How Amit Shah's strategy is pushing India towards a Naxal-free future

For more than five decades, Left-Wing Extremism—popularly known as Naxalism—has been India’s most persistent internal security challenge.

- RAKESH SINGH

Originating in 1967 at Naxalbari in West Bengal under radical communist leaders such as Charu Majumdar, Kanu Sanyal and Jangal Santhal, it was later institutionalised through organisations like CPI (Marxist-Leninist) and CPI (Maoist). Drawing ideological inspiration from Mao Zedong’s doctrine of protracted people's war, the movement spread across the forested tribal belts of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhat-tisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, forming the so-called Red Corridor.This was not merely a law-and-order failure but the creation of a parallel state enforced through guns, intimidation, kangaroo courts and ideological indoctrination.

Over time, Naxalism thrived on two reinfore-ing pillars: armed guerrilla warfare in remote regions and urban ideological support networks. Sections of academia, media, civil society and university campuses became breeding grounds for what came tobe described as “urban Naxal-ism”, normalising armed rebellionas political dissent and providing legal, financial and narrative cover to violent extremism. On the ground, development stalled—roads remained unbuilt, schools shut, healthcare absent—and democratic institutions were systematically attacked.

This entrenched crisis entered a decisive phase of reversal after 2019 under Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who replaced decades of drift with mission-mode resolve, transforming passive containment intoa time-bound campaign toeliminate Naxalism by March 2026.

FROM DRIFT TO DIRECTION