Articles by Gautam Navlakha

The Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisation (CDRO) group put together a team of concerned citizens which visited Wankadi mandal, Adilabad district on 20 and 21 August 2010 where the alleged encounter of Azad, also known as Cherukuri Rajkumar, who was the spokes person of the CPI (Maoist) a

A major drive to expand the police force is under way and the government contends that "United Nations norms" on the police-population ratio have to be met. Are its arguments justified?

The central government insists that militancy is on the wane in Jammu and Kashmir. Yet the security forces in the state have been tightening their grip on the lives of common people in recent months. So much so that they even deny them the right to carry out legitimate protests and brand such activities as non-violent terrorism.

Who are these Maoists who, according to the government, constitute the "single biggest threat" to India's internal security? What is their politics? Why and how do they justify violence? How do they perceive their "people's war," their political goals and themselves? How did the Maoists establish themselves in the Dandakaranya region of central India? How do they now live and operate in the "base area" they have constructed? How does their "Jantanam Sarkar" function in the guerrilla zone of Bastar? First-hand reports of the functioning of the CPI (Maoist) in central India have been rare. Based on a two-week long visit to the Maoist heartland, this article attempts to answer some of these questions.

With the peace process increasingly getting scuttled, what with India and the two main political parties opposing the Maoist agenda of civilian supremacy and implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2006, the chances of non-violent, progressive transformation of the Nepali state and society seem increasingly dim in the near future. The Maoists have now gone back to the people to launch a mass protest movement. As the contradictions intensify, will there be a takeover of power by the president with the backing of the army, akin to a Bangladeshi-type coup? Will there be an Indonesia-like massacre of the Maoists, as some fear? Or, will a national government led by Maoists materialise?