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.
