After nearly 60 years of violence, the jungle-based struggle for communist rule in India could finally be coming to an end. Operation Kagar, a military offensive launched by Indian security forces in April, has apparently reduced to remnants the once-powerful Naxalite insurgency group. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi's crackdown on the guerrilla movement "comes at a bloody price" and may, critics say, be motivated by something "other" than a "wish for peace", said The Guardian.
The Naxalite insurgency began in 1967 with a peasant uprising in Naxalbari, West Bengal. Inspired by Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong and Marxist-Leninist ideology, the rebels advocate for class struggle and agrarian revolution through armed resistance. Their aim is to overthrow the government and establish a communist state.
The strength of the insurgency has "surged" at various points over the past 50-odd years, added The Guardian. During its "peak" in the early 2000s, the Naxalites controlled "large swathes of the country, known as the 'red corridor'", and had more than 30,000 foot soldiers. But now there are thought to only be about 500 active fighters operating in "limited districts".
Last month India's most-wanted Naxalite, Nambala Keshava Rao, was cornered and killed, along with 26 others, in a major attack. Modi's government has vowed that the Maoist insurgency will be "completely eradicated" by March next year, so this "battle-hardened" story of rebellion "stands at a crossroads", said the BBC. It remains to be seen if this is "truly the end" or "just another pause in its long, bloody arc". | 
