Throughout the turbulent bend in the trajectory of the people’s war in India, many territories firmly held by the Communist Party of India (Maoist) were violently returned to the hands of the corrupt Indian state. The temporary return of “peace” to these areas, however, is no consolation to the masses of people who occupy them. Promises of “development” soon evaporate after their long-time absentee leadership returns to the constituencies, representing the hungry criminal gangs eagerly awaiting the go-ahead for the looting of formerly liberated zones.

Such is the fate of the Nallamala region in central Andhra Pradesh since the reactionary state forced the retreat of the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) from the region. According to a recent article from the Times of India, even those opposed to the CPI(Maoist) in the region have been brought to question the terms of this so-called peace. While away from their constituencies, local political bosses grew wealthy alongside their new friends: the criminal mining mafias, eager to expand their operations to the districts of Prakasam and Guntur. Now that the brutal and meticulous counter-insurgency campaign by the government has pushed the Maoists from this region, these mafias now dominate the countryside, polluting it and displacing the local peasants.

Once-pristine forests have been transformed into dusty quarries for sand, limestone, granite and other valuable minerals since 2009. Previously prevented from operating by the CPI(Maoist), now the local sand syndicate reports making 1.3 million dollars per day. Even anti-communist liberal activists lament that under Maoist leadership, the environment was protected from the wanton and corrupt looting that the local strongmen have unleashed. The Times of India considers these developments “strange”, but for communists they make perfect sense. The parasitic expansionism of Indian comprador capitalism relies on the military and criminal cartels to prepare the ground for their entry into areas where political consciousness is high. But the alleged “peace” that they bring is false, the war on the oppressed masses continues, in turn strengthening the basis for Maoist politics.

The reactionary state and the capitalists they serve dig their own graves in regions like Nallamala, constantly revealing themselves as transparently corrupt and anti-people. They celebrate their victory over communism far too early, unaware that their actions strengthen the returning red tide. All over the country, Maoism is surging, and the reactionary state is terrified. The CPI(Maoist) has spread to previously untouched areas in Kerala, and developed areas of support in the cities that have sparked fears of what the state has called “urban Naxalism” growing in the universities and factories. While the state may dislodge the PLGA from an area, perhaps even recapture a liberated zone, the reactionaries cannot eliminate the basis of red power in India. Rather, their nakedly brutal rule strengthens its resolve to take the whole country. Such “victories” on the part of the capitalist state are increasingly shown only to be bends in the road to victory for communism in India.