This book focuses on the interface between democracy and violence, with specific reference to revolutionary strategies and mobilizations.
It explores the armed conflict in India’s ‘Red Corridor’, where Maoists have been employing militant-revolutionary strategies to implement an alternative model of development. It studies this model, the purpose of which is to ensure the inclusion of impoverished tribals considered dispensable by mainstream political parties.
Maoists feel that capture of State power is essential for revolution. State-sanctioned extra-judicial violence is common in the tribal belt—Maoists use strategies that challenge the State’s monopoly over the use of violence. Based on extensive field data, the chapters in this compilation discuss the everyday politics of Maoists and contemporary tribal society. Revolutionary violence is debated in the context of the limits of democracy and ineffective modes of governance.
Ajay Gudavarthy is Assistant Professor at the Centre for Political Studies of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. His published works include Re-framing Democracy and Agency in India: Interrogating Political Society (edited, 2012) and Politics of Post-civil Society: Contemporary History of Political Movements in India (SAGE Publications, New Delhi, 2013).
