Nightmarch: Among India's Revolutionary Guerrillas

by Alpa Shah

Winner of the 2020 Association for Political and Legal Anthropology Book Prize Shortlisted for the Orwell PrizeShortlisted for the New India Foundation Book Prize   Anthropologist Alpa Shah found herself in an active platoon of Naxalites—one of the longest-running guerrilla insurgencies in the world. The only woman, and the only person without a weapon, she walked alongside the militants for seven nights across 150 miles of dense, hilly forests in eastern India. Nightmarch is the riveting story of Shah's journey, grounded in her years of living with India’s tribal people, an eye-opening exploration of the movement’s history and future and a powerful contemplation of how disadvantaged people fight back against unjust systems in today’s world.   The Naxalites have fought for a communist society for the past fifty years, caught in a conflict that has so far claimed at least forty thousand lives. Yet surprisingly little is known about these fighters in the West. Framed by the Indian state as a deadly terrorist group, the movement is actually made up of Marxist ideologues and lower-caste and tribal combatants, all of whom seek to overthrow a system that has abused them for decades. In Nightmarch, Shah shares some of their gritty untold here we meet a high-caste leader who spent almost thirty years underground, a young Adivasi foot soldier, and an Adivasi youth who defected. Speaking with them and living for years with villagers in guerrilla strongholds, Shah has sought to understand 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.   By shining a light on this largely ignored corner of the world, Shah raises important questions about the uncaring advance of capitalism and offers a compelling reflection on dispossession and conflict at the heart of contemporary India.

Genres: India, Nonfiction, Anthropology, History, Politics, Asia, Sociology

344 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 22, 2022

Reviews

[Eric Randolph · Rating 5 out of 5]

I literally tried to write this book once, so I know the extreme dedication required to pull off this level of first-hand insight, crucially not just into the Maoists but the tribes among which they operate, and it is also beautifully written, capturing the fiendish moral problem of revolutionary struggle: without it the tribes would be defenceless against the ruthless advance of a brutal police state bent on mowing the forests down for profit, yet fighting back creates it's own destructive dynamics.

[Harshita Gupta · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book, I read on Naxalites rebels and Maoist tribes in India, though I’ve read scores of articles and columns on Adivasi’s surrenders, encounters, and conflicts between them and the government. But I hardly understood, why the things were happening the way they happened. So, now you know, there was this peculiar interest in picking up this book.
In 2010, an anthropologist, Alpa Shah, was invited for taking interview of the most senior leader of the guerrilla army. This invitation extended to seven days long trek across the jungles from Bihar to Rajasthan, the central Indian areas of tribal and Adivasi people.
The author accounts the journey of her stay with the Naxalites and Maoist guerrillas revealing their daily struggles, their existence, and the complexities of their life. She also briefed out a little history that evoked Maoist revolution and insurgencies. She explains why Adivasis turn into Naxalites and talks about women in the Maoist groups, communist revolution, castes and tribal communities, and equality. She noted every minute detail of these revolutionaries and observed closely about their fight for their very survival.
Nightmarch is compelling and an outstanding account of Naxalites and Adivasi groups. This is the book you need to pick up to know and learn the struggles of Naxalites.
It is an important read which is gripping as well.

[Yoshita Sood · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's impossible make a list of everything I've learnt from this. From how it is casually expected of an anthropologist to know multiple languages, to how the Naxalites actually fund themselves, this is a goldmine of a book.

I have been trying to familiarise myself with the Maoist struggle in the forests of India but it was always tough to do so by reading academic papers. But this book made everything so easy to digest. Thrilling and informative at the same time, I cannot wait to read this again this year.

[ANURAG MISHRA · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nightmarch will make you inquisitive about the internal struggles of our dear Union of States : India....the struggle going on under the veil of development and counter-insurgency operations and how a struggle which began on the pretext of emancipation of the society from the deep rooted evils of gender bais, casteism, oppression of the downtrodden ultimately fell prey to the very traps it had joined hands against and got branded as "Naxalism". It gave me a jolt to know the contradictions within the movement itself and the stubbornness of the elitist leaders of the movement who have created a rigid hierarchy within the movement and several more fundamental weakness of the struggle which are proving to be termites for the proposed "safe house" of idealistic society built on the foundation of communist ideology.
Book also provides an insight into the lives of the Adivasis and their egalitarian society, imitation of which we in plains...can only dream of.
Nevertheless, book deserves a read.

[Ronita Banerjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Name- Nightmarch: A journey into India's Naxal Heartlands
Written By- Alpa Shah
Published By- HarperCollins
Pages- 326
Review-
There are certain books in this world that takes you places and fulfills the promise of a memorable experience.
Yet, those are the books that are toughest to review.
Nightmarch by Alpa Shah kept its promises. From the very first time I set my eyes upon this book I knew it would be a page turner and I felt ecstatic to be right about it.
From living with the revolutionaries to writing a book on the real life stories of the people who took the path of Maoism, Alpa chose a path which is actually less travelled by.
From the stories of unemployed youth who joins the rebellion to highly educated men who surprisingly chose this path of revolution. The only question arises is Why? Why these men who could have lead lavish lives and spend lumps of money, joined this struggle against the government jeopardising a secured future. The answers to these questions are beautifully weaved in the pages of this book.
The way the author stated facts about countries other than India where the ideals of Maoism are more popular to the most brutal means used by the Indian government to eradicate the Maoists from India and put a stop to this Naxalite movement deserves appreciation.
The condition of the Adivasi families which forced both the men and their women to pick up arms and join this revolution is depicted in a subtle yet note worthy manner.
The story of Gyanji, who left the comforts of his middle class family to join this movement and how he becomes the leader of a guerrilla platoon touched my heart.
Adding to this outstanding description are the images that Alpa, provided from her stay with the Maoists.
I would have love to see a day when books like these will not have to published as fictions. Alpa Shah did something really admirable and with Nightmarch she did made her journey and that of the thousand revolutionaries out there extraordinary.

[Bookishbong Moumita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being a Bengali and born and brought up with Bengali books , the Word "Naxal" isn't new . Our literature also has been effected by it.  I picked this book up with lots of expectation . Because I haven't read any english book on this topic. And yes this book don't make me feel like wasting time. As I share my thoughts with my mother my mother also found it interesting . But it was little difficult to put my words togather . The best part about the book is though it's a nonfiction it's fast paced . The pictures in the book have made it more interesting .

I want to give it 4/5

And I want to thanks the publisher for this amazing book.

[Max Mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nightmarch is a very accessible ethnography of the Naxalite movement, a maoist insurgency in india for over 50 years. She is able to explore the nuances and complexities and contradictions of the movement.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shah blends history, anthropology and memoir in Nightmarch, using the account of one multi-day immersion event to discuss the Naxalbari movement in Jharkhand, with a particular focus on its relationship with the adivasi communities which assist it. Shah has strong loyalty and clear admiration for the adivasi communities, and her long-standing work with those communities affords her a different perspective to many of the leftist intellectuals who write on this movement. Shah is more critical of the impact that the Maoists have had on the communities, and in some ways vice versa, as the youth often find new lifestyles, purchasing power and status through joining the rebels, who are largely highly ideologically motivated and drawn from urban middle classes. The result can be growing corruption, and clashes between ideas about morality and equality.
Shah is a thoughtful writer, who wears her heart more on her sleeve than she is comfortable with. Her internal tussle between the need to keep the objectivity - and her researcher's distanced curiousity - and her love and grief and want to be part of preserving something she values makes for a book that is highly engaging. The memoir components weren't my favourite, but I could see that they helped manage this balance.
The book doesn't simplify the Maoist/Marxist ideas as much as is common in writing for general audiences, attempting to explain, for example, how economic analysis becomes contested as it leads to different conclusions about political tactics.
The book has an excellent essay at the end, providing guide for what has been published in accessible form on the Naxalbari.

[Dorrit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great pooping scene

[Shaun · Rating 2 out of 5]

On week-long march from A to B, the author meets a small variety of archetypal guerrillas along the way. Though the narrative paints a vivid picture of the military excursion and the land of the Naxalite 'Jungle Sarkar' (Jungle State), Shah's anthropological (more like ethnographic) musings and philistine political commentary are frustratingly impressionistic. The Maoist rebels are always either the 'noble savages' of the Adivisi, whose primitive existence Shah confuses with utopian egalitarianism, or the hopeless and aged revolutionaries of yesterday, whose intelligence and conviction are seen as faults.

The dire poverty of rural India and the absolute corruption of Indian capitalism are explained in all their horror, yet individual psychological motivations are sought to explain who the Naxalites are. Unsurprisingly, this turns up more questions than answers, and portrays the insurgent Army as a holiday camp for the waifs and strays of Indian society, or an initiation into a world of gangsters and mercenaries. It is apparently not obvious enough that the ranks of the Naxalites are filled with those oppressed Indians who refuse to live as slaves; each individual must be on their own personal adventure for enrichment or escape.

Reading between the lines of Shah's shallow reflections, we can get some idea of how the Naxal movement originated, its social basis and how through years of protracted guerrilla war the movement has degenerated into one that can only focus on the immediate military and organisational problems thrown up by extreme State repression. For that reason alone the book is interesting and useful to the political reader.

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the subject matter of this book to be really interesting, but it is ruined by the author’s academic lens through which everything has to be analysed. I picked up this book (probably like most people) because I find India’s revolutionary guerrillas to be an enticing topic, and the promise of reading of a woman’s experience marching with them sounds cool. While there is some description of the guerrillas in the book, it is always given through the disapproving bourgeoise lens of the author; whether it is her shock at violence, grievances that intersectional theories aren’t incorporated within their movement, or scorn at polluting the “innocent and egalitarian” way of life of the hunter-gatherer Adivasi communities where some of the guerrillas are based. While some of her criticisms and questioning of the guerrillas is fair (such as looking at problems with being financed by racketeering, or the insistence of traditional gender roles within the movement) I feel that many others (such as the place of weapons and violence in revolutionary movements) could have been easily answered if she had looked at some Marxist literature. Why she didn’t make the effort to read basic theory of the group she was studying perplexes me. Overall, this is a fairly interesting book if you can put up with the author’s constant opinions getting in the way of the narrative.

[Pete Dolack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nightmarch is a grounded book that humanizes the Naxalites. Based not only on the author's long experience living among Adivasi peoples but also on her willingness to change her mind from an initially skeptical stance to a respectful support, she gives those of us who had known little or nothing of the Naxalites — and that's almost everybody — a well-written, engaging introduction.

The book gives us some necessary background but mostly discusses the people she becomes familiar with, how the communities live and, crucially, why people choose to leave home and join a persecuted and hunted movement. We come to understand that the Adivasis who join the movement have very good reasons to join and improve not only the conditions of their communities but to help bring about a better world.

The Naxalites are fully flesh-and-blood humans with a variety of human characteristics, many of whom are extraordinarily self-sacrificing with the best of motivations. That is no surprise — why else would so many join a movement promising such hardship and danger? — but it nonetheless is good for us to see that. The book demonstrates that — again, no surprise — the Naxalites have strong support from the communities around which they operate. No movement could last for decades otherwise. These are not "terrorists," despite the relentless lies of the Indian government and the relentless brutality that government deploys.

What makes this book so strong and useful is that, while showing all the above, this is no hagiography. The contradictions of the Naxalites' Maoist ideology and their day-to-day applications are discussed and analyzed, as are problems with how movement cadre sometimes act. Theory and practice, after all, go hand in hand.

[k.]

An absolutely gripping look at the degradation of utopian ideals under immense pressure. This book documents one anthropologist's life-work in Adivasi villages, culminating in the titular "nightmarch" with the Maoists. We are shown how class-society inheritances—gender, caste, and indigineity, amongst othes—pervade the Naxalite movement.
By all measures it seems like, as of 2025, the Naxalites have been contained. Nevertheless this book is a fascinating look into the nature of a genuine resistance to the Indian state's extension of the limbs of capital. Understanding why this resistance movement took the particular form it did is an important step towards understanding the texture of world resistance to capital. Whether we as Western, middle-class intellectuals could whole-heartedly cheerlead for such groups is irrelevant.
It is also interesting to consider how we get our information on such phenomena; whether they be through the example virulently anti-Naxal Indian media, romanticised war stories from the Maoists themselves and their (presumably existent) Western-left ideological supporters, or perfectionist intellectual-critiques from Western-trained anthropologists. With this in mind, the post scriptural essays, which contextualise the movement and its literature, are excellent.

[Sebastian Spjøtvold · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interessant bok som opplyser om en spennende konflikt.

[Kosta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting book, part ethnography, part travel journal, part history book, about Alpa's journey living in the indigenous forest communities of India amongst the Maoist rebels. Goes into what has pushed them into resistance, why their resistance has taken the form it's taken, and gives you a lot of insight into the lives of individual guerillas, from leaders to ordinary fighters to new recruits. Great stuff

[Despina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nightmarch by Alpa Shah was the first full ethnographic monograph I ever read. I have to admit, I’m not (yet) the bookworm I aspire to be, so the idea of crying over a book or feeling emotionally touched by words on a page had always seemed a bit overkill to me. That changed when, in my political ethnography class, we were assigned to read the opening chapters of Shah’s journey alongside Naxalite guerrillas through the dense forests of eastern India.
Shah has a beautiful way of altering between the narration of her march together with the guerrillas and the historical and political context of the Maoist movement. That said, as another reviewer already noted, her grasp of global communist movements is really impressive.
I found myself moved, even stunned, by the book and had to remind myself again and again that I was reading a non-fiction. The people she writes about, so vividly and respectfully, felt familiar, as though I had met them myself.
Nightmarch is an exploration of complex, intersecting themes: the power and violence of the state, the ideals of egalitarianism, the realities of rebellion and resistance, and the human cost of fighting for justice and recognition. It challenged how I perceive mainstream narratives in the media and encouraged me to adopt a more critical and nuanced perspective.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding the struggles of marginalized communities in India and the remarkable strength with which they resist and fight for justice.

[Deanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Undoubtedly it was one of my favourite ethnographies I have ever read. My only hesitation is that unlike other Anthropological books, Shah not only seeks to understand the Naxalites and help us to understand them too, but to critique them. She had only been with them for a brief night March, how can she fully understand the “contradictions” as to which she says they have? I know she has lived with the Adivasis for a long time but it still differs from other anthropologists who have lived amongst other communities. We would not see the same criticism for an Indigenous group in Canada or in Africa.

But all in all- it was an excellent book and I learned a lot while being transported right to the march.

[Chittajit Mitra · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author takes on a challenge to explore the world of Naxalites from an inside view & in her quest to do so she travels from the naxal affected areas of India covering several states. The author tries to understand their psyche which makes them leave their normal lives & join the forces of revolution & resistance against the government. From unemployed youth to well settled affluent people, men or women, the author captures their stories in the most sensible & riveting way.

Read the full review on Just Another Bookaholic

[A · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is quite good. 4.5/5 surely. This is the first book I read about 'Naxals'. Again like Kashmir having been fed the statist version, this is quite revelatory. Though some observations may seem patronizing I think vast majority of them are pristine and makes you think more. I picked this up after the incredible success of CPI-ML(Liberation) in electoral politics.

Found the chapter on gender especially very nuanced and in depth.

Really looking forward to go through bibliography and read a lot more.

[Erik Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good. The parts of the book that are mostly personal narrative and observation are the best and most enlightening. The personalities that she uses to illustrate archetypes and class positions within the Naxalite movement are very human and very effective. Her own deep involvement with the people she’s describing and her personal struggle to come to terms with the reality of what she experiences among the CPI-M really help to create a feeling of authenticity to the story. When the author turns to theorizing about the Naxalites and their struggle, the arguments often fall short and devolve into somewhat caricatured platitudes about democracy and progress that don’t seem to line up with the reality of the Indian state or the vivid and granular detail of the rest of the book. At some points the author also falls victim to the same tendency towards generalizing and romanticizing the Adivasi that she decries in others.

[Yoginder Agarwal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alpa Shah has given us an amazing insight into the lives of naxals in Bihar and Jharkhand. She stayed in an adivasi village for around 2 years, learnt their language, culture and customs. But her book is about her meeting with naxals, understanding the 'degrees of separation' going on a 250km March. The book is replete with details of the ideological struggles of the elderly naxals and the carefree young men who flit in and out of the platoons. This is a must read for those who wish to understand one of the world's longest running agitations.

[Jamie Sims · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alpa Shah is a wonderful writer. Her firsthand accounts of the revolutionary movement are beautifully written and read like a novel. She talks about her own life and illustrates her deep commitments to egalitarianism and social change. Her engagement with the Naxalites is rooted in these commitments and she is compassionate and sympathetic towards the militants, while also raising astute and nuanced critiques. The bibliographic essay at the end is a wonderful resource, which provides many avenues for further reading on this much-overlooked movement.

[Vidya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful nuanced study of the naxalites that doesn’t glamorise them but seeks to understand their pull for marginalised communities in india

[Sneha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Facts and stories are very well presented in the right context. I loved the narrative.

[Loggieduvs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good perspective on guerilla warfare and communist's relationship to the toiling masses

[Aaron Schuschu · Rating 4 out of 5]

An expose on the activities of Indian communists forced out of the mainstream due to the Sino- Soviet split. The sexism and the turning to crime.

[Karthikeyan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never have I read a more human account of the Naxalites.

[Priscyll Anctil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compelling ethnography with the Naxalbari movement in India & amazing list of resources for future research on guerrilla warfare

[Param · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detailed, balanced despite all likelihood of having bias, and engaging too.

[Chhanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

পড়ে শেষ করলাম নাইট মার্চ নকশালপন্থীদের অন্দরমহলে। লেখিকা আল্পা শাহ নৃবিজ্ঞানের ���ধ্যাপক।  নৃতাত্ত্বিক গবেষণার কাজে আদিবাসীদের সমাজ-সংস্কৃতির ধারা তাদের সাথে থেকে বোঝার জন্য তিনি ঝাড়খন্ডের লালগাঁওতে ২০০৯/১০ সালের দিকে প্রায় দু বছরের মতো সময়  কাটিয়েছেন। স্থানীয় এক আদিবাসী নারীর বাসায় থেকে সেখানকার ভাষা শিখে তিনি চেষ্টা করেছেন তাদের একজন হয়ে তাদের সমাজব্যবস্থা বোঝার। সেখানে থাকার সময়ই তিনি দেখেছেন আদিবাসীদের সঙ্গে নকশালপন্থীদের পারস্পারিক বোঝাপড়া এবং  সম্পর্ক। আদিবাসী এই গ্রামগুলো মূলত নকশালপন্থী বা মাওবাদীদের দিয়েই পরিচালিত। আদিবাসীরা মাওবাদীদের বলে জঙ্গল সরকার। এই জঙ্গল সরকারের সাথে তাদের সম্পর্ক মূলত পারস্পারিক । মাওবাদীরা যেমন তাদের জন্য স্কুল, হাসপাতাল  গড়ে দিচ্ছে,  নানা সেবামূলক কাজে সহযোগিতা করছে,  আদিবাসীদের অন্যতম আয়মূলক কাজ বন থেকে কেন্দু পাতা সংগ্রহ করার কাজে নায্য মজুরী নির্ধারন করে দিচ্ছে, খনিতে কাজ করা আদিবাসীদের মজুরি বৃদ্ধি করতে এবং নির্ধারন করতে সহায়তা করছে, ঠিক সেভাবেই আদিবাসীরাও মাওবাদীদের খাবার যোগান দেওয়া, রান্না করে দেওয়া, তাদের অনুষ্ঠান সমাবেশে অংশগ্রহণ করা, সর্বোপরি তাদের ইনফরমার হিসেবে কাজ করছে। প্রচুর পরিমান আদিবাসী তরুণ, তরুণী ইচ্ছে হলেই চলে যাচ্ছে মাওবাদী গেরিলা প্ল্যাটুনে যোগ দেওয়ার জন্য। আবার কিছুদিন পরে ফিরেও আসছে। আল্পা শাহের কাছে এ যেন অনেকটা মামাবাড়ি বেড়াতে যাওয়ার মতো। মাওবাদীদের সাথে আদিবাসীদের এই সম্পর্ক তার কাছে নানা কারণেই আগ্রহের কেন্দ্রবিন্দু হয় ওঠে। মূলত, কেন এই সংগ্রাম, নিসের জন্য ঘড়বাড়ি ছেড়ে এই জীবন, সে কি শুধু এক কাল্পনিক সমাজের জন্য নাকি আরও কিছু -এসবই নকশালন্থীদের ভিতরে থেকে বোঝার জন্য তিনি তাদের এক প্লেটুনের সঙ্গে দুশো পঞ্চাশ কিলোমিটার যাত্রাপথের সঙ্গী হয় ওঠেন। ২৫০ কিলোমিটারের এই যাত্রা পথ, সাত দিনে বিহার থেকে ঝাড়খন্ডের লালগাঁও-এ হেঁটে আসা। দিনে নয়, রাতে রাতে হাঁটা। সমগ্র প্লেটুনে তিনিই একমাত্র নারী, তবে পুরুষের ছদ্মবেশে, গেরিলাদের জলপাই রঙের পোশাক পরে তিনি যাত্রার সঙ্গী হয়েছেন তাদের সাথে। খাওয়া, ঘুম, বিশ্রাম, প্রাতঃকৃত্য সবই উঠে এসেছে তার বর্ননায়। সেই সাথে ফাঁকে ফাঁকে প্ল্যাটুন কমান্ডার তিনি বয়স্ক মাও নেতা, একসময় মূল নকশাল আন্দোলনের সাথে যুক্ত ছিলেন তার সাথে কথা বলে বোঝার চেষ্টা করেছেন তাদের আন্দোলনের মূল সুর। নানা রকম প্রশ্নে বুঝতে চেয়েছেন কোন স্বপ্ন তাদের টেনে এনেছে বা ধরে রেখেছে এই কঠিন সংগ্রামে। সেইসব প্রশ্ন এবং উত্তর পড়তে পড়তে সুমনের গানের কথাই মনে পড়ে-"প্রশ্নগুলো সহজ আর উত্তরও তো জানা।" স্বপ্ন, ব্যর্থতা আর চ্যালেঞ্জগুলো আগেও যেমন পড়েছি ঠিক তেমনই। যাইহোক,  লেখিকা নিজে তাদের সাথে থেকে চ্যালেঞ্জগুলো বোঝার চেষ্টা করেছেন। সরকারি নিরাপত্তা বাহিনীর সাথে গেরিলা যুদ্ধ, তাদের হাত থেকে পালিয়ে বেড়ানো ছাড়া অভ্যন্তরীণ চ্যালেঞ্জও কম না। সামরিক কাজে এতো মনোযোগ তাদের দিতে হয় যে নতুন সদস্যদের  সঠিক রাজনৈতিক শিক্ষা দেওয়া সম্ভব হয়না, কিংবা বলা যায় ত্বাত্ত্বিক রাজনীতি পাঠের সুযোগ কম। সেকারণে দল ছেড়ে চলে যাওয়া, সুযোগ পেলে অর্থ আত্মস্যাৎসহ আরও অনেক ব্যক্তিস্বার্থের কাজের সাথে যুক্ত হয়ে যায় গেরিলারা। সঠিক রাজনৈতিক শিক্ষার অভাবে স্থানীয় আদিবাসী যারা যুক্ত হয় আন্দোলনের সাথে তারা নিজস্ব বঞ্চনা বা শোষনের ধারণার জায়গা থেকে বের হয়ে এই আন্দোলনকে সমগ্র সমাজ পরিবর্তনের আন্দোলন হিসেবে ভাবতে পারেনা। সর্বপরি মাওবাদীরা ব্যক্তিগত ও দলগতভাবে যে সংগ্রাম বা কঠিন জীবনযাপনের মধ্যে দিয়ে যায় সেটাকে শেষতক টেনে নেওয়ার জন্য প্রত্যেককে সন্ন্যাসীদের  মতো সাধনার জীবন যাপন প্রয়োজন।  যেটা আসলে সকলের জন্য মানা কঠিন। তার জন্য প্রয়োজন শুদ্ধ রাজনৈতিক শিক্ষা, চোখের সামনে শোষণহীন সমাজের এক পরিষ্কার চিত্র। এইসব আলোচনার পাশাপাশি  এই সময়ে আন্দোলনের সঙ্গে জড়িত নেতৃত্ত্ব , সমর্থক , নারী গেরিলাদের নারী হিসেবে চিরাচরিত টানাপোড়েন এবং পিছনে ফেলে দেওয়ার রাজনীতি, খনিতে কাজ করা কন্ট্রাকটর ও মাওবাদী আন্দোলনের গিভ এন্ড টেকের সম্পর্ক , দুর্নীতি , সাংস্কৃতিক দূষণের কথাও এই বইতে আলোচিত হয়েছে। লেখিকা বায়াস না হয়ে নির্মোহ হয়ে তার অভিজ্ঞতা লেখার চেষ্টা করেছেন বলে ভিন্ন চোখে এই আন্দোলনকে দেখার সুযোগ হয়েছে।