Naxalite

British  

/ 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

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Etymology

Origin of Naxalite

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

Example Sentences

India in the last two years stepped up its campaign against the last remnants of the Naxalite rebellion, named after the village in the Himalayan foothills where the Maoist-inspired insurgency began nearly six decades ago.

From Barron's • Mar. 30, 2026

Yet the so-called Naxalite rebellion now spreads across a “Red Corridor” in India’s east and south and affects a third of the country’s administrative districts.

From BusinessWeek • Dec. 5, 2011

Giridharadas wonders if the Naxalite was projecting the emotions of the old feudal fight into his critique of Google and Microsoft.

From New York Times • Jan. 9, 2011

And Charu Majumdar, the founder and chief theoretician of the Naxalite Movement.

From The Guardian • Mar. 27, 2010

And more recently, the inevitable rumor that he had become a Naxalite.

From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy