Public sentiment regarding the government's response to Maoist violence showcases a complex perspective: while some support military actions, there is significant concern over human rights violations and the plight of marginalized communities. Many comments criticize systemic issues of poverty and injustice that contribute to the conflict, indicating a call for deeper economic reforms and social justice.

Indian Government

Maoists

Indian Army

The poetic waxing makes me gag.

It's buried *deep* in the article, but:

&gt;The new roads and phone towers were welcomed by rural people. The Maoists began killing Adivasis on suspicion of being police informers. This violence alienated Adivasis, and others too.

This is the most important part. The naxals were hated by the government, normies, and the very people the purported to uplift. They were not revolutionaries, but closer to mobsters.

If you go down the list of major terrorist attacks in India, the ones committed by the Naxals are particularly senseless: the targets being mostly rando government workers, villagers, etc.

&gt;How history remembers them is too early to say; but it is a fact that, had it not been for them, the much-needed focus on the hinterland of DK would not have been there.

Ideally they'd be remembered as the evil pieces of shit they were, but academics love historical revisionism, especially when the "bad guys" achieve a good outcome.

Robo1p

On 6 April 2010, a company of India’s central paramilitary soldiers came under attack from Maoist guerrillas in the central-eastern state of Chhattisgarh. The Maoists, who had turned this region into their stronghold, had laid a trap. With little training and scant knowledge of the Amazon-like jungle, the Indian soldiers found themselves ambushed. They fought back, but they could not escape the ambush. Seventy-five soldiers and a state policeman accompanying them were killed.

Never before had the Indian forces suffered so many casualties in a single incident, not even in [Kashmir](https://aeon.co/essays/india-is-a-postcolonial-power-its-rule-in-kashmir-is-colonial), where, for more than 20 years, they had been fighting a protracted battle against Islamist extremists. As the body bags of the soldiers reached their native places in different parts of India, a deep sense of anger generated among people who till recently had only a vague idea about who these Maoists were, and even less about the hinterland that the Maoists had turned into a guerrilla zone.

Since the mid-2000s, the Maoists had grown in strength, launching audacious attacks against government forces and looting police armouries and declaring certain areas as ‘liberated zones’. Their operations ran in a contiguous arc of land, from Nepal’s border in the east to the Deccan Plateau in the south – an area the Maoists called Dandakaranya or DK, using the name in its historical sense. This is a region where India’s indigenous people, the Adivasis, lived; it also [holds](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08941920.2014.941447) valuable minerals and other natural resources in abundance. The Indian state wanted control over the natural resource wealth, but the Maoists were proving to be an obstacle. Then, in 2009, the then prime minister Manmohan Singh called them India’s ‘greatest internal security threat’.



On the morning of the attack in 2010, I’d landed in a part of DK, in a city a three-hour car ride from the edge of a town beyond which was a forest ruled by Maoists. From there, if one started walking, one would, without getting on to a motorable road, reach the spot of the Maoist ambush. There would be only a sprinkling of tiny hamlets, inhabited by Adivasis, who thought of Maoists as the ‘government’. Beyond that, they had very little idea of life outside, least of all the blitzkrieg of ‘India Shining’, a political campaign by a previous government (the conservative BJP), which had in spirit continued to exist as a cursor to economic optimism.

The scrawny man – I’ll call him ‘A’ – who came to pick me up from the railway station on his battered motorcycle was a former Maoist. He was also a Dalit, the so-called ‘lower-caste’ people at the bottom of the Hindu [caste system](https://aeon.co/essays/how-india-deludes-itself-that-caste-discrimination-is-dead), who, like the Adivasis, have been [historically maltreated](https://psyche.co/ideas/they-keep-the-hindu-funeral-pyres-burning-but-at-what-cost) in India. He lived in a slum and had been recruited in the 1980s, along with several others in the city, by a woman Maoist. After a few years, ‘A’ had quit the party to raise a family. Life outside had been harder than inside the forest. For people like ‘A’, it was difficult to come out of the poverty and bitterness that came with their ascriptive status in the caste system. He struggled with odd jobs, and in the night drank heavily and sang resistance songs by the yard to temporarily rid himself of the bile.

ewatta200

Once again, the Communists are revealed to just be bandits hiding behind utopian ideologies.

