Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr | What Does The End Of ‘War On Naxals’ Really Mean For The Majority Of Indians?
The Narendra Modi government at the Center has now declared “victory” against the nearly 60-year-old Naxalite movement. The movement originated in Naxalbari in West Bengal in 1967. There are three parallel stories intertwined in the fallout from the government-Naxal face-off over the decades.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will naturally want to take credit for the victory because the right-wing BJP is sincerely opposed to the far-left ideology of bringing about a socialist revolution through violence. Although it does not say so, the BJP is against any egalitarian policy and continues its path by focusing on improving the lives of the poor, without agreeing with the idea of absolute equality. The Congress was also against the Naxalites, also known as Maoists, but advocated socialism and did not place cultural nationalism at its peak with its fierce majoritarian bias. So there is a sort of rivalry between the two major parties on the issue of opposition against Naxals.
The fact that Naxalism ended on March 31, 2026 is perhaps just a coincidental detail. The political propaganda war on who ended Naxalism will continue unabated. The decline and decline of Naxalism during the Modi government’s tenure will give bragging rights to the BJP. The third part of the story is that Naxalism is breaking apart from within, both ideologically and structurally. The Naxals and their sympathizers may claim that they are not defeated, but they have virtually pressed the pause button.
It was former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former Union home minister P. Chidambaram who were determined to combat left-wing extremism (LWE). The acronym LWE is their invention. The government’s statistics, released in a press release dated April 10, 2025, show a decline in Naxal activities between 2010 and 2014. The Press Information Bureau (PIB) statement titled “Naxamukt Bharat Abhiyan: From Red Zones to Growth Corridors” shows that 720 civilians were killed in 2010, which dropped to 222 in 2014; and dropped sharply to 121 in 2024. Similarly, Naxalite attacks on economic infrastructure amounted to 365 in 2010, 100 in 2014 and 25 in 2024. When Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, he formulated his own plan to counter the Naxals. The National Policy and Action Plan approved by the government in 2015 was his plan. This included allocating more funds to strengthen police forces through improving infrastructure, greater financial allocation, expansion of roads and communications network. This included extending 4G mobile phones to Naxal-affected areas. And it looks like it paid off.
Also interesting is the inside story of the Naxals. Most of the senior leaders and ideologues in the party seem to have reached the end of their ropes. There is a reference to a 22-page booklet prepared by senior ideologues who advocated abandoning armed struggle and adopting democratic and constitutional methods to achieve communist goals. In fact, there is a distinction between socialist utopia and communist utopia. Karl Marx, the principal ideologue of Communism, and Chairman Mao, the godfather of Naxals, used to insist that Communism was not socialism. Polemics may lead to interesting debates, but this has nothing to do with the calm that has emerged with the supposed end of Naxal violence.
The main question will revolve around the issue of poverty and development. Mr Modi had put the point quite succinctly. He said: “It is true that Maoist violence has stalled progress in many regions in central and eastern India. That is why our government formulated a comprehensive ‘National Policy and Action Plan’ in 2015 to eliminate Maoist violence. Along with zero tolerance for violence, we also focused on a massive push for infrastructure and social empowerment to bring positive change to the lives of poor people in these regions.” Home minister Amit Shah made a polemical jab in a speech on September 28, saying those who claimed that the rise of Naxalism was due to poverty and lack of development were building a false narrative. However, the real situation was that the reason for the lack of development was Naxalism. Mr. Shah is extending the fight against Naxals to Naxal sympathizers in civil society. In analysis, it has little to do with who is right, but rather with what the truth is. The truth is that Naxalism is in the background and the Modi government can boast about it.
It is also an interesting turning point in terms of social, economic and political aspects. There was relatively tremendous economic growth. People make more money today than they did 10 years ago and 25 years ago. Despite the rise in wages and salaries and the rate of economic growth, the economy may be worse off in real terms for many more people today than it was decades ago. Business opportunities are much more diverse and at the same time much more fragile, and there is even greater uncertainty due to the unstable global situation. Public unrest is unlikely to go away now that Naxalism is no longer there. The political dimension of the matter also emerges here. Do people today have more opportunities to voice their needs and grievances, or is the political space being stifled in the name of security and cultural nationalism? There is reason to believe that Hindutva dominance in governance has silenced dissenting voices. It is the failure of democratic ways and means that could lead to Naxal-like explosions in the future. It is clear that the BJP does not like democratic opposition and therein lies the danger. The Naxal menace is over. The Hindutva majoritarian threat is dancing on the political horizon.
