7-547: Bhumi Sena ( transl. Land Army ) was a private army which operated in the Patna , Nalanda , Jehanabad , and Gaya districts of Bihar, India in the 1980s, made up of members of the Kurmi caste. Bhumi Sena was formed by Kurmi landowners in 1982, in response to the murders of a number of prominent landlords and political agitation among Dalit labourers by the leftist groups CPI (ML) People's War , CPI (ML) Party Unity , and
14-493: A private person, group, or organization, rather than a nation or state. Private armies may form when landowners arm household retainers for the protection of self and property in times of strife, and where and when central government is weak. Such private armies existed for example in the Roman Empire following the collapse of central authority. The dynamics at play in such circumstances can be observed in modern-day Colombia: on
21-485: The Mazdoor Kisan Sangram Samiti (MKSS) . Following its formation, the group gathered resources and arms from Kurmi households, and encouraged Kurmi youths to join. They continued to collect protection money from Kurmi families in the regions they were active in. Bhumi Sena soon began to combat the leftist groups they opposed, with a series of attacks on Dalits and Maoist sympathisers, including those of
28-475: The group's own Kurmi caste. Between 1982 and 1985, the group killed 65 people, set 216 houses ablaze, and drove 325 families out of their villages. The leftist groups responded by killing Bhumi Sena members, and imposing an economic blockade on the Kurmi landlords supporting the group. This strategy found success in 1984, when leftist activists burned the Kurmi landlords' harvest. The landlords agreed to cease support of
35-400: The group, and paid fines in proportion to their level of support. Bhumi Sena held increasingly limited influence throughout the latter half of the 1980s, amidst continued attack by leftist groups and a changing political landscape. Private army A private army (or private military ) is a militia or paramilitary force consisting of armed combatants who owe their allegiance to
42-521: The one hand there are those forces affiliated with the drug cartels , existing to protect their criminality, and on the other those of the landlords created to resist kidnappings and extortion , i.e. Muerte a Secuestradores and the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia . In many places these private household retainers evolved into feudal-like structures, formalising obligations and allegiances and becoming household troops , and in some cases gaining
49-623: The strength to allow them to usurp power from their nominal suzerain or to create new sovereign states. Private armies may also form when co-religionists band together to defend themselves from real and perceived persecution and to further their creed, for example the Hussites , the Mormon Nauvoo Legion and the Mahdi Army in Iraq; because of their nature, such militias are formed by or fall under
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