Charu Majumder (p. 41): Father of the Naxalite movement. Wrote, during 1965–66, various articles based on Marx-Lenin-Mao thought, the “Historic Eight Documents,” which went on to form the basis of the Naxalite movement. Founded the CPI(M–L) in 1969 after the Naxalbari Uprising (May 25)— a peasants’ uprising at Naxalbari in Darjeeling, during which they began to forcefully recapture their lands. He died in police custody in 1972.

in his communiqué dated May 22, 1970 (p. 41): Charu Majumder, “Avenge The Heroic Martyrs” (October 27, 1970):

“The incident at Barasat clearly shows how isolated from the people are these assassins and how panic-stricken and scared out of their wits are they. They had not the courage to face these youths even after getting their hands tied. That is why the assassins fired five or six shots at every one of these youths and killed them one by one. This gang of cowards knows that those whom they are murdering today are immortal sons of India—worthy of begin respected by every country, every nation. That is why the cowards murdered these youths, who knew no fear of death, in the darkness of the night and left their dead bodies on the roadside.

“None of those political parties which are today carrying on a dog-fight among themselves for ministerial offices, shedding crocodile tears for the martyrs, and trying to utilize these murders in the fight for votes, can escape responsibility for the murders. The hands of each of them are dyed in the blood of the martyrs. They all are providing political arguments in justification of the murder of the revolutionaries and are secretly supplying the police with information about the whereabouts of the revolutionaries …

“Every revolutionary cadre should take the resolve to avenge the heroic martyrs. These butchers are enemies of the Indian people, enemies of progress and lackeys of foreigners. The Indian people will not be liberated until these butchers are liquidated.”

The Patriot and The Southern Country (p. 43): The Patriot is a translation of Deshabrati, the principal Naxalite journal. The Southern Country is a translation of Dakshin Desh, both the name of a magazine and the group that published it—a group within the CPI (M), which advocated/promoted armed agrarian revolution based on Mao’s thought, in place of parliamentary democracy.

Police dog, Debi Roy (p. 45): Chief of the Detective Department at the time and notorious for his leading role in the violent repression of the Naxal movement in Calcutta.

Roll shop (p. 46): The roll—eggs, onions and/or a skewer (or kathi, from the Bengali word for “stick”) of grilled chicken rolled up in a paratha—is a common roadside snack in Calcutta. The most common options at such shops would be a chicken roll, egg roll, egg-chicken roll, etc.

Bhuidola (p. 46): “Earthquake!” in a Hindi dialect.

Tarapith (p. 51): “A shakta pith [seat of shakti], and the abode of the Devi’s Third Eye. It is also the home of the great goddess Tara … notorious for the unsavoury Tantric rituals and animal sacrifices which were performed in the temple. Stranger things still were rumored to take place after sunset in the riverside burning ground on the edge of town, outside the boundaries of both village life and the conventions of Bengali society.”—William Dalrymple, Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India (London: Bloomsbury, 2009).