- Maoist movement started with a violence triggered by peasants at a remote village in north Bengal
- It had held ten states hostage for over six decades
- Amit Shah told Lok Sabha Monday that Maoism in the country is "on the verge of extinction"
The Maoist movement that started with a violence triggered by peasants at a remote village in north Bengal, had held ten states hostage for over six decades, is over, the government has said. On the eve of the March 31 deadline for eradication of Left-Wing Extremism, Union Home Minister Amit Shah told the Lok Sabha that Maoism in the country is "on the verge of extinction".
"The country will be informed once the entire process is formally completed, but I can say that we have become Naxal-free," he said. Moreover, the last bastion of the movement, Chhattisgarh's Bastar, is also clean.
"Today, Naxalism has been almost eradicated from Bastar... The people of Bastar were left behind precisely because the shadow of 'Red Terror' loomed over the region. That is why development failed to reach them. Today, that shadow has been lifted, and Bastar is now on the path of development," he added.
The journey to this point has been long. The "Red Corridor", as it was called, stretched from Karnataka to Nepal, winding its way through Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and on to Nepal.
WEST BENGAL
The peasant uprising that caused the countrywide conflagration started in Naxalbari on May 24, 1967, sparked by the killing of a sharecropper and led to the deaths of 11 people. Initially it was a movement against the landlords, locally called Jotdars, led by Charu Majumdar, Kanu Sanyal, and Jangal Santhal.
But the movement -- aimed to overthrow the state through armed agrarian rebellion based on Maoist ideas -- soon caught the imagination of the students and young people in Kolkata who joined in, deserting the classrooms.
As the movement, which was continuing in Naxalbari, Kharibari, and Phansidewa areas near Darjeeling, spread to neighbouring states like Bihar, Odisha and other states by 1971, the government started its crackdown. The months that followed saw hundreds die in encounters and in police custody.
The movement lost momentum after the death of Charu Majumdar in police custody and gradually died down due to factionalism.
Abhijit Majumdar, son of Naxal leader Charu Majumdar, during commemoration of his father's death anniversary, in Kolkata
Photo Credit: PTI
But years later, the CPI (Maoists) found a home in the western part of the state - in the districts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Birbhum.
The area, known as jangalmahal, became the epicentre of Maoist activity in the state and part of the Red Corridor that stretched all the way to Nepal.
It took months of sustained anti-Maoist operation by state and central forces to bring te area and its so-called "liberated zones" - areas where the Maoist writ ran -- under control.
KARNATAKA
The three-decade saga of Naxalism in this southern state started around border districts like Bidar, Raichur and Kolar in the late-1980s but it gained strength with the emergence of the CPI (Maoist) group, which focussed on tribal rights and land issues.
It had peaked till a strong anti-Maoist crackdown in 2005, in which prominent Maoist Saketh Rajan was killed. The same year, six police personnel were killed in Tumkur's Pavagada.
The security forces conducted multiple operations and encounters over the years which led to deaths of many Maoists and was followed by large-scale surrenders. Parallelly, the state also started has an effective rehabilitation policy that played a crucial role.
By 2010, the Maoist movement had completely lost steam. The last group of known Maoists had made their stronghold in the Chikkamagaluru-Udupi belt. On January 8, 2025, a group of six prominent Maoists, including those from the tri-state (Karnataka-Tamil Nadu-Kerala) unit, surrendered before Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in Bengaluru.
Karnataka was removed from the list of Maoist-hit states in 2010, and Maoist activity sharply reduced after 2018. In 2025, Karnataka was officially declared Naxal-free by the state government.
ANDHRA PRADESH & TELANGANA
The collapse of Maoism marks the end of a violent chapter that shaped undivided Andhra Pradesh for nearly five decades. The movement had first gained strength in areas that are now in Telangana.
Its first major turning point occurred in Adilabad, where the People's War Group carried out its first landmine blast. By the mid-1980s, besides Adilabad, Maoist violence had spread across Warangal and Karimnagar districts.
In 1986, Kazipet sub-inspector Yadagiri Reddy was killed in Warangal district -- the first police officer killed by the insurgents in what was then Andhra Pradesh. Ambushes, landmine blasts and assassinations soon became the norm.
