Flaming Forest, Wounded Valley Stories from Bastar and Kashmir

Description

What happened when a siege was laid in Kashmir? Coils of razor wire were

unrolled, creating martial units to be manned by security forces, and mobile

phones and the internet were cut off. How did communities withstand the

months and months of shutdown? What happened when a beautiful and

vast meadow where pastoral communities have taken their animals to graze

for centuries, was leased out as an artillery firing ground? People lost their

limbs, even their lives and watched in horror as a flock of sheep got blown

up. Children cowered in classrooms as guns boomed and shells exploded in a

firing exercise. How did people reclaim this ground?

How were Adivasis impacted when they were forced to leave the forest and

ordered by the Chhattisgarh government to live in makeshift camps by the

roadside or else be outlawed? Villages emptied out and there was massive

displacement with the Salwa Judum unleashing unimaginable terror and violence

on those who resisted. Sarkeguda was one such village but its inhabitants came

back later to begin life afresh. How did the villagers react when seventeen of

their people were killed one night in a field, under the open skies?

How did they successfully contest the official story of it being a gunfight against

Maoists? By spirited protests and confidently affirming their truth in court.

Through stories of resilience, the book celebrates the idea that heroic deeds

are performed by ordinary people.