Review: Hello Bastar

review 

Hello, Bastar - The Untold Story of India's Maoist Movement
Rahul Pandita
Tranquebar Press
200pp
Rs 250
ISBN 9789380658346
Paperback

About the book 
With direct access to the top Maoist leadership, Rahul Pandita provides an authoritative account of how a handful of men and women, who believed in the idea of revolution, entered Bastar in Central India in 1980
and created a powerful movement that New Delhi now terms as India’s biggest internal security threat. It traces the circumstances due to which the Maoist movement entrenched itself in about 10 states of India, carrying out deadly attacks against the Indian establishment in the name of the poor and the marginalised. It offers rare insight into the lives of Maoist guerillas and also of the Adivasi tribals living in the Red zone. Based on extensive on-ground reportage and exhaustive interviews with Maoist leaders including their supreme commander Ganapathi, Kobad Ghandy and others who are jailed or have been killed in police encounters, this book is a combination of firsthand storytelling and intrepid analysis.

Reviews
Full review here DNA

A significant chapter in India’s history is the peasant uprising in Naxalbari in the late sixties spawned by CPM leaders Kanu Sanyal and Charu Mazumdar, who became disillusioned with parliamentary political processes.

The Naxalite movement itself was ruthlessly crushed but its ideology proved to be a hydra, springing various people’s movements and struggles, such as the CPI-ML (Liberation), CPI-ML (New Democracy), the MCC or PW. Loosely labelled as Maoists, these various factions — active in the in the jungles of Andhra Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand and West Bengal — have become what the Indian state calls its gravest internal security threat.

Who make up the Maoist leaders and cadres? What is their alternate vision of development? How do they continue to exert a powerful influence on Adivasis, Dalits and the disenfranchised?

This is a subject that has scarcely been touched upon in mainstream publishing. The entry of a book like Hello Bastar therefore raises great expectations. Unfortunately, promises are belied.

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Full review here India Today blogs

Who's written this book? Was my first question after I finished reading Hello, Bastar in one straight sitting. Hard-hitting, well researched and penned with a lot of passion, this book has all the ingredients of a fictional socio-political thriller; ambition, deceit, love, revenge and nationalism, except that it's not.

Hello, Bastar is supposed to be a journalistic account from the ground of how the Maoist movement has become the biggest headache for the central government and despite flashes of brilliant writing and insightful analysis; the book fails on a critical factor.

So who's written this book? The introductory page tells me that it's a journalist, Rahul Pandita, Senior Special Correspondent with national magazine; but the hundred and ninety pages that follow, show Pandita donning the role of an activist than an impartial reporter stating facts as they are and letting the reader come to his own conclusions. Pandita loves his subject and has given amazing details on the growth, finance and functioning of the Naxals – It's a book that should be made compulsory reading in the Home Ministry, but the author's sympathy makes him lose focus of his journalistic neutrality.

For an effective counter-insurgency strategy

Of the three internal conflicts rocking India, the one involving Left Wing Extremism (LWE) tops the other two — witnessed in Kashmir and the North-Eastern region — in terms of the number of lives lost and the geographical spread.

The rapid spread of the LWE in central India and the ever increasing military capabilities of the members of the People's Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA) — the fighting force of the CPI (Maoist) — have forced security analysts to recognise the need for reassessing the capabilities of the security forces drafted for counter-insurgency operations.

The state's counter-strategy has predominantly been militaristic, as evidenced by the heavy deployment of security personnel for the purpose. The causes of Maoist insurgency, which require to be tackled by galvanising civil administration, received only cursory attention.

Full review here Hindu 

Untold story of India's Maoist movement

The untold story of the Maoists in Bastar Rahul Pandita's book, 'Hello, Bastar' tells the untold story of India's Maoist movement. With direct access to the top Maoist leadership, the author gives us a graphic account of how the radical Reds entered Bastar in 1980 and set up their elaborate network there. He speaks with Jyoti Sharma on how the book came about and more.

Why Hello, Bastar?
Being an independent citizen of India, it is my right to write on issues I want to write about. Hello, Bastar is the story of the Maoist guerillas who entered the region for the first time in 1980. This area has since become the nerve centre of the entire Maoist movement.

How and when did you start working on this project?
I have been working on the subject for about 12 years. New Delhi now calls the Maoist movement as India's biggest internal security threat. I felt many people are confused about this. For a middle-class person in Delhi or Mumbai, there is no difference between a terrorist killed on the Line of Control and a naxal killed in the jungles of Bastar. I think this book will ensure that there is a difference.

