The new red

The difference between the Marxists and the Maoists is simple. While the Communist Party of India- Marxists are willing to fight elections and abide by the country's laws and the constitution, the Maoists stand for revolution, and taking power by toppling institutions of state.

India's Maoists who trace their birth to a movement started by Charu Mazumdar and Kanu Sanyal in 1967 in the West Bengal village of Naxalbari, are tapping into the anger of the farmers in the eastern states of West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, who are facing up to the forced acquisition of their land for redevelopment as industrial zones with violent protests.

Once a part of the Marxists, they broke away to form the Communist Part of India (Marxist-Leninist) that morphed further into the Peoples War Group, the Maoist Communist Centre and Communist Party of India — Maoist; each one more violent than the next.

The ideology that unites them — to emancipate and bring social justice to the poor through land and social reform by violent means — led to the Naxalites being hunted and put down ruthlessly in the sixties.

In recent years, they have resurfaced to routinely wreak havoc on state institutions especially in the tribal areas. Official statistics show that they hold sway in 156 districts in 13 of India's 28 states.