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Podcast: New Books in South Asian Studies
Episode: Nandini Sundar, "The Burning Forest: India's War In Bastar" (Verso, 2016)
Description: The Burning Forest: India's War Against the Maoists (Verso, 2016) by Nandini Sundar is an empathetic, moving account of what drives indigenous peasants to support armed struggle despite severe state repression, including lives lost, homes and communities destroyed.Over the past decade, the heavily forested,mineral-rich region of Bastar in central India has emerged as one of the most militarized sites in the country. The government calls the Maoist insurgency the âbiggest security threatâ to India. In 2005, a state-sponsored vigilante movement, the Salwa Judum, burnt hundreds of villages, driving their inhabitants into state-controlled camps, drawing on counterinsurgency techniques develope...