1920s - Formation of Communist party of India (CPI)

1947 - India achieves independence

1948 - Telangana Struggle in Andhra Pradesh, later seen as the earliest manifestation of the Maoist Naxalite Movement

1957 - General Election in which CPI emerges as largest opposition party

1964 - CPI (Marxist) forms as a result of an ideological rift in the CPI

1967 - CPI (Marxist) uprising in Naxalbari village in northwest Bengal, in response to the takeover of tribal land, gives the Maoists their popular name of Naxalites

1969 - Leaders of the Naxalbari uprising form the CPI (Marxist-Leninist), advocating the Naxalite ideology and promoting armed revolution

Early 1970s - The Naxalbari movement reaches a peak with the creation of guerrilla zones stretching from West Bengal to Bihar to Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh

1972 - Naxalite leader Charu Maazumdar dies in police custody

Mid to late 1970s - Naxalites fade as a result of major government crackdowns, loss of support from China after Mao's death, and multiple internal rifts

1980 - People's War Group (PWG) is founded, an armed peasant Naxalite movement advocating revolution in the Indian countryside

1987 - PWG kidnaps group of senior bureaucrats, a turning point in its history. It demands a communist state in Andhra Pradesh and neighbouring states

1998 - PWG merges with the CPI (Marxist-Leninist Party Unity) to form the CPI (Marxist-Leninist) People's War, active in the state of Bihar

2002 - Maoist insurgency claims 623 lives

2003 - Insurgency claims 339 lives

2004
Jun - In Andhra Pradesh, Maoists begin peace negotiations with government, which declares six-month ceasefire
Sep - Communist Party of India (Maoist) forms as a merger of the two major Maoist formations, the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) People's War

2005 - Insurgency claims 892 lives
Jan - Andhra Pradesh peace talks fail
Jun - Salwa Judum movement is launched in response to insurgency in Chhattisgarh
Sep - First meeting of the Standing Committee of Chief Ministers of the Naxalite-affected States of India in New Delhi
Oct - Government decides to place more troops along border with Nepal after Maoist rebels on both sides say they will work together

2006
Apr - Manmohan Singh, India's prime minister, holds a review of the country's counterinsurgency plans after a surge in violence

2007
June - Maoists call a two-day strike in their strongholds of east and central India to protest against special economic zones (SEZs). Insurgents blow up a railway station in West Bengal.