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An Unfinished Revolution: A Hostage Crisis, Adivasi Resistance and the Naxal Movement
On 14 March 2012, two Italian nationals, Paolo Bosusco and Claudio Colangelo, were taken hostage from the tribal-dominated Kandhamal area of Odisha, in eastern India. The kidnappers belonged to the extreme left- wing radical group known as the CPI (Maoists). They were led by Sabyasachi Panda who had been involved in several militant activities since 1999.
What followed was a dramatic month-long crisis in which a crew of television journalists engaged with the Maoist leader and facilitated the release of Claudio.
An Unfinished Revolution: A Hostage Crisis, Adivasi Resistance and the Naxal Movement is a racy, first-hand account that tells the tale of the hostages, from abduction to release. It also chronicles the history of tribal resistance which was appropriated by the Maoists — a movement that has been one of India’s major internal security challenges since the late 1960s.
What followed was a dramatic month-long crisis in which a crew of television journalists engaged with the Maoist leader and facilitated the release of Claudio.
An Unfinished Revolution: A Hostage Crisis, Adivasi Resistance and the Naxal Movement is a racy, first-hand account that tells the tale of the hostages, from abduction to release. It also chronicles the history of tribal resistance which was appropriated by the Maoists — a movement that has been one of India’s major internal security challenges since the late 1960s.
191 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 5, 2017
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September 14, 2018
A nice, little hostage drama
The material is ripe with Hollywood potential. As I read the book, I could imagine a European film producer already working on the project, an Oscar-bait film a la Captain Phillips. The key ingredients are all there — an abducted Italian tourist (who also happens to be great family man), a misunderstood revolutionary (a role tailor-made for Irrfan Khan) and a heroic TV journalist (you could probably hire Rajkummar Rao) who braved the hostile Odisha jungles for the sake of the story and ended up rescuing the great Italian family man.
The book itself offers great clues for an engaging screenplay, where two narratives (or five) could be intercut — the Italian’s love for India and its tribal people; his abduction by a Maoist faction in the interiors of Kandhamal, the home of the Kondhs and the hotbed of Naxalite activities; the journalist’s race to get the story first; the reaction of the family in Italy; government manoeuvrings; the Italian’s experience with the armed militants; the journalist’s foolhardy adventure to meet the militant leader, and finally, a happy ending, back in Rome. As the screen fades to black, you could put up some texts with figures, about the Maoist movement in the heartlands of India, which no one will read.
What’s more, it is based on real events.
An Unfinished Revolution indeed tells a true story. On 14 March 2012, two Italian nationals, Paolo Bosusco and Claudio Colangelo, were taken hostage the CPI (Maoists), led by Sabyasachi Panda, who had been involved in several militant activities since 1999. What followed was a dramatic month-long crisis in which a crew of television journalists engaged with the Maoist leader and facilitated the release of Claudio.
The author Kishalay Bhattacharjee led the TV crew and appears in the book in the form of first person narrative, not that we get to learn more about him (we are not even told which TV station he worked for; for technical reasons, I am sure). Starting at medias res, on 23 March, we get a breathless account of the TV crew’s journey into the deep forest to meet the militants. What Bhattacharjee describes is the stuff of adventures (though he tries his best to describe the reality of the situation, the state of the tribal villages and how the Maoists are using the locals to serve their agenda, we mostly stick with the city-bred TV crew and their troubles in the hostile terrain).
Then we shift gear and confront Claudio Colangelo, who narrates his own story, in first person. Claudio loves India — everything about it. In short, he is the epitome of a white tourist. He loves photographing tribals, the reason, the Maoists said, he was abducted. Despite his best intentions, you realise, he is eroticising India (‘What I had seen only in books earlier was now right in front of me – tattooed faces of Kui Kondh women,’ he says), but we will let it slid, as he is the protagonist of this tale. Instead, we will focus on his troubles, like he is not getting a proper bath and, his grudging empathy for his captors.
Then we shift gear again and meet Elena Frova, Claudio’s son’s girlfriend who works in a TV station. Again told in first person, we get the details of the goings-on in Roma, post the kidnap, but not before Elena’s detailed account of her vacation with her boyfriend.
And suddenly, we return to Bhattacharjee’s reporter persona as he concludes the sordid tale and gives us a personal, ringside commentary on the socio-political cultural history of Kandhamal, the Kondhs and Maoist occupation. These last 50-odd pages of the book are the most interesting and illuminating and ironically, they are also the most extraneous to the narrative at hand.
Bhattacharjee’s narrative of the kidnap drama is detailed and adequate, but as you finish the book you wonder what was it all about. Despite employing the gimmick of first-person narratives, the book, to my utter surprise, fails to find a cohesive centre. I was trying to find the answer, why this retelling now? How does it shed lights to the still on-going Maoist issues? What is the unfinished revolution? I was surprised because Bhattacharjee has previously done two critically acclaimed book on similar subjects — Che in Paona Bazaar and Blood on My Hands.
I believe the fault lies with the narrative technique employed. While we get first-hand accounts of the major players, we get close to nothing about the Maoist point-of-view. The militants are clearly the villain of the piece and they are treated thus. So apart from outside perspectives about how and why the local tribal youths, both men and women, are joining the militants, and how the militants are running their alternative government in the jungle, we don’t get to see them as flesh and blood characters, the way we get to see even a minor character like Elena three-dimensionally.