FlashpointStriker

“Singh’s prescription proved to be right. Even as the prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, whose commitment to social justice could not be doubted, took over from the British in 1947, the poor and the marginalised communities like the Dalits and Adivasis continued to remain outside the welfare circle of his five-year plans. Feudalism did not go away. Land reforms to break up the feudal concentrations of wealth and power were initiated, but the rich and the powerful also found means to circumvent the law. The rich quickly joined politics, and the police acted as their private militia. As recently as 2019, a [survey](https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/situation-assessment-of-agricultural-households-and-land-and-livestock-holdings-of-households-in-rural-india/) by the Indian government revealed that 83.5 per cent of rural households owned less than one hectare of land. The government’s Planning Commission [figures](https://www.epw.in/journal/2001/40/special-articles/land-distribution-among-scheduled-castes-and-tribes.html) (1997-2002) put the landless among Dalits at 77 per cent, while among the Adivasis it was 90 per cent. The government’s National Sample Survey in 2013 [revealed](https://www.mospi.gov.in/sites/default/files/publication_reports/Report_571_15dec15_1.pdf) that about 7 per cent of landowners owned almost half of the total land share.”

This paragraph in the news was omitted when it was reposted. Could you please tell me what the land distribution is like in India today? Are there still a majority of landless people living in rural areas?

SignificantStorm1601

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)

[deleted]

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

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

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

Shining Path 🤝 Indian Maoists 

Failing to take over a country

novostranger

dinosaur_from_Mars

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

Antique-Entrance-229

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

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

Wow I had no idea the Maoist conflict was still this widespread in India, that’s honestly shocking

Live_Tip1148

Potential-Mobile-567

When People's Republic of China has ditched (mostly) Maoism, how come it spreads abroad? I am quite curious about how non Chinese got affected by his ideology. Mao Zedong's works in Chinese are already very complicated to understand and digest, not to mention the translated ones.

Reasonable-Gas-9771

This is like 2015.. atleast 10yrs old situation (I live near red-corridor).

"Severely affected" then &amp; now are like night &amp; day.

The [Militarized Communist Party of Peru](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Militarized_Communist_Party_of_Peru), a Shining Path remnant, similarly controls parts of the Valle de los Ríos Apurímac, Ene y Mantaro.

Same here in the Philippines. 

We have the Communist Party of the Philippines - New People's Army which was founded by Prof. Jose Maria Sison (longest communist insurgency).

champoradoeater

CobblerHot7135

Didn't know India had its own version of hide and seek.

fizerame

Boris740

There was also a sort of unease in Naxal which current govt used in there favour. As Naxals claimed to fight against the government and the class system, but in reality, they ended up building their own class hierarchy. At the bottom, poor tribal people were forced to dedicate their lives to communism, stripped of basic rights, even denied the chance to have families with men being castrated to ensure “sacrifice.” Meanwhile at the top, leaders lived in comfort, raised families, sent their children to elite institutions and enjoyed the "Very Capitalist lifestyle" they claimed to despise.

Familiar-Goat1132

My district had naxals too, most of the areas are safe now. Earlier they used to put nails on the road in their area and kidnap anyone passing by.

4th_May2025

wtf i am from west champaran marked in the map(northest one in the map) and i know it quite well that this is bull shit it had some problems but communism was never a major like not even minor tbh i never heard any thing about such spread of maoist or such

it had problems like dacoits it was called "mini chambal" because of that.

Ambitious-Bonus-5708

I don't think this is very accurate, I'm from that area.