Full interview here Times of India 

A multi-layered perspective

The Absent State:
Insurgency as an Excuse
 for Misgovernance
Neelesh Misra, Rahul Pandita
Hachette; Rs 495; Pp 350

The challenge by naxalites in a third of the country (affecting 231 out of 636 districts) is India’s biggest internal security threat today. Does the Maoist movement shape popular resistance to the state’s power or does the movement use people’s struggles to bid for state power? Scholarly and activist accounts reflect two points of view. One view sees Maoists as being neither peasants nor workers nor tribals (Dilip Simeon), but who claim to represent their interests. Alternatively, the movement is seen as a rebellion of the people who are striving to save their land, forests, water and minerals from being grabbed and establish a people’s democratic state under the leadership of the proletariat(Gautam Navlakha). Led by the Communist Party of India (Maoist)—which was banned under the UAPA Act in June 2009—the armed insurgency has become a key challenge for the Indian state.

Neelesh Misra and Rahul Pandita’s The Absent State: Insurgency as an Excuse for Misgovernance has the virtue of reflecting both points of view by providing us with a rich, multi-layered perspective on the Naxal insurgency (comprising the bulk of the book). They tell a story of misgovernance, of an absent state, of the loss of perspective (where it is easy to be labeled a traitor or a terrorist), of security personnel fighting an impossible battle for their own survival, and of fading hopes for local democracy. Their style —which is highly readable and accessible to an uninformed audience—effectively high- lights a Roshomon-like picture of the insurgency—the state’s view, the Naxal cadre’s view, and the villager’s view—and the complex relationship between the absent state, the growing power of the insurgents, and the impact on the everyday lives of the citizens in those areas.

Full review here Financial Express

The Trickledown Revolution

The law locks up the hapless felon
who steals the goose from off the common,
but lets the greater felon loose
who steals the common from the goose.
                                                             -- Anonymous, England, 1821

In the early morning hours of the 2nd of July 2010, in the remote forests of Adilabad, the Andhra Pradesh State Police fired a bullet into the chest of a man called Cherukuri Rajkumar, known to his comrades as Azad. Azad was a member of the Polit Bureau of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), and had been nominated by his party as its chief negotiator for the proposed peace talks with the Government of India. Why did the police fire at point-blank range and leave those telltale burn marks, when they could so easily have covered their tracks? Was it a mistake or was it a message?

They killed a second person that morning—Hem Chandra Pandey, a young journalist who was traveling with Azad when he was apprehended. Why did they kill him? Was it to make sure no eyewitness remained alive to tell the tale? Or was it just whimsy?

Full report here Dawn

'I'm a maverick, can't mediate between Govt and Maoists'

Noted author Arundhati Roy has suggested that a committee of experienced people should be formed to mediate between the Maoists and government but ruled out being a part of it, saying she does not have the "skills" required to be a mediator. "Not really. I would not like to be (a mediator or part of people's committee to mediate between government and Maoists). I don't think I have those skills," she told CNN-IBN's Devil's Advocate programme.

"I don't know. I don't think (that) I would be good at it you know. I am a maverick.....I'll try. I don't know how to think about it," she said.

The author was asked whether she would be prepared to be a mediator or a part of any committee formed to mediate between the Maoists and the government.

Full report here Hindustan Times

Ceasefire urgently needed for peace talks: Arundhati

Noted author and Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy on Sunday said a " ceasefire from both sides" ( Maoists and security forces) was "absolutely urgent" for peace talks and the process should involve a group of experienced people who could mediate between the government and the Naxals.

Stating that the government's stand of asking Maoists to abjure violence did not have any meaning when operations against them were going on, Roy said she thought it was absolutely urgent that there should be an "unconditional" ceasefire from both sides.

She, however, ruled out being a part of peace talks, saying she did not have the "skills" required to be a mediator. "I would not like to be (a mediator or part of people's committee to mediate between government and Maoists). I don't think I have those skills... I don't think I am good at it. I am a maverick... I'll try. I don't know how to think about it," Roy told a TV channel in an interview on Sunday, Sep 12.

Full report here Times of India 

'A convergence of interests'

Maoists form only the most militant end of a spectrum of tribal resistance movements, says writer and activist Arundhati Roy. In an emailed interview with Sanjib K Baruah, the Booker Prize-winning author says non-tribal leaders have helped these movements retain a link with the rest of the country, and "development", as envisaged by the government, is not the answer to their woes.Excerpts:

Does India appropriately recognise the traditional rights of the indigenous people?
India has behaved with tribal people like a colonial power. It has disenfranchised them, made them squatters on their own land and criminalised their way of life. They were criminals by default then. They're terrorists now.

