Bastar After Mao: From Insurgency to Integration

Red Reckoning

Part 1

Our five-part series examines the rise and decline of India’s Maoist insurgency, once described as the country’s “greatest internal security threat” and the uneasy transition from conflict to control in its last strongholds.

Last month, Union Home Minister Amit Shah declared in Parliament what would once have sounded improbable. The country, he said, was now “Naxal-free.” The Maoist insurgency has spanned nearly six decades, claimed thousands of lives and once stretched across a vast swathe of land dubbed the ‘Red Corridor’ had, in Shah’s telling, been reduced to a residual threat.

In the months leading up to his self-imposed March deadline, Shah has been intent on making good his claim with steely determination, as Maoist cadres have surrendered in clusters across Chhattisgarh and adjoining regions, while security forces have steadily thinned the insurgency’s ranks.

The insurgency’s top leadership, too, appears severely diminished today. The Home Minister’s address in Parliament was followed by the death of Prashant Bose, better known as Kishan Da, one of the CPI (Maoist)’s most senior figures. His demise marked the passing of an older revolutionary generation.

Yet insurgencies rarely end with declarations. Their afterlives linger in terrain, in institutions, and in the habits of isolation they leave behind. The challenge before the Indian government now is no longer simply to defeat the insurgent but to replace him.

That effort is most visible in Bijapur district in Bastar, spread across 6,500 square kilometres of dense forests and broken ground.

For several years, villages located here were not only excluded from the mainstream of India’s development, but also cut off from reliable means of communication as a result of terrorist activities. It is this isolation that the Indian state is now attempting to dismantle.

The arrival of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Chhattisgarh and the subsequent ‘double-engine government’ - alignment between the Centre and the State - has accelerated infrastructure projects in areas once considered inaccessible. Among the most consequential of these are mobile towers.

Restoring Connectivity

In June 2025, three towers were installed near Kutru, Jangla and Bhopalpatnam - villages that until recently existed at the edge of both governance and geography. Before their installation, residents often had to walk 20 to 30 kilometres to the nearest town to make a phone call. Today, they sit within the reach of a 4G signal.

District officials say the installation of mobile communication services in these types of areas is a milestone in improving the quality of these villages. An additional benefit is that residents can now access government welfare programs directly from their phones, such as the Prime Minister’s Awas Yojana building program, Ayushman Bharat health cards, and other agricultural information, in real-time.

On a number of past occasions, mobile base stations (also known as cell towers) were installed in Bijapur from January 2024 through June 2025 than had been installed in 2022 and 2023 combined (a total of 48). The result is that an estimated 110 villages are now able to connect via a mobile device, or approximately an increase of around 300 additional villages connected from the over 700 total villages in the Bijapur District.

Approximately 45 percent of the district has mobile connectivity today. This is remarkable given the continued long-term destruction of telecommunication infrastructure that has occurred at the hands of Maoist insurgents here. According to reports, the Maoists destroyed eight telecommunication towers during 2022-2023, and in the first half of the year 2024, there have already been six instances of telecommunication tower destruction targeted at the government or state symbols. But the government has quickly adapted its strategy in response to the destruction of towers by ensuring that the newly constructed towers are adequately clustered together near security force camps.

The District Collector said considerable progress had been made and there are plans to complete the current work by the end of the year, with around 400 villages remaining. The Superintendent of Police stressed how important it is for the two agencies (police and BSNL) to collaborate in order to ensure the security of the telecommunications engineer in a safe manner while they are working on-site. BSNL - the principal partner supported by Central funding - has affiliated with the project by providing solar-powered towers at off-grid locations, which means that the towers will continue to be operated as long as they have solar power, regardless of whether there is any electrical power. 

The telecommunications project is not only about providing signals, but also about providing access to information in emergencies such as a natural disaster, access to online education during the pandemic and completing digital payments, thus avoiding payment to the Naxals.

Leadership Momentum

The Ministry of Communications and Department of Telecommunications are working together, both financially and administratively, on the ‘Hariyali’ initiative to counter LWE (Left-Wing Extremism) by enhancing BSNL services in the 44 worst districts within LWE affected states. Bijapur is one of those locations for expansion as well. In conjunction, Chhattisgarh’s State Government provides security through the DRG (District Reserve Guard) and CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) to create secure access corridors for the site of proposed tower installations. The ‘Niyad Nellanar’ Programme is another flagship scheme run by the state of Chhattisgarh that provides funding for infrastructure at the Village level and provides interlinking points for telecom with road-building assistance through PM Gram Sadak Yojana and through electrification efforts.

The Hariyali initiative is expected to receive substantial funding from both the Department of Telecommunications and the Ministry of Communications for expanding BSNL services into 44 of the most predominantly Left-Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected districts. This includes Bijapur, Chhattisgarh. The state government of Chhattisgarh is supporting the development of additional Towers through the establishment of safe routes for the construction of Towers by providing security assistance from the Central Reserve Police Force and the District Reserve Guard.  Also, through its flagship program ‘Niyad Nellanar,’ the state contributes to the creation of additional infrastructure in villages by providing funds for Villages to build new infrastructure that will work in conjunction with the PM Gram Sadak Yojana and the electrification initiatives across Chhattisgarh.

Kutru was the tragic site of an IED explosion on January 15, 2025, which claimed the lives of eight security personnel and a civilian driver. Just months thereafter, a tower was erected showcasing the resilience of the community. Jangla and Bhopalpatnam are also vulnerable to insurgency but now have communication signals that will allow gram panchayats to report on the activities of Maoist groups in real-time. In nearby areas, gram panchayats use mobile networks to report Maoist activity in real time, eroding the insurgents’ ability to isolate communities.

There are early signs that this form of connectivity is having positive benefits for the villagers, such as allowing access to the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) for purchasing food rations, providing access for children to stream online lessons, and enabling health workers to dispatch ambulances through 108 services.

Intelligence received through real-time communication networks from connected villages has produced an increase in surrenders (over 150 Maoists since 2024) and in weapons recovered from encounters. The DRGs (including former rebels) have credited some of the information received from their systems with providing tips that resulted in the dismantling of IED (Improvised Explosive Device) networks. The self-help groups (SHGs) for women now number over 5,000 and use WhatsApp to connect with each other and to amplify their voices against Naxal coercion.

Resistance has not vanished. Maoist propaganda continues to portray telecom towers as ‘spy masts,’ warning villagers against cooperation. Yet the balance appears to be shifting. Gram sabhas have begun approving tower installations, and local communities increasingly participate in safeguarding them.

The costs are considerable. Building telecom infrastructure in such terrain requires sustained investment, much of it borne by the central government through mechanisms like the Universal Service Obligation Fund. But the returns, from the state’s perspective, are strategic as much as economic.

Insurgencies seldom end on schedule. But in Bastar, the nature of the conflict is clearly changing.  With a 55 percent coverage goal set for 2026, Bijapur is demonstrating how connectivity is being deployed as a tool of governance and, ultimately, legitimacy.

(The writer is a political consultant and an international relations expert. Views personal.)