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A note on July 1, the 15th martyrdom anniversary of CPI (Maoist) spokesperson ‘Azad’.
See here for the statement from Sanhati in July 2010
Cherukuri Rajkumar, better known by his nom de guerre Azad (meaning “free”), was a revolutionary thinker of India’s Maoist movement.
Born in 1952 into a wealthy landlord family in Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh, Rajkumar was, even as a child, deeply sensitive to social inequality and exploitation. During his college years, he was drawn to Marxism-Leninism and profoundly influenced by the Naxalbari uprising (1967) and China’s Cultural Revolution.
In the 1970s, while studying at Andhra University in Visakhapatnam, he became active in student politics. In 1978, he was elected leader of the Radical Students Union (RSU), an organization inspired by Naxalite ideals. Around this time, he became affiliated with the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) or CPI(ML).
In 1980, Rajkumar went underground and joined the CPI(ML) People’s War Group, which later merged into the Communist Party of India (Maoist). Over time, he emerged as a key member of the party’s Central Committee and Politburo. Although he wasn’t a combatant in the armed struggle, he became widely known as the party’s spokesperson, strategist, and ideological leader.
Azad played a pivotal role in organizing the Maoist movement in southern India, especially in Karnataka and Maharashtra. He made significant contributions to the party’s propaganda, policy formulation, and strategic planning. After the CPI(Maoist) was formed in 2004, he served as its principal public spokesperson, maintaining dialogue with the press and with intellectual circles.
He strongly defended the Maoist strategy of “People’s War” and described the Indian state as “semi-colonial and semi-feudal.” He believed that only through armed revolution could a truly liberated, exploitation-free society be achieved.
On July 1, 2010, Azad was killed in the forests of Adilabad district, Andhra Pradesh, in what police described as an “encounter.” The Maoists, however, claimed that he was extrajudicially executed. His death was a major blow to the CPI(Maoist), as he was considered one of the party’s most intellectual and diplomatic figures.
Azad was also a prolific writer and speaker. His works, such as “Maoist Party and Revolutionary Violence” and “India: The State and Revolution”, are regarded as foundational texts of the Maoist movement in India.
Though the Maoist movement remains a subject of intense debate, Azad was respected for his unwavering stance against imperialism, capitalism, and state repression. After his death, many leftist intellectuals remembered him as the “theoretical architect of the People’s War.”
Azad was not merely a guerrilla leader—he was a thinker, organizer, and revolutionary diplomat. His life and work remain a crucial chapter in the history of India’s Maoist struggle. To the state, he was a “terrorist”; to his followers, he was a selfless soldier of liberation.
