ABSTRACT
The Naxal conflict erupted in the 1967 violent peasant protests in the Naxalbari district of West Bengal. The Naxal insurgency has emerged as the greatest threat to India's internal stability and security. This chapter briefly dwells on the origins of the Naxal insurgency, examines the political purpose of the Naxal movement, and delineates the strategy of the armed outfit. The chapter analyses the Naxal crafted constitution as well as the root causes of the insurgency. It ends by discussing the influence of the ideational frameworks of Kautilya and Gandhi on the state's counter-insurgency. The Gandhian perspective of empathizing with the other's point of view, of understanding the political and social differences in perspectives that led to the conflict, is of limited influence, if not missing altogether. Gandhi stressed empathy as a way to imagine a resolution framework that is acceptable to both sides.
