Published April 19th, 2006 by Future Atlas
India’s “people’s war”
The Maoist insurgency in India may still be a low-intensity conflict, but “looks increasingly like a civil war,” according to the NYT (IHT version here).
It is surprisingly widespread, “with toeholds in 13 of 28 Indian states,” from the far south to the Nepalese border, and some influence in a fourth of the country’s 600 districts, by one estimate.
Says an Indian security analyst, “Unless something radical is done in terms of a structural revolution in rural areas, you will see a continuous expansion of Maoist insurrection.”
That may be a bit bold, given that the conflict has been sputtering for 38 years, but the war is another reason that India’s future success is dependent on achieving a more equitable, inclusive society.