Are we at present seeing a tribal upsurge or a Maoist struggle?
Both. Tribal resistance in central India predated Mao by centuries. However today, right now, we are seeing a convergence of interests of Maoist ideology and tribal resistance. A huge majority, maybe more than 90 per cent of the Maoist cadre, is made up of tribal people.

But the Maoists are only one part of the insurrection. They do not represent all tribals, or all resistance movements. They do not even claim to. The character of the current rebellion is diverse, not homogeneous. That diversity is what gives it its strength.

Unlike the Maoists, I don't think that tribal people are fighting to overthrow the Indian state. They don't know what the Indian state is. They are fighting to preserve their homelands, to not be displaced, to not have their mountains and forests and rivers devastated by "development".

The Maoist party's goals are different. The tribal areas are where they hope to consolidate their military strength and launch their revolution. But though they have different goals, different worldviews, different ideas about what development means, they all know they are ranged against the same corporate juggernaut.

Full interview here Hindustan Times

Government uninterested in peace: Arundhati Roy

The recent killing of top Maoist leader Azad was an indication that the Government did not want peace, said renowned writer and activist Arundhati Roy in Hyderabad on July 13.

“Azad was a crucial link to the Government through Swami Agnivesh.

Before killing him, the police must have got the clearance from the higher authorities in government,” she said, delivering the lecture on on “Globalisation and Human Rights” at the University of Hyderabad. Roy felt that the government was no more being run by political parties but by corporate capital. “In Chhattisgarh, the government is under the influence of the Tatas, Jindal, Essar, etc., and rides roughshod over the tribals. The situation there is such that if tribal folk do not join the Salwa Judum, they are branded Maoists. Even farmers are not spared...” On Operation Green Hunt, she said: “The government wants to drive away the Adivasis and give away their lands to big corporates. The bauxite found on tribal lands is worth more than $ 4 trillion. With so much money at stake, anyone can be bought.” Globalisation, said Roy, had been the cause of frequent violation of human rights across the country.

Full report here New Indian Express  

Maoists star in books, movies

They have been called India's biggest enemy, but Maoist rebels are also the unlikely subjects of a recent rash of movies and books that some say are romanticising the rebels and their cause.

The four-decade-old Maoist insurgency and its effect on the common man are the focus of a new Bollywood film Red Alert, which tells the story of a poor labourer who gets caught in the fight between the rebels and law-enforcement agencies. The labourer, played by popular actor Suniel Shetty, joins the rebels first as a cook and then receives weapons training before he gets disillusioned and finds leaving them is not easy.

The film, which releases in India on Friday, features well-known actors Naseeruddin Shah, Sameera Reddy and Gulshan Grover and is based, the promotions say, on a real life story, "culled straight from today's torrid headlines". "Every line is something that has actually been said by those involved with the struggle, whether it is police officers, villagers or Maoists themselves," director Ananth Mahadevan said.

The film does not take a stand, Mahadevan said, it only highlights the conflict facing the poor who have few choices. "My film is neither for the cause nor against it. I am merely reporting facts as they are. This is not a black and white situation, and as even the home minister has admitted, this is a developmental problem, and my film reflects that," he said.

The Maoist movement, which Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described as India's biggest security threat, is active in a third of the country, largely in poor, rural areas.

Full report here Reuters 

Arundhati blames Centre for Naxal attack

Writer and Naxal sympathiser Arundhati Roy condemned Monday's attack by Naxals on a civilian bus in which at least 41 people were killed but blamed the government for exposing the tribals to the threat by rebels.

"Media reports say that the Maoists have deliberately targeted and killed civilians in Dantewada. If this is true, it is absolutely inexcuseable and cannot be justified on any count. However, sections of the mainstream media have often been biased and incorrect in their reportage. Some accounts suggest that apart from SPOs and police, the other passengers in the bus were mainly those who had applied to be recruited as SPOs. We will have to wait for more information. If there were indeed civilians in the bus, it is irresponsible of the government to expose them to harm in a war zone by allowing police and SPOs (carriers of the mantle of all the crimes of Salwa Judum) to use public transport," said Arundhati.

Full report here IBNLive

In India, sympathy could be a thought-crime

Legendary writer Mahasweta Devi has challenged Union home minister P Chidambaram to arrest her and put her in jail for 10 years, in response to the Centre’s newfound enthusiasm for using the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, to arrest Maoist ‘sympathisers’. One must sympathise with the home minister for being humiliated by a gutsy 84-year-old woman.