Granted, the book contains long passages containing two pointed interview with the leader of the kidnappers, one with the TV person, other with Claudio. In both cases, the conversations get into the quagmire of politically ideology to reveal real depth. I’m ready to concede that it was not possible for the author to get an interview with the militant, as he did with Claudio and Elena. Still, this lack of a perspective leaves a bad taste.
Then again, the focus of the book, despite what the title says, is Claudio Colangelo’s kidnapping and eventual return, and in this, the book scores.
The review was first published in Sakal Times, Pune.
The material is ripe with Hollywood potential. As I read the book, I could imagine a European film producer already working on the project, an Oscar-bait film a la Captain Phillips. The key ingredients are all there — an abducted Italian tourist (who also happens to be great family man), a misunderstood revolutionary (a role tailor-made for Irrfan Khan) and a heroic TV journalist (you could probably hire Rajkummar Rao) who braved the hostile Odisha jungles for the sake of the story and ended up rescuing the great Italian family man.
The book itself offers great clues for an engaging screenplay, where two narratives (or five) could be intercut — the Italian’s love for India and its tribal people; his abduction by a Maoist faction in the interiors of Kandhamal, the home of the Kondhs and the hotbed of Naxalite activities; the journalist’s race to get the story first; the reaction of the family in Italy; government manoeuvrings; the Italian’s experience with the armed militants; the journalist’s foolhardy adventure to meet the militant leader, and finally, a happy ending, back in Rome. As the screen fades to black, you could put up some texts with figures, about the Maoist movement in the heartlands of India, which no one will read.
What’s more, it is based on real events.
An Unfinished Revolution indeed tells a true story. On 14 March 2012, two Italian nationals, Paolo Bosusco and Claudio Colangelo, were taken hostage the CPI (Maoists), led by Sabyasachi Panda, who had been involved in several militant activities since 1999. What followed was a dramatic month-long crisis in which a crew of television journalists engaged with the Maoist leader and facilitated the release of Claudio.
The author Kishalay Bhattacharjee led the TV crew and appears in the book in the form of first person narrative, not that we get to learn more about him (we are not even told which TV station he worked for; for technical reasons, I am sure). Starting at medias res, on 23 March, we get a breathless account of the TV crew’s journey into the deep forest to meet the militants. What Bhattacharjee describes is the stuff of adventures (though he tries his best to describe the reality of the situation, the state of the tribal villages and how the Maoists are using the locals to serve their agenda, we mostly stick with the city-bred TV crew and their troubles in the hostile terrain).
Then we shift gear and confront Claudio Colangelo, who narrates his own story, in first person. Claudio loves India — everything about it. In short, he is the epitome of a white tourist. He loves photographing tribals, the reason, the Maoists said, he was abducted. Despite his best intentions, you realise, he is eroticising India (‘What I had seen only in books earlier was now right in front of me – tattooed faces of Kui Kondh women,’ he says), but we will let it slid, as he is the protagonist of this tale. Instead, we will focus on his troubles, like he is not getting a proper bath and, his grudging empathy for his captors.
Then we shift gear again and meet Elena Frova, Claudio’s son’s girlfriend who works in a TV station. Again told in first person, we get the details of the goings-on in Roma, post the kidnap, but not before Elena’s detailed account of her vacation with her boyfriend.
And suddenly, we return to Bhattacharjee’s reporter persona as he concludes the sordid tale and gives us a personal, ringside commentary on the socio-political cultural history of Kandhamal, the Kondhs and Maoist occupation. These last 50-odd pages of the book are the most interesting and illuminating and ironically, they are also the most extraneous to the narrative at hand.
Bhattacharjee’s narrative of the kidnap drama is detailed and adequate, but as you finish the book you wonder what was it all about. Despite employing the gimmick of first-person narratives, the book, to my utter surprise, fails to find a cohesive centre. I was trying to find the answer, why this retelling now? How does it shed lights to the still on-going Maoist issues? What is the unfinished revolution? I was surprised because Bhattacharjee has previously done two critically acclaimed book on similar subjects — Che in Paona Bazaar and Blood on My Hands.
I believe the fault lies with the narrative technique employed. While we get first-hand accounts of the major players, we get close to nothing about the Maoist point-of-view. The militants are clearly the villain of the piece and they are treated thus. So apart from outside perspectives about how and why the local tribal youths, both men and women, are joining the militants, and how the militants are running their alternative government in the jungle, we don’t get to see them as flesh and blood characters, the way we get to see even a minor character like Elena three-dimensionally.
Granted, the book contains long passages containing two pointed interview with the leader of the kidnappers, one with the TV person, other with Claudio. In both cases, the conversations get into the quagmire of politically ideology to reveal real depth. I’m ready to concede that it was not possible for the author to get an interview with the militant, as he did with Claudio and Elena. Still, this lack of a perspective leaves a bad taste.
Then again, the focus of the book, despite what the title says, is Claudio Colangelo’s kidnapping and eventual return, and in this, the book scores.
The review was first published in Sakal Times, Pune.
Displaying 1 of 1 review