We hereby share a video and a blog post by the Youtuber “TheFinnishBolshevik” against repression of the revolution in India.
Jaamme videon ja blogitekstin “TheFinnishBolshevikilta” Intiassa vallankumoukseen kohdistuvaa repressiota vastaan.
The anti-communist and anti-people repression in India continues to ramp up. Operation Kagar, the Indian state’s newest anti-people extermination campaign has been ravaging the country since April 2025.
Operation Kagar aims at smashing the communist revolution in India, killing the revolutionaries and masses, burning all the resisting villages, clearing them from the face of the Earth, to make room for predominately American monopoly corporations, and their domestic collaborators such as the Tata corporation.
To satisfy the corporations, the Indian government hands them forest areas where mining operations, logging operations, infrastructure projects and other profitable enterprises can be set up. However, these areas are populated by villages of working people and frequently indigenous adivasi tribes, whose livelihood is tied to these areas.
Mining operations and other such projects typically destroy the environment, destroy the water supply, or otherwise make the area uninhabitable for the people, leaving them to die. Often the government simply forces the people to abandon their homes and farms, to make room. This results in life and death struggle.
In the Indian constitution the villagers and other masses are promised certain democratic rights and the adivasis are promised certain rights of self-determination. These laws are simply ignored by the state, the militarized police and mercenaries of the corporations. The masses try to resist the corporations and the state from carrying out their plans, which would lead to the deaths or destitution of the masses.
This resistance often starts out as peaceful, but met with deadly force by the state forces and mercenary thugs, the masses take to arms, even bows and arrows, axes and farming tools, if no other weapons are available. The countryside, jungles and forests are set ablaze in an explosion of resistance. Adivasis resist the corporations entering the forests, the peasants resist the landlords and agrocompanies who try to steal their land.
This struggle is systemic, it is integral to the Indian economic system, where the international imperialist corporations, with help and support of the state, attack the masses, making resistance inevitable. Since the countryside remains largely pre-capitalist, the state’s grip there is weaker, leading to possibility and creation of even large rebel areas.
This resistance by the masses is an inevitable product of the oppression and exploitation by the state. It is not artificially generated and as long as the deadly oppression and exploitation continues, the masses will resist – even to their last drop of blood. They have nothing to lose but their chains and a world to win.
Understanding that the masses can triumph only with proletarian ideology, the Communists go to the countryside to help the masses in their on-going struggle, to topple the reactionary state, and create a state of the working people, which gives land to the farmers, factories to the workers, democratic rights to all the masses and self-determination to minority nationalities.
This is why the state has waged several extermination campaigns against the Communists, mainly the Communist Party of India (Maoist), popularly called “naxalites”. The first of these extermination campaigns was “Operation Green Hunt” (starting in 2009), which mobilized hundreds of thousands of soldiers, militarized police and paramiltaries to kill the communists, kill the masses, and burn their villages. Countless revolutionaries gave their lives, but the revolution continued.
In 2013 the Times of India reported that the government is “moving towards a fight to finish war against Maoists in Red Zone”, i.e. rebel controlled areas. “the Union home ministry has decided to deploy additional 10 battalions of paramilitary forces in four highly naxal-affected states — Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Bihar.” More than 10 years later, the struggle still continues, even in those states of India.
The communist movement has such deep roots in the masses, because of how integrally the conditions give rise to the struggle, that it has proven extremely hard for the reactionary state to eradicate the movement. Each time revolutionaries and revolutionary leaders have fallen in battle, new ones have emerged.
That is not to say, that the struggle is not hard. It is more ferocious than we can imagine. An internationally known revolutionary comrade Azad, was murdered by the police already in 2010. He is one of many. Earlier this year, the general secretary of CPI (Maoist) comrade Basavaraj, together with 27 comrades, died in battle.
Since then, many central committee members have given their lives. Just last month, central committee member comrade Hidma, his wife, and four other communists were executed by the police.
The hearts of the masses and revolutionaries all over the country and around the world, burn with hatred for their cowardly murderers, but as we mourn their loss, we rejoice, that the revolution gives birth to such people’s fighters! They didn’t fear death, and gave everything they had, even their lives, in service to the people! It is our internationalist duty to give them our utmost respect, and to voice our solidarity to the struggling people of India.
