Nightmarch: A Journey Into India’s Naxal Heartland

01 December, 2018

Alpa Shah

Alpa Shah, a professor of anthropology at the London School of Economics, undertook a week-long march with a guerrilla platoon across 250 kilometres of the country’s Naxal-affected areas in 2010, just as the government was stepping up its counter-insurgency operations. Her research reveals how and why people from very different backgrounds come together to take up arms to change the world, but also what makes them fall apart. Shah’s immersion into the daily lives of the tribal communities in a Naxal stronghold results in a compelling book that is a reflection on economic growth, rising inequality, dispossession and conflict in contemporary India.

HarperCollins India, 352 pages, Rs 699