The decline of the Maoist insurgency in India is viewed positively by many, who appreciate the reduced violence and improved safety, crediting the Indian government's counter-insurgency efforts. Personal stories of fear and trauma during the insurgency emphasize support for its decline. However, there are concerns about labeling Maoists solely as terrorists and calls to address socio-economic issues fueling such movements. Some sympathize with socialist motives, though doubt their methods.

Indian Government

Maoists

Affected Citizens

That capital city in Northeast India is called Aizawl not Aizwal

incrediblyanimal

The Home Minister of India claims that Naxals would be wiped off by 2026

megumegu-

Never understood how even Chinese denounces Maoist yet it has so much support overseas.

Tzlop

You see those red areas below Patna, I have lived there and still do sporadically. I spent my entire childhood there. 



Even though I lived in urban areas where their atrocities were very limited, I did come across their brutality when I was venturing out of town on a bus. We crossed a bridge over a shallow canal and water was deep red, not much water flow as it was in the middle of the summer season, but whatever was there, it was deep red. Everybody was peeping from the bus, even the ones who were standing in the middle without a seat. My arse was on the window seat. 



The next day, newspapers read that these scum of the earth had chopped off the heads of 12 people including women and children (2 whole families) just because their kids had cracked a police exam and joined the state police. 



 That wasn't even their worst atrocity.

IndependenceNo3908

[general secretary of naxallites killed in recent ops](https://www.reddit.com/r/IndianDefense/s/5krJs5HM75)

Massive_pervert2007

Probably even less now in 2025 when recently their 'General secretary' with a huge ass bounty of ₹1 crore ($116K) was neutralised, like a few days back! 

Remember, ₹1 crore is like life changing money for most of Indian people. 

This is like if you watch One piece. 

&gt;From Pirates perspective---&gt; Getting an Admiral level dude gunned down


-----------------


&gt; From Marines perspective---&gt; Getting a yonko (or an emperor) gunned down.



#***This recent operation was crazy***

Hrit33

It was the 2010s, and I'd regularly read news about Naxal activity and their atrocities in Western Odisha.

Nowadays, it has become extremely rare to get any Naxalite news from Odisha.

JustChakra

I have personally witnessed the waning of this insurgency in my home state in southern India. 

People in villages that were affected by these scum would tremble to even associate themselves with anything to do with the democratic process- voting, approaching courts for justice, reporting crime to police. Heck! Even the damn police in these areas would hide away when they got the slightest clue that some Maoist Naxal faction was holed up in the nearby forests. 

These bastards would come at night, round up people who they suspected were speaking or sharing intel with the cops, and would kill those people in cold blood. The families (women and kids) of cops would all be in some bigger town than be with their husbands in their own small towns. 

And you couldn’t travel after dark in wooded or remote areas. They would stop your vehicle, kidnap you, and then use you as a bargaining chip to get their ‘comrades’ out of jail. They wouldn’t even spare kids. 

They started out as seeking justice for poor people who were ill treated by the government. But the people majorly affected by their shenanigans were the same poor people who would be caught between the government and these scum. 

Glad to see their footprint vanishing!

TheFatKnight420

How did it decrease nationwide but somehow spread to the andamans?

MASTER_DUDE8012

There were also maoist insurgencies in Peru (Shining Path), Angola (UNITA) and Turkey (TKP/ML)

GustavoistSoldier

Kerala being mostly free of Maoism is pretty funny imo

No-Watch1464

davidlis

dinosaur_from_Mars

Still a significant amount of territory such as large army they shouldn’t even exist anymore

Antique-Entrance-229

Shining Path 🤝 Indian Maoists 

Failing to take over a country

novostranger

Also how is Telangana missing from a map in 2018 haha

Atothed2311

Snoo_41787

Maoists.

Mao may have died but he still continues his legacy of killing millions of people.

D_P_R_8055

Wild to me there’s an ongoing communist insurgency 25 years into the new millenium.

Technical_Image2145

cocacola_drinker

namethatsavailable

[deleted]

Top_Tourist_9475

Horrific war the fascist Modi government is pursuing against the Adivasi and Dalit people, killing anyone suspected of being sympathetic to Maoists

Particular-Bike-28

Why were Pok and Ajk included in the Indian map?Its Pak territory

AlarmingString2590

Good post man, padhna maja lagyo. Timle dherai research gareko raichau, tyo dekhincha. Aba why didn't army help police is because army has to be specifically mobilized by commander in chief, which was king at the time. And birendra was hesitant to mobilize the army against his own people. Army was specifically to fight external threats and therefore, he did not think it could be mobilized against Maoists. Girija was a big supporter of mobilizing army but birendra kept refusing. It was for this reason that APF was created, a paramilitary force to combat the insurgency. They were specifically trained for this purpose but when even they could not do much, Gyanendra was forced to mobilize Nepal Army.

