Primitive Accumulation, the Communist Idea and Maoist Praxis in Contemporary Central India

Abstract

This paper aims to address the questions of possibilities of radical change in the contemporary global south under neoliberalism. We are particularly concerned with examining the conditions under which radical movements can help realize what contemporary European Neostructuralists call the “Communist Idea” in practice. One of the key sites where such a struggle is ongoing today is under the contemporary Maoist movement in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh in its battle against neoliberal primitive accumulation. We argue that central India has been a primary site of systematic, state-supported imperialist resource exploitation and human displacement for over a century, which has created objective conditions favorable for radical popular organization. Yet we contend that the Maoist movement has somewhat mechanically applied Maoist ideology to conditions to which it may be ill-suited, something that has helped it attract and empower millions of the dispossessed, while also leading them into a long-term political cul-de-sac.

Keywords:

• Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung)
• Communist Part of India (Maoist)
• primitive accumulation
• neoliberalism
• Chhattisgarh

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Wang Zhongbao and Alexander Kennedy for comments on this paper. I would also like to thank Seth Adler, the organizer of the 2013 Left Forum conference at the Pace University in New York, and my co-panelists at the panel on Contemporary Maoism where an earlier version of this piece was originally presented.

Notes on Contributor

William Karl Riukas recently finished his MA in Politics at the New School for Social Research in New York. He specializes in Marxist theory, class-based and radical movements, comparative politics and development in China, South Asia and Latin America. He has been active in human rights and radical solidarity work in New York.

Notes

¹ In this paper the Maoist movement in India refers to the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and its associated mass front organizations and People's Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA), unless otherwise noted. The party was formed in 2004 by the merger of India's two largest Maoist parties engaged in armed struggle, the former Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist, People's War) and the Maoist Communist Center. The other main Maoist party in contemporary India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist, Liberation) effectively renounced the armed struggle in the early 1980s, leading to a focus primarily on parliamentary politics and mass movement organizing and mobilization.

² For purposes of clarity, in this paper we use the term province to denote India's state level administrations and state or regime to denote all levels of the government or administration, whether federal, state or local.