ABSTRACT

Maoism in India is a context-driven and ideologically charged political campaign to address critical socio-economic issues. At one level, it is a political movement seeking to redress the genuine socio-economic grievances at the grass roots; at another, perhaps more significant level, Maoism represents a serious search for an alternative development paradigm, drawn on a persuasive critique of the Nehruvian state-directed development plans and programmes. Inspired by reinvented Marxism of Maoist variety, the Indian counterpart is a creative intervention in an ideological domain that seems to have lost its ‘appeal’ following the disintegration of the former Soviet Union and her satellite East European states. Based on the idea that organic complementaries between agriculture and industry, between town and country are critical to development, Maoism actually reiterates an old dictum that a deep bond between these two sectors of the economy is what holds the nation together.