The persisting drives of the Government for development of large industries in backward areas have…

Question

The persisting drives of the Government for development of large industries in backward areas have resulted in isolating the tribal population and the farmers who face multiple displacements. With Malkangiri and Naxalbari foci, discuss the corrective strategies needed to win the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) doctrine affected citizens back into the mainstream of social and economic growth.

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Winning LWE-affected citizens back needs consent-based acquisition, secure land and forest rights, shared resource wealth and a trusted state presence. In Naxalbari's own state, Operation Barga (1978) secured sharecroppers' rights, while the Gurupriya bridge (2018) opened Malkangiri's 151 cut-off villages.

**Introduction**

Naxalbari (1967) began as a sharecroppers' revolt, and Malkangiri shows its modern form: tribals displaced repeatedly by the Machkund and Balimela projects and then cut off across a reservoir. Winning them back needs rights and trust, not force alone.

**Restoring Land, Forest and Livelihood Rights**

SKETCH: flow-cycle | Cycle the Strategy Must Break
- Repeated displacement
- Land and forest loss
- Alienation from state
- Maoist recruitment
- Violence stalls development

1. **Consent before acquisition**: The RFCTLARR Act, 2013 requires a social impact assessment and gram sabha consent in Scheduled Areas, and the Niyamgiri judgment (2013) upheld the gram sabha's say over mining.
2. **Secure tenure**: In Naxalbari's own state, Operation Barga (1978) recorded sharecroppers' rights and drained the movement's rural appeal; Forest Rights Act titles and PESA gram sabhas can do the same for tribals.
3. **Sharing resource wealth**: District Mineral Foundations (2015) and the ROSHNI skilling scheme turn industry into jobs for the displaced.

**Rebuilding State Presence and Trust**

1. **Connecting cut-off pockets**: The Gurupriya bridge (2018) joined Malkangiri's 151 cut-off villages, now Swabhiman Anchal, to roads, schools and mobile towers.
2. **Rights-respecting security**: The Supreme Court's Salwa Judum ruling in Nandini Sundar (2011) shows that excesses push villagers towards the Maoists.
3. **Surrender and delivery**: Odisha's surrender and rehabilitation package and the Aspirational Districts Programme (2018), which covers Malkangiri, carry the state to the last hamlet.

**Conclusion**

With LWE-affected districts down from 126 to 11 by 2025 (PIB), the lesson of Naxalbari and Malkangiri is clear: where the state arrives as a development agent rather than an acquirer of land, the doctrine loses its pull and the Arc of Violence becomes an Arc of Peace.

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