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Of travels not so light
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With “Red Sun”, journalist-author Sudeep Chakravarti hopes to take urban India into the realities of the Naxalite country
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Photo: V.V. Krishnan
honest conclusions Sudeep Chakravarti in New Delhi
His method of research is journalistic, at times academic. But his conclusions are that of a man on the street with reason by his side. Simple yet logical.
Goa-based journalist-author Sudeep Chakravarti, in his recently released Penguin/Viking book, “Red Sun —Travels in Naxalite Country”, gives a string of statistical reports, governmental policies, their fall-out, street conversations and planned and impromptu interviews – with policemen, Maoists, affected people, bureaucrats, development workers, refugee campers, and the like. Recreating in the course a canvas, long drawn and long overlooked. Bringing to the fore long-practiced “callousness, apathy, denial and absolute denigration” towards “those who are just seeking everyday rule of law and some semblance of justice.”
Educating middle class
“Unlike the Kashmir and the North East militants, the Maoists are not leading cessationist movements against India. Their demand has been roti, kapda, makaan,” points out the St. Stephen’s and Mayo College alumnus. Through this book, Chakravarti wants “to reach to educated urban middle class India which seems to have no time for the ‘other India’.” Civil society movements are progressively gaining momentum and this gives him hope. “Naxalites are active in 15 of the country’s 28 states. We can’t ignore it anymore,” he states.
Unable to ignore it himself, the author embarked on a journey through the Naxalite country, covering Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Haryana, Maharasthra, Bihar, Orissa among other ‘Red Sun’ eclipsed States. The book took two years to hit the stands.
Development being the key to the issue, Chakravarti says, “One is talking of some semblance of development here, let it not be equal growth as other areas.” An important pointer in this direction is his emphasis on the unequal urbanisation pattern. “The east and the centre of the country have been bypassed. These areas have thus become the main sources of cheap migrant labour for the large metropolitan cities.” Since they bring with them a sense of injustice and anger, “the danger lies for urban India too.” Reason enough for urban India to take note. “And do something.”
Blaming that the States’ wrong policies are adding to the crisis, he counts the Chhattisgarh Government’s Salwa Judum programme as the biggest blow. “It is a monster,” he states. Recounting a visit to a refugee camp under it, he talks of a fly-infested woman lying on the floor. “She seemed dead to me, and then I suddenly saw the flies fluttering away because she just moved a bit. The inhuman state of these camps choked me.” He feels, “The people living in these camps are trapped. They can’t go back to their village nor can they live a life of dignity in these camps.” Chakravarti says he knows that the Naxal movement is not free of politics. “So the ultimate sufferer becomes these people. This is the collateral damage.”
Hoping that the book catches attention, Chakravarti is holding on to his next tome. “I want to give a little gap. It will be a novel,” says the author of the critically acclaimed “Tin Fish”. Meanwhile, it is travel time yet again for him. This time, it is to the North East, to interview musicians for “Rolling Stone”. Chakravarti is the Editor-At-Large for the newly-launched Indian edition of this well-known international magazine.
SANGEETA BAROOAH PISHAROTY
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