Newton_7777

At its peak Naxals controlled 40% of India and ran a parallel govt, and they were being supported from outside of India as well as Inside India by liberal elites who are not called urban naxals, this govt has done a great job of eradicating these extremists and by killing or making them join the common people by surrendering (pardonning them) the home minister has set a goal of eliminating Naxlism by 2026

they are doing good, hopefully if not by 2026 few years later is also fine

Benimaru101

This is the latest map..if u think this is bad..look at the 2007 map. It was scary. Now is down

AlgebraNation

And here we have the west where some people are screaming that they're suffering from left wing extremism 🥲🤦🏼‍♂️.

Just come to India you will know what left extremism is. Not a bunch of imbeciles shouting on roads and universities to allow medical interventions or support middle east terrorist groups

Supreme-Leader-Kim_

Compared to 2014, looks like the rash is healing fast now.

i_am_that_too

How do you make such maps? Or have you taken it from some place?

Independent-Elk-9773

If you want to learn more about the uprising and the underlying causes, I really reconmend this video: https://youtu.be/4OD4xB5min4?si=2h6CR-dzf1ND-F7u

source ? when is the data from ? how was the data collected ? you should put this in the post body OP u/[neonfrostbite](https://www.reddit.com/user/neonfrostbite/)

WolfGuptaofficial

communism really is a problem anywhere around the globe

Derfflingerr

\&gt;then I would suggest documentaries from vice, jist, Al Jazeera

  
terrible sources, especially the last one.

Duke_Frederick

None of the media outlets your mentioned are credible.

Especially Qatari propaganda outlet Al Jazeera

Problematic_Loner

Dependent-Soil3028

Few-Audience9921

Arey how many times will they put the same shit up! Stop it man!

Natarajavenkataraman

The government has been very effective in crushing the Maoists.

Gopu_17

P Chidambaram started and Amit shah is ending the project. One of good things being done irrespective of party in power. Now let us hope we can get the Infra work rolling and start giving cash to poor tribal women too with - decent govt education and hospital to all.

ridersofthestorms

Govt have been good when it comes to dealing with naxals but removing them is other thing but making it sure that no such thing starts again is other. 

pika_thunderbolt

Not a bjp fan but the way modi dealt with naxals is pretty impressive and the government should be applauded for this.I remember when I used to go to Odisha by train from allahabad and train used to stop at the night because of naxalite issues and as a child it was pretty scary for me.All in all good work bjp!

PracticalNote3565

https://preview.redd.it/fqwqaz465kvf1.jpeg?width=676&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp&amp;s=0bf852fa2d692e165c6ab73e86ab35cad34e5f88

cyber_doc1

Sweaty_Explorer_8441

Why only the issues which cannot be verified by all are resolved. The road is still broken and worse the streets are still dirty

Such-Emu-1455

Everyone who's celebrating, please watch this video to get a fuller picture of the situation: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OD4xB5min4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OD4xB5min4)

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What do you mean by left terrorism? Terrorists that are left handed?

If this right wing had been at the time of freedom, they would have labelled every freedom fighter as a  "left terrorist." The people they praise today. 

Instead of understanding why this group was made, why this group exists, and why there had been violent escalation- they want to label people terrorists.

Because it is easier than recognising your own shortcomings. The government, all of them, has not addressed exploitation, extreme poverty, and displacement of adivasis (among much more issues), and has labelled these people with real problems as terrorists. And, just so you know, terrorism is a serious accusation that you just can't put on everyone- that term is thrown around in today's politics very carelessly. 

If the government fixes these issues, and the Naxalites are still violent- then that would be a very different conversation. But since this is not the case, and the government will never look there because it doesn't bring clicks, it doesn't bring votes, these issues will be thrown away, with consequences to people with generations to come.

an_idiot_2006

These idealogical monsters have a way of regrouping later. hope the government puts in place strong measures to contain them

EvenAd9876

Scientifichuman

300 Commies Neutralised along with 1500 Surrendered

DakuMangalSinghh

And that has been offset by the openly perpetrated right wing terrorism as we see regularly. Who will account for that?

james_deen69

This is such a huge relief and big achievement… Naxalites have been a menace in many areas. This is amazing.

