Naxalbari to Dimagi Naxal: The evolution, fragmentation of Left movement in India

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In Short: In his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi used the term 'Dimagi Naxal,' which has sparked controversy and debate about the evolving nature of the Naxal movement in India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi used the term 'Dimagi Naxal' in his Independence Day speech, referring to those with a 'Naxalite mindset.' This term has been criticized and clarified by Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju, who explained that it does not refer to opposition leaders but to those who support Maoists and separatists.

The term 'Naxal' originates from Naxalbari, a village in West Bengal, where a peasant uprising in 1967 marked the beginning of the Naxal movement in India. Over the years, the movement has transformed, becoming associated with armed revolt against the state and mindless violence.

Following the controversy over the term 'Dimagi Naxal,' the term 'Maoist' and 'Naxal' are often used interchangeably. The Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist), or CPI(ML), was formed in 1969 under the leadership of Charu Mazumdar, marking a significant development in the movement.

Professor Tanweer Fazal of the School of Liberal Studies at Gurgaon’s BML Munjal University pointed out that the demand for 'land to the tillers' was part of the Indian national movement, though it did not hold on to it. This highlights the complex and evolving nature of the Naxal movement over the years.

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Modi said that in his Independence Day speech, he had used the term as a “homeopaethic pill” and that the ‘Dimagi Naxals’ had revealed themselves through their reactions.
It went on to become one of the principal political formations of the Naxalite movement, which is also broadly called the Maoist movement in India.
In Chhattisgarh and Odisha (then Orissa), it was the exclusion of tribal communities from development plans that created conditions for the spread of Naxalism, scholar Rajat Kumar Kujur’s paper, Left Extremism in India: Naxal Movement in Chattishgarh & Orissa, has noted.
The protracted war in the later years, however, came under criticism in the same communities where it had found space, with Kujur’s paper linking the rise of Salwa Judum, a militia in Chhattisgarh formed to fight the Naxals, to local backlash.
Of the factions that joined India’s electoral democracy, CPI(ML) Liberation, which gave up arms in 1992, is now represented by two MPs in the Lok Sabha (both from Bihar).
But even as Naxalbari is often considered as the birthplace of Indian Maoism, it was a faction of the Communist Party of India that, much earlier in 1948, had formally adopted the ideology of Mao Zedong’s “Chinese liberation struggle” in Telangana.
These cadres faced “heavy-handed” suppression by the Congress-led Union government following the 1948 Army operation that led to Hyderabad’s accession to India.

Sources

The Indian Expresslink