India, May 22 -- On 21 May, news broke that security forces had killed 26 members of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) in an operation in the forests of Abhujhmad, Chhattisgarh. Among those killed was Nambala Keshava Rao, alias Basavaraju, the general secretary and topmost leader of the CPI (Maoist).

Basavaraju's killing in an encounter came just four days short of marking 58 years since another police action that led to what is now known as the Naxalbari uprising in India. On 25 May 1967, the police opened fire on a group of villagers who had killed a police inspector after looting arms and grains from local landlords in the Naxalbari block of West Bengal. Naxalbari and Naxalites would later become the Indian moniker for Ma...