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Urban Naxals
Film-maker Vivek Agnihotri writes of his journey in making the film "Buddha in a Traffic Jam" which exposed the nexus between an India-wide Maoist terror movement and their supporters in urban centers such as academia and media. Naxalites are waging war on India with details plans for an overthrow of the State. Urban Naxals act to amplify their message, serve as recruiters and wage a propaganda war through social and conventional media. This gripping story recounts Agnihotri's own grooming in College to be an Urban Naxal and details the plans and modus operandi of the movement. Agnihotri's story is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of "Buddha in a Traffic Jam", the violent resistance to its screening, and an expose of the world's largest extreme-left terror movement and its penetration into urban India.
380 pages, Paperback
First published May 2, 2018
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November 9, 2018
The Field Guide to Naxals and Naxalism
As all nationalist Indians know, 'Naxalism' is a disease like rabies which has no cure once it reaches the acute stage. According to the experts on the malady, people infected with it run around killing honest and upright citizens. So all of us have to be extremely vigilant in discovering the infections and getting the people treated.
The people of India were under the impression that this was a historical scourge like smallpox and has been practically eradicated. Not so! The brilliant filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri has discovered an extremely virulent strain called "Urban Naxalism" and is in the process of eradicating it totally. As my mite towards this laudable effort, I am in the process of compiling this field guide to the various strains of the disease.
1. Original Naxalism: This is the original strain, having its genesis in the village of Naxalbari in Bengal, and subsequently flowing over to the high ranges of Kerala. It has been all but eradicated or made benign.
2. Rural Naxalism: The origin of this disease is said to be the ruthless exploitation of the adivasis and farmers by landlords and business men, but official sources deny it and fix the blame on Mao and seditious literature. Whatever be the case, it is mostly under control with only sporadic outbreaks in certain areas.
3. Urban Naxalism: This extremely virulent strain has been undiscovered until now, when as I said before, Mr. Agnihotri did the yeoman service of bringing it to the notice of the public. What is frightening is, almost all of our intellectuals barring a few like him seem to in various stages of infection! (He says 40% of India is infected.) The nation has to think of methods of eradication on war footing - one suggested remedy, it seems, is submitting the affected continuously to an Arnab Goswami harangue until they recant.
Now, there are three more suspected strains of this malady which has escaped Mr. Agnihotri's notice which I would like to highlight.
4. Online Naxalism: This is virulent on social media. One can see people running rampant and infecting the unsuspecting left and right. The only way to control this is for the authorities to deploy 'online police' who will monitor web content 24 x 7.
5. Expat Naxalism: This is variety of online Naxalism, but the affected person will be sitting outside India. Here the online police cannot do much, as the expat may be sitting in Europe or the USA, where another virulent malady called “freedom of expression” has made any extremist disease untreatable. The best we can do is police the airports and pick these people up the moment they set foot in India.
6. Thought Naxalism: This is the most dangerous variety, as it will be dormant in the person’s mind and he/ she can be treated only based on symptoms, which include: (1) Widespread reading of leftist literature; (2) Refusal to acknowledge religious superstition; (3) A tendency to speak up for the underprivileged; etc. The problem is that even with all these symptoms, the person may not be a Naxal – but that is a chance one has to take.
The treatment for the last three is also the same as the one suggested for Urban Naxalism. There is a chance that the person may pass away due to the intensity of the treatment, but that is a risk we may have to take.
As all nationalist Indians know, 'Naxalism' is a disease like rabies which has no cure once it reaches the acute stage. According to the experts on the malady, people infected with it run around killing honest and upright citizens. So all of us have to be extremely vigilant in discovering the infections and getting the people treated.
The people of India were under the impression that this was a historical scourge like smallpox and has been practically eradicated. Not so! The brilliant filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri has discovered an extremely virulent strain called "Urban Naxalism" and is in the process of eradicating it totally. As my mite towards this laudable effort, I am in the process of compiling this field guide to the various strains of the disease.
1. Original Naxalism: This is the original strain, having its genesis in the village of Naxalbari in Bengal, and subsequently flowing over to the high ranges of Kerala. It has been all but eradicated or made benign.
2. Rural Naxalism: The origin of this disease is said to be the ruthless exploitation of the adivasis and farmers by landlords and business men, but official sources deny it and fix the blame on Mao and seditious literature. Whatever be the case, it is mostly under control with only sporadic outbreaks in certain areas.
