These clashes were part of the Naxalite-Maoist insurgency in the state, which mobilised the agricultural labourers and the poor peasants against the landlords, primarily belonging to upper-castes.

A distinguished feature of these insurgencies were their confinement to the villages, and the nine towns of the Bhojpur district remained unaffected from the periodic skirmishes between the armed groups.

According to police records, the Naxalite movement in Bhojpur was spread across nine out of sixteen Blocks of the district, and a total of 150 village were affected by the armed uprising.

The zeal to control the power structure of the village became the trigger point for emergence of Naxalism, when an educated youth named Jagdish Mahto was beaten by the Bhumihars, while he tried to prevent them from rigging the votes.

[4] To meet with the challenge posed by the rebelling peasants and agricultural labourers, the landlords of Ekwari mobilised the non-landlord section of their caste.

According to author Kalyan Mukherjee, the case of Bhojpur, among other militant uprisings of the agricultural labourers and peasants, was different and was driven primarily by two factors.

[7] The link of Rajput and Bhumihar landlords with state apparatus and the access to means of production along with their capitalistic drive for profit maximisation paved the way for exploitation of the Dalit landless labourers.

The Dalits, hence, suffered denial of basic human dignity; they were given extremely low wages, and their womenfolks were subjected to periodic sexual tyranny from the upper-castes.

[12] Author Arun Sinha believes the contemporary landlords of the Ekwari to be invincible on the ground of higher position in the bureaucracy of their kinsmen, political power possessed by them, and ownership of hundreds of weapons.

As the legend goes, in the Behea state of Bhojpur, a Rajput landlord named Ranpal Singh raped a Brahmin woman, when her Dola (Palanquin) was passing through his area.

But, the story of Mathin Mai also became symbol of horror for countless Dalit women, who were threatened to travel to Arrah, because of the possibility of rapes by the dominant section of society, the landlords.

[14][15] Before the resurgence of the armed rebellion against the feudal order, the educated youths among the lower-castes organised themselves under the leadership of people like Jagdish Mahto, who led a massive rally in the Arrah, demanding Harijanistan (land of Dalits).

[7] After being assaulted by the Bhumihars of Ekwari village, while trying to prevent the vote rigging at the Polling Booth, which was established at the house of a big landlord Nathuni Singh, Mahto initiated a drive to influence the people around him in pro-poor ideas, including the fellow teachers at his school.

They were influenced by the successful uprising in the Naxalbari region of North Bengal, and began organising like minded youths, mostly belonging to lower-castes.

[8] From 1971 to 1973, nearly fifteen big Zamindars were assassinated, and the term "Naxalite" in the context of this particular region, came to denote, 'a person, who fights against sexual oppression'.

Soon, after these assassinations of the most infamous landlords, the stories about the action of the Naxalite groups, who were understood as the supporters of poor, began to spread in the Dalit enclaves of the village.

The deployment of the forces was done by the authorities, in order to investigate the case of grain looting incidents, that were occurring frequently in the village and the regions around it.

Under Dusadh, the guriellas initiated the drive of looting the hoarded grains of the rich traders, and oraganizing assassinations of the tyrant landlords and moneylenders.

According to Sinha, the party armed with guns and lethal weapons, surrounded the Harijan Tola (rural settlements inhabited by the Dalits), and started beating the men, women and the children.

The police party surrounded the home of Shyamlal Mahto and a landless labourer named Muni Pasi was shot dead.

A significant operation of the CRP happened in the Pathar village of the Piro police station area, where in an encounter Rameshwar Ahir– one of the founder leader of Bhojpur uprising, was killed.

After exchanging fire for a couple of hours, four landless labourers; Asgu, Sheo Narayan, Lal Mohar and Vishwanath came outside from their hideouts and proceeded towards the policemen for surrender.

The account of George Kunnath from the village called Dumri, located in Jehanabad district of Bihar reveals the strong presence of the Maoists here.

The labourers in the village co-opted with the Maoists and a parallel judicial system was set up in the district by latter, where the tyrant landlords were tried for the atrocities they committed on the Dalit men and women.

Here also, the upper-caste landlords were the prime accuse of the atrocities and they retaliated against the Dalits and Maoist using their caste based militia, which were backed by state.

[18] People's Court, as noted by George Kunnath were the alternative dispute resolution mechanism organised by the Maoists in the region, in which the landlords and the victim Dalits used to be the parties.

In order to safeguard their lives and property, landlords organized themselves in village resistance groups, which took the initiative to patrol the troubled areas at night.