SUMMARY
The Communist Party of India – Marxist-Leninist: Peoples’ War Group, commonly referred to only as the Peoples’ War Group (PWG), was a rebel outfit fighting the government of India with the expressed goal of creating a communist state through the use of armed force. The group was founded in 1980 in Andra Pradesh state by Kondapalli Seetharamaiah, a former school teacher and an influential communist leader.
PWG was part of what is commonly referred to as the “Naxalite uprising”, a term used to encompass the armed struggle waged by a variety of communist groups against the Indian government. PWG split in 1980 from the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), when this organisation decided to participate in Indian elections. PWG did not believe in parliamentary democracy, but instead wished to create a “people’s government” through waging armed conflict. The inspiration for the groups doctrines stems from Mao Tse Tung’s teachings regarding peasant uprisings and the “people’s war”; slowly liberating pieces of rural land and encircling cities before the final victory. In fighting this “people’s war” PWG has also engaged in one-sided violence.
Claiming to be a mouthpiece for the landless and casteless PWG has recruited its cadres from the poorer strata of Indian society and amongst tribals. Historically, the group had its strongholds in the deeply polarized states of Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkand. Since the beginning of the uprising PWG extended its influence to even more Indian states, expanding also their own administrative structures to the “liberated zones”. The group is thought to have had approximately 1,000 fighting cadres and several thousand underground activists at its peak. A regular fighting force was, however, established only in the year 2000, under the name Peoples’ Guerilla Army (PGA). The group also maintained a number of front organisations and political groupings in the form of student organisations, workers’ unions, women’s organisations etc.
In terms of external support it is clear that PWG had active contacts with and support from armed communist groups in neighbouring countries such as Nepal and Bangladesh. It has also been alleged that links existed with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), but these allegations have not been independently verified. No foreign states are known to have supported this rebel outfit.
In 1998 PWG merged with a smaller communist group, the Communist Party of India - Marxist-Leninist (Party Unity) (CPI-ML Party Unity), but retained its original name. Yet another merger took place in October 2004, when PWG merged with the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) and created the Communist Party of India – Maoist (CPI - Maoist). PWG thus ceased to exist as an independent group in UCDP data. For more information on the CPI – Maoist actor, see the profile for that actor.
The initial leader of PWG was its founder, Kondapalli Seetharamaiah. He was later expelled from the group, and in 2001 Muppala Lakshman Rao (alias Ganapathi) was elected leader. He remained the leader of PWG up until its merger with MCC.
PWG has been involved in the intrastate and one-sided categories of UCDP organised violence.