3. Urban Naxalism: This extremely virulent strain has been undiscovered until now, when as I said before, Mr. Agnihotri did the yeoman service of bringing it to the notice of the public. What is frightening is, almost all of our intellectuals barring a few like him seem to in various stages of infection! (He says 40% of India is infected.) The nation has to think of methods of eradication on war footing - one suggested remedy, it seems, is submitting the affected continuously to an Arnab Goswami harangue until they recant.
Now, there are three more suspected strains of this malady which has escaped Mr. Agnihotri's notice which I would like to highlight.
4. Online Naxalism: This is virulent on social media. One can see people running rampant and infecting the unsuspecting left and right. The only way to control this is for the authorities to deploy 'online police' who will monitor web content 24 x 7.
5. Expat Naxalism: This is variety of online Naxalism, but the affected person will be sitting outside India. Here the online police cannot do much, as the expat may be sitting in Europe or the USA, where another virulent malady called “freedom of expression” has made any extremist disease untreatable. The best we can do is police the airports and pick these people up the moment they set foot in India.
6. Thought Naxalism: This is the most dangerous variety, as it will be dormant in the person’s mind and he/ she can be treated only based on symptoms, which include: (1) Widespread reading of leftist literature; (2) Refusal to acknowledge religious superstition; (3) A tendency to speak up for the underprivileged; etc. The problem is that even with all these symptoms, the person may not be a Naxal – but that is a chance one has to take.
The treatment for the last three is also the same as the one suggested for Urban Naxalism. There is a chance that the person may pass away due to the intensity of the treatment, but that is a risk we may have to take.
March 20, 2019
Vivek Agnihotri's book is ostensibly a memoir of the making of his film, "Buddha in a Traffic Jam", and the trials and tribulations that went with it. In actuality, it is a conspiracy theory about a large underground network of left-wing extremists, cleverly manipulated and controlled urban intellectuals (the so-called "Urban Naxals") located all over India (but mainly in the metros). The kingpins are the college professors, especially the ones in "anti-national" institutions like the JNU. They do everything from recruiting vulnerable students to providing funds to the gun-toting extremists in the jungles of Bastar, through NGOs who are in India specifically for the purpose of breaking the country up and destroying its democracy, to be replaced with a totalitarian communist government.
(Agnihotri says that the Naxals are linked to Kashmiri insurgents, the militants in the Northeast, and other sundry terrorist groups from India and abroad.)
As an aside, the book also engages in a political diatribe against the Left, the Congress, the AAP and whoever have the temerity to oppose the author's idol Narendra Modi and his brand of development. He is especially intent on bashing Nehru and Sonia Gandhi.
Note the point, your honour.
Also this:
It does take a stretch of imagination to see Sonia Gandhi nurturing Naxal sympathisers - but then, making movies is all about the imagination.
***
The book is divided into four sections: (1) Buddha is Born (about how the movie was conceived); (2) In Search of Buddha (about the background research for the story); (3) The Making of the Buddha (about the development and shooting of the movie); and (4) The Struggle of the Buddha (about the trials and tribulations that the director went through to release it). However, it is not straightforward narration. The story moves back and forth in time and space, and is interspersed with Agnihotri’s long-winded (and extremely boring) lectures on the evils of socialism and communism, about the absolute crappiness of almost everyone in the movie industry and journalism (except himself and a few of his cronies, of course) and the greatness of the market economy, Indian culture and the messiah of the Hindu Right – Narendra Modi.
Vivek Agnihotri purports to have uncovered this great plot among the urban intelligentsia, wherein the youth of the country are brainwashed and recruited into Naxalism by none other than their professors, cleverly distributed among the hotbeds of leftist insurgency such as – surprise, surpise! – The Jawarharlal Nehru University (and other such liberal institutions, which don’t toe the “nationalist” line). These intellectuals are also responsible for collecting funds from forces inimical to the Indian State through NGOs set up for the special purpose. (Everyone, including the mainstream media, seem to be aware of this but apparently keep quiet for some mysterious reason.) And the Naxals running rampant in Bastar and elsewhere have only the single purpose of keeping the tribals poor, by terrorising them and preventing all developmental activities. For in the current India, forging ahead on the path of development, who has reason be a Naxal – unless prompted by nefarious reasons?
