Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on August 15 that the country has nearly eliminated the decades-long Maoist insurgency, but still faces a threat from those who support the movement's ideology.
Speaking on India's Independence Day, Modi said the country had succeeded in "eliminating armed Naxals" – a reference to members of the Maoist-inspired Naxalite movement that once challenged the government across vast areas of central and eastern India.
However, he said "dimagi Naxals" (intellectual Naxals) are still seeking opportunities to incite violence and need to be "identified and isolated."
The phrase "dimagi Naxal" recalls the politically charged label "urban Naxal" – a term that Modi and other Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders have used to describe activists, scholars, intellectuals, and government critics.
The remarks came weeks after a youth-led protest movement called the Cockroach Janta Party emerged as a rare challenge to Modi's government and helped force the country's education minister to resign.
Though he did not directly address the protests, Modi repeatedly highlighted initiatives aimed at India's youth, including artificial intelligence skills training and free online coaching for competitive exams.
He also asserted that India had transformed from a "fragile" economy into the world's fastest-growing major economy over the past decade and reaffirmed the government's goal of making the country a developed nation by 2047 – the centenary of independence.
The Naxalite movement in India began in 1967 with an uprising in Naxalbari village in eastern India, later growing into a decades-long armed revolt fighting for the rights of landless farmers, rural poor, and indigenous communities. Thousands of civilians, rebels, and security personnel have been killed in the clashes.
Modi said the Maoist movement had "destroyed the future" of generations of young people and credited his government's security and development policies for a sharp drop in Maoist violence since he took office in 2014.
Human rights organizations have for years accused the Indian government of using anti-terror laws, sedition provisions, and foreign funding regulations to put pressure on civil society and target activists, journalists, and groups critical of government policies.
