ABSTRACT
India is facing a serious left-wing insurgency mainly in central and eastern parts. There is a long history of left-wing uprisings in India right from independence, which includes the Telangana armed struggle (1948-51), the Naxalbari movement of the 1960s and the Srikakulam armed struggle (1968). The current phase of left-wing violence began with the founding of the People’s War Group (PWG) in 1980. The extremist communist parties, which were large in number, slowly consolidated. The most important of these was the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC). The merger of the PWG and the MCC in 2004 into the CPI (Maoist) group was a turning point in the escalation of violence as well as ideological warfare resulting in the current serious situation. While at present there are at least thirty-nine different ultra-left groups in the country, the CPI (Maoist) remains the most dangerous and active outfit, responsible for over 90 per cent of the violence and 90 per cent of the deaths due to Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) in the country.
