Indians inPensamiento Gonzalo: The Influence of 20th-Century Peruvian Intelligentsia on Shining Path’s Ideology

Alexandra Jima-González,Miguel Paradela-López

doi:10.1177/2158244020982990

Alexandra Jima-González, Miguel Paradela-López

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244020982990

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Abstract

During the last decades of the 20th century, Shining Path conceived Indian culture mainly as part of feudalist-capitalist alienation. Consequently, this insurrectionist organization aimed to mobilize the indigenous communities around a class-oriented revolutionary project. Although the academic literature has acknowledged and studied this process, its historical roots in the intelligentsia of the early 20th century remain under-examined. To contribute to their research, this article first analyzes the “neo-indigenist and indigenist discussion” of the first decades of the century, mainly through the works of Manuel González Prada, Luis Eduardo Valcárcel, and José Uriel García. The article will then focus on José Carlos Mariátegui and Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre to explore the discussion around the implementation of socialist thought in Peru. Finally, this research analyzes the influence of the previous authors on the configuration of Shining Path’s ideology, Pensamiento Gonzalo. The article argues that Shining Path intensified three tendencies of the 20th-century Peruvian intelligentsia: the need to assist Indians in the development of an effective discourse, the legitimation of revolutionary violence, and the Peruvian bourgeoisie’s leadership of the Indians. In conclusion, Shining Path’s ideology should not be regarded as a rara avis, but as the result of a dogmatic application of Maoism to already existing discussions of the Indian problem.

Highlights

The confrontation between the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso or Sendero) guerrilla and the Peruvian government was one of the most brutal civil conflicts endured throughout Latin America during the 20th century
The radicalism of Shining Path is evidenced by its military tactics and by the organization’s conception of the revolutionary subject, which led to the preponderance of the peasant and the invisibility of the Indian, under a logic that virtually obliterated any attempt at cultural recognition
The research focused on the ideological background of the 20th century, arguing that Shining Path’s political thought was the result of a gradual adaptation and radicalization of early

Summary

Introduction

The confrontation between the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso or Sendero) guerrilla and the Peruvian government was one of the most brutal civil conflicts endured throughout Latin America during the 20th century. Until the capture of their leader, Abimael Guzmán, the violence of the Senderistas reached extreme levels in the context of the revolutionary struggle against the Peruvian government and the repression of any kind of internal dissidence, especially in indigenous zones (Starn & La Serna, 2019). Because Shining Path considered the Peruvian peasantry to be alienated, it assumed the task of reeducating society through violence. Extensive academic work has tried to analyze and understand every aspect of Shining Path’s existence, including its emergence, internal organization, deployment, and expansion across Peru (Degregori, 1990; Starn & La Serna, 2019). Numerous authors have focused on various related areas, such as the ideological configuration of the party (Krehoff, 2006; Starn, 1995), the movement’s impact on Peruvian society (Mallon, 1995; Rénique & Lerner, 2019), the peasant armed response through rondas campesinas (Degregori et al, 1996; Starn, 1993), or the influence of the conflict on Peruvian art (Lambright, 2016; Saona, 2014; Vich, 2015)

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