Revision summary
Naxalism is rooted in tribal land, forest rights, displacement and State absence, and it is also an armed assault on constitutional authority. Levy, IEDs and jan adalats are security threats, not social work. The corridor has shrunk but residual pockets, IEDs and overground networks remain. A multilayered strategy joins force modernisation with FRA/PESA, roads, schools, surrenders and clean local administration. SAMADHAN-type security checklists fail if predatory officials and empty rights stay in place.
Model answer
Introduction
Naxalism (Left Wing Extremism) began as an agrarian revolt and became a protracted armed challenge in forested, tribal and poorly administered belts. It is both a development failure—land, dignity, schools, mines—and a violent internal security threat that kills civilians, security forces and democratic workers. A multilayered reply must hold both truths. The question paper’s ‘gest’ is suggest.
Body
Social, economic, developmental issue
- Adivasi and dalit margins: insecure forest rights, land alienation, and social humiliation created a constituency that Maoist politics claimed to represent.
- Mining and displacement without consent or a fair share of royalties turned projects into recruitment narratives.
- State absence: schools, primary health, roads, and a non-predatory police were thin; the vacuum was political as well as physical.
- Livelihood: tendu, bamboo and informal forest produce versus a contractor–official nexus; MGNREGA and forest-rights titles are the lawful alternative to ‘janatana sarkar’ taxation.
- Treating Naxalism as only a gun problem repeats the neglect that fed it. Treating it as only a seminar on poverty ignores the gun.
Violent internal security threat
- Armed cadres, IEDs, attacks on police stations, and jan adalats that execute alleged informers are crime and war on the Constitution, not protest.
- Extortion of contractors and ‘levy’ on road and mine work is organised crime fused with insurgency.
- The aim is parallel power, not a petition. Casualties among CRPF, State police and civilians make it a core internal security problem under MHA’s LWE division.
Emerging issues
- Geographic shrink and residual pockets: the ‘Red Corridor’ is narrower than a decade ago, but south Bastar, some Odisha–Jharkhand–Bihar junctions remain lethal.
- Urban overground networks, legal front organisations, and social-media propaganda.
- Weapon and IED sophistication; possible crime-terror logistics on the edges (arms, explosives), without equating every Naxal band with jihadist groups.
- Surrender-and-split dynamics: leadership ageing versus new local recruits over a mining clash.
- Rights-and-security tension: fake encounters would destroy the legitimacy that development needs.
Multilayered strategy
- Security layer: trained CRPF/CoBRA and State police, fortified police stations, road opening, IED management, and unified command—without occupying the village as an enemy.
- Development layer: roads (including LWE road schemes), mobile towers, banks, hostels, PESA and Forest Rights Act implementation in letter, and jobs in the same district.
- Political layer: panchayats that actually sit; space for democratic Adivasi politics so the gun is not the only voice.
- Surrender and rehabilitation: skill, stipend, and protection from revenge—tested State policies exist; they need honesty, not a photo.
- Perception layer: local-language outreach, and prosecution of the contractor–official predator who is the Maoist’s best recruiter.
- Centre–State: MHA assistance, intelligence fusion, and State ownership; Naxalism is not only a Delhi graph of districts.
- SAMADHAN-type doctrines (smart leadership, aggression against violence, motivation, actionable intelligence, dashboard, action plan, no access to financing) are a checklist; they work only if the FRA/PESA limb is real.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD C[Causes land forest dignity] --> N[Naxalism] N --> V[Violent LWE threat] N --> D[Development vacuum] S[Security CoBRA intel] --> N R[FRA PESA roads jobs] --> N P[Panchayat rehab prosecution] --> N
Conclusion
Naxalism is a development wound and a violent challenge to the State. Emerging issues are residual lethal pockets, IEDs, and urban support, even as the map shrinks. A multilayered strategy is security that protects civilians, rights that undercut the narrative, roads and schools in the same block, and politics that is not a camp. Guns without justice recreate the cadre.