As for your point about external forces supporting them, I think that India was not directly supporting Maoists but they were just not helping Nepal Army. They knew where Prachanda and Baburam and all were but they did not share that info with Nepali intelligence. I think Maoists got training and support from other Maoist organizations, like LTTE, Naxalites and Shining Path. I read somewhere that Shining Path guerillas came to Nepal specifically to train them in guerilla warfare. 

I have lots of extended family in the army, some are quite high ranking and my cousin and my friend were both Rangers. From what they have told me, it is mistake to think that Maoists were untrained farmers. They had been trained to function like a guerilla army. That looks different from a normal standing army so people think they didn't know any tactics or have any strategy. But people like Nanda Kishor Pun and Barsa Man Pun were very capable commanders and they had clear plans and strategies. Nanda Kishor Pun is actually considered a really great strategist, which is why he had some good informal relations with some high ranking army people after the war was over. They respected him even though they will not say it openly. 

There were also people like Comrade Jit, who was a known figure in Nepal Army for being a fantastic tactician. He was a fierce fighter and brilliant tactician who led numerous high profile attacks like the attack on Holeri and Mangalsen. He attacked a prison in Dhangadi and released captured Maoists and even carried out an attack on a Ranger battalion. 

So Maoists were not incapable or untrained or anything like that. They were actually good fighter and tacticians. But that said, you are right about Nepal Army not being able to fight back. They have much more training and are much better equipped. They also have officers who studied at war colleges around the world. And the reasons you have pointed out are also right, nepotism and corruption are the main causes.

&gt;For many, this was the only option to climb out of the strict cultural hierarchy and social hegemony

&gt;powerful land owners were the first targets

I will connect the two points, the land lords and other rich people in the rural areas like money lenders had trapped many people in rural areas into bonded labor with their exploitative money lending practices, farmers and rural workers were forced into exploitative agreements

Maoist activists in the villages would storm land owners houses and tear apart loan agreements and kill landlords

The farmers and rural workers who were opressed for years would easily join the Maoist cause

In tharu areas ethnic hill landlords had turned tharus landless and made them into bonded labourers, the maoists for this reason became popular among tharus and many tharu activists joined the cause

https://www.reddit.com/r/Nepal/comments/uzfo70/thoughts_o/?utm_medium=android_app&amp;utm_source=share

The elimination of class enemies and exploiters was one of the reasons the insurgency gained popularity

ilovetheantichrist4

You have a biased view. I grew up during the civil war and the maoist used terrorism to kill civilians and holding people hostage thus making it difficult for army to engage in combats. It was not that the army was defeated. The maoists used to come to our 5th grade class and threaten if we don’t join their fight with violence. They killed all the family of people in our neighborhood whose adults didn’t join the maoists.

As for the corruption the maoists weren’t about communist movement. They still are bunch of authoritarians who wanted power because they did not have a way to gain political power.

As for the “landlords” they were happy to leave people alone if landlords donated them money. For them landlords were anyone with means of income.

Maoist would have been wiped out if it wasn't parties retaliating against the Kings. Then king surrounded himself with incompetent yes men. Maoist were guerillas, they would attack places randomly and exact locations were not found.

I even heard US were offering military aid but was refused.

Plus, several foreign countries were giving pressure for peace talk and solve issue.Because, say prachanda or baburam was captured, it would have replaced by someone else. There would have been never ending war. Many entered maoist because army killed their family member who were maoist and vice versa. 

Not sure about NA being under equipped. APF &amp; Nepal Police were under equipped though. Maoist had better arms than them.

captainright1

Point no. 5 &amp; 6. You hit the nail on the head. And if that's the case, I think it pretty much sums up king birendra's attitude towards the insurgency.

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I'd wager there is a cultural disconnect. India has been very stratified for a very long time. "Workers of the world unite" is not as compelling in society with class divisions so entrenched in the remnants of the caste system

HowsTheBeef

The Indian state is failing to suppress the revolution, the revolution itself just has to not die in order to collapse the state. Keep in mind, at a high point in the early 2000’s the CPI(Maoist) controlled almost a third of the country, which prompted the current fascist turn and the launch of the counteroffensive Operation Green Hunt in 2009, which includes ramping up terrorist violence against civilians to try and crush the maoists’ support base, but this has also failed to crush the revolution. There’s been a bounty on the central committee that amounts to about 10 lifetimes of most farmers wages for many years and they still have yet to get anything conclusive leading to their arrest.

CommunalFarmer

it is succeeding, the protracted people's war as the name already says is prolonged, requires many decades, retreats and advances, changing strategies according to conditions and the development of favorable conditions for more advanced maneuvers, they are currently in a defensive moment, they lost control of many areas with the state offensive, so they are focusing on strengthening their bases in the areas they still have control to launch the next offensive when conditions are favorable, check out the party's materials on the website [https://www.bannedthought.net/](https://www.bannedthought.net/)

danielimaxe

Because for a vast majority of these insurgents the fight isn't about Socialism but about fighting against the government of India to protect Tribal land. 

