Abstract
The purpose of the study is to examine the shifting perceptions of the Naxal movement. The movement, which was extremely violent in nature, started against the oppression of the upper caste/class, attracted the young people, but as soon as they realized its impact, they opted towards the pro-state non-violent form of movement. In India, the violence/conflicts are analysed through the caste and class struggles, where the upper caste members oppress the lower caste group. Due to caste hegemony, the means of production are also in the hands of the upper castes, which help them to accumulate political and economic power too. In the continuous accumulation of power, the lower castes became more vulnerable and took the help of ideologies of armed struggle to resist their oppressed condition. But this form of resistance movement initiated in the Mushahri did not last long and, later on, people of this movement shifted towards either the state or pro-state form of movement. The data were gathered in Mushahri, Bihar from October 2015 to December 2016 from the people who had participated in the first phase of the Naxal movement through semi-structured interviews. The results of the interviews are linked with the existing theoretical frameworks of violence as both oppression and resistance. The study finds that the people who participated in the movement started shifting or deviating from the movement because they felt that the focus on caste oppression had become secondary and the resistance of violence left spread. In this violence and counter-violence, it is the poor who suffered a lot.
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