the peaceful agitation.