An Unfinished Revolution

On 14 March 2012, two Italian nationals, Paolo Bosusco and Claudio Colangelo, were taken hostage from the tribal-dominated Kandhamal area of Odisha, in eastern India. The kidnappers belonged to the extreme left-wing radical group known as the CPI (Maoists). They were led by Sabyasachi Panda who had been involved in several militant activities since 1999.

What followed was a dramatic month-long crisis in which a crew of television journalists engaged with the Maoist leader and facilitated the release of Claudio. An Unfinished Revolution: A Hostage Crisis, Adivasi Resistance and the Naxal Movement is a racy, first-hand account that tells the tale of the hostages, from abduction to release. It also chronicles the history of tribal resistance which was appropriated by the Maoists — a movement that has been one of India’s major internal security challenges since the late 1960s.

The book is a commercial non-fiction title. The content is a mix of reportage and history. The core content of the book is the hostage incident that occurred in 2012 in Kandhamal, Orissa where two Italian tourists were kidnapped by a wing of the Maoist rebels. They were held hostage for almost a month till the Maoists’ demands were met.

The author was one of the journalists who was part of the team that covered the situation and facilitated in the release of one of the tourists. Taking off from this hostage situation, the author explores and analyses the history of Adivasi resistance and the Naxal movement going back to the beginning and looking at key figures.

Target Group: Ages 18 and above; for those who are interested in the Naxalbari movement, Maoist history, tribal history and adivasi history.