Chakravarti is no Naipaul in non-fiction, but he doesn't have to be. When the story you tell is explosive, all you have to do is be subtle. Red Sun, Travels in a Naxalite Country is part travelogue, part history, part journalistic and mostly an attempt to understand the roots, causes, effects and future of Maoism in India.
On his journey Chakravarti travels to places as diverse as Dandakaranya in Chattisgarh and Manipal in Karnataka to Naxalbari in Bengal. He meets adminstrators, police, naxals, NGOs and tries to understand the reality that faces India. Naxalism is recognized today as one of the most serious internal threats to the Indian state, a perception which was articulated by none other than the PM, in his speech on 14th April, 2006.
While the Mumbai attacks and terrorism occupy the public debate in urban areas and media circles, the Government of India is conceding the administrative responsibilities in rural areas to such "para-state actors" as Maoists.
In Hyderabad, Chakravarti tell us that the famed Hi-tech City is surrounded by Naxal infested districts about 100 kms away. In a fit of anger he presents a dystopia of India where we are fragmented into city-state corridors, which are islands of prosperity in a sea of poverty. It might be an extreme view, but one that is not entirely misplaced.
Naipaul called India the land of a million mutinies. India's problem is not the existence of competing ideologies, they have always been there. But with its new found prosperity, India has emboldened many of these ideologies with resources and disenchantment at being left out. God save India if this Maoist problem is not addressed.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
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