ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates that in post-modern wars like the Maoist insurgency in India, masquerading becomes critical for those within the war to switch sides or move between two warring sides seamlessly. The multiple masquerades in insurgent wars perpetuate the politics of securitization as a discursive practice. The Maoist insurgency is a socio-economic resistance to the idea of neoliberal and exploitative state. Masquerades or strategic deceptions have an important role in wars throughout history, and they have remained outside the analysis of war. There is another aspect to the stories of war and political violence in South Asia. The Maoists promise a way out of economic and social insecurity through their politics of armed resistance. The armed resistance and access to arms and weapons not only brings security to those who are at outer periphery of governance and at the bottom end of social and economic ladder, but also enforces a certain urgency in state's security mobilization and militarized thinking.
