'An engaging and original book that deserves to be widely read. PETER FRANKOPAN, author of The Silk Roads: A New History of the World

Shantanu Nandan Sharma's Rebel Bastar raises seminal questions about contemporary India:

• How did ideological extremism embed itself so deeply within tight-knit indigenous societies?

• What does the history of the Bastar tell us about governance, land rights and developmental failures?

• Above all, are we truly past Naxalism or does embers still burn in the dense forests of Central India?

IN MARCH 2026, THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA DECLARED THE MAOIST INSURGENCY AS EFFECTIVELY DEFEATED. THOUGH A QUESTION LINGERS STILL: WHY DID A FOREIGN IDEOLOGY FIND A HAVEN IN BASTAR FOR OVER FOUR DECADES TO BEGIN WITH?

Senior journalist and historian Shantanu Nandan Sharma takes readers into one of India's most misunderstood regions, a land where tribal uprisings, colonial extraction and administrative failure created the conditions for one of the world's longest-running insurgencies.

Drawing on years of ground reporting and rigorous historical research, Sharma traces Bastar's turbulent past from human sacrifices in Dantewada and British incursions into its forests for teak and minerals, to a beloved prince's tragic rebellion and the gradual rise of Naxal influence. The Maoist movement, he reveals, is not an aberration but the latest chapter in a centuries-old story of resistance against state power.

Rich in reportage and historical insight, this is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand internal security, democracy and dissent in modern India.