Express News Service
Journalists unearth. In multilayered India, each region holds cultural space and histories. Most Indians, however, hardly know the hinterlands or survival among the deprived.
To those familiar with flashpoints, ‘Flaming Forest, Wounded Valley’ by Freny Manecksha still makes for uneasy reading, even though it is a book that must be read by all. For this is the underbelly, counter to narratives of a unified economic powerhouse.
In speaking of Bastar and Kashmir, the term used is “highly militarised regions”, whereas along with troubled Northeast, mainstream media represents these regions as zones of insurgency and/or terrorism. This language unmasks the states as true inheritors of the military-industrial complex from the British Raj,
a consistent system focused on monetising the country’s resources.
“An old woman pleading desperately with the attackers. ‘Take my cows, take the bullock, spare my son.’” It is interesting that all mainstream political parties are united in efforts to aid industrialists and business entities displace indigenous habitations and lifestyles.
Bastar SP Amresh Mishra’s official delineation of a Maoist is alarming: “I will consider anyone there (in the forests) as a Naxalite or Naxalite sympathiser. He has no business to be there.” The displaced face worse horrors of intimidation by the state. “For Adivasi women, who see the thana as a place where the gravest human rights violations can take place, the challenge of actually reporting sexual violence and seeking justice is still fraught with huge risks.”
The scene changes to Kashmir, a sense of unease underlining each word. Manecksha negotiates the minefield of the situation in the state without partisanship. Yet the reader pieces out how much of mainstream perception has been shaped by propaganda, a proxy war.
The helplessness of the people of Kashmir is a chorus, equidistant from national politics and extremism. The abrogation of Article 370 and the internet blackout month is recounted. Among the instruments of subjugation: “A loudspeaker placed in the room ensures that the shrieks of tortured persons would serve as a warning message to the surrounding villages.”
If it takes a strong constitution to stomach these revelations, how adamant is the author? Each story, interview, personal experience and step of this investigation has been as dangerous as it is crucial.
Despite an eloquent style as light as the subject matter may allow, it is gritty and bile-inducing. Ultimately it is a reality check on who we are as a people and whether indeed it is India Shining for all. Read only if you can take your reality without air-brushing. Better still, gift your WhatsApp group.
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