ccording to
sociologists and experts on terrorism, the words terrorist and terrorism were
coined for the first time during the French revolution. The T-word was first
used in 1795 in the context of the ‘Reign of Terror’ initiated by the
revolutionary government in France. The agents of the Committee of Public Safety
and the National Convention that enforced the policies of "The Terror" were
referred to as ‘terrorists’. The French revolution set an example for future
states in oppressing their own people. It also prompted a reaction by royalists
and other opponents of the revolution who also used terrorist tactics such as
assassination and intimidation in resisting the revolutionary agents. The
systematic use of terror as state policy was first recorded in England in 1798.
The words terrorism and terrorist were first used as political
terms to describe atrocities of an occupying power – say colonial government.
Researches on the history of terrorism also reveal the word
‘terrorist’ being used in describing the tactics used by the extremist
revolutionaries in Russia (1866) and in accounts of Jewish tactics against the
British in Palestine (1947). During the anti-colonial struggle, what one party
called terrorism was referred to as a guerrilla war or fight for freedom by the
opposite party. This was so in case of the anti-British actions in India (1857),
in Cyprus (1956) and the war in Rhodesia (1973). The word terrorist has also
been used, at least retroactively, to describe the Marquis resistance in
occupied France during World War II. The British first used the terms
‘terrorism’ and ‘terrorist’ to describe anti-establishment forces who adopted
hit-and-run tactics against British colonialism.
It is apparently not easy to define terrorism even though it is
not a new phenomenon for the world. A western writer observes, "Terrorism has
been described variously as both a tactic and strategy; a crime and a holy duty;
a justified reaction to oppression and an inexcusable abomination." Obviously, a
lot depends on whose point of view is being represented. Terrorism has often
been an effective tactic used by the weaker side in a conflict. In an asymmetric
conflict it confers coercive power with many of the advantages of military force
at a fraction of the cost.
The popular online encyclopaedia – Wikipedia – notes, "The word
‘terrorism’ is politically and emotionally charged and this greatly compounds
the difficulty of providing a precise definition." A 2003 study by Jeffrey
Record for the US army quoted a source (Schmid and Jongman, 1988) documenting
109 definitions of terrorism incorporating a total of 22 different definitional
elements. Says Record, "Terrorism expert Walter Laqueur also has counted over
100 definitions" and concludes that the "only general characteristic generally
agreed upon is that terrorism involves violence and the threat of violence. Yet
terrorism is hardly the only enterprise involving violence and the threat of
violence. So does war, coercive diplomacy and bar-room brawls."
The lack of agreement on a definition of terrorism has been a
major obstacle to meaningful international countermeasures.
In India, the onslaught of the media and law enforcement
agencies with their assumptions and repeated mention of Muslim names after each
terror attack has entered the psyche of ordinary Indians. Thus an impression has
gained currency that terrorism in the country is a Muslim monopoly. But the
facts on the ground tell a different story.
In Jammu and Kashmir, the terrorists are Muslims. But they are
only one of the several terrorist groups operating in the country. In Punjab,
the terrorists are Sikhs. The United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) is a Hindu
terrorist group. Tripura also has seen the rise and fall of several terrorist
groups. Then we have the Bodo terrorists, Christians mostly, who in their fight
for autonomy killed hundreds of Muslims in 1993. Some of its leaders are now
cabinet ministers in Tarun Gogoi’s government in Assam. Christian Mizos mounted
an insurrection for decades. And Christian Nagas and Manipuris are still heading
militant groups. They have bombed trains, assassinated hundreds of innocent men,
women and children. This year they boycotted and attempted to disrupt
Independence Day (August 15) celebrations in at least five of the country’s
seven north-eastern states.
But most lethal of all are the Maoist terrorist groups who
reportedly now have a presence in no less than 150 of India’s 600 districts.
They have attacked police stations and killed and ransacked the property of
innocent villagers who oppose them. There is nothing Muslim about these Maoist
groups.
