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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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of Naxalite

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

Example Sentences

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See Examples For:

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

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 ● Mar. 16, 2019

Later, she declined to attend the screening of a new documentary about the Naxalite guerrillas, preferring to work on her novel.

From New York Times ● Mar. 5, 2014

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

She mentioned seeing him in the march on the way to Cochin and the rumors that he was or had been a Naxalite.

From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy

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