Sudeep Chakravarti on Maoism in India

Here’s a great clip from Sudeep Chakravati, journalist and author of Red Sun: Travels in Naxalite Country, speaking at the Crossword Book Awards 2008 (sorry… the video’s hosted at Rediff and I can’t seem to embed it).

Chakravati is one of the most astute (and accessible) observers of Naxalism in India. He has an admirable ability to humanise the story without obscuring the larger issues.  If there were more people of his calibre tracking the insurgency, perhaps the debate would be less polarised between those who see the Naxalites as mere terrorists and those who see them as virtuous revolutionaries. The truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Book Plug- Red Sun

Sudeep Chakravati is a Goa-based journalist who travelled across India speaking with Maoist fighters, poor villagers, sympathetic urban business men, and police and government officials. His account of the journey is a rich portrait of a movement which is clever and sophisticated and a government which often seems lethargic and outmaneuvered.

Written in an easy, narrative/journalistic style, Red Sun: Travels in Naxalite Country is an engaging and informative read.  It’s the single best book on Naxalism that I know of. Buy it.