Objectives

Since 1996 Nepal's Maoists, insurgents who follow the teachings of Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong, have been engaged in a bloody conflict with the Nepali government.
Their demands are: “Redistribute land and extend power centers in rural areas; eliminate the caste system; give equal rights to women and institute a communist republic.”
On February 13, 1996, the Maoists announced a ‘People's War’ with the slogans "Let us march ahead on the path of struggle and establish the people's rule by wreaking the reactionary ruling system of state." They are highly inspired by the philosophy of Mao Tsetung that "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." They are also inspired by the ‘Revolutionary Internationalist Movement’ and Peru's left wing extremist guerilla movement, the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path).The radical communist parties from different parts of the world have provided ideological sustenance for the Nepali Maoists. The main objective of "People's War" is to establish a ‘New Democracy’ in Nepal and it constitutes a "historical revolt against feudalism, imperialism and so-called reformists." So, the CPN (M)’s goals are to end the Nepalese autocratic monarchy and bring a Maoist people’s republic. They also aim at ending “Indian imperialism”, capitalist exploitation, the caste system and ethnic, religious, and linguistic exploitation. The Maoists revolution for ‘People's War’ was triggered by fact the failure of the Nepalese Government to respond to a memorandum presented by its representatives on February 4, 1996. The memorandum handed to Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba listed 40 demands related to "nationalism, democracy and livelihood". In the memorandum, the Moists had demanded the abolition of royal privileges, the promulgation of a new constitution, abrogation of the Mahakali treaty with India, and demarcation of the border between the two countries.
Many people in Nepal say that they have been cursed with two things, terrible poverty and corrupt politicians. The country's per capita income comes to hardly $244. In actuality, almost 45% of the Nepal’s population earn less that $100 in a year. Thus, poverty eradication is the ultimate development challenge facing the country. Social indicators show that Nepal stands among the lowest countries worldwide, nearly 40% people lacking the access to basic health care and education. Moreover, 80% of its citizens depend upon subsistence agriculture but only 20% of Nepal’s rugged terrain is arable. Nepal has a rigid and traditional caste system and Maoists are definitely opposed to that. Nepal has seen discrimination against lower castes especially common in rural areas in the western part of the country despite the fact that the government has forbidden the public shunning of “untouchables” and made a considerable effort to preserve the rights of the underprivileged castes. Thus, it seems as if the economic, social and educational advancement depends immensely on the historical patterns, geographic location and caste. Such discrimination among citizens is what infuriated the Maoist rebels. Thus, the growth of the Maoist movement in Nepal was due apparently to the failure of the main stream politics to meet the needs and aspiration of the country’s rural poor, including land reform. Maoist movement is fueled by extreme poverty all over Nepal. It has really very little infrastructure and there are hardly any roads in the rural parts of the country. The places like Kathmandu and the main urban centers have absorbed most of the foreign aid and development funds and very little of it seems to have trickled down to the rural areas.This had in many ways been the central reason why theMaoists have been able to prosper.
Maoists are also fighting for the redistribution of the land, and want sixty percent of crops going to farmers and forty percent to landlords. They argued that multiparty democracy, which was established in 1990, has failed to bring any fortune for the poor and to uplift their living conditions in villages. They accuse the corrupt politicians and rich landlords of tyrannizing and exploiting the lower caste. So, basically the people out in the country side have begun to realize that this feudal way of life is absolutely intolerable to them and thus the change is not only overdue but inevitable.  In rural areas controlled by the rebels, they have been successful in strengthening and expanding their battalion with the support of the people. At least third of the fighting forces are the women, the reason for which is that these women clearly know what they are fighting for because one of the things the Maoists stands for is the liberation of women. Traditionally, women enjoy very little freedom but a lot of the Maoist women enjoy the decision making power. So, the one of the main objectives of the Maoists has also been the empowerment of the women. In turn of the peoples’ support they are helping the peasants retake their land from the powerful landlords. There are numerous cases where these landowners trick innocent illiterate people to sign land-transfer documents for non payment of long-standing debts. The Maoists say that the reason why they have so much support is because most of their supporters have traditionally been treated as second-class citizens or worse. This can provide as a real explanation to why even a seemingly anachronistic movement like that has gained such high momentum. There is undoubtedly a substantial number of people who believe that Maoists are the only genuine alternative to the long lived authoritarian social order. The Maoists have argued that they wanted a complete revamp of the multiparty democratic system as part of their program aimed at bringing Marxist republic and that was what made them different from other communist parties in the country. However, we can se some inconsistency as the Maoists negotiators have now abandoned this demand in order to kick-start the peace process. So far, they have stayed consistence in their demand for an end to nepal’s constitutional monarchy.