The CPI (Maoists) bans marriage between men and women members. It is a big worry for rebels who have no specific cause to pursue. This has caused a significant attrition in the Maoist cadres. Even the gun-totting rebels feel that there is no life without a wife, as the song goes. A large number of youth have deserted the Maoist camps and are joining splinter outfits which have a liberal attitude to marriage. Some of them are surrendering to integrate with the mainstream. All this has led to a leadership crisis in the shrinking areas where Maoists are in control. Whereas they held sway in 182 districts a few years ago, the number has gone down to 50. One major reason is the stringent law on marriage which prescribes punishment or demotion for cadres who get married defying the ban. That also applies to sex out of wedlock.
The fall in the number of Maoist rebels is due to other factors as well. Public support has ebbed away. Besides, the offensives mounted by security forces have led to an exodus. Frustration has set in among young rebels without a cause. The strict law enforcing celibacy is not derived from Mao’s precepts nor is it in sync with the permissiveness often associated with revolutionary organisations in the history of the terrorist movement in India. Indian literature on armed revolutionaries in the country is tinged with romance. Netaji Subhas Chnadra Bose remained a bachelor till his forties but did not enforce bachelorhood on his followers. The Maoist attitude is reminiscent of the militant sannyasis in Bankim Chandra’s ‘Anandamath’ which shows how two errant leaders had to court death in battle. All things considered, whatever may be the reason, the decline in Maoist strength should be welcome to the authorities and civil society.