To smash the people the Indian state has turned to fascism. The increasingly fascist character of the Indian regime has been noted even by liberal commentators around the world. The Hindu supremacist regime oppresses all minority nationalities and minority religions, launching pogroms against them, and imposes medieval caste repression on the dalit “untouchables”.
The state’s fascist crack down is not only against “naxalites” or the CPI (Maoist). It is against anyone, who tries to defend the rights of workers, peasants, adivasis, minorities and the masses in general. More and more legal newspapers, with no connection to the CPI (Maoist), have been outlawed.
Reporters Without Borders has stated that India’s press freedom situation has consistently worsened and is now “very serious”. India is now almost in the lowest category in terms of press freedom. The Reporters Without Borders in their press freedom index, put India at 151, out of 180 countries in terms of press freedom, where number 1 is best, and 180 is worst. Journalists in India frequently encounter threats of assault and death, and many have been assassinated.
According to Reporters Without Borders:
“India is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for the media. Journalists who are critical of the government are routinely subjected to online harassment, intimidation, threats and physical attacks, as well as criminal prosecutions and arbitrary arrests. They can be victims of violence, from police officers and political activists, as well as criminal groups and corrupt local officials. Proponents of Hindutva, the nationalist ideology of the Hindu far right, call for popular revenge against critics branded as “traitors” and “anti-national”. Terrifying coordinated campaigns of hatred and calls for murder are conducted on social media, campaigns especially violent when they target women journalists, whose personal data is divulged. The situation is also very worrisome for journalists covering environmental topics or news in Kashmir, where reporters are often harassed by police and paramilitaries, with some being subjected to so-called “provisional” detention for several years.”
The Indian state and the corporations that it serves, frequently kill even liberal democrat activists, if they dare oppose what the corporations are doing. According to a civic justice organization Civicus:
“activists using the RTI act to investigate corruption have been brutally silenced. As of March 2018, 67 people have been murdered for allegedly seeking information under the legislation. This number has increased in the last three months as two more activists have been killed for their work demanding transparency.
On 7th June 2018, unknown assailants shot dead Suresh Oraon from Jharkhand. The 27 year-old had been reported to have used the RTI Act extensively to expose the corruption in the forceful displacement made in mining projects and the irregular implementation of other social schemes. Oraon fought fiercely with Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) and the mining mafia while opposing the pollution and displacement caused by coal mining. The fight turned legal when the activist filed a case through the Jharkhand High Court against CCL in 2012, alleging that the corporation was polluting the Domodar river… Reports allege that Oraon was lured away by four unknown persons riding motorcycles. Two of them asked a local man to call Oraon to a quiet spot in Chatra where they shot him six times from close range.”
The state heavily represses environmental activists. According to Counter Current magazine:
“Since 2014, India has become one of the most dangerous countries for environmental defenders, with at least 50 murders between 2015 and 2021. The majority of these killings have been linked to struggles against illegal mining, land acquisition, and forest exploitation.” (“State Violence Against Environmental Activists in Delhi”)
The struggles for basic democratic rights, rights of minorities and adivasis, rights of workers and peasants, and struggles against outright fascist criminality by the state and corporate mercenaries, seem to be uniting into one strong current of struggle, as Counter Current points out:
“the protest took a political turn when some of the demonstrators raised slogans in honor of Madvi Hidma. Hidma, who had been killed in a controversial encounter on November 18, 2025, was a symbol of resistance for tribal movements, particularly those opposing forest land acquisition, displacement, and mining activities. The protesters’ decision to raise slogans like “Madvi Hidma Amar Rahe” (Long Live Madvi Hidma) and display posters linking Hidma to tribal environmental struggles invoked the legacy of figures like Birsa Munda, a prominent tribal freedom fighter…
Madvi Hidma’s legacy as a Maoist commander, despite his association with insurgency, gained relevance within tribal and environmental movements due to his opposition to mining and forest land acquisition, and his defense of “jal, jangal, jameen” (water, forest, land) rights. Hidma’s significance in tribal resistance movements, especially in regions like Bastar (Chhattisgarh) and parts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, was not merely about his Maoist ideology but about his role in protecting the environment and tribal autonomy against state and corporate encroachment.”
Why does the Indian state accuse all democrats and progressives of “naxalism” and maoism, why does it specifically target the CPI (Maoist) and why do the protestors talk about comrade Hidma?
