the two factions of the Party adhered to differing strands of communism prior to their 2004 merger, although "both organizations shared their belief in the 'annihilation of class enemies' and in extreme violence as a means to secure organizational goals." The People's War Group (PWG) maintained a Marxist-Leninist stance while the MCC took a Maoist stance. After the merger, the PWG secretary of Andhra Pradesh announced that the newly formed CPI-Maoist would follow Marxism-Leninism-Maoism as its "ideological basis guiding its thinking in all spheres of its activities." Included in this ideology is a commitment to "protracted armed struggle" to undermine and to seize power from the state.[2]
The ideology of the merged group is contained in a "Party Programme." In the document, the Maoists denounce globalization as a war on the people by market fundamentalists and the caste system as a form of social oppression.[16]
The Communist Party of India (Maoist) claim that they are conducting a "people's war", a strategic approach developed by Mao Zedong during the guerrilla warfare phase of the Communist Party of China. Their eventual objective is to install a "people’s government" via a New Democratic Revolution.
The party also views Islamist militancy as a struggle towards national liberation against imperialism, rather than as a clash of civilizations, and condones it as having parallel goals to the group's own. In the words of deputy leader Koteshwar Rao, or Kishanji: "The Islamic upsurge should not be opposed, as it is basically anti-US and anti-imperialist in nature. We, therefore, want it to grow."[16] Although it is an extreme left wing political organisation it considers the democratic left parties in India as "class enemies" and has killed some of their supporters in the western part of West Bengal.
