What are the determinants of left-wing extremism in Eastern part of India? What strategy should Government…

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What are the determinants of left-wing extremism in Eastern part of India? What strategy should Government of India, civil administration and security forces adopt to counter the threat in the affected areas?

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Left-wing extremism in Eastern India rests on land alienation, mining-led displacement, deep tribal deprivation and a governance vacuum in forested tri-junctions, so the Centre, district administration and security forces must clear, hold and then govern. Affected districts fell to 11 by 2025.

**Introduction**

Eastern India formed the core of the Red Corridor because its mineral wealth sits beside deep tribal poverty. Affected districts fell to 11 by 2025 (PIB, 2025), but the determinants explain five decades of survival.

**Determinants of LWE in Eastern India**

1. **Land alienation**: Incomplete land reforms and breaches of the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act left sharecroppers and Adivasis landless.
2. **Mining-led displacement**: The Bandyopadhyay expert group (2008) linked displacement in the mineral belt directly to extremism.
3. **Deprivation and terrain**: Bihar and Jharkhand had the highest poverty shares in NITI Aayog's MPI 2023, while forests such as Saranda and Abujhmarh let Maoists run parallel "janatana sarkars".

**Strategy for Government, Administration and Forces**

1. **Government of India**: The National Policy and Action Plan (2015) and SAMADHAN (2017), with PESA and FRA enforcement and NIA tracking of levies, attack grievance and funding.
2. **Civil administration**: Roads, mobile towers and Eklavya schools, as in Dantewada's Education City, plus gram sabha consent upheld in the Niyamgiri case (2013), close the trust deficit.
3. **Security forces**: Intelligence-led state units such as Jharkhand Jaguar and the District Reserve Guard lead operations, and a DRG strike killed CPI(Maoist) chief Basavaraju in May 2025, while the Salwa Judum ruling (2011) demands rights-respecting conduct.

SKETCH: flow | Clear, Hold, Build
- Clear: security forces
- Hold: forward camps
- Build: civil administration
- Handover: gram sabha

**Way Forward**

1. **Consolidate and rehabilitate**: Turn camps into service centres and reintegrate surrendered cadres.
2. **Coordinate across states**: Joint operations at tri-junctions deny cadres escape routes.

**Conclusion**

A hard and soft approach that clears, holds and then governs will turn the Red Corridor into a corridor of growth.

What are the determinants of left-wing extremism in Eastern part of India? What strategy should Government of India, civil administration and security forces adopt to counter the threat in the affected areas?

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