Yet sympathy is a thought-crime thanks to the UAPA, which says: ‘Any person who commits the offence of supporting a terrorist organisation with inter alia intention to further the activities of such terrorist organisations would be liable to be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years or with fine or with both.’

The key point seems to be ‘intention to further the activities’ of the Maoists. So the question that must be asked is, has anyone furthered the activities of the Maoist more than the state with its exploitative economic policies and its counter-insurgency tactics? What is more useful to the Maoists, a writ petition filed by activists for the Adivasis, or a security apparatus that terrorises the population on mere suspicion and suppresses dissent and civil society?

Full report here New Indian Express

Guerrillas in the mist

At the height of the first Naxal movement, reflections of the revolution could be seen in the works of writers from Kerala, Bengal, Andhra and other “affected” states. Some romanced the gun, some romanced the revolutionaries; some were fiercely anguished works that are still read, if only in the college library.

It is unwise to expect the conflicts of the day to draw an immediate response from writers, but the Maoist conflict in India over the last few years has begun to leave its mark on writing in English. You may or may not be among the ranks of Naipaul believers, but give him credit for his sharp instincts.

In 2004, four years before Red Sun, Sudeep Chakravarti’s non-fiction exploration of Salwa Judum and the Maoists, was published, Naipaul came out with Magic Seeds, in which his protagonist Willie Chandran joins a revolutionary movement in India. Like C P Surendran’s 2006 Iron Harvest, Magic Seeds illustrates the pitfalls of writing about revolution. Ideological debates seldom make for strong plot points, and it requires the cynical eye of a Graham Greene to turn calls to the barricades into good writing. Naipaul flourished his own brand of cynicism: “Murders of class enemies — which now meant only peasants with a little too much land — were required now, to balance the successes of the police.” But if Iron Harvest was imbued with an excess of revolutionary fervour and disillusionment, Magic Seeds exuded listlessness.

Full report here Business Standard

REVIEW: Jangalnama

REVIEW

Jangalnama: Travels in a Maoist Guerrilla Zone
Satnam
Penguin
Rs.250
Pp 206
ISBN: 9780143414452
Paperback

Blurb
The profound insights offered in Jangalnama are the result of Satnam’s close observation of the guerillas and adivasis of Bastar.—Varavara Rao

Maoist guerillas—always on the move, always on guard—living deep in the jungles of Bastar. Outlawed, demonized and hunted by the state, they are perceived with fear, incomprehension and terror by the outside world.

Satnam spent two months in remarkable intimacy with the guerrillas: travelling with them, sharing their food and shelter, experiencing their lives first hand. Through his up-close and personal account of their daily lives, we register them as human, made of flesh and bone. We are persuaded to appreciate their commitment to root out oppression.

Jangalnama is not merely a travelogue recording Satnam’s days in the jungle. It is a compelling argument to recognize the humanity of those in conflict with the mainstream of Indian society and to acknowledge their dream of a world free of exploitation.

Review
Racy eye-opener of a book on the Maoist movement Little About
Why Bastar's tribals harbour Maoists?

This is undoubtedly India's answer to "Red Star Over China", the epoch-making story of what the then obscure Mao was up to in China's rural areas at the head of a nascent Communist party that eventually took power in 1949. When American Edgar Snow came out with the classic of a book, the world sat up and took notice.

The Indian Maoists of Bastar are of course not an unknown commodity. Yet there has been no account of what they are doing in the huge, forested land of poverty amid plenty known as Bastar, a story as exhaustive and moving as this racy eye-opener of a book.

Unlike most books on Indian Maoism, this one does not dabble in ideology, party documents and polemics. Like Snow did decades ago, Satnam, a committed Leftwing writer-activist from Punjab, focuses on the impoverished people and the revolutionaries he meets in Bastar. He spent two months in the forests, living with his subjects to study why Maoists are on the ascendency in the mineral-rich region where governments have existed only in the form of greedy contractors and corrupt policemen, leaving the mass of tribals to wallow in poverty, disease and illiteracy while outsiders strip away Bastar's minerals.

Start talks, stop Green Hunt: Arundhati Roy

Calling for talks between Maoists and the government, writer Arundhati Roy on Saturday, April 24 demanded an immediate ceasefire on both sides, formal halting of the combing operations and Operation Green Hunt, and resettling people who were rendered homeless in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district.

Ms. Roy also demanded that details of memoranda of undertaking signed between the government and mining industries, involving tribal regions, be made public.

She was speaking at a public meeting here on ‘Indian state's War on People and the Assault on Democratic Voices'.

It was organised by the Forum Against War on People, a forum of civil society organisations, parties, individuals and social activists.