The moment The Government is willing to concede and negotiate for a relatively fair deal, recruiting for members in an area becomes near impossible as no one wants to die for socialism. 

The Maoist millitancy would never result in revolution, It's members are 'Socialist' only in Name.

Longjumping_Meat_138

Because they are seen as terrorists and honestly, most people don't know anything about them

cluelessthirdworlder

Naxals are awful terrorists who'd rather have the people be poor and live under fear than get rights under a liberal government.

n00bi3pjs

These people basically prevent any development of the region once it's over a lot of development should start to happen

just_a_human_1031

Commie insurgency in India is in its final stage. Red terror will end soon.

!ping IND

2019: Kashmir and surgical strikes 


2024: Ending naxals


Seeing a pattern here

Excellent. it's a shame there's Maoists leftover but needs do what must. As someone who grew up in CG, I can't describe my bottomless hatred of these parasitical scumbags. All they do is prevent any increase in development and human welfare. The sooner this so called movement is reduced and rolled over, the better.

HistoricalShelter923

ApproachingStorm69

Caribonk

I had no idea the Naxalists were still a threat...  Go India!

Pharao_Aegypti

Ready_Spread_3667

These guys are (or were, I can't say I've really kept up with them) the the largest terrorist organization in the world, and almost no one outside of India has heard of them.

Careless_Bat2543

zack189

I’m very much reminded of reading “Walking with the Comrades” during my undergraduate degree.

KvonLiechtenstein

Calling naxalites maoists is like calling the kkk Christian

Well, yes, but they are a terrorist organisation that has rather weak links to most of the people who claim the adjective

ale_93113

[☭☭☭ COME SHITPOST WITH US ON DISCORD, COMRADES ☭☭☭](https://discord.gg/8RPWanQV5g)

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Critically important to the 21st century application of ML and MLM.

State-level revolutions will be less common this century than last.  Rojava, Chiapas (RIP) and the Naxalites are critical test beds for building Marxist revolutionary movements in the voids left by withering states.  That’s the environment we’ll contend with.  We have a lot of theorizing, application, learning and new synthesis to build our movements in the voids left by late stage capitalism.

Here in the US—the heart of the imperial core—this will be our opportunity and likely model.  We need to learn from them and apply those lessons to our material conditions.  The state here is sputtering.  We need to be ready, and I don’t know of better modern test beds than the Naxalites.

DebbsWasRight

I think a lot of "Maoists" could benefit from studying Mao. This has been going on for almost 60 years and they've been consistently losing ground since 2007. They don't have the masses on their side, yet they're trying to execute a people's war. That is textbook adventurism.

ValerieSablina

Maosbigchopsticks

iplaymctoomuch

sadly their recruitment numbers haven't been good, they have really cut down on their activity this year, since most of the leadership, over 15 of them were over 60 the indian goverment most are dead because of covid or have long covid, sad to see the capitalist suppression of revolutionary fervour

General_Spend4740

New_Mushroom991

Support. There is no material reason to not support maoist revolutionaries if you're an ML.  Remember Marx supported the Paris commune whole heatedly despite ideological differences. There's even less a difference between MLs and maoists. This is also why I cringe at people who regurgitate anti communist propaganda against the shining path

Offintotheworld

Not enough tanks, drones, or guns to bring down Modi.

I hope they succeed but their numbers and territory has been slowly dwindling for decades. I think there would have to be major social upheaval in India for them to gain a new opportunity, which definitely isn’t out of the question

ShittyInternetAdvice

Full support for them but they’re unlikely to win.

South-Satisfaction69

We have reached a time.in.human history so desperate that ANY, YES ANY, road that inevitably leeads towards socialism  oughta be welcomed 

*...well... unless you want your loved ones and family to turn into nuclear dust/ drown in rising sea levels...*

PullOutGameFeeb

They are a reactionary group of dubious morals... raising arms against oppression by the state is one thing, but killing of tribal people who were accused of collaborating with Indian government is a very slippery slope....on many occasions Maoists even killed CPI(M) workers (who entered into Maoist territory,to provide aid to tribal villagers) in Andhra Pradesh or West Bengal too. If you have political ideological differences,you don't simply kill them...their killing of CPI(M) workers has happened repeatedly and The Maoists also helped the current ruling party in West Bengal (TMC) to gain power by defeating CPI(M) by subversive activities. That's one of the reason i highly doubt their actual intentions and the source of their funding.

Gumnaamibaba

based! however the movement lacked critical organization, and was prone to splinter to like literal comical levels, moreover they never successfully got the support of the urban proletariat which became a problem, also certain questionable stuff actually isolated them from the proletariat, allowing the Indian state to deal literal death knells to the movement ( like the last I heard of them was in 2018 when the insurgency was being confined in the Bihari heartlands )

Double-Plan-9099

A major security operation led to the decline of Maoist insurgency in India, indicated by the killing of a prominent leader, marking a significant counter-insurgency milestone.

Decline of Maoist Insurgency in India

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