Vivek Agnihotri claims he has done extensive research to unearth the links between political parties, Naxals, corrupt government officials et al. who exploit the adivasis. However, since mainstream media is silent on this, he says he has relied on private blogs and interviews, the details of which are very sketchy in the book. We just have to believe him when he says that he has solid evidence that the Naxalite bogeyman is behind every corner.
What if, indeed: and the way these people have taken over the national capital is frightening.
As I mentioned before, college professors are the recruitment agents – this “fact” is engraved in Mr. Agnihotri’s mind as he escaped being indoctrinated by one of his professors during college days. His play on price rise (a genuine democratic concern) was subverted into one caste issues (a pseudo-secular non-issue) by that unnamed professor. This personal experience convinces the author that this is what must be happening, in countless colleges and in unnumbered classrooms. Shocking, ain’t it?
This professor’s collusion with the forces of darkness is confirmed through the following incident:
Pretty damning evidence, indeed – though unfortunately, our courts require something far more solid.
These teachers from hell work on honest people across all the cross-sections of society, contaminating their minds, changing decent men and women into Naxals baying for the destruction of the hallowed Indian state.
And ultimately, do you know whose fault it is?
Nehru, again. Who else?
***
With so-much of “evidence”, Mr. Agnihotri is on a one-man crusade to “expose” the Urban Naxals. His movie is about a crooked professor who manages to entice an honest activist student into his nefarious web – but the hero ends up reforming him. I have not seen the movie, but its structure in chapters seem to be interesting, and it seems watchable – except for the explicitly silly device on which the plot turns (where the protagonist solves the problem of poverty of tribal potters by eliminating middlemen and selling their wares through a web startup). It could be seen as a new look at the Naxal problem, with a farfetched conspiracy theory at its heart. There have been many movies with less believable plots.
But the director doesn’t stop there. He considers it his mission to bring to light and destroy these enemies of the state. So he sets off on an expedition to show the movie across various college campuses throughout India. He would definitely have known that this would create disturbances between the right and the left wings within the institutions – and though he says that aim was to bring his movie to the students, the reader feels that the aim was to create conflict and controversy. It is a good marketing technique, plus it helps the right-wing grow in the largely left-dominated academia.
Now let me be clear here: though I lean towards the left, I have no illusions about left-dominated academia. I have seen how they take over intellectual space and stifle dissent, where they are in the majority. In college days, I myself have been victim to it. My only grouse is with people like Vivek Agnihotri taking the moral high ground – for where the right-wingers are in the majority, they are even more authoritarian than the left.
This last section, describing the director’s experiences in various colleges, is an unashamed paean to the angelic, “nationalist” right-wing as opposed to the demonic left. It could have directly come from the speeches of the ideologues of the party Mr. Agnihotri is a fan of. It is also, in part, a rant against Kanhaiya Kumar and other “anti-nationals” like him. I will give you a few choice quotes (and my comments on a few of them):
(I am sorry Mr. Agnihotri, you are wrong on multiple counts. I have read the Manusmriti and can vouch for its toxicity.)
(Once again, Mr. Agnihotri, you are wrong – it comes from the Chandogya Upanishad, which is linked to the Sama Veda.)
(Standard argument of the ultra-national majoritarians - with little evidence from history, however.)
All these arguments (there are much more, sprinkled throughout the text), parroting the belligerent nationalist narrative of today, is to establish the following:
Right! Now the agenda is out in the open! The author, and the right-wing he represents, are on the side of the angels – and their opponents, followers of a different political philosophy, are on the side of the devils. There are no greys here, only black and white.
***
Not many people in India, even leftists, are fans of armed revolution. We have proven time and again that democracy can be left-leaning: Nehru is the famous example. Kerala, through the land reforms of the first elected communist government in the world, carried out revolutionary land reforms which did away with feudalism for ever – and the state tops in Human Development Index (HDI) regularly over the years (by the way, Vivek Agnihotri is silent about Kerala while he rants about how communism destroyed West Bengal). There are many left-wing organisations in India who carry out peaceful revolutions through humanitarian work.
