India faces many security challenges, from both
internal and external enemies, but in the words of Indian
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who spoke in 2007, he said
that the Naxalite Maoist rebel insurgency as the "single
biggest internal security challenge facing India."
These rebels operate in eastern and central India, in
very poor rural districts. The communist rebels are
called "Naxalites" after the village of Naxalbari in West
Bengal, the location of a communist revolutionary rural
uprising in 1967. Though security forces defeated that
uprising, communist rebels, most of whom follow the
teachings of Chinese communist revolutionary leader Mao
Tse-Tung, continued to fight the government. Since the
Naxalite Uprising of 1967, the Maoist insurgency has
resulted in approximately 6,000 deaths.
In September and October of 2009, the Maoist rebels
and government forces engaged in increased fighting.
Indian Forces versus
Maoist Rebels Video
Related
Conflicts
PREDECESSOR:
(Related conflicts and events that occurred
before)
Naxalite Uprising
(1967)
CONCURRENT:
(Related conflicts occurring at the same
time)