What is the Salwa Judum movement?

Salwa Judum' (meaning "Peace March"in Gondi language) is an anti-Naxalite movement in Chhattisgarh, India, which started in 2005 as a people's resistance movement against the Naxalites, a far-left movement in some states in rural India that is designated by India as a terrorist organization on account of their violent Maoist activities in the state.

Initially an uprising of local indigenous people in Chhattisgarh, the Salwa Judum movement later received bi-partisan support from both the opposition and ruling parties.A few years later the state government adopted the salwa judum movement in order to restore democratic rule to the regions where the naxalites had established themselves by force.Chhattisgarh state has over the years trained a number of SPOs or 'Special Police Officers', from amongst the tribals, who are part of Salwa Judum in the state, also with its formation the state witnessed a marked rise in success against Naxalite action,as a result in 2008, Chhattisgarh along with neighboring Jharkhand accounted for over 65% of the total naxal violence in the country.The Chhattisgarh government on February 5, 2009, told the Supreme Court that the Salwa Judum was slowly disappearing in the State.

With success of counter-strikes on Naxalite hideouts in south Chhattisgarh, Maoist activities in the bordering districts of Orissa saw a rise in 2008, thus in Feb 2009, the Central government announced its plans for simultaneous, co-ordinated counter-operations in all Maoist extremism-hit states - Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Bihar, UP and West Bengal, to plug all possible escape routes of Naxalites.

This is the 100th post on this blog :) .....Cheers !!!!!