ABSTRACT
A violent political movement waged by the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), Maoist in short, was in the early twenty-first century officially considered to be the greatest internal security threat to the Indian state. The immediacy of the conflict between the Maoists and the state has led to the emergence of two extreme views, each looking at only that part of the picture that suits it. The popular and state-centric view limits the Maoist movement to a security and law-and-order issue. At the other extreme, the Maoist movement has been glorified by left-leaning intellectuals as the only solution to the problem of state atrocities.
This chapter attempts to step away from both extremes to explore the understanding that emerges from the ideological and philosophical journey of the Maoist movement in India over the last five decades. It first briefly discusses Mao’s political thoughts on revolution and its departure from Marxist-Leninist philosophical traditions. Then it critically examines the extent to which Indian Maoists have adapted Mao’s political thought to Indian conditions. This allows us to finally explore, among other things, the extent to which Indian Maoists have contributed new philosophical dimensions to classical Maoism.