Because revisionist “communist” parties in India, such as CPI, CPI (Marxist), CPI(ML) Liberation and others, don’t defend the masses. The masses are being murdered on a daily basis, and Hidma, with his comrades, chose to join the struggle of the masses, and gave their lives with the masses.
This is not an academic debate about theoretical intricasies, between competing tendencies calling themselves communists. This is about who defends the masses. Some critics take a sectarian line, and because they dislike maoism, refuse to show solidarity to the revolutionaries and the masses. Maybe if there was e.g. a trotskyist party waging struggle with the masses, the masses would support trotskyism. But such is not the case.
Parties like CPI (Marxist) denounce armed struggle and call for parliamentary struggle exclusively. This gives the corporations full freedom to murder and expel villagers, and doesn’t hinder them in the slightest. These revisionist parties agree with the fascist regime that the rebellions are “ultra-left” adventures, that should be opposed. In fact, these parties like CPI (Marxist), CPI(ML) Liberation and others have participated in countless massacres against the masses, ever since the crushing of the peasant uprisings of the 1960s.
For example, according to an Indian writer, in 2007 CPI (Marxist) helped the state and corporations in creating a special economic zone (an area where foreign corporations can function without following Indian laws or paying taxes) and expelling farmers from their land. A resulting uprising of the peasants was crushed, and CPI (Marxist) members acted as policemen, to repress the people and keep journalists out:
“Two days after a farmers’ uprising against land acquisition in this East Midnapore constituency of West Bengal, ‘outsiders’, including media persons, were prevented from entering the area chosen by the government for a chemical hub and special economic zone (SEZ)… Journalists alleged they were stopped at a distance of 9 km from Nandigram, about 150 km from Kolkata, by CPI-M men who ‘patrolled’ the area” (http://www.indiaenews.com/india/20070106/34763.htm)
According to a Times of India report CPM revisionist politicians planned together with the head of police and a large corporation, a massacre against the people, to allow the creation of this SEZ:
“The “core team” comprised a CPM MP, a zilla parishad leader and two senior IPS officials. “The IPS officers took their orders from the two CPM leaders.” (https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/Nandigram_carnage_leaves_cops_shaken/articleshow/1785684.cms)
In fact, CPI (Marxist) and other similar parties, which actually control the state government in some areas of India, claim that setting up of special economic zones, evicting the masses from their villages and crushing their resistance, is “development” of India’s economy, and therefore progressive. This is despite the fact that even bourgeois commentators in India have stated the SEZs cause India to only lose revenue.
CPI (Marxist) and other similar parties, claim that the revolutionary masses, adivasis, peasants and other working people, would be peaceful, would peacefully submit to be killed and expelled, but are only instigated by “outsiders”, by “naxalite agitators” who “commit acts of terrorism” and “establish sway over villages and villagers” by terror.
According to CPI (Marxist), the revolutionary masses who oppose the corporations “stand against developmental work… They use explosives and guns to prevent development from happening.” (CPI (Marxist), ‘Maoism’: An Exercise in Anarchism)
So is it any wonder that the masses, and adivasis in particular, turn away from parties like CPI (Marxist)? Such statements and policies objectively put the revisionists on the side of the fascists and corporations, and against the people.
Some of the other parties calling themselves communist, take slightly different stances. CPI (ML) Liberation calls for the revolution and struggle to end, and thus supports the government, but, possibly to try to maintain some credibility as a leftist party, it has also condemned the murder of comrade Basavaraj. Some revisionist parties claim to condemn the government’s fascist policies, for example calling for the arrest and trial, but not the murder, of revolutionaries.
The government also occasionally represses revisionists, just like it represses even some bourgeois politicians, activists and journalists. This is why it is particularly laughable, when reformists and renegades call for the revolutionaries to stop the fight, stop the armed struggle, surrender to the tender mercies of the fascist state, and become a “legal parliamentary party” and “join the political mainstream”. Such an option does not exist.
The revolutionaries are outlawed by the state, because they oppose the corporations. The only way to become legalized and “mainstream” would be to support the corporations, support the eviction of adivasis, the stealing of land from the peasants etc., and stop all serious criticism of the government, like some reformists do. Otherwise, they face repression. Even non-CPI (Maoist) and non-communist people face fascist repression constantly.
