Rahul Pandita is an extra ordinary Journalist and a great story teller. To know the central India and Indian tribals one needs to read P. Sainath's 'Everybody loves a good drought' and 'Hello Bastar - The Untold Story Of India’s Maoist Movement' of Rahul Pandita. 'Hello Bastar' is a great work of investigative journalism and the good quality of this book is that it does not support Maoist cause but it details the facts, the shortcomings of neo-liberal India and abdication of responsibility by the state and Indian elite towards its poor people. This books talks about the history of Maoists movement in India starting from Telangana (1946-1951), Naxalbari and Midnapore (1967-69), Shrikakulam (1967-1970s), Telangana (1976-1980s), Dandakaranaya (1978-), Jangalmahal (2000s) and also tells in great details the modus operandi of Maoists and their leaders.
India has one of the largest concentration of Billionaires in the world, Brazil GDP is higher that of India but it has far lesser number of billionaires than India. India is a country where 10% of its people spends more money on petty IPL match than earned by a bottom 40% over a period of a month. India is a country where more than 47% of its under-5 children are underweight, stunted and wasted. India is a country where more than 33% of its females have lower BMI. India is a country where MMR (212 in 2010), IMR (47 in 2010) are pathetically low, India is a country where more than 30% of its population lives on less than 30 INR per capita per day (according to Planning Commission poverty line 2011).
My take on Maoism:
Inspite if these all shortcomings there is one thing unique about India, Indians in generals are tolerant and non-violent people and history tells us that Indian peasants and poor have revolted in far lesser numbers than anywhere else in the world. May be because of the fatalist nature of Indians or something else i dont know but precisely because of this quality extremism in any form can not succeed in India. The Right wing, Left wing, Liberal and Secular extremists can not succeed in India and they should understand this. Only grass-root level inclusive democracy can work in India.
No egalitarian society has ever been formed/sustained by violent means, history tells us that. USSR had been long dissolved, China is facing lot of distress, Cuba is slowly coming into Capitalist mould while North Korea lives in stone age. The downtrodden people of central India and other tribal areas can only prosper by implementing existing laws impartially and properly, by sharing the profits coming out as a result of exploitation of natural resources and by building schools, hospitals and handicraft industries in tribal areas, and to do that you dont need guns and bombs. Indian state is too big to fail and sooner the Maoists realize that better will for India and Indians.
Overall its a good book to understand the Maoists insurgency and state of the poor Dalits and tribals of India.
Highly recommended (9/10)
Highly recommended (9/10)
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