India After Naxalbari: Unfinished History

The armed rebellion of poor peasants that began fifty years ago in Naxalbari, India, continues to this day. Bernard D'Mello sets out the story of its origins and uneven development, in historical context. The armed struggle lives on because the conditions that gave rise to it not only persist, but are yet more severe. To understand the present and future of India, this story is essential. And Bernard DMello's brilliant account has no equal.John Mage, International Lawyer Although the 1967 revolutionary armed peasant uprising in Naxalbari, at the foot of the Indian Himalayas, was brutally crushed, the insurgency gained new life elsewhere in India. In fact, this revolt has turned out to be the worlds longest-running peoples war, and Naxalbari has come to stand for the road to revolution in India. What has gone into the making of this protracted Maoist resistance? Bernard DMellos fascinating narrative answers this question by tracing the circumstances that gave rise to Indias 1968decade of revolutionary humanism and those that led to the triumph of the 1989 era of appallingly unequal growth condoned by Hindutva-nationalism, the Indian variant of Nazism. Will what remains of Indias continuing 1968 bring twenty-first-century New Democracy to the collective agenda? Or will the ongoing regression of 1989 lead the way to full-blown semi-fascism and sub-imperialism? India after Naxalbari is far more than a simple history of the ongoing Naxalite/Maoist resistance; it is a deeply passionate and informed work that not only captures the essence of modern Indian history but also tries to comprehend the present in the context of that history so that the oppressed can exercise their power to influence its shape and outcome. See more