Full report here Hindu

All that angers Arundhati

Can we leave the bauxite in the mountain?


Arundhati Roy, who recently visited Dantewada, understands that the tribals in the Maoist belt are angry. She gets very angry, too, talking about them. She piles up question on rhetorical question, one of which involves the bauxite.

But she has always beaten up language like cream till it has peaked. Or like metal, till it is sharp and can hit the enemy. Which for her is the state colluding with the interests of private business.

“I just want to underline that most people in this country are living in an undeclared emergency,” she declares at a news conference on Wednesday afternoon before addressing a public meeting on Operation Green Hunt, the UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) and joint force operations in Maoist areas.

Full report here Telegraph

Chhattisgarh probing complaint against Arundhati

The Chhattisgarh police confirmed that they were investigating a complaint filed against award-winning writer Arundhati Roy for violating the provisions of the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005 (CSPSA). As per the complaint filed by one Viswajit Mitra in Raipur, Ms. Roy's recent essay “Walking with the Comrades,” in which she travelled extensively with a Maoist company, came under the purview of the Act as the essay could be construed as intended to create support for the Maoists.

The essay was published in the March 29 2010 issue of Outlook, a weekly news magazine.

“I have filed the complaint as meeting with or engaging with an outlawed organisation is clearly forbidden by the CSPSA,” said Mitra, who describes himself as “an ordinary citizen.” “In such a sensitive time, the police should investigate.”

Full report here Hindu

Complaint filed against Arundhati Roy over essay

Amidst outrage over the brutal killing of 76 security personnel in Bastar, a social worker in Chhattisgarh has lodged a complaint with the police against renowned writer Arundhati Roy, alleging that her recently published 32 page essay “Walking with the comrades” has "glorified” the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) and sought to justify its activities.

The complainant, Vishwajit Mitra, has lodged a complaint at the Telibanda police station in the state capital, Raipur, pointing out that the essay—published in the March 29 issue of a weekly news magazine—its contents and photographs could come under the purview of an offence under Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act-2005. He has also sent complaints to the State Governor Shekhar Dutt, Chief Minister Raman Singh and Director General of Police Vishwaranjan, demanding legal action against Arundhati Roy, a Booker Prize winner.

Full report here Indian Express

Mahasweta stalls Suman, party frowns

For a change, Mamata Banerjee may not find Mahasweta Devi’s advice to Kabir Suman requesting him not to resign as MP too palatable.

The Trinamul Congress chief had made it clear to her aides at a meeting in Delhi yesterday that she would rather have the Jadavpur MP out of the party than let him cause further embarrassment.

Mahasweta sent a note to Suman last night urging him not to resign after the MP sent text messages to Mamata and party chief whip Sudip Bandopadhyay expressing his desire to quit both Parliament and party.

Today, the writer said: “Differences between Suman and Trinamul have strengthened the CPM’s hands. I will advise both Mamata and Suman to sit with me and thrash out their differences through dialogue for the greater cause of driving the CPM out of Bengal in 2011.”

Full report here Telegraph

'I don't know what the Maoists want but I can mediate'

Much of Mahasweta Devi 's writings are inspired by the tribals of Bengal and Bihar. Her work offers valuable documentation of these marginalized communities. The 84-year-old writer, who has won many awards, including the Magsaysay and the Jnanpith, is well-known for her strong opposition to the government's anti-Maoist operations. She tells Jayanta Gupta that she doesn't know the Maoists, but that as a writer with a social conscience, she is willing to mediate on the people's behalf. 

What went wrong in rural Bengal in order for outfits like the Maoists to gain a foothold? 
After what happened in the 70s, we welcomed the Left Front government in 1977. We expected them to deliver but they have not even done the bare minimum for the people. Even after so many years, a major part of rural Bengal does not have access to electricity or good roads. It only got worse and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was the last straw. Projects like the ICDS and Right to Food were complete failures.

Add to this the state-sponsored violence. There can be nothing more cruel that what took place in Nandigram. The victims told me how men who used to call them didi (elder sister), boudi (elder sister-in-law) and masi (aunt) took liberties at the behest of a certain political party. The police refused to register FIRs, leave alone arrest the criminals.

In West Midnapore, it was not only the tribals who were victims of torture. Everybody who is below the poverty line (BPL) has suffered — including Muslims and backward classes. The government handed over land in Salboni to the Jindal Group and received crores. How much of this was utilized for local development? There is a big scam in West Bengal regarding the distribution of ration cards. BPL families receive “above poverty line” cards while affluent ones hold BPL ones. After all this, does the government expect people to support them?

Full interview here Times of India