Author: Sanjay Upadhya
Publication: World Politics Review
Date: November 1, 2007
URL: http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/article.aspx?id=1295
Patterns of a resurgence in cooperation between
Islamic extremists and radical communists -- faint in some places, more pronounced
in others -- are emerging. While much of the current focus is on parts of
Europe, South Asia could emerge as the principal arena for a communist-jihadist
alliance.
Depending on whom you talk to, an alliance
between Islamic extremists and radical communists is either more sinister
war-on-terror hyperbole or a clear and present danger. At the most basic level,
the two groups are divided by their outlook on the supreme being. For Islamist
extremists, killing in the name of and dying for God is an investment in the
hereafter. But the communist's variety of death and destruction is motivated
by a worldview rooted in materialism.
Yet the two philosophies clearly have much
in common. Both profess a disdain for the excesses of Western capitalism packaged
as globalization. Like Marx and Lenin of the last century, today's jihadists
have a utopian vision of a chaste internationalism. Their glorification of
death is an act of piety.
Both groups also are strategic pragmatists.
They have a history of joining hands with unlikely allies to destroy the primary
enemy of the day. Like Joseph Stalin's alliance with America and Britain to
defeat Hitler, jihadists had worked with the United States to defeat the Soviets
in Afghanistan.
Earlier this year, media organizations in
India's Jammu and Kashmir state received a video recording in which al-Qaida
purportedly declared war on the country. New Delhi has long blamed the Pakistani
military's Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) for fomenting violence in the
Himalayan territory, which Islamabad has claimed since both nations gained
independence from Britain 60 years ago. But the timing of al-Qaida's threat
worried many Indians. It came amid a resurgence of a Maoist insurgency across
vast swathes of the world's most populous democracy.
Known locally as "Naxalites," after
the district of Naxalbari in the northern state of West Bengal where they
mounted an uprising in 1967, Indian Maoist rebels were virtually wiped out
in a massive government crackdown in the 1970s. Since last year, however,
they have spread across rural and impoverished hinterlands in at least 11
of India's 28 states, prompting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to equate Naxalism
with terrorism as the two big threats to the country's internal security.
Indian Maoist groups have strenuously denied
ties to Islamist extremists. Skeptics contend that Indian law-enforcement
authorities may be whipping up fears of a non-existent alliance to bolster
their authority and influence. In May, India's Home Minister, Shivraj Patil,
acknowledged his government had no hard evidence of a formal association.
But, he said, the government possesses enough circumstantial information to
suggest coordination.
A report prepared by Indian security agencies
two years ago suggested the Maoists may be using other Indian separatist groups
to get arms and ammunition from the ISI -- a link that continues to be highlighted
by the Indian media with each rebel attack.
As India and Pakistan trade tirades, the issue
has gone beyond the two nuclear-armed rivals. Some Indian analysts claim that
almost all recent terrorist strikes on their country had links to neighboring
Nepal, where Maoists have such sway that the country's mainstream political
parties invited them to join the government earlier this year. Islamic militants
involved in terrorist attacks in India, the South Asia Terrorism Portal points
out, either used Nepal as a transit point between Pakistan and Bangladesh
or masterminded operations from Nepalese towns.
Days after deadly bombs ripped through commuter
trains in India's financial hub of Mumbai in July last year, Nepalese police
arrested two Pakistani nationals in a Katmandu hotel for their alleged involvement.
New Delhi regularly accuses Pakistan of using Bangladesh and Nepal as bases
for anti-India subversion, a charge Islamabad, Dhaka and Katmandu deny equally
assiduously.
Bangladesh, which won independence from Pakistan
in 1971, has seen a growing Islamist presence in politics. Indian officials
accuse that country's intelligence services of promoting armed wings of these
political parties to perpetuate hostility toward their giant neighbor.
Although Nepal is a predominantly Hindu nation,
its small Muslim population is heavily concentrated along the 1,000-mile open
and largely unregulated border with India. Meanwhile, Nepal's decade-long
Maoist insurgency claimed 13,000 lives before a tentative peace was reached
last year. After signing a peace treaty with the government, Maoist leader
Prachanda conceded at a conference in New Delhi that Pakistan had offered
to arm and train his group, which he said he had declined.
In the past, however, the Maoist leader's
rhetoric has been similar to the pronouncements of Islamist groups like al-Qaida.
Two years ago, while still fighting to overthrow Nepal's monarchy and multiparty
democracy, Prachanda called his struggle "a totally new 21st century
war [against] the evil of the imperialist world, the hypocrisy of so-called
democracy that a superpower like the U.S. represents." He enjoined like-minded
groups from around the world to join in his epic struggle.
That kind of summons has largely ebbed. But
after joining the peace process, some reports indicate the Nepalese Maoists
continue to attend secret meetings of South Asian allies, joining in pledges
to turn the region into a revolutionary zone. The former rebels may have laid
down their guns, but Nepal's mainstream political parties as well as principal
donor governments accuse them of continuing a campaign of abduction, extortion
and intimidation.
Some Indian security officials believe former
Nepalese insurgents are actively involved in Maoist attacks in their country.
By making new demands in Katmandu earlier this month that have delayed previously
scheduled elections, the Maoists have bolstered suspicions of their real motives.
In February, Indian police arrested an alleged
Nepalese Maoist gunrunner who, they said, offered clues of ties between the
Maoists and Islamic militants. Although the Nepalese Maoists denied having
ties with the man, Indian security agencies consider him a key link to a network
of terror in and around India.
One arrest, to be sure, may not amount to
definitive proof. Yet the motive and opportunity for cooperation between Islamist
and communist radicals may be too compelling to ignore.
Sanjay Upadhya is a Nepalese journalist who
divides his time between the United States and Nepal. A Fulbright Scholar
at New York University from 1993-96, he has worked for the British Broadcasting
Corporation, the Times of London, Inter Press Service and the Khaleej Times.
