December 20, 2025:
Last month Indian Maoist rebels operating throughout portions of eastern Maoist leaders sought a three month truce with India so the Maoists’ widely dispersed units could surrender and join government rehabilitation programs. These programs have been operating for years to help surrendering Maoists and other miscreants rehabilitate themselves and return to a normal life.
A day after this plan was announced, the Maoist Central Military Commission urged the armed Maoist members to resume fighting. But first they must participate in the annual People's Liberation Guerrilla Army/PLGA Week that begins on December 2nd. What follows are small gatherings of Maoists and working with potential new recruits. This year’s PLGA is the 25th to be observed. This is important for the Maoists because in the last year they have suffered heavy casualties and many defeats while fighting government forces. Meanwhile, those forces are organizing large scale surrenders of Maoist fighters who are dismayed at their lack of combat success and willing to try the government rehabilitation. Maoist leaders are encouraging their armed Maoists to fight to the end. The government believes it will have eliminated the Maoist rebel movement in the next year or two.
Earlier this year in eastern India, the Communist Party of India/CPI was accused of trying to revive its violent radical faction, the recently depleted Maoist communist rebels. The CPI is legal in India. Its leaders do not approve of Maoist violence and have cooperated with Indian efforts to keep the Maoists from rebuilding their strength and ability to launch attacks.
There are still Maoist factions in eastern India, but the Maoists are found in fewer areas. During 2022 and 2023 there were fewer deaths attributed to Maoist activity. That changed in 2024 when terrorism related deaths increased fifty percent to over 600. These numbers declined in 2025. The CPI has less control over its armed radical faction that is responsible for most of these deaths.
India’s communist Maoist rebels were once considered one of the most dangerous terrorist groups worldwide. Total deaths caused by the Maoists was lower in 2023 than 2022 when they were 98. Such deaths were 147 in 2021. Terrorism related deaths in India also include Islamic terrorists in northwest Indian Kashmir and tribal rebels in the northeast. The Maoists operate in eastern India, and the areas where they are active have shrunk considerably over the last decade because of energetic government efforts to eliminate them.
So far in 2025 there have been over 300 deaths. In 2024 there were 828 deaths while in 2023 there were fewer than 400 deaths in India from all forms of terrorism, compared to 434 in 2022, 585 in 2021, 621 in 2019 and 940 in 2018. In 2020 54 percent of the dead were in Kashmir, which was higher than usual. In most years non-Islamic terrorist violence accounts for most of the violence, but in 2020 leftist Maoist rebels in eastern India only accounted for 41 percent of the deaths with five percent caused by tribal separatists in the northeast. The decline in Maoist activity began in 2009 when India assigned 75,000 additional police to deal with the Maoists. Initially this did not increase Maoist losses but did result in more dead policemen. The Maoists did lose many of their rural camps and, in general, were forced to devote more time to security and less to attacking the government or extorting money from businesses. As always, the government had failed to effectively address the social and economic problems i
Eventually the government did address the local social and economic problems, and this is what deprived the Maoists of areas where they could operate. The police efforts continued and now the Maoists are only active in a small portion of eastern India, where they are more concerned with surviving than expanding or attacking the police. Civilians in Maoist-infested areas are less afraid of providing police with information about Maoist movements or joining pro-government militias to resist Maoist operations. It also became easier to recruit Maoist members to become active informants. These spies are paid monthly, and the sudden affluence of their families often alerts Maoist leaders to the presence of police informants. While details about informants are kept secret, the losses suffered because police had inside information is often obvious. The Maoist decline has demoralized leftist leaders, who have not been able to come up with any way to halt or reverse the losses. Maoists are a radical faction of the once mighty Indian communist party. Many Indian communists were slow to understand why all those East European communist governments, including Russia, collapsed between 1989 and 1991. Despite that many Indians still support communism, but not the violent, ineffective, and increasingly unpopular Maoists.
