Taming India’s Maoists: Surrender and Rehabilitation

This article seeks to make a preliminary assessment of the surrender and rehabilitation policy being adopted towards Naxalites. The examples/experiences cited in this paper refer largely to cadres and leaders of Communist Party of India (Maoist), or CPI (Maoist). It is part of a multi-pronged conflict management and resolution strategy and is required to be implemented along with firm action by police against those who follow the path of violence. This article argues that (a) the various affected states should evince interest to obtain surrenders; (b) put in place a robust surrender and rehabilitation policy, preferably at the national level; (c) secure surrenders on a case-by-case basis; (d) intensify security operations; and (e) policy implementation should be effective and closely monitored.