Just recently, a case emerged of student activists being illegally kidnapped and tortured by the police. Only a widespread protest by the local masses saved them. Maktoob media reports:
“The Campaign Against State Repression (CASR), in a statement, expressed grave concern and strong condemnation of the recent and ongoing “wave of illegal abductions, enforced disappearances, and custodial torture of democratic activists in Delhi and surrounding areas.”…
“They are calling them Urban Naxals and a case is being registered against them. [the activist] Baadal’s father was made to sign a paper where the police had asked them never to enter Delhi. This is a clear violation of their dignity. Not only that, the police also used communal slurs against Muslims,” one of Baadal’s close friends told Maktoob. “While in custody, the activists were subjected to torture… stripped naked, beaten, electrocuted, and subjected to degrading treatment” etc. (https://maktoobmedia.com/india/student-activists-illegally-detained-for-a-week-tortured-by-delhi-police-allege-rights-collective/)
Lenin emphasized the bourgeoisie has a lot of experience in governing and oppressing the people. The state knows very well what they are doing. They allow reformists to operate, because the reformists serve them. They persecute most fiercely, those who threaten them.
After the CPI (Maoist) was dealt severe losses, the state and the police were able to find rightist elements inside the party, and with threats, has “persuaded” them to collaborate with the police denounce the struggle, call for surrender, and make similar arguments to those of the reformists. These traitors work with the police and the state, and information provided by traitors, has led to the murder of revolutionaries, including comrade Hidma. The party has denounced these traitors, who have the blood of revolutionaries on their hands.
We have seen these tactics being used throughout history:
In the German revolution of 1919, the right-wing social-democrats, particularly Noske, helped the state murder the revolutionary leaders Luxemburg and Liebknecht. Later they falsified documents, trying to prove that Luxemburg was against Lenin.
In the Finnish class war of 1918, the right-wing Tanner group collaborated with the White Guards, and as a result, they were given legal rights to operate in the Finnish state, while communists were persecuted. The Tanner group tried to persuade the workers “it was wrong to fight, the revolution was a tragedy”.
It is a common tactic of the exploiting classes, to kill the left-wing revolutionaries, and letting the rightists live and hopefully gain control of the movement. Finnish history is full of such cases. The renegade Arvo Tuominen went free, but every communist around him either turned out to be a police agent, or was arrested. As is known, in 1939 he began openly collaborating with the Finnish state, trying to persuade communists to turn into traitors.
Communists have always most firmly denounced such treason, and we must do so now too, regarding the right-wing liquidator group in India.
The revolutionaries and masses need our solidarity, even moral support is important to them, telling them we admire their courage, that they are a beacon of light in this imperialist darkness. This is not a matter only for communists, and certainly not for any specific communist tendency, but for all progressive and democratic people. We should all protest against the Indian fascist regime, because it represses all the people and all the minorities, not only “naxalites” or communists. This is also a struggle for basic democratic rights, which we as communists also must support.
Lenin said:
“It would be a fundamental mistake to suppose that the struggle for democracy can divert the proletariat from the socialist revolution, or obscure, or overshadow it, etc. On the contrary, just as socialism cannot be victorious unless it introduces complete democracy, so the proletariat will be unable to prepare for victory over the bourgeoisie unless it wages a many-sided, consistent and revolutionary struggle for democracy.” (Lenin, The Socialist Revolution and the Right of Nations to Self-Determination)
As Lenin taught, for the revolution, the communists must organize all the masses against “any and every manifestation of police tyranny and autocratic outrage, not only in connection with the economic struggle…”
Lenin continues:
“The rural superintendents and the flogging of peasants, the corruption of the officials and the police treatment of the “common people” in the cities, the fight against the famine-stricken and the suppression of the popular striving towards enlightenment and knowledge, the extortion of taxes and the persecution of the religious sects, the humiliating treatment of soldiers and the barrack methods in the treatment of the students and liberal intellectuals – do all these and a thousand other similar manifestations of tyranny, though not directly connected with the “economic” struggle, represent, in general, less “widely applicable” means and occasions for political agitation and for drawing the masses into the political struggle? The very opposite is true.” (Lenin, What is to be done?)
The struggle is unimaginably hard, the ground is covered with the blood of heroes, but the masses will keep fighting, and the communists don’t fear death, the revolution will win in the end!