December 20, 2025: Last month Indian Maoist rebels operating throughout portions of eastern Maoist leaders sought a three month truce with India so it’s widely dispersed units could surrender and join government rehabilitation programs. These programs have been operating for years to help surrendering Maoists and other miscreants rehabilitate themselves and return to a normal life.
A day after this plan was announced, the Maoist Central Military Commission urged the armed Maoist members to resume fighting. But first they must participate in the annual People's Liberation Guerrilla Army/PLGA Week that begins on December 2nd. What follows is small gatherings of Maoists and working with potential new recruits, This year’s PLGA is the 25th to be observed. This is important for the Maoists because in the last year they have suffered heavy casualties and many defeats while fighting government forces. Meanwhile, those forces are organizing large scale surrenders of Maoist fighters who are dismayed at their lack of combat success and willing to try the government rehabilitation. Maoist leaders are encouraging their armed Maoists to fight to the end. The government believes it will have eliminated the Maoist rebel movement in the next year or two.
Earlier this year in eastern India, the Communist Party of India/CPI was accused of trying to revive its violent radical faction, the recently depleted Maoist communist rebels. The CPI is legal in India and the leaders of the CPI do not approve of Maoist violence and have cooperated with Indian efforts to keep the Maoists from rebuilding their strength and ability to launch attacks.
There are still Maoist factions in eastern India, but the Maoists are found in fewer areas. During 2022 and 2023 there were fewer deaths attributed to Maoist activity. That changed in 2024 when terrorism related deaths increased fifty percent to over 600. These numbers declined in 2025 The CPI has less control over its armed radical faction that is responsible for most of these deaths.
India’s communist Maoist rebels were once considered one of the most dangerous terrorist groups worldwide. Total deaths caused by the Maoists was lower in 2023 than 2022 when they were 98. Such deaths were 147 in 2021. Terrorism related deaths in India also include Islamic terrorists in northwest Indian Kashmir and tribal rebels in the northeast. The Maoists operate in eastern India, and the areas where they are active have shrunk considerably over the last decade because of energetic government efforts to eliminate them.
So far in 2025 there have been over 300 deaths. In 2024 there were 828 deaths while in 2023 there were fewer than 400 deaths in India from all forms of terrorism, compared to 434 in 2022, 585 in 2021, 621 in 2019 and 940 in 2018. In 2020 54 percent of the dead were in Kashmir, which was higher than usual. In most years non-Islamic terrorist violence accounts for most of the violence, but in 2020 leftist Maoist rebels in eastern India only accounted for 41 percent of the deaths with five percent caused by tribal separatists in the northeast. The decline in Maoist activity began in 2009 when India assigned 75,000 additional police to deal with the Maoists. Initially this did not increase Maoist losses but did result in more dead policemen. The Maoists did lose many of their rural camps and, in general, were forced to devote more time to security and less to attacking the government or extorting money from businesses. As always, the government had failed to effectively address the social and economic problems in the countryside, where feudalism and corruption are rampant. These problems provided the Maoists with recruits, and support from many of the locals.
Eventually the government did address the local social and economic problems, and this is what deprived the Maoists of areas where they could operate. The police efforts continued and now the Maoists are only active in a small portion of eastern India, where they are more concerned with surviving than expanding or attacking the police. Civilians in Maoist-infested areas are less afraid of providing police with information about Maoist movements or joining pro-government militias to resist Maoist operations. It also became easier to recruit Maoist members to become active informants. These spies are paid monthly, and the sudden affluence of their families often alerts Maoist leaders to the presence of police informants. While details about informants are kept secret, the losses suffered because police had inside information is often obvious. The Maoist decline has demoralized leftist leaders, who have not been able to come up with any way to halt or reverse the losses. Maoists are a radical faction of the once mighty Indian communist party. Many Indian communists were slow to understand why all those East European communist governments, including Russia, collapsed between 1989 and 1991. Despite that many Indians still support communism, but not the violent, ineffective, and increasingly unpopular Maoists.