Nightmarch: Among India's Revolutionary Guerrillas - Rilegato

Shah, Alpa

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 1849049904 ISBN 13: 9781849049900

Casa editrice: C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd, 2018

Riassunto

In one of the world's most intractable and under-reported rebellions, the Naxalites have been engaged in a decades-long battle with the Indian state. Presented in the media as a deadly terrorist group, the movement is made up of Marxist ideologues and lower-caste and tribal combatants who seek to overthrow a system that has abused them. In 2010, anthropologist Alpa Shah embarked on a seven-night trek with some of these communist guerrillas, walking 250 kilometres through the dense, hilly forests of eastern India. Speaking to leaders and living for years with villagers in guerrilla strongholds, Shah seeks to understand how and why some of India's poor have shunned the world's largest democracy and taken up arms to fight for a fairer society--and asks whether they might be undermining their own aims. Nightmarch is a compelling reflection on dispossession and conflict at the heart of contemporary India.

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Recensione:

'One of the most nuanced, informed accounts yet of this strange and awful conflict. ... a considered, sympathetic and balanced analysis.' -- The Guardian

'I've enormously enjoyed and admired Alpa Shah's careful, rich, sympathetic account of the Maoist insurgency in India . . . a brave and necessary work'. -- Neel Mukherjee, New Statesman Books of the Year, 2018

'[Alpa Shah] treats the groups she is living with as equal social and political beings ... The result is a powerful synthesis, warm but never uncritical, a distillation of her own scholarship and the experiences of her subjects, that immerses the reader in a lifeworld.' -- New Left Review

'An astonishing journey. A rare, granular portrait.' -- The Indian Express

'A thoughtful and balanced account.' -- The Stampa

'Simultaneously a major contribution to scholarship and at the same time written to entice a wider readership to care about the poor and their insurgent politics.' -- Journal of Peasant Studies 'A subtle and moving portrait . . . Shah combines powerful first-hand description as gripping as any novel with analysis which understands the rebel's motivations and backgrounds without ever falling into simplistic political binaries.' -- History Workshop, Radical Books of the Year 2018

'Shah's brilliant, careful research and writing is not meant to be an apologia for her subject. It's quite the opposite. . . . a book that dwells on the electrifyingly complex battle between ideas and experience.' -- The Voice of Fashion

'Powerful, emotional and painstakingly detailed analysis . . . a rare insight. . . the book is engrossing and its characters will haunt you.' -- The Hindu

'[A] vibrant piece of anthropological work ... written in a way that provides food for thought and, at the same time, moves hearts, this book is an example of the unique contribution anthropologists can bring to understanding the world we live in.' -- Public Anthropologist Blog

'An eloquent and compassionate account of revolutionaries whose voices are rarely heard. Shah skilfully analyses the individual motivations for the Naxalites' radical commitment, their failures, and the deep history of exploitation and neglect that has provoked their struggle for liberation.' -- David Lan, theatre producer and author of Guns and Rain

'Bold and courageous, humane and sensitive, Nightmarch is an excellent illustration of how to take ethnography beyond the confines of the academic world.' --Virginius Xaxa, author of State, Society and Tribes: Issues in Post-Colonial India

'A story that could not be more important, told with the perfect balance of clear-eyed realism, thoughtful criticism, and deep and abiding love. Shah brings the Indian forests to life, from the terrors and intimate details of daily existence to the visions of the future that move rebels to risk everything. Nightmarch reveals what anthropology can do in the hands of a master willing to take genuine risks in the name of human freedom.' -- David Graeber, author of 'Bullshit Jobs' and 'Debt: The First 5000 Years'

'Compassionate, courageous and uncommonly observant. This is an extraordinary work of rigorous, reflective and deeply engaged scholarship, full of unexpected insights. At the same time, it manages to be haunting, lyrical, occasionally harrowing, even racy--more compelling than some of the best fiction writing.' -- Harsh Mander, human rights worker and author of 'Fatal Accidents of Birth', 'Looking Away' and 'Ash in the Belly'

'One of the most gripping, engaging and accessible books I've encountered on the Naxalites. Shah fearlessly bears witness to the upheavals caused by India's rising inequalities, while also asking many urgent, difficult questions. She addresses head-on the guerrillas' zero-tolerance policy towards informers, their tenuous relationship with mining corporations, their dogmatic political philosophy and their blind faith in the future of the armed struggle. ' -- Meena Kandasamy, author of 'When I Hit You'

'An eloquent and compassionate account of revolutionaries whose voices are rarely heard. Shah skilfully analyses the individual motivations for the Naxalites' radical commitment, their failures, and the deep history of exploitation and neglect that has provoked their struggle for liberation.' -- David Lan, theatre producer and author of 'Guns and Rain'

'Brave, brilliant and beautifully written, Nightmarch is an anthropological tour de force. Shah portrays the Naxalites' revolutionary dedication with love, respect and analytical acumen, while laying bare the tragic contradictions of their armed struggle.' -- Philippe Bourgois, author of 'In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio' and 'Righteous Dopefiend'

'Nightmarch is outstanding, combining ethnographic depth with almost cinematic vividness. From an extraordinary inside perspective, Shah reveals a complex interplay among the Naxalites of political ideals, cultural values, personal attachments, and the lure of money.' -- Sherry B. Ortner, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, UCLA

'Riveting, finely textured, and acutely perceptive, Nightmarch captures both the Naxalite insurgency's contradictions and its human promise against the background of the crippling indignities and exclusions of Indian society. It is a model of what ethnography can offer.' --James C. Scott, author of 'Against the Grain'

'An admirable example of serious social science writing, this book exhibits the potential of ethnographic research with a comparative angle -- grounded and accessible, yet still theoretically rich.' -- Surinder S. Jodhka, Professor of Sociology, Jawaharlal Nehru University

'Intimate and insightful. Shah elucidates why Adivasis become Naxalites. . . brings out several contradictions in the Naxalite movement; breaks stereotypes. . . and asks one vital question: Is the Naxalite movement doing good for the Adivasis?' -- Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, author of The Adivasi Will Not Dance

''Intimate and insightful. Shah elucidates why Adivasis become Naxalites ... brings out several contradictions in the Naxalite movement; breaks stereotypes ... and asks one vital question: Is the Naxalite movement doing good for the Adivasis?' -- Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, author of The Adivasi Will Not Dance

' 'Bold and courageous, humane and sensitive, Nightmarch is an excellent illustration of how to take ethnography beyond the confines of the academic world.' -- Virginius Xaxa, author of State, Society and Tribes: Issues in Post-Colonial India

'It is hard to imagine a work of social science as a page-turner that you cannot put down. But this intrepid author has produced that rare find: . . . a beautifully written and absorbing book that disturbs, moves and educates the reader all at once.' --Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University

L'autore:

Alpa Shah was raised in Nairobi, studied at Cambridge and completed her PhD at the LSE, where she now teaches anthropology. She is the author of 'In the Shadows of the State' and a co-author of 'Ground Down by Growth'. She presented the radio documentary India s Red Belt for BBC Radio 4 s 'Crossing Continents'.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd
• Data di pubblicazione: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1849049904
• ISBN 13: 9781849049900
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 256