NIGHTMARCH Paperback

Alpa Shah's "Nightmarch: Among India's Revolutionary Guerrillas" is a gripping and insightful non-fiction account that plunges the reader into the heart of one of the world's longest-running insurgencies. Based on extensive ethnographic research and a perilous seven-night trek with a Naxalite guerrilla platoon, Shah offers a rare, firsthand perspective on the Maoist movement in India. The book explores why thousands of India's impoverished, largely tribal and lower-caste citizens, have turned their backs on democracy to take up arms against the state. Through vivid personal stories of the revolutionaries themselves—from high-caste leaders to young Adivasi foot soldiers—Shah unravels the complex motivations, ideals, and harsh realities of their struggle, while also critically examining the movement's contradictions and its impact on the very people it aims to liberate. It's a powerful and nuanced exploration of inequality, dispossession, and resistance in contemporary India.