India: Surrender-No Revolution Possible via Parliamentarism or So-Called Unarmed Mass Uprisings!
Must Continue the People’s War to Complete the New Democratic Revolution!
March 24th, 2026
The ongoing People’s War in India is crossing a major crisis. To destroy it, a horrific repressive campaign named ‘Operation Kagaar’ was launched at the beginning of 2024. Their target is to make India ‘Maoist-free’ by March 2026. After the failure of various repressive operations like ‘Salwa Judum’, ‘Green Hunt’, ‘Samadhan’, and ‘Prahar’ launched since 2009 with the aid of imperialism, the ruling bureaucrat-comprador capitalist class is now conducting this brutal “Kagaar” operation. For this purpose, the ruling class is carrying out genocide by violating their own constitution, laws, and regulations. In this repressive campaign, many tribal people, along with the Party’s General Secretary Basavaraj, PLGA chief Hidma, women’s leader Renuka, and hundreds of leaders and cadres of various levels, have embraced heroic martyrdom.
The Maoists of India were not only successfully resisting these repressive campaigns of the Hindutva fascist Modi government but were also continuing counterattacks.] However, exhausted by this repression, the liquidationist Sonu-Satish clique within the party emerged in mid-2025 with a ‘Surrender Line’ of “establishing peace” in the name of a ceasefire. According to government versions, several thousand leaders and cadres have surrendered following that line. On the other hand, the media-created secretary Tirupati alias Devji, who took an opportunist position to save his life after being arrested by the enemy, called Sonu-Satish traitors in an interview from a government guesthouse. At the same time, he is demanding the lifting of the government ban on the party and the dissolution of the PLGA. Both lines are liquidationist. Frustrated by government repression, they are abandoning the revolutionary path of Naxalbari and bringing forth a revisionist-liquidationist line.
This government-produced liquidationist line is a part of the Kagaar repressive operation itself. Caught in the crisis of government repression, a section of the former Maoist leadership has abandoned the Maoist path of liberation for oppressed nations and people—the line of continued revolution. They have adopted a line of compromise and conciliation with the pro-imperialist and anti-people politics of the Brahmanical Hindutva fascists Modi-Amit. They have fallen into the trap of the conspiracy to destroy the revolution. This is temporarily putting the ongoing People’s War into a crisis. In this case, the liquidationist right-wing Surrender Line created from within the party has caused much more damage to the Maoist People’s War than the government’s mercenary forces. They want to liquidate the Party and the Revolution in exchange for begging for their own lives.
After the setback of the Naxalbari movement in the ’70s, various forms of revisionist-liquidationist lines called the Naxalbari line/path “adventurist,” claiming that armed struggle or People’s War was not possible. In those difficult times, true followers of Maoism clung to the line of Naxalbari’s People’s War and, through a process of summation, built base areas in today’s Dandakaranya-Chhattisgarh. Although the Naxalbari uprising defeated the revisionism entrenched in India, it was defeated before it could form a consolidated force, develop a victorious People’s War, and establish bases. In Dandakaranya, a brigade-level guerrilla force (PLGA) was formed under the party’s leadership, and a People’s Government was established under the patronage of that force. Therefore, history shows that revolutionary struggle and People’s War do not end once defeated. Rather, they return larger and stronger.
It is true that the People’s War has suffered a major blow due to the repression of Operation Kagaar and has been temporarily defeated. However, it is not correct to say that this defeat means the end of the People’s War. This is because the fundamental problem—the exploitation and oppression of the semi-colonial and semi-feudal system that gave birth to and developed the Maoist Party—has not been resolved. This system itself is the enemy of the people, exploitative, oppressive, and a lackey of imperialism. Therefore, it is impossible to destroy the Maoist Party and the People’s War led by it.
In the last 70 years, many changes have occurred in India’s production system and the imperialist world system. Although the semi-colonial and semi-feudal system fundamentally continues, many new forms/types of it have developed. Taking these into account, the military line and program must be developed. Indian Maoists have paid attention to these new issues and are trying to develop their line based on them. This new development must be grasped through the synthesis of the experiences of the last 50 years while clinging to the path of People’s War—not by liquidating the Party and abandoning the path of People’s War or surrendering.
In the face of this disaster and loss, not only in India but also in our country, the election-oriented Left and Social Democrats are opposing the path of seizing power through People’s War. They are once again bringing forward the parliamentary “pigsty” path and the rhetoric of establishing revolution/socialism through so-called mass uprisings.
These mass-uprisingists cite the examples of ousting the fascist Hasina or the military autocrat Ershad in the ’90s. But what lessons do we learn from these two mass uprisings? In such uprisings, there is no change in the ruling bureaucrat-comprador bourgeois-feudal system controlled by imperialism and expansionism. One clique of the ruling class replaces another in power. For instance, in ’90, military autocracy was removed to establish parliamentary autocracy. When that parliamentary autocracy eventually turned into Awami fascism, they were ousted in the 2024 mass uprising, and the NGOs and civil society of the ruling class came to power. Then, through the February elections, the people, angry with the Awami League, voted for the BNP. Without the decisive role of the Army—the protector of the ruling class—the hand-over of power would not have been possible.
After Hasina fled, some tried to deceive by using the word “revolution,” but in reality, let alone a revolution, no significant or pro-people reform has taken place. Not a single treaty with imperialism-expansionism has been canceled, nor has any program for the liberation of the oppressed people—including workers, peasants, the poor, students, youth, women, and indigenous people—been implemented.
Therefore, to achieve the New Democratic Revolution toward the goal of socialism, the path of People’s War must be adopted. People’s War means a war of the people. The people will participate in that war only when there is a program suited to their interests. People’s War is not a matter of mere tactics; rather, it is part of the political line of the proletariat. No revolution can occur without defeating the various armed forces of the ruling class—the protectors of the existing enemy-of-the-people system —through a Protracted People’s War. Therefore, to make a revolution, the people must build their own army, which is only possible under the leadership of the revolutionary party of the proletariat and under a revolutionary program.
The Maoist Party of India, with the aim of seizing state power based on the line of People’s War, formed the PLGA through the process of implementing the Agrarian Revolution program via Dalams (squads) and established the Janatana (People’s) Government. That government lasted for nearly 20 years. An unarmed mass uprising is not capable of achieving that. However, the opportunity of a mass uprising can be utilized under the People’s War. That is a different matter.
After starting the People’s War, surrender means maintaining the old system. The parliamentary path or parliamentarism means accepting that system and drowning in the so-called ‘mainstream’ politics of the ruling class. And the line of so-called unarmed mass uprising is to use the people, who are angry with one ruling clique, for the benefit of a new/other ruling clique, attempting to make the ongoing exploitative system tolerable.
Therefore, no matter how difficult the path, in a neo-colonial, bureaucrat-capitalist, and semi-feudal country oppressed by imperialism, the only revolutionary path—the People’s War—must be continued to achieve the New Democratic Revolution toward socialism.
[Note: Published on People’s Political Bulletin/April 2026 of PBSP/Bangladesh]
source: Red Spark