‘Dimagi Naxal’: When Mind Becomes Site of Suspicion

17/08/2026

NewsClick / by Shirin Akhter

After 79 years of Independence, a democracy should not be asking its citizens to fear the independent mind.
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Naxalism has a specific political history. Its name derives from the 1967 uprising in Naxalbari in West Bengal and the Maoist political movements that subsequently emerged. For decades, the Naxalite was associated primarily with armed revolutionary politics.
Then came the term, “Urban Naxal”.
The expression acquired wider political currency particularly around 2018, when activists, lawyers and intellectuals were arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case. The political category began travelling beyond those accused of participation in armed insurgency.
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Opposition says PM Modi’s ‘dimagi Naxals’ remark shows he is ‘rattled’

16/08/2026

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

Prime Minister Narendra Modi describing his opponents as “dimagi Naxals”, or persons with “Naxal mentality”, was a “sure sign of his desperation”, said the Congress on Saturday.
“It is a separate matter that he ends up doing whatever these so-called ‘urban Naxals’ or now ‘dimaagi Naxals’ are demanding or advocating,” said party leader Jairam Ramesh.
The term “urban Naxals” was first used by Union ministers and leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party after several activists and academics were arrested in the Elgar Parishad case in 2018. Since then, the term has often been used to describe some dissidents of the Narendra Modi government.
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Also read:
▪ Modi’s 13th Red Fort Speech Revealed a Leader Who Has Lost His Mojo (The Wire / Aug 2026)
▪ PM Modi calls for ‘dimagi Naxals’ to be ‘found and isolated’ in his Independence Day speech (Scroll.in / Aug 2026)
▪ McCarthyism in INDIA?: The Return of The Urban Naxal Bogey! (The Crossbill / Jul 2024)
▪ Amit Shah Tells CRPF to Act ‘Sternly’ Against ‘Urban Naxals’ (The Wire / Nov 2019)
▪ From ‘tukde tukde gang’ to ‘urban Naxal’: How media trials enable the government to stifle dissent (Scroll.in / Sep 2018)
▪ From Anti-National to Urban Naxal: The Trajectory of Dissent in India – How the term Urban Naxal came to being (Newsclick / Sep 2018)