SUMMARY
The Republic of India gained its independence in 1947, after being under the control of the British Empire since the mid-19th century. However, just before independence, vast swathes of what had been British India were carved out to establish the independent state of Pakistan. India became a republic in 1950, and since its independence, it has been a country hosting various religions, ethnicities, and tribal groups. The inclusion of many identities with varying aspirations into the Indian Union has triggered a variety of armed conflicts over the years. It has especially been the case in India's northeast, where rebel groups based mainly on tribal communities have fought the government in Assam, Tripura, Nagaland, and Manipur. The Indian government has also fought Sikh insurgents over Punjab/Khalistan and various insurgent groups over Kashmir, which is also claimed by Pakistan. Concerning government power, the Indian government has been confronted by several communist groups, such as the MCC, PWG, and CPI-Maoist. The country has also suffered from two interstate conflicts; one with Pakistan and another with China. While the violent engagements between India and Pakistan over Kashmir have been a frequent occurrence, the border conflict between India and China had not led to any fatalities since 1975 when clashes turned deadly in 2020. The conflict between the Government of India and Government of Pakistan have been inactive after a casefire agreement signed in February 2021. However, the conflict became active in May 2025, after 4 days of largescale military operations along the Line of Control (LoC).
Since 1989, India has experienced the interstate, intrastate, non-state, and one-sided categories of organized violence, as defined by UCDP.
2025
In 2025, India saw a slight increase in fatalities from organized violence, mainly driven by the intensified state-based violence. The rise was specifically seen ín the conflict between the Government of India and CPI-Maoist, as well as the renewed violence in the conflict between the Government of India and Government of Pakistan. Additionally, India experienced similar levels as in 2024 regarding both one-sided and non-state violence.
The most intense conflict in India in 2025 was between the Government of India and CPI-Maoist, accounting for more than half of the year’s total fatalities. This marked a notable escalation compared to previous years, with more violence recorded in more than a decade. The increase was partly driven by the Government of India intensifying its campaign against “Left-Wing Extremism”, with a stated goal of eradicating it by March 2026. India also saw renewed violence in the border region between Government of India and Government of Pakistan, breaking the ceasefire agreement from 2021 and making the conflict active again. The majority of this interstate violence occurred between May 6-10, and was sparked by an attack on 22th of April against mainly civilians that India later blamed on Pakistan-based groups.
Constant Violence
India has suffered constant violence, with two main peaks in the number of fatalities during the post-1989 period. The first peak was in fact a three-year long plateau between 1990 and 1992, when the annual death toll never fell below 3700. One of these years – 1990 – stands out as the year with the highest number of deaths during the entire post-1989 period. In 1990, India was hit by a combination of an escalating state based conflict in Punjab and a large-scale non-state conflict between Hindus and Muslims, which played out across the country. The highly factionalized Sikh movement shared the joint goal of the secession of Punjab from India and the creation of a separate state of Khalistan ("Land of the Pure"). The conflict became active in 1983 and displayed significant violence during its duration. In 1990, the Sikh insurgents regained much of the territory and influence won by the Indian government during the preceding years. In response, the government launched a massive counter-insurgency operation, and violence escalated to unprecedented levels. While both the Sikh insurgents and the government engaged in one-sided violence against civilians in the context of the Sikh insurgency, fatalities from one-sided violence attributed to Sikh insurgents were particularly high throughout the active years of Sikh insurgency.
The non-state conflict between Hindus and Muslims has sporadically turned violent ever since India’s independence, albeit with varying intensity. The sectarian antagonism between Muslim and Hindu communities dates back to the pre-Partition era, rooted in the Mughal/Islamic conquest of the Indian subcontinent during the Middle Ages. The antagonism grew further when Muslim leaders demanded a separate independent state, something that eventually led to the violent partition of British India in 1947. The politicization of this sectarian antagonism has further aggravated the tension between the two groups. In 1990, the Hindu-Muslim conflict was centered on the prolonged Ayodhya-Babri Masjid dispute. The town Ayodhya carries religious significance among Hindus as it is believed to be the birthplace of Ram, a Hindu god. The Babri Masjid mosque was built by a Mughal emperor after allegedly demolishing a Hindu temple in Ayodhya. The violence intensified after a police firing killed some Hindu radicals who had climbed the mosque intending to destroy it. The conflict spread to more than 13 states in which Bihar bore the brunt of the fatalities.
While the following two years saw a slight de-escalation in the overall level of violence, it remained at a very high level. Furthermore, when disaggregated, it is clear that the state based conflict in Punjab did in fact escalate after 1990, causing a vast majority of the fatalities during 1991-1992. As the Sikh militants controlled weapons and territory, the Indian government aggressively continued its massive counter-insurgency operations in Punjab. In addition to the Sikh insurgency, the Hindu-Muslim violence continued, albeit on a much smaller scale than in 1990. The demolition of Babri Masjid on 6 December 1992 caused communal riots that spread across several states, with particularly intense violence in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra.
While the separatists in Punjab were defeated in 1993, another state based conflict - the one fought over the status of Kashmir - intensified during the 1990s and escalated into war in 2000 and 2002. This corresponds to the second and third peak in fatalities from organized violence observed in the country. The Kashmir insurgency has its origin in its disputed accession to India during the 1947’s partition of the Indian subcontinent. The Kashmir insurgents dismiss the legitimacy of India's claim to the territory and share the desire for Kashmir’s secession from India. Violent attacks on government targets in July 1988 marked the onset of the Kashmir insurgency, and since then, it has remained one of the most protracted issues confronting India. In addition, one-sided violence perpetrated by Kashmir insurgents reached its all-time highest in 2000.
The organized violence continued at a significant level in India post the 2002 peak, but there were no major shifts in its intensity. As during almost the entire time-period, state based armed conflict continued to cause a majority of fatalities. While the violence in Kashmir deescalated from 2006, after reaching the intensity of war for four successive years, state based conflict remained significant due to the formation of the CPI-Maoist, a communist rebel group challenging the government in a conflict over government power. Formed in 2004 through the merger of two prominent communist rebel groups, PWG and MCC, CPI-Maoist went on to consolidate its hold on large rural areas in several states of India such as Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh. The Maoist insurgency intensified and reached its peak in 2010. The organized violence deescalated post-2010 and has remained lower than in previous decades. Nevertheless, the conflicts with Kashmir insurgents and CPI-Maoist, as well as the interstate conflict with Pakistan, have continued to prove fatal.
Pre-1989 Conflicts
India witnessed three interstate conflicts and seven intrastate conflicts prior to 1989. The interstate ones were both border conflicts, pitting India against Pakistan and China respectively. The conflicts with Pakistan over Kashmir flared up in intervals, for example, in 1948, 1965, and 1971, when the conflict reached the intensity of war. The border conflict with China was less intense, reaching the level of war only in 1962. India was also involved in an interstate conflict with the state of Hyderabad, which did not wish to join the Indian Union but was forcefully incorporated after an armed conflict in 1948. Hyderabad itself experienced an intrastate conflict over government power in 1947–1948, before being incorporated into India.
In the context of intrastate conflicts, the Indian government fought Sikh insurgents, communist groups, and tribal separatist groups even before 1989. The onset of the armed conflict between the Sikh insurgents and the Government of India dates back to 1983, as previously mentioned. The Indian government likewise fought communist armed groups, namely the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Communist Party of India – Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML), and the People Liberation Army (PLA). Other intrastate conflicts concerned tribal separatist groups such as the Mizo Nationalist Front (MNF), Naga Nationalist Council (NNC), and Tripura National Volunteers (TNV), in Northeast India.