Quick related
Students also ask
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The banning of 'Jammat-e-Islami' in Jammu and Kashmir brought into focus the role of over-ground workers (OGWs) in assisting terrorist organizations. Examine the role played by OGWs in assisting terrorist organizations in insurgency affected areas. Discuss measures to neutralize influence of OGWs.
Next question on this syllabus topic (2019 · Q9). View answer →
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If violence has declined, is Naxalism over?
No. Residual pockets can still inflict mass-casualty IED attacks. Decline is not disappearance.
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Is development a substitute for police?
No. Cadres who run parallel courts are a police and prosecution problem. Development dries the pool they recruit from.
PYQ trend
When UPSC asked this
Related PYQs from other years, newest first. Open a question to read it.
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2025 · Q10 · GS III · 10 marks
The Government of India recently stated that Left Wing Extremism (LWE) will be eliminated by 2026. What do you understand by LWE and how are the people affected by it? What measures have been taken by the government to eliminate LWE? -
2025 · Q19 · GS III · 15 marks
What are the major challenges to internal security and peace process in the North-Eastern States? Map the various peace accords and agreements initiated by the government in the past decade. -
2023 · Q19 · GS III · 15 marks
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2023 · Q20 · GS III · 15 marks
Give out the major sources of terror funding in India and efforts being made to curtail these sources. In the light of this, also discuss the aim and objective of the ' No Money for Terror [NMFT]' Conference recently held at New Delhi in November 2022. -
2019 · Q9 · GS III · 10 marks
The banning of 'Jammat-e-Islami' in Jammu and Kashmir brought into focus the role of over-ground workers (OGWs) in assisting terrorist organizations. Examine the role played by OGWs in assisting terrorist organizations in insurgency affected areas. Discuss measures to neutralize influence of OGWs. -
2018 · Q10 · GS III · 10 marks
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2017 · Q10 · GS III · 10 marks
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2016 · Q17 · GS III · 12 marks
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More from this topic
Q19 · UPSC Mains 2025 · GS III · 15 marks
What are the major challenges to internal security and peace process in the North-Eastern States? Map the various peace accords and agreements initiated by the government in the past decade.
Internal Security and Extremism
The Northeast’s security problems mix leftover insurgency, ethnic conflict, drugs, migration and Myanmar-China borders. The 2020 Bodo Accord and 2021 Karbi Accord were the big Assam settlements of the decade. The 2015 Naga framework agreement is still not a final peace. The 2020 Bru-Reang deal and 2023 UNLF pact sit beside Manipur’s 2023 ethnic violence. Assam’s border agreements with Meghalaya and Arunachal tried to quiet inter-State maps.
Q10 · UPSC Mains 2025 · GS III · 10 marks
The Government of India recently stated that Left Wing Extremism (LWE) will be eliminated by 2026. What do you understand by LWE and how are the people affected by it? What measures have been taken by the government to eliminate LWE?
Internal Security and Extremism
Left Wing Extremism in India means the Maoist insurgency centred on central Indian forest-tribal belts. Villagers suffer killings, extortion, closed schools and the crossfire of operations. Official figures show fewer severely affected districts and fewer deaths than at the peak. SAMADHAN combines intelligence, camps, surrenders and connectivity. A 2026 ‘end’ is credible as a shrinking map, not as the death of every idea; development and forest rights decide whether the map stays quiet.
Q20 · UPSC Mains 2023 · GS III · 15 marks
Give out the major sources of terror funding in India and efforts being made to curtail these sources. In the light of this, also discuss the aim and objective of the ' No Money for Terror [NMFT]' Conference recently held at New Delhi in November 2022.
Internal Security and Extremism
Major sources are overseas patronage, hawala, narcotics, counterfeit notes, extortion, misuse of non-profits, and emerging crypto rails. India uses UAPA, PMLA, NIA, FIU-IND, FCRA, narcotics and fake-currency drives, and FATF standards. The No Money for Terror conference in New Delhi in November 2022 was the third ministerial on terror finance. Its aim was joint investigation, freezing, and no safe haven for financiers, including new payment tech. International cooperation is required because the money chain is rarely inside one country.
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