Hello Bastar (The Untold Story of India's Maoist Movement)

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Hello Bastar is the inside story of the current maoist movement in India. 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 status 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 guerrillas 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 Ganpathi, 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.

Hello, Bastar is the story of : how the idea of creating a guerilla base in bastar came up what the rebels who entered dandakaranya had to deal with the jagtial movement that created the ground for the maoist movement the first squad member who died for revolution how Maoists and their guerrilla squads function their goals, recruitment, party structure and funding their 'urban agenda' for cities like delhi, Mumbai, Chennai their relationship with people and peoples' movements maoist supremo ganapathi and other top leaders

About the Author

Rahul Pandita is a senior special correspondent with the open magazine. He is the co-author of the critically acclaimed book on insurgency: The Absent State. He has extensively reported from conflict zones ranging form Bastar to Baghdad.

Author's Note

For the convenience of readers, the terms 'Naxal' and 'Maoist' are used interchangeably throughout this book. This is common practice in the media and even the police. In fact, the Maoists too use both terms to define themselves. But the fact is that the current Maoist movement is bigger than the original Naxal movement in terms of its reach and strength. The Maoists have moved leaps ahead of their predecessors who were a part of the Naxalbari movement from where the word 'Naxalite' was coined. In that sense, the current 'Naxalites' are more 'Maoist' than Naxal.

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