Most of us many times heard words like "Naxalist", "Maoist", "Naxalism", "Maoism" etc.I was very curious to know abouth this. "Why our people fights with our own people ?"This question always comes in a mind whenevr I read something about Naxals or Maoist.Fortunately I got this book which resolved all my querries.Those people who also wants to know about Naxals, which is termed as biggest internal security theft for our country, should read this book.Author has written it in very simple way and short.This book doesnt explain what is Maoism or Naxalism, it tells how this movement is started and increased during last 50 years.We/Govt of India wont be able to win this battle by killing Maoist Guerrillas, we have to win their hearts, because they are simple adivasis, our people not enemies. Although this is a bit whitewashed, one-sided account of Maoism in India, the plight of the peasants and adivasis described that cause them to turn into naxal-sympathisers and the appalling statistics are by no means exaggerated. Quite an insightful book. It was heartwarming to read about people like Kobad and Anuradha Ghandy and about the efforts of naxalites wrt literacy, women empowerment and secularism. Throughout, I kept wondering why the government won't prioritize the development of these areas over annihilating naxals. I still don't support naxal ideology but I can understand why they felt choiceless and took up arms and violence in order to be heard. I keep wondering that while one government after other keeps coming, plauding themselves for all the progress they've made happen, the human development indices stay glued to the abysmal levels. Reports every now and then in national and international forums keep appearing telling of all the horrifying figures wrt health and life standards of indian population. The disparities between the rich and the poor keep worsening exponentially. Rarely are there policies like NREGA devised and even when they are, it's even rarer to see them implemented effectively(Always leads me to question what is even the use of having the most intelligent brains sifted and chosen through exams like IAS if these people can't even come up with more good policies to pass on to the lawmakers!) The exploitation by public servants is a commonplace no-surprise-there. The army and police oppression in Kashmir, NorthEast, Red Corridor zones is nothing we don't keep hearing. Unemployment is a monstrously large deterrent towards our *shining* India. Even after more than 66 years of independence we have a large chunk of India that does not have schools, hospitals, electricity, FOOD! Farmers keep suiciding in areas like Telangana and vidarbha and in shameful numbers. And YET, alongside such headlines what I read about is how a pea-brained politico made an insensitive comment to incite communal riots, or some other brickhead very proudly declared something hateful to advantage his political ambitions going on with their demagogues rather than doing any actual work of significance! That our beloved MLAs and MPs never show their faces or give a damn about their constituencies after their wins is an over-cliched FACT. I might be sounding like a naive person, who is thinking things too simplistically, but i'm not asking for utopia, nor are those naxalites. And this is what I fail to comprehend every time. Why can't our policy makers make sure that the welfare of people is ACTUALLY taken care of so that they don't HAVE TO resort to violence! Exactly as has been said in this book, you can kill the naxalites but you can't finish off the revolution because to tackle that the govt has to first tackle the injustice rampant throughout the country! Just thinking you're magnanimous because you revised the poverty line to a still-mocking ₹47 for urban and ₹32 for rural areas is just plain tragic. I had a very heated debate with a friend, not long ago, over whether India is the most stable and the most progressing among new democracies. He showed me stats after stats of how India fared better than Brazil, Pakistan, even US when it came to per capita debt, rapes, crime, etc etc. But i'm sorry to say, mere wikipedia figures can't have me convinced tgat India is a developing heaven COMPARATIVELY, when you only have to look around you to see how much of the *rising bharat* it is. I don't have to go visit the worst poverty-stricken areas. Just the villages and urban backward areas in Delhi, Haryana(one of the most prosperous states of India) are enough to see how pathetic the situations are!
What do You think about Hello Bastar (2011)?
true inside story of the maoist movement. it was like reading the history of the maoist.
—swampdonkey729
A poignant tale of a little known conflict
—yanezm
