Red corridor

Areas with Naxalite activity in 2007 (left) and in 2013 (right).

The Red Corridor is a region in the east of India that experiences considerable Naxalite–Maoist insurgency. The Naxalite group mainly consists of the armed cadres of the Communist Party of India (Maoist).[1] These are also areas that suffer from the greatest illiteracy, poverty and overpopulation in modern India, and span parts of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal states.[2][3][4]

All forms of naxalite organisations have been declared as terrorist organizations under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of India (1967).[5][6][7][8] According to the Government of India, as of July 2011, 83 districts (this figure includes a proposed addition of 20 districts) across 10 states are affected by left-wing extremism[9][10] down from 180 districts in 2009.[11]

Economic situation

The districts that comprise the Red Corridor are among the poorest in the country. Areas such as Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Telangana (formerly part of Andhra Pradesh), are either impoverished or have significant economic inequality, or both.[12][13]

A key characteristic of this region is non-diversified economies that are solely primary sector based. Agriculture, sometimes supplemented with mining or forestry, is the mainstay of the economy, which is often unable to support rapid increases in population.[14][15][16] The region has significant natural resources, including mineral, forestry and potential hydroelectric generation capacity. Orissa, for example, "has 60 percent of India’s bauxite reserves, 25 percent of coal, 28 percent of iron ore, 92 percent of nickel and 28 percent of manganese reserves."[17]

Social situation

The area encompassed by the Red Corridor tends to have stratified societies, with caste and feudal divisions. Much of the area has high indigenous tribal populations (or adivasis), including Santhal and Gond. Bihar and Jharkhand have both caste and tribal divisions and violence associated with friction between these social groups.[18][19][20] Andhra Pradesh's Telangana region similarly has deep caste divides with a strict social hierarchical arrangement.[21][22] Both Chhattisgarh and Orissa have significant impoverished tribal populations.[23][24][25]

Affected Districts

As of July 2011, 83 districts across 10 states are affected by left-wing extremism[9][10] down from 180 districts in 2009.[11]

State # of Districts in State # of Districts Affected Districts Affected[26]
Andhra Pradesh 13 8 Guntur, Prakasam, Anantapur, Kurnool, Vizianagaram, East Godavari, Srikakulam, Visakhapatnam
Bihar 38 11 Aurangabad, Gaya, Rohtas, Bhojpur, Kaimur, East Champaran, West Champaran, Sitamarhi, Munger, Nawada, Jamui
Jharkhand 24 18 Hazaribagh, Lohardaga, Palamu, Chatra, Garhwa, Ranchi, Gumla, Simdega, Latehar, Giridih, Koderma, Bokaro, Dhanbad, East Singhbhum, West Singhbhum, Saraikela Kharsawan, Khunti, Ramgarh
Chhattisgarh 27 9 Bastar, Bijapur, Dantewada, Kanker, Rajnandgaon, Sarguja, Jashpur, Koriya, Narayanpur, Sukma
Maharashtra 35 3 Gadchiroli, Chandrapur, Gondia
Odisha 30 9 Malkangiri, Ganjam, Koraput, Gajapati, Rayagada, Mayurbhanj, Sundargarh, Deogarh, Kandhamal
Telangana 10 8 Warangal, Karimnagar, Adilabad, Khammam, Medak, Nalgonda, Mahbubnagar, Nizamabad
Uttar Pradesh 75 3 Sonbhadra, Mirzapur, Chandauli
West Bengal 19 3 Bankura, West Midnapore, Purulia
Madhya Pradesh 50 1 Balaghat
Total 318 77