In response to the ongoing violence, then Chief Minister NT Rama Rao established the elite Greyhounds force in 1989, initially funded with Rs 8 crore under the guidance of IPS officer KS Vyas. Despite this, violence persisted, culminating in Vyas's assassination in Hyderabad on January 27, 1993. IPS officer Umesh Chandra and then Home Minister A Madhava Reddy was also killed by Maoists.
The insurgency reached its peak in the early 2000s. In 2003, then Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu narrowly escaped a powerful landmine blast.
A year later, the People's War Group and Maoist Communist Centre merged to form CPI (Maoist), significantly increasing the movement's organisation and lethality.
In 2005 alone, over 520 people, including policemen and civilians, lost their lives due to Maoist violence in Andhra Pradesh.
Today, both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana police report a near disappearance of Maoism.
In November 2025, an operation had led to the killing of Maoist commander Madvi Hidma, considered one of the most wanted guerrilla leaders in Bastar.
The operation took place in the ASR district of Andhra Pradesh. His death came a few months after CPI (Maoist) chief Nambala Keshava Rao alias Basavaraj was killed in the Abujhmad forests of Chhattisgarh on May 21, 2025.
Following Hidma's death, the Andhra Pradesh Police launched a large crackdown and arrested 50 Maoist operatives across five districts.
On Monday - a day before the Central deadline -- senior Maoist leader Chelluri Narayana Rao alias Somanna surrendered in Vijayawada. Following his surrender, Andhra Pradesh police chief Harish Kumar Gupta announced that there are now "zero underground cadres" left in the state. Somanna was regarded as one of the last senior leaders connected to the Andhra-Odisha border network.
In Telangana, the police claim that the Maoist movement is nearing its end. Only 11 Maoists from the state remain underground, and among them, only one or two are actively involved in armed operations, they maintain. The rest are either inactive, ageing or attempting to surrender.
In February, senior Maoist commander Tippiri Tirupati alias Devji surrendered to Telangana Police alongside senior Maoist Malla Raji Reddy and several cadres. Devji, who had been underground for nearly four decades, was among the senior-most remaining leaders in the CPI (Maoist).
The remaining underground cadres include former CPI (Maoist) chief Muppala Lakshmana Rao alias Ganapathy, the police had said.
CHHATTISGARH
With Maoist activity on the decline in most of the Red Corridor, the last bastion of the movement was Chhattisgarh. The hub was in the Abujhmarh forest of Dandakaranya region.
Abujhmarh, Dantewada, Sukma, and Bijapur were considered "liberated zones" areas under complete control of Maoists.
In 2005, the state government had raised a local anti-Maoist militia, Salwa Judum, which was declared illegal by the Supreme Court of India in 2011 following allegations of human rights violations.
Over the decades, the state has suffered massive violent attacks.
The worst of these include the 2010 Dantewada ambush in which 76 policemen were killed; the 2013 Jhiram Ghati massacre which wiped out the top rung of the state Congress - among them Mahendra Karma and Nand Kumar Patel; and the 2021 Bijapur-Sukma ambush.
But years of Operation Green Hunt had also pared down the Maoist camp. The biggest thrust came in May last year - the Operation Black Forest - in which Nambala Keshava Rao (alias Basavaraj), the General Secretary of the CPI (Maoist), died.
His key aide Thippiri Tirupathi surrendered in February this year.
Today, the Bastar region, once considered the heart of the movement, is said to be free from Maoism. Local officials say only 30 to 40 active cadres remain in remote, isolated pockets.
MADHYA PRADESH
Alongside Chhattisgarh, the state it was carved out of, Madhya Pradesh, had been a key victim of the Maoist movement which flourished in the forested, tribal areas of Balaghat, Mandla, and Dindori districts.
The activity was mostly concentrated in the areas bordering Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, particularly in the Amarkantak forest region. But their efforts to establish the Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh (MMC) zone failed amid a strong combination of security crackdown and development initiatives of the state government.
The Hawk Force of the state police had played a critical role in the operations in which key leaders were neutralised, and in the mass surrenders that followed.
Madhya Pradesh Transport Minister Likhiram Kanvre was murdered by Naxalites in 1999. He was killed in the Naxal-affected area of Balaghat, which has been a hotspot for such violence since the 1990s, prompting the formation of the special 'Hawk Force' in 2000.
