This book takes back its readers to Indian Naxalite movement days
New Delhi, 17th October 2018: Sanjay Lahiri, a former political activist, has published his debut novel Comrade Netai and the Chronology of His UG Days with Notion Press, India’s fastest growing self-publishing company. The novel revolves around its protagonist Netai and his involvement in the Naxalite movement during his college days.
In the nineties, Netai joins a splinter group of Naxalites to be associated with the ongoing struggle for the emancipation of the working class. Upon joining the group, he is assigned to organize the miners by gathering their support for the group ,and he successfully does the same. His growing success and popularity among the group do not go well with his fellow Comrades Rabi and Prabhat. At the beginning Netai fails to understand their reason for being upset but when he gets he decides to move to Santhal Parghana. There, he encounters different kind of problems. At the time of his arrival, the party does not have an accurate agenda for the unit. He becomes vocal against various policies taken by the Party however with his utter surprise he finds, he is promoted in the party. This visibly upsets Rabi and others.
His participation in the movement also causes his family problems, as his home converted into a shelter and force his retired father to bear all the expenses. The situation further deteriorates when his cataract ridden mother languishes due to lack of fund and the house becomes on the verge of disarray.
All these incidents, rivalries and hypocrisies shake his belief and enthusiasm. He starts questioning the movement’s action and steps taken by the leadership. At this point, Netai feels empty and betrayed. Neither does he know how to overcome the situation and start something new nor does he want to be part of this movement any longer.
In the words of the author,“ The Indian Naxalite movement is one of the most significant movements that several youth participated in. Seeing the widening chasm in between haves and have-nots, they joined the movement with a dream to establish equality in the society. However, many of them disillusioned with the movement realizing that merely power capturing cannot be equated with revolution. It became extremely challenging for them to return to mainstream life as they lost their valuable years of study, police were searching for them, their families were in distress, etc. By narrating the story of Netai, I wanted to highlight these aspects of the movement. I believe many readers will be able to relate to Netai as they have seen their dear and near ones’ involvement in the movement and its impact.”
The book is out now and available on Amazon, Flipkart and other e-commerce sites.
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