Terrorism Today

India is a country that suffers more, I think, from terrorism than any other.There are Islamic terrorists in the Jammu and Kashmir, the Naxalites who stretch from Andhra Pradesh in the South to the Nepal border, and the various militant groups in the North-East.It successfully overcame a serious attack of Khalistani terrorists in Punjab that lasted for a decade.For a while it had links with the LTTE terrorists that are ravaging Sri Lanka.So those who wish to study the phenomenon of terrorism could do worse than studying the ebb and flow of various terrorist movements in India over the last fifty years.

Certain facts stand out on even a cursory study:

1. Terrorists do not subscribe to one specific religion.Muslims,Hindus,Christians,Sikhs and Animists are represented in the groups I have mentioned.
2. Behind each movement is a political grievance.
3. Political grievances do not always translate into militancy or terrorism. An ethnic or cultural sub-group with grievances not addressed for years, a determined leadership, foreign funds , foreign weapons, foreign incitement all contribute to this process.It is not necessary for all attributes to be present.
4. All terorists are not the same.Their objectives are not the same.Their methods are not the same, though there is an elemnt of the copy-cat among methods.For instance, the suicide bomber was developed ny the LTTE.It is now being used in the Middle-East.
5. It is very difficult for governments to negotiate with militants/terrorists because citizens don't like it.The Government of USA takes the position "No negotiations."All countries cannot take that stand.All countries should not take that stand.USA is unique in the sense that all terrorists are foreign nationals.Often governments have to face the fact that many terrorists are their own citizens.

If there are any lessons for governments they are these:

1. Listen to your disaffected citizens, even though you may not agree.If disaffection turns into militancy , dialogue becomes difficult.
2. Take affirmative action to bring sub-cultures into the mainstream.
3. Clamp down on those who are using your country to organize militant activity in other countries.

At the end of the day, there is no purely military solution to terrorism.Once disaffection turns into militancy, there are no purely political methods to combat it either.The battle for terrorism is won or lost in the minds of those whose cause the terrorists supposedly espouse.