East-Combination4412

Yes it's good done by the gov if they are treated appropriately

Who is a Naxalite? It is someone who no longer believes in the Govt and then picks up arms. 

If anything, its a reflection of the Govts inability to build trust in its "OWN" people. They aren't terrorist in the sense you thinking.

Alert_Holiday5552

I very eager to see what will happen when these naxalites of Bastar Chhattisgarh give up. Would we see development or another destruction of forest greenland for coals.

hell-yeah-roger

Bhagat Singh was called a terrorist by whites. Now when billionaires violently destroy homes of people and the people defend themselves they're called terrorists?

im_really_on

The fight against naxalism was always prime issue. They blocked rural development and keep tribals away from normal people with misleading ideology with Anti development mindset by destroying road construction with land mines and bombing gov offices, police stations to loot weapons.  
This fight against naxalism is beyond the parties. Around 2004-2009, Late Ex CM of AP, YSR and Central Home Minister Shivraj Patil from INC have conducted peace talks with naxals which obviously failed and meanwhile greyhounds police team eliminated naxals with Joint efforts of Odisha Police. Also Refer "Balimela Reservoir Attack" story. After AP and Odisha joint efforts against naxalism, some left overs shifted their base to Chattisgarh. This time the attacks on them were even more ghastly. They need to be ensured that they don't shift their bases.

Latter_Mud8201

Amazing! Now can the govt promise tribals right to their land , so that more such terrorists are not created?

Or the privileged fuckers Here have no idea why naxals are bearing arms against the government.

CommieBastardd

Yes, because they realized that letting internal threats loose would do no one any good, and they can’t exactly use that narrative to win elections.

Instead, they’ve cleverly loosened their grip on external threats, only to later react and market those responses as heroic, painting themselves as saviours in hindsight.

So yes, credit where it’s due, the BJP government has shown that when they truly set their mind to something, they can make it happen.

Democrazy-Chronicles

And unleashing Right Wing terrorism is one of his major failures.

Juvegamer23

Amazing news! Now the entire forest where tribals live can be sold for pennies to Adani, Tata and Vedanta! Let's go!!! Gujarat model! Jai capitalism!

Established_Oddity

loneamit

GayIconOfIndia

I hope all the naxalites surrender and I read some of the comments in this post some of you don't know what you talking about.

TriggerEvery1

glizzyg-ooned-4269

Sad. The last pockets of resistence against the Machine are dying. Soon this whole country will be up for loot by gujju marwari baniya mafia.

Tiberius_50

https://preview.redd.it/2l36c26xkhvf1.jpeg?width=680&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp&amp;s=0f5a978d0e9ac65e288eba6e9afde2b5f1f88548

You can't bet against the chosen one and think to win

“Naxalites” are no longer the boogie man ? 

Is it back to the beef eaters? Muslims ? Maybe some Madrasi  due to elections in TN.

Traditional_puck1984

Absolutely agree. Amit Shah also deserves equal praise. As home minister, he is responsible for eliminating these left terror groups

zestfulzebra1

as a person from bastar this is the best thing that this goverment has done to us you people really don't know abt these psychos thank god finally the prblm is getting solved

More-Act1635

Yes. credit where it's due. Hope developement reaches those area cause I guess they were fighting for that.

Lower-Message-828

They killing innocent on the name of naxals

Perfectaani

Yeah ! Declare dissenting voices as terrorists and then eliminate them.

ProfessionalOld9481

The government's aggressive anti-Maoist operations have raised human rights concerns amid violent encounters.

Maoist Violence and Government Response in India

Why This Matters

Public Sentiment Summary

Highlighted Comments

Parties Involved

What the people want