BIHAR
Naxalism had spread to Bihar from neighbouring Bengal, shortly after the Naxalbari movement started in Darjeeling.
In the 1990s, Bihar became one of the worst Maoist-hit area. The state witnessed a surge of brutal killings and massacres. The conflict also acquired a caste angle, with Naxal groups and upper-caste militias fighting each other.
The movement peaked post-2000 with the formation of CPI (Maoist). Areas like Aurangabad, Palamu, and Latehar saw frequent attacks, landmine blasts, and ambushes on security forces.
In 2005, the Maoists attacked the Jehanabad jail, freeing prisoners and killing many people.
The situation in Bihar started improving only after 2010 due to better policing and stronger government action.
JHARKHAND
The carving out of Jharkhand from Bihar in 2000 saw a major spurt in Maoist activity, especially in the jungles and mining areas of the state. Jharkhand's dense forests and remote locations gave Naxal groups safe hideouts, helping them grow stronger.
Between 2008 and 2010, Naxal violence was at its peak, many died every year across the affected regions. In 2007, a Member of Parliament was killed, making it clear that even top political leaders were not immune to Maoist attacks.
Post-2010, though the Naxal menace got constrained Bihar, it continued unabated in Jharkhand.
The government had to resort to a mix of security operations, development work, road building, and welfare schemes to counter the problem. The formula worked. Over the following months, many Maoists surrendered, weakening the movement.
Today, Naxalism is almost gone in Bihar and remains only in pockets of Jharkhand -- in districts like Latehar, Gumla, Simdega and West Singhbhum.
KERALA
Naxalism in Kerala ignited on November 22, 1968, with simultaneous attacks on two police stations in Thalassery and Pulpally. Led by Kunnikkal Narayanan, this first phase aimed at a Maoist-style peasant revolution but largely faded by the mid-1970s following a heavy state crackdown during Emergency. The movement's most iconic figure was Arikkad Varghese, who was killed in a controversial police encounter in 1970. Other prominent leaders included K. Ajitha, who later transitioned to social activism, and the intellectual Mundur Ravunni.
Historically, the 1968 Pulpally raid - in which a sub-inspector and constable were killed -and the 1976 Kayanna police station attack remain the most notorious incidents.
After decades of dormancy, Naxalism re-emerged around 2013 under the CPI (Maoist), focusing on the "Tri-junction" forests of the Western Ghats
Amid a strong crackdown, titled Operation Thunderbolt, two Maoist leaders including Kuppu Devaraj, were gunned down by the police in November 2015. Four Maoists were killed in another encounter at Manjakkandi in Palakkad in October, 2019. The 2019 Agali encounter in Palakkad, in which four Maoists were killed, was the deadliest confrontation in recent years.
To weaken the movement, Kerala introduced a rehabilitation package in 2018. It was followed by a barrage of surrenders. By March this year, Naxal activity in Kerala is considered virtually neutralized.
NEPAL
Nepal's Maoist insurgency was a decade-long armed conflict that started in 1996, led by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). It was aimed at replacing the monarchy with a communist republic and over 12 years, led to more than 17,000 deaths. Nepal's movement, though, moved away from armed struggle to negotiate a political path.
Insurgents, who say they are inspired by the Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong, have been fighting to overthrow the constitutional monarchy in Nepal since 1996
The group maintained ideological and logistical links with Indian Naxal groups operating through the Red Corridor. There was much cross-border movement in search of safe havens.
There are reports that Nepalese Maoists would also impart political and military training to the Indian insurgents. Nepalese Maoists, however, have denied these claims.
The Indian Home ministry too, had attested to the existence of such linkages at that point. But later, the ministry said there was no strategic link between the groups.
The big attacks by Maoists in Nepal included the one in Sandhikharka (Arghakhanchi district) in September 2002 in which 49 people were killed and 21 others injured. In 2000, 14 police personal died in an attack in Dunai (Dolpa). The bombing on a bus in June 2005 killed at least 53 people, most of them civilians
The violence only ended with a Comprehensive Peace Accord in 2006, that brought the rebels into mainstream politics.
(With inputs from Anurag Dwary, Jayanta Ghosal, Prabhakar Kumar, Aswin Nandakumar, Dev Kumar Ghosh, Ashish Kumar Pandey, Sanjay Tiwari and Saurabh Gupta)
