Naxalite

/ ˈnʌksəˌlaɪt /

noun

1. a member of an extreme Maoist group in India that originated in 1967 in West Bengal and which employs tactics of agrarian terrorism and direct action

Word History and Origins

Origin of Naxalite¹

C20: named after Naxalbari, a town in West Bengal where the movement started

Example Sentences

In the later timeline, Misha has traveled from Brooklyn to an Indian village to stage “Dak Ghar” at the request of a Bengali professor with ties to radical Communist Naxalite peasants who have clashed violently with landowners.

From Washington Post

Later, in a separate incident, the mob pushed Yadav to the ground and kicked him in the face while calling him a “Naxalite,” a term associated with India’s extreme left-wing movements and used disparagingly by the Hindu right.

From Los Angeles Times

India’s Maoist insurrection began with the Naxalite rebellion of 1967, one of the major regional explosions of Mao’s Cultural Revolution.

From The Guardian

The three states are also home to a decades-old Maoist, or Naxalite, insurgency that fought security forces over land and mineral resources in indigenous forest areas, although the insurgency has waned in recent years.

From Reuters

But the Naxalite movement has survived against all odds, resurfacing each time the state assumed it had been snuffed out.

From BBC