In this context, the aim of the book is clear – to paint all who are not supportive of the ultranationalist narrative of the Hindu right with the same brush – the one of left-wing extremism(“If you are not with us, you are against us”). For that, Vivek Agnihotri creates the bogeyman of the Urban Naxal. Next, he makes him/ her “invisible” – he/ she could be anybody. Then, this narrative is given legitimacy – even the authorities are now freely using the term. Now what is remaining is to whip up sufficient frenzy, to get citizens to denounce one another (already a start has been made by the author, when he asked his followers to tweet the names of urban Naxals).
Those of you who are interested, look up “McCarthyism” in Wikipedia. This is how the "Red Scare" started in the USA in the 1950’s, and spoiled the careers and lives of many intellectuals. Let us be vigilant lest it happen in India.
If police and other sources are to be believed, the Naxalites, with the help of Dalit youths and the Islamist terrorist group Indian Mujahedeen (IM), want to have their own government in the country by 2025. The revolution will emerge from the conflict of Hindus on one side and Dalits and Muslims on another. Two consolidated rebellious, energetic forces pumped with raw adrenaline, will go for each other’s blood. And then it will be opportune to hijack and change the narrative to oppressed, proletariat, and marginalized vs bourgeoisie, elites, and Brahmins. This attracts poor and intellectuals both. In this case, the Adivasi, Dalits, Muslims, and other “forgotten people”, united under one common red flag, will demolish the State. That’s the ambition. And they also have a plan.
(Agnihotri says that the Naxals are linked to Kashmiri insurgents, the militants in the Northeast, and other sundry terrorist groups from India and abroad.)
As an aside, the book also engages in a political diatribe against the Left, the Congress, the AAP and whoever have the temerity to oppose the author's idol Narendra Modi and his brand of development. He is especially intent on bashing Nehru and Sonia Gandhi.
Nehru judged history and filtered it to what should be told to an independent India and what should be hidden. He made sure that the history reinforced his ideology and made him look like a hero. His daughter Indira Gandhi and later her daughter-in-law Sonia Gandhi tuned our history to further their political agendas. In independent India, only a certain kind of narrative is allowed; the one that suits the ruler's agenda.
Note the point, your honour.
Also this:
Another reason for such high concentration of intelligentsia [in Delhi] is that all central research and policy agencies are here and these agencies were used by the Congress government to employ intellectuals and use them to give an ideological endorsement to their political narrative. Since Sonia Gandhi's politics align with the left, it is but natural that most of these people are Naxal sympathizers.
It does take a stretch of imagination to see Sonia Gandhi nurturing Naxal sympathisers - but then, making movies is all about the imagination.
***
The book is divided into four sections: (1) Buddha is Born (about how the movie was conceived); (2) In Search of Buddha (about the background research for the story); (3) The Making of the Buddha (about the development and shooting of the movie); and (4) The Struggle of the Buddha (about the trials and tribulations that the director went through to release it). However, it is not straightforward narration. The story moves back and forth in time and space, and is interspersed with Agnihotri’s long-winded (and extremely boring) lectures on the evils of socialism and communism, about the absolute crappiness of almost everyone in the movie industry and journalism (except himself and a few of his cronies, of course) and the greatness of the market economy, Indian culture and the messiah of the Hindu Right – Narendra Modi.
Vivek Agnihotri purports to have uncovered this great plot among the urban intelligentsia, wherein the youth of the country are brainwashed and recruited into Naxalism by none other than their professors, cleverly distributed among the hotbeds of leftist insurgency such as – surprise, surpise! – The Jawarharlal Nehru University (and other such liberal institutions, which don’t toe the “nationalist” line). These intellectuals are also responsible for collecting funds from forces inimical to the Indian State through NGOs set up for the special purpose. (Everyone, including the mainstream media, seem to be aware of this but apparently keep quiet for some mysterious reason.) And the Naxals running rampant in Bastar and elsewhere have only the single purpose of keeping the tribals poor, by terrorising them and preventing all developmental activities. For in the current India, forging ahead on the path of development, who has reason be a Naxal – unless prompted by nefarious reasons?
There are no Zamindars today, so who are they fighting in the tribal areas? Why is it that after four decades of struggle, neither have the rebels achieved their objective nor have the tribals been empowered? Why is the government not being able to stop this oppression? Where do they get money from? Are all those intellectuals who openly support the Naxal movement on national TV, righteous people? What is in it for them? This is a movement being fought in jungles inhabited by wild animals, snakes and, the tribals– is it possible for it to survive for so long? That too without financial, intelligence, strategic, and logistical support? It's impossible for a movement to survive for so long only on good intentions. So, who are the masterminds?
Vivek Agnihotri claims he has done extensive research to unearth the links between political parties, Naxals, corrupt government officials et al. who exploit the adivasis. However, since mainstream media is silent on this, he says he has relied on private blogs and interviews, the details of which are very sketchy in the book. We just have to believe him when he says that he has solid evidence that the Naxalite bogeyman is behind every corner.
An invisible enemy is the most dangerous of all. Like a snake under your bed. I shiver imagining that someone in my ecosystem – a writer, a lawyer, a journalist, a social worker, an officer, a professor, a historian, a painter, a filmmaker, anyone just anyone can be an Urban Naxal. What if?
What if, indeed: and the way these people have taken over the national capital is frightening.
I have no doubt in my mind that Naxalism is the biggest threat to India, bigger than Pakistan and China. Such links are not possible to maintain from the jungles of Dantewada. Where is their strategic hub? All the research points to Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) as the most active urban Naxal centre. Some of the organizations in Delhi that are under the scanner are the Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF), Committee for Release of Political Prisoners, Democratic Students Union, Nari Mukti Sangh, People Democratic Front of India, and Mehantkash Mazdoor Morcha. Many of their members are said to be active in towns adjoining Delhi like Gurgaon and Ghaziabad.
As I mentioned before, college professors are the recruitment agents – this “fact” is engraved in Mr. Agnihotri’s mind as he escaped being indoctrinated by one of his professors during college days. His play on price rise (a genuine democratic concern) was subverted into one caste issues (a pseudo-secular non-issue) by that unnamed professor. This personal experience convinces the author that this is what must be happening, in countless colleges and in unnumbered classrooms. Shocking, ain’t it?
This professor’s collusion with the forces of darkness is confirmed through the following incident:
I distinctly remember as I was leaving his house, a few students from different colleges were collecting outside in the lawns of his government quarter for chaupal - a forum for an exchange of ideas. Many years later, I learnt that some of them were arrested in the tribal villages of Chhattisgarh, on the charge of spreading Naxal ideology. I could have been one of them.
Pretty damning evidence, indeed – though unfortunately, our courts require something far more solid.
These teachers from hell work on honest people across all the cross-sections of society, contaminating their minds, changing decent men and women into Naxals baying for the destruction of the hallowed Indian state.
They work with feminist groups, atheist groups, anti-superstition movements, intellectuals, students, labourers, slum groups, farmers, journalists, competitive exam centres etc. They take up genuine issues with the aim not to solve it but to create unrest and anger against the system and make people believe in armed struggle. This is how the 'vulnerable group' unknowingly becomes their vanguard.
And ultimately, do you know whose fault it is?
An education system rooted in the principles of utopian socialism, courtesy Nehru's fascination for the same, and the professors, enamoured of the Nehruvian dream, were feeding the young minds to wage a war against India.
Nehru, again. Who else?
***
With so-much of “evidence”, Mr. Agnihotri is on a one-man crusade to “expose” the Urban Naxals. His movie is about a crooked professor who manages to entice an honest activist student into his nefarious web – but the hero ends up reforming him. I have not seen the movie, but its structure in chapters seem to be interesting, and it seems watchable – except for the explicitly silly device on which the plot turns (where the protagonist solves the problem of poverty of tribal potters by eliminating middlemen and selling their wares through a web startup). It could be seen as a new look at the Naxal problem, with a farfetched conspiracy theory at its heart. There have been many movies with less believable plots.
But the director doesn’t stop there. He considers it his mission to bring to light and destroy these enemies of the state. So he sets off on an expedition to show the movie across various college campuses throughout India. He would definitely have known that this would create disturbances between the right and the left wings within the institutions – and though he says that aim was to bring his movie to the students, the reader feels that the aim was to create conflict and controversy. It is a good marketing technique, plus it helps the right-wing grow in the largely left-dominated academia.
The people who work as their mouthpieces also know very well but they succeed in spreading the lie as they have been controlling the narrative. We broke into it, challenged it and tried to introduce a new narrative.
Now let me be clear here: though I lean towards the left, I have no illusions about left-dominated academia. I have seen how they take over intellectual space and stifle dissent, where they are in the majority. In college days, I myself have been victim to it. My only grouse is with people like Vivek Agnihotri taking the moral high ground – for where the right-wingers are in the majority, they are even more authoritarian than the left.
This last section, describing the director’s experiences in various colleges, is an unashamed paean to the angelic, “nationalist” right-wing as opposed to the demonic left. It could have directly come from the speeches of the ideologues of the party Mr. Agnihotri is a fan of. It is also, in part, a rant against Kanhaiya Kumar and other “anti-nationals” like him. I will give you a few choice quotes (and my comments on a few of them):
Secularism was nothing but a ploy to attract Muslim votes and keep a control on Hindus from asserting themselves.
I won’t go into the details of Kanhaiya’s speech as it’s a function of his political agenda, but I’d request him not to mention Manu Smriti without studying and understanding it. Manu Smriti doesn’t speak of the “caste system.” It talks of Varnas. Varna is not caste. Nor was “Manu Smriti” a “law book” enforced by the State. Hardly anyone reads the Manu Smriti in popular Hinduism.
(I am sorry Mr. Agnihotri, you are wrong on multiple counts. I have read the Manusmriti and can vouch for its toxicity.)
I am sure our rishis wrote the eternal truth in the Rigveda, ‘Tatvam asi,’—Thou art that—while meditating on such uninterrupted landscapes.
(Once again, Mr. Agnihotri, you are wrong – it comes from the Chandogya Upanishad, which is linked to the Sama Veda.)
The India that we are talking about here is not the India that won her independence from the British in 1947 but the one that has existed for thousands of years. Be it Chandragupta Maurya who along with Chanakya tried to form a unified India or Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj who did the same against a different resisting force. India is not a modern concept but an age-old belief that has been passed on to us over the generations. It is not merely an idea but a reality that has existed well before any other civilization.
(Standard argument of the ultra-national majoritarians - with little evidence from history, however.)
All these arguments (there are much more, sprinkled throughout the text), parroting the belligerent nationalist narrative of today, is to establish the following:
‘This fight is not between the left and the right, neither is it a fight between Sanghis and Laal Salaam; this fight is between those who want to make India better and those who want to break India.
Right! Now the agenda is out in the open! The author, and the right-wing he represents, are on the side of the angels – and their opponents, followers of a different political philosophy, are on the side of the devils. There are no greys here, only black and white.
***
Not many people in India, even leftists, are fans of armed revolution. We have proven time and again that democracy can be left-leaning: Nehru is the famous example. Kerala, through the land reforms of the first elected communist government in the world, carried out revolutionary land reforms which did away with feudalism for ever – and the state tops in Human Development Index (HDI) regularly over the years (by the way, Vivek Agnihotri is silent about Kerala while he rants about how communism destroyed West Bengal). There are many left-wing organisations in India who carry out peaceful revolutions through humanitarian work.
In this context, the aim of the book is clear – to paint all who are not supportive of the ultranationalist narrative of the Hindu right with the same brush – the one of left-wing extremism(“If you are not with us, you are against us”). For that, Vivek Agnihotri creates the bogeyman of the Urban Naxal. Next, he makes him/ her “invisible” – he/ she could be anybody. Then, this narrative is given legitimacy – even the authorities are now freely using the term. Now what is remaining is to whip up sufficient frenzy, to get citizens to denounce one another (already a start has been made by the author, when he asked his followers to tweet the names of urban Naxals).
Those of you who are interested, look up “McCarthyism” in Wikipedia. This is how the "Red Scare" started in the USA in the 1950’s, and spoiled the careers and lives of many intellectuals. Let us be vigilant lest it happen in India.
April 24, 2020
I read this book in one day. Its been ages to complete any book in one day. This book is really an eye-opener for me in many levels.
This book exposes the reality of the blood money behind the intellectual mafia ruling Indian Media and popular discourse. Exposes how criminals are ruling the roost in India wearing a mask of "human rights", "women’s right" and various NGOs. I am not saying every NGOs are corrupted, there are some who used NGOs to bypass the money or agenda. Not only terrorist are brainwashed, in this book you can see how educated normal citizen are brainwashed to the core. You can also find how professor and students are brainwashed. It also exposes how communist/leftist/breaking India ideology has infiltrated our educational institutions like termites for decades and how their narrative is supported by the sold out media. Earlier I used to think Naxals or communist are very few in numbers. After reading this book i realized that these hypocrