Many separatist outfits -- from Jammu and Kashmir to the northeast to Andhra Pradesh -- came to the negotiating table in 2004.

For the first time, naxalites in Andhra Pradesh held talks with the state leadership, headed by Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, in October. The top leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) People's War, which merged with the Maoist Communist Centre to form CPI-Maoist on the eve of the talks, emerged from underground after almost 20 years. The two sides discussed, among others, issues relating to land distribution.

Meanwhile, two top leaders of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) returned to Nagaland in December after a gap of 37 years. Before that, NSCN (I-M) chairman Isak Chishi Swu and general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah held a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, during which the PM 'approved of the Naga leaders' stand'. Further talks between the government and the NSCN will commence once Swu and Muivah, who are now in Nagaland, return to Delhi.

On the Jammu and Kasmir front, there was no major progress in the talks between the government and the All Parties Hurriyat Conference. During the later part of the year, the dialogue process hit a roadblock when APHC leaders demanded that they be allowed to visit Pakistan before sitting across the table with the Indian leadership. India said the APHC leaders could go to Pakistan provided they do so through the 'proper channels'.

Also read: Pak PM's bid to unite Hurriyat factions fails

Photographs: STR/AFP/Getty Images and DEVENDRA M SINGH/AFP/Getty Images