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Hello Bastar

Hello Bastar

The Untold Story of India's Maoist Movement

Rahul Pandita
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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 states 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 guerillas 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 Ganapathi, 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.

Imprint: India Viking

Published: Oct/2022

ISBN: 9780670097302

Length : 224 Pages

MRP : ₹599.00

Hello Bastar

The Untold Story of India's Maoist Movement

Rahul Pandita

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 states 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 guerillas 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 Ganapathi, 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.

Buying Options
Paperback / Hardback

Rahul Pandita

Rahul Pandita is a journalist and an author based in Delhi. He is a 2015 Yale World Fellow. He has also authored The Lover Boy of Bahawalpur: How the Pulwama Case was Cracked, Hello, Bastar: The Untold Story of India's Maoist Movement and co-authored The Absent State. He has extensively reported from war zones, including Iraq and Sri Lanka. In 2010, he was awarded the International Red Cross Award for conflict reporting.


Rahul is also the co-writer of Vidhu Vinod Chopra's 2020 film, Shikara.

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