On September 2, 2006 a national English daily published from
Mumbai had a detailed report on a few dozen ‘Hindu Mujahideen’ who had for years
been working for the Hizb ul-Mujahideen (HM) in Jammu and Kashmir. The news
report had all the necessary details – names, ages, addresses of the recruits
(all from the Jammu region) and the year they joined the HM. Similarly, in some
non-Muslim outfits such as ULFA in Assam, Muslim members are not barred from
joining.
On February 24, 2008 bombs blasted inside the local RSS office
and at the bus stand in Tenkasi in Tamil Nadu. The national media carried
detailed reports on the blasts. The sangh parivar organised demonstrations in
various parts of the state, demanding the arrest of "Muslim terrorists", who
according to them had committed the crime. However, the Tamil Nadu police acted
sensibly. A special team led by P. Kannappan, deputy inspector general of
police, Tirunelveli range, made a thorough investigation and arrested three
persons: S. Ravi Pandian (42), a cable TV operator, S. Kumar (28), an
autorickshaw driver, both from Tenkasi, and V. Narayana Sharma (26) of Sencottai.
All of them were activists of the sangh parivar. As reported by the media, the
last accused had assembled 14 pipe bombs in the office of Ravi Pandian.
Urdu Times, a Mumbai daily, reported on April 18, 2008 that
the Malegaon police had raided the Smith Pathology Laboratory situated in the
basement of More Accident Hospital, Malegaon. One pistol, five live RDX bombs,
three used RDX cases, four fake 1,000 rupee notes, a laptop, a scanner, Rs 5,000
in cash and two mobile phones were recovered during the raid, according to the
newspaper report. The names of the three Hindu terrorists arrested were given as
Nitish Ashire (20), Sahab Rao Sukhdev Dhevre (22) and Jitendar Kherna (25). The
last one is the owner of the pathology lab.
Following the Jaipur serial blasts on May 13, 2008, the police
were reportedly on the hunt for a woman who had allegedly promised Rs 1,00,000
to a rickshaw-puller to carry out the terror attacks. "We are looking for a
woman identified as Meena who tried to lure a rickshaw-puller, Vijay, to carry
out the attacks," an unidentified police officer told a national daily.
The Aaj Tak TV channel telecast video clips of Vijay saying, "Stop the lady (Meena)
or she will explode bombs at Katwali." By that time a bomb had already been
exploded in the Katwali area. Vijay, who was detained just an hour after the
Jaipur blasts, told the police that Meena lived near one of the blast sites.
What happened to Meena and Vijay? What further information did the police
extract from Vijay? Were they able to locate and interrogate Meena? All this
remains a mystery till date.
The special issue of Communalism Combat (July-August
2008) carried extensive reports on the involvement of several Hindu extremist
groups in several bomb blasts in the state since 2003.
In the last week of July 2008 bombs exploded in Bangalore and
Ahmedabad on two consecutive days. The Ahmedabad blasts killed 42 people and
injured another 200. Over the next few days a large number of unexploded bombs
were found and defused in Surat. In an email sent out five minutes before the
Ahmedabad blasts a little known group calling itself the ‘Indian Mujahideen’
claimed that it was responsible for the blasts. The police investigating the
Ahmedabad blasts case traced the email to an apartment in Navi Mumbai.
Interestingly, the resident of the apartment turned out to be not some "Islamist
group" but an American: Kenneth Haywood (48), a Christian preacher operating
under cover of a dummy IT company. In a highly curious turn of events, Haywood
fled India even while the ATS had put out a lookout alert against him.
Police officials had no satisfactory explanation as to how no
surveillance was maintained on a man suspected of possible involvement in a
major terrorist attack. Would the ATS and the rest of the police machinery have
acted in the same cavalier fashion had the laptop been in possession of a
Muslim?
Terrorism is a political virus. It breeds where there is greed
for power, injustice or intolerance. No one in the world is immune from the
direct or indirect effect of terrorism now. Whatever their stated cause, all
terrorists have a common goal – generating fear through violence. To effectively
counter terrorism we must all bear in mind that terrorism has no religion.