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Insurgent and Insurgency

Sociologyindex, Sociology Books 2011

An insurgent is a person who rebels or rises in active revolt against authority he does not approve.

Insurgent forces are groups of rebellious people rising in active revolt against authority that is not recognized by them.

Six types of insurgent movements can be identified: secessionist, revolutionary, restorational, reactionary, conservative, and reformist.

When one talks of communist insurgency, the rebellion is more on ideological grounds. Insurgent forces here are out to change the nature of government.

A revolutionary who engages in insurgency as opposed to terrorism, although insurgents also use terrorist methods.

Insurgents attempt to hold territory and generally attack the state's infrastructure, whereas terrorists usually operate in urban areas and attack more symbolic targets.

Insurgents usually coerce or abduct civilians to join them, whereas terrorists are highly selective in whom they recruit.

Insurgency - The Context of Terrorism (From Terrorism, Political Violence and World Order, P 173-202, 1984, Henry H Han, ed. - See NCJ-98738) - B E O'Neill, Sale: University Press of America
This study reviews the extant knowledge of insurgency (a political legitimacy crisis) in terms of its general characteristics, analytical components, and various strategies. 
Abstract: A review of the characteristics of insurgency indicates that it is 'a struggle between a nonruling group and the ruling authorities, in which the former consciously employs political resources (organizational skills, propaganda, and/or demonstrations) and instruments of violence to establish legitimacy for some aspect of the political system which it considers illegitimate.' Six types of insurgent movements can be identified: secessionist, revolutionary, restorational, reactionary, conservative, and reformist. A discussion of the violent aspect of insurgency defines terrorism and guerrilla warfare as the prevalent forms of violence. In considering the analytical components of insurgency, the study advises that to maximize the effectiveness of political techniques and violence, insurgents have devised various strategies which are differentiated by examining the relative importance the insurgents ascribe to six general variables: popular support, organization, external support, cohesion, the environment, and the government's effectiveness. The analysis of insurgent strategies focuses on four general patterns of strategic thought that have attracted many adherents: Leninist, Maoist, Cuban, and urban. The concluding comment dismisses the strategic significance of terrorism in achieving insurgent aims and notes its tactical shortcomings. It is advised, however, that the victimizing qualities of terrorism alone compel governments to develop more effective ways to cope with it. Fifty notes are provided. - ncjrs.gov/app/publications/Abstract.aspx?id=98743

Terror Sans Frontiers: Islamic Militancy in North East India 
Jaideep Saikia 
Abstract: The “little wars” in North East India have been waged primarily on ethnic lines, with almost every insurgent organization owing its natal charts to a distinct ethnic identity. Indeed, the various insurgent charters and assertions too have been characterized by agendas that are determined by the ethnic substratum that sired each movement. 
The insurgency situation in North East India, however, is beginning to witness a unique phenomenon, which could well introduce a different order of extremism than has traditionally been known to exist. Islamic militant activities have begun to proliferate in the region with an urgency that could well have not only a motivation to usurp the separatist mantle from the ethnically based insurgent movements which have been flourishing in the region, but also with a conspiracy to further an agenda which has religious fanaticism and division as important coordinates. This conspiracy seems to be gaining ground particularly after Operation Enduring Freedom and the “detalibanization” of Afghanistan, when active remnants of al-Qaeda and the Taliban reportedly entered Bangladesh, which abuts North East India. The region is also heir to myriad subterfuges by the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan and the Directorate General of Field Intelligence (DGFI) of Bangladesh, intelligence agencies that are beginning to expand their aid to North East insurgent organizations by including Islamic groups in the region. Indeed, this has been compounded by the fact that the present government in Bangladesh seems to be not only sympathetic to the separatist movements in North East India, but is also purportedly turning a blind eye to the fundamentalist engineering which is currently underway in the Islamic republic.
Matters have not helped the situation with the state of Assam in North East India having not only a sizeable Muslim population, but also a long and porous border with Bangladesh, which has a predominantly Muslim population. Indeed, the population of four geo-strategically positioned districts of Assam has become one of Muslim majority—a reported consequence of the illegal migration from erstwhile East Bengal, East Pakistan and now Bangladesh. Recent reports have also indicated that the ISI and the DGFI are reportedly encouraging the illegal influx with an eye to carving out a Brihot Bangladesh (Greater Bangladesh) in the region. The Islamic militant movements in the region are also finding an organized parish in the illegal migrant population whose ideology and socio-religious commitments continue to be informed by experiences from across the border, which has grown in magnitude as a result of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA)—the most prominent, ethnic separatist movement in Assam—jettisoning the lofty ideals by which it took birth, in order to become a willing hostage of the ISI and the events and factors which are in play in Bangladesh and in the neighborhood. - acdis.uiuc.edu/Research/OPs/Saikia/contents/abstract.html 

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