When Ambedkar Trounced Mao: The Collapse of the Indian Radical Left

by Karthick Ram Manoharan

Earlier this year, Indian author and intellectual celebrity Arundhati Roy made some strong statements about the Israel-Gaza conflict. Artists had a responsibility to speak, she opined. However, it was her silence on a cause in India for which she was for long considered a de facto spokesperson that landed heavily. As the six-decade-long insurgency led by the Communist Party of India-Maoist faces near elimination, Roy and many of the movement’s once vocal cheerleaders are circumspect.

2026 has been a bad year for communist parties in India in general. In the recently held state elections, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) faced a drubbing at the hands of the Indian National Congress in Kerala. In West Bengal, the Hindu Right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stormed to power, defeating the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and decimating the CPI-M in its remaining pockets of influence. West Bengal was once the stronghold of the CPI-M, a state known for its radical left thinkers who exercised an influence in academia disproportionate to their numbers. The victory of BJP has unsettled many, as post facto explanations are being written about the turn of events. How did this come to pass?

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