The Rise and Fall of India's Maoist Insurgency

Naxalism, a left-wing extremist movement in India, originated with the Naxalbari uprising in 1967.

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This revolt, sparked in the village of Naxalbari in West Bengal, was a peasant protest against exploitation by landlords, particularly targeting the landowning class and moneylenders.

The peasants, who mainly worked on tea plantations and estates, had endured centuries of oppression. The immediate cause was the brutal beating of a sharecropper, who had tried to till land from which he had been illegally evicted. This incident on March 25, 1967, catalyzed a widespread peasant revolt.

The roots of the uprising were sown in the years prior to 1967 by cadres of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M), a splinter group of the Communist Party of India (CPI). The CPI-M believed that a true socialist revolution in India could only come through an armed uprising by workers and peasants.

Charu Mazumdar, one of the key leaders, recognized the moment as an ideal revolutionary situation, drawing inspiration from the Chinese Communist Revolution, the Vietnam War, and the Cuban Revolution. Along with leaders like Kanu Sanyal and Jangal Santhal, Mazumdar led the armed peasant uprising, which started on May 25, 1967.

The revolt quickly met the heavy hand of the state, with police forces using violence against the protesters. Despite this, the movement spread across the region, with peasant committees seizing land, food, and arms. Violent clashes occurred, including the police opening fire on May 25, 1967, which killed several civilians. By June, the movement had spread to nearby areas, including Kharibari and Phansidewa, while workers in the Darjeeling tea gardens supported the cause.

However, by July, the Indian government sent paramilitary forces to quell the uprising, resulting in arrests and deaths of key leaders. Naxalism's ideological foundation was further solidified through Charu Mazumdar's writings, including the Historic Eight Documents, which outlined the Maoist-inspired principles of the movement.