A study of strategy and sectarianism in India’s Maoist movement

By Harsh Thakor* 

K. Mohan Ram’s "Maoism in India", published in 1971 in the immediate aftermath of the Naxalbari uprising and the formation of the CPI(ML), remains one of the earliest systematic attempts to historically and ideologically map the emergence of Maoism in India. Written at a moment of intense political flux, the book offers a detailed examination of the forces, debates, and contradictions that shaped the early Maoist movement, while situating it within the broader trajectory of Indian communism.

A central argument of Mohan Ram’s study is that Indian Maoism cannot be understood merely as an ideological import from China. Instead, he locates its origins in the Telangana peasant armed struggle (1946–51), where the Andhra leadership of the undivided CPI had already evolved tactical positions resembling Maoist concepts of rural guerrilla warfare and peasant base areas. In this reading, Maoism in India emerged from indigenous experiences and contradictions, even as it drew inspiration from the Chinese Revolution.

The book identifies 1951 as a turning point, when the CPI abandoned armed struggle and entered parliamentary politics. For radical sections, this shift represented the onset of “revisionism,” a sentiment later intensified by the Sino–Soviet ideological conflict, which sharpened internal divisions within the Indian communist movement.

One of the book’s most substantive contributions is its analysis of the formation of the CPI(ML) and the internal debates that preceded and followed it. Mohan Ram distinguishes between classical Maoist principles and the tactical line adopted by the CPI(ML) under Charu Mazumdar, particularly the doctrine of “annihilation of class enemies.” He argues that this emphasis on targeted killings, carried out by small armed squads, marked a departure from Mao’s stress on sustained mass mobilization and political education.

In contrast, Mohan Ram presents the line associated with T. Nagi Reddy and the Andhra Pradesh Coordination Committee as more consistent with a mass‑based approach. He highlights their insistence on building broad agrarian struggles, maintaining mass organizations, and avoiding premature militarization. The book credits this trend with attempting to preserve the mass line and situates it as an important counterpoint within the movement.

Mohan Ram devotes considerable attention to the pattern of splits that emerged within the revolutionary Left from the mid‑1960s onward. While the 1964 CPI–CPI(M) split is treated as relatively limited in consequence, the later fragmentation within the CPI(M) and the revolutionary camp is analysed as structurally significant. Leaders such as T. Nagi Reddy, D.V. Rao, Satyanarayan Singh, and Ashim Chatterjee broke with Charu Mazumdar over questions of strategy, mass work, and the interpretation of Maoist principles.

The CPI(ML)’s invocation of the Maoist philosophical principle “One Divides into Two” to justify these splits is critically examined. Mohan Ram argues that dialectics involves not only division but also synthesis, and that the movement’s tendency to valorize fragmentation contributed to political isolation and organizational atomization.

A major section of the book evaluates the practice of the mass line in early Maoist movements, particularly the Srikakulam struggle. Mohan Ram traces the initial mass character of the uprising—land seizures, redistribution, and peasant mobilization—before analysing how the movement lost direction when it was prematurely declared a “liberated area.” He contrasts this trajectory with the Chinese experience in Yenan, arguing that the Indian movement lacked the sustained organizational consolidation that characterized the Chinese base areas.

The book also critiques tendencies such as disbanding mass organizations, advocating “boycott” as a strategic slogan, and elevating individual annihilation to a central tactic. For Mohan Ram, these deviations weakened the agrarian revolutionary movement and hindered the development of a durable mass base.

Mohan Ram presents the Andhra Pradesh Coordination Committee’s work in regions such as Mulug, Mahaboobabad, and Narsampet as an example of mass‑based resistance. He describes how struggles over forest land, uncultivated land, and exploitation by officials and contractors spread across Warangal, Khammam, Karimnagar, and East Godavari. The Committee’s attempt to categorise areas based on the intensity of struggle and prepare for a transition to armed resistance is portrayed as a methodical effort to integrate mass movements with armed struggle.

In his concluding reflections, Mohan Ram expresses confidence in the capacity of the Indian masses to wage organized resistance. He identifies the central challenge as one of aligning strategy with tactics—linking urban and rural struggles, identifying principal contradictions, and resolving tensions between petit‑bourgeois leadership and peasant masses. He rejects the notion of the Indian peasantry as inherently passive and argues that revolutionary potential exists if properly organized.

From a contemporary standpoint, certain limitations in Mohan Ram’s analysis are evident. His treatment of the CPI(ML)’s role in catalysing the Naxalbari and Srikakulam uprisings may appear understated, given the historical impact of these movements. His reading of Chinese support for Naxalbari and the Cultural Revolution’s influence on Indian radicals may also seem overly cautious, especially considering the ideological resonance these events had among Indian revolutionaries.

Similarly, the book does not fully address questions such as T. Nagi Reddy’s delayed resignation from parliament or his reluctance to initiate armed struggle earlier in Srikakulam. These gaps leave aspects of the Andhra line’s evolution open to further inquiry.

More than five decades later, Maoism in India retains relevance for understanding the ideological and strategic debates that continue to shape the Indian Maoist movement. The dichotomy between armed‑struggle‑first approaches and mass‑line‑first approaches persists in various forms, reflected in differences between groups such as the CPI(Maoist) and organizations influenced by the Nagi Reddy–D.V. Rao tradition.

The book remains a valuable resource for scholars and activists seeking to understand the historical roots of these debates, the pitfalls of left adventurism, and the challenges of building a mass‑based revolutionary movement in India.

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*Freelance journalist