Indian Patriot
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In the wake of the unfortunate attack on Indian soldiers in the Indian state of Manipur the media once again shifted their focus on the long pending ailment of insurgency in India with a special focus on the north-eastern region. Opinion ranged from calls for retaliatory action against the rebels to finding a political and permanent solution to a long conflict. But what was appalling was the lack of general knowledge on the nature of these insurgent groups and in a sense a lack of Indian history and geography by Indian thinkers, media and political commentators.
Without going into too much details on who supports them, and stuff like them this thread is a simple article on the types of insurgency. Insurgency in India can be broadly classified into three groups - religious, political and linguistic-ethnic.
1. Religious insurgency - The sub-continent was divided on religious lines in 1947 and it created a lot of problems some of which persist even today. When we speak of religious insurgency then it is natural to talk about Kashmir. The Kashmiri groups are demanding a separate state of Kashmir independent of Indian administrative control. It could be argued that it is a political rebellion but the militancy is concentrated simply among the Sunni Islamic fanatical groups and Hindu Kashmiris are not a part of it. Even some shias are opposed to the violence in the valley. Another religious insurgent group were the Sikh extremists but they were neutralised and no longer pose a threat.
2. Political insurgency - Political insurgency first started in West Bengal with the emergence of extremist left-wing political cadres who wanted to create a communist state in India through armed revolution. Political insurgents in theory have the largest support base because they are not confined in the boundaries of religion, language and ethnic groups. They are bound by their allegiance to a political ideology and follow only that. The Naxals are the largest political insurgent group in India. The naxals are active in the central states of India and are particularly so in Bengal and Orissa.
3. Ethnic insurgency - This is the trickiest group of all three. They are not bound by religious or political ideology but their grievances are based on their linguistic and ethnic grouping. The cadres maybe of different religious background but they will be fighting in the same outfit because of shared ethnicity. They are also very exclusive in their selection. They will be active only in those areas where their ethic people are a majority and will have only those cadres who share the same ethnicity. Because of the sharp ethnic divide it is not unheard of that different ethnic outfits often fight against each other. Like other insurgent outfits their conflict is with the center and they are demanding a separation from the union of India. The ethnic insurgent groups are mostly active in the north-eastern region of India.
The reason I have to point out the difference in these insurgent groups is because many Indians confuse them as a homogeneous body when they are clearly not. Other than taking up the path of violence these groups have nothing in common. Many Indians claim that the insurgency in the north-eastern states are naxals and/or funded by religious outfits which is Christians. They are terribly wrong. Naxalism is a different problem and as of today there are no reported naxal groups in the region and probably will remain so. Neither are they motivated by religion. If we exclude Sikkim then the north-east comprises of seven states. Of these seven only three states are Christian majority and insurgency affects only one of them. The rest are Hindu-majority states and the majority of the cadres in these outfits are mostly Hindus.
Many Indians in PDF here were probably unaware about these simple ground realities and I hope this simple thread will help them understand better.
Without going into too much details on who supports them, and stuff like them this thread is a simple article on the types of insurgency. Insurgency in India can be broadly classified into three groups - religious, political and linguistic-ethnic.
1. Religious insurgency - The sub-continent was divided on religious lines in 1947 and it created a lot of problems some of which persist even today. When we speak of religious insurgency then it is natural to talk about Kashmir. The Kashmiri groups are demanding a separate state of Kashmir independent of Indian administrative control. It could be argued that it is a political rebellion but the militancy is concentrated simply among the Sunni Islamic fanatical groups and Hindu Kashmiris are not a part of it. Even some shias are opposed to the violence in the valley. Another religious insurgent group were the Sikh extremists but they were neutralised and no longer pose a threat.
2. Political insurgency - Political insurgency first started in West Bengal with the emergence of extremist left-wing political cadres who wanted to create a communist state in India through armed revolution. Political insurgents in theory have the largest support base because they are not confined in the boundaries of religion, language and ethnic groups. They are bound by their allegiance to a political ideology and follow only that. The Naxals are the largest political insurgent group in India. The naxals are active in the central states of India and are particularly so in Bengal and Orissa.
3. Ethnic insurgency - This is the trickiest group of all three. They are not bound by religious or political ideology but their grievances are based on their linguistic and ethnic grouping. The cadres maybe of different religious background but they will be fighting in the same outfit because of shared ethnicity. They are also very exclusive in their selection. They will be active only in those areas where their ethic people are a majority and will have only those cadres who share the same ethnicity. Because of the sharp ethnic divide it is not unheard of that different ethnic outfits often fight against each other. Like other insurgent outfits their conflict is with the center and they are demanding a separation from the union of India. The ethnic insurgent groups are mostly active in the north-eastern region of India.
The reason I have to point out the difference in these insurgent groups is because many Indians confuse them as a homogeneous body when they are clearly not. Other than taking up the path of violence these groups have nothing in common. Many Indians claim that the insurgency in the north-eastern states are naxals and/or funded by religious outfits which is Christians. They are terribly wrong. Naxalism is a different problem and as of today there are no reported naxal groups in the region and probably will remain so. Neither are they motivated by religion. If we exclude Sikkim then the north-east comprises of seven states. Of these seven only three states are Christian majority and insurgency affects only one of them. The rest are Hindu-majority states and the majority of the cadres in these outfits are mostly Hindus.
Many Indians in PDF here were probably unaware about these simple ground realities and I hope this simple thread will help them understand better.