The Odisha gap

The Red Corridor is almost contiguous from India's border with Nepal to the northern fringes of Tamil Nadu. There is, however, a significant gap consisting of coastal and some central areas in Odisha state, where Naxalite activity is low and indices of literacy and economic diversification are higher.[27][28][29] However, the non-coastal districts of Odisha which fall in the Red Corridor have significantly lower indicators, and literacy throughout the region is well below the national average.[27][30]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Agarwal, Ajay. "Revelations from the red corridor". Retrieved 27 April 2012.
  2. ↑ "Armed revolt in the Red Corridor". Mondiaal Nieuws, Belgium. 2008-06-25. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
  3. ↑ "Women take up guns in India's red corridor". The Asian Pacific Post. 2008-06-09. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
  4. ↑ "Rising Maoists Insurgency in India". Global Politician. 2007-05-13. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
  5. ↑ ::Ministry of Home Affairs::
  6. ↑ "Maoist Communist Centre - Left Wing Extremism, India, South Asia Terrorism Portal". Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  7. ↑ "People's War Group - Left Wing Extremism, India, South Asia Terrorism Portal". Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  8. ↑ Sukanya Banerjee, "Mercury Rising: India’s Looming Red Corridor", Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2008.
  9. 1 2 "Centre to declare more districts Naxal-hit". Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  10. 1 2 "The Union Government of India to Bring 20 More Districts in the Naxal-hit states". Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  11. 1 2 "Press Information Bureau". Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  12. ↑ Magnus Öberg, Kaare Strøm, "Resources, Governance and Civil Conflict", Routledge, 2008, ISBN 0-415-41671-X. Snippet: ... the general consensus is that the insurgency was started to address various economic and social injustices related to highly skewed distributions of cropland ...
  13. ↑ Debal K. SinghaRoy, "Peasant Movements in Post-colonial India: Dynamics of Mobilization and Identity", Sage Publications, 2004, ISBN 0-7619-9826-8.
  14. ↑ Fernando Franco, "Pain and Awakening: The Dynamics of Dalit Identity in Bihar, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh", Indian Social Institute, 2002, ISBN 81-87218-46-0. ... Land deprivation is the major cause of mass poverty especially in view of the low level of economic diversification in rural areas. Amongst all major states, Bihar has the second highest proportion (55 per cent) of landless or quasi-landless households in the rural population ...
  15. ↑ Dietmar Rothermund, "An Economic History of India: From Pre-colonial Times to 1991", Routledge, 1993, ISBN 0-415-08871-2. Snippet: ... Eastern India has been bypassed by the 'Green revolution' to a great extent ... Instead of urbanization, we can find rural areas with an amazing degree of overpopulation ...
  16. ↑ Rabindra Nath Pati, National Organization for Family and Population Welfare, "Population, Family, and Culture", Ashish Publishing House, 1987, ISBN 81-7024-151-0.
  17. ↑ "Forbes India: Orissa's war over minerals". IBNLive. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  18. ↑ "Bihar: Caste, Politics & the Cycle of Strife". Mammen Matthew, SATP. Retrieved 2008-10-19.
  19. ↑ "Bihar caste clashes kill six". BBC. 2002-10-26. Retrieved 2008-10-19.
  20. ↑ Smita Narula, "Broken People: Caste Violence Against India's untouchables", Human Rights Watch, 1999, ISBN 1-56432-228-9.
  21. ↑ A. Satyanarayana, "Land, Caste and Dominance in Telangana", Centre for Contemporary Studies, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, 1993.
  22. ↑ Tulja Ram Singh, "The Madiga: A Study in Social Structure and Change", Ethnographic & Folk Culture Society, 1969.
  23. ↑ Ajit K. Danda, "Chhattisgarh: An Area Study", Anthropological Survey of India, Government of India, 1977.
  24. ↑ Gyanendra Pandey, "Routine Violence: Nations, Fragments, Histories", Permanent Black, 2006, ISBN 81-7824-161-7.
  25. ↑ Oliver Springate-Baginski and Piers M. Blaikie, "Forests, People and Power: The Political Ecology of Reform in South Asia", Earthscan, 2007, ISBN 1-84407-347-5.
  26. ↑ "83 districts under the Security Related Expenditure Scheme". IntelliBriefs. 2009-12-11. Retrieved 2015-09-17.
  27. 1 2 "National Family Health Survey". International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, Maharashtra. Retrieved 2008-10-18.
  28. ↑ B. B. Jena and Jaya Krishna Baral, "Government and Politics in Odisha", Print House (India), 1988. Snippet:... The literacy rate of the four coastal districts is much higher than that of other districts ...
  29. ↑ Sanjoy Chakravorty and Somik V. Lall, "Made in India: The Economic Geography and Political Economy of Industrialization", Oxford University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-19-568672-1. Snippet:... and Punjab are considered advanced regions, while Bihar and Odisha are considered lagging regions. With the district level data used here, it is possible to create new data driven definitions of advanced and lagging regions that are distinct from politically defined regional ...
  30. ↑ Sevanti Ninan, "Headlines from the Heartland: Reinventing the Hindi Public Sphere", Sage Publishers, 2007, ISBN 0-7619-3580-0. Snippet:... This one state (Madhya Pradesh) alone, taken together with Chhattisgarh, accounted for 17.9 percent of the total decadal decrease in illiteracy in India in the 1990s ...

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