Hello Bastar: The Untold Story Of India’s Maoist M

With an afterword by jailed Maoist ideologue Kobad Ghandy Praise for Hello, Bastar "Rahul Pandita had done something unusual - He had studied the Maoist movement at ground level for more than a decade, growing ever more interested in the way it functioned, travelling through the remoter jungles of Central India for weeks on end and spending time with the tribal people." -- PATRICK FRENCH, British writer and historian. 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. 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 guerilla squads function Their goals, recruitment, party structure and funding Their ‘urban agenda’ for cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai Their relationship with people and peoples’ move- ments Maoist supremo Ganapathi and other top leaders Anuradha Ghandy’s journey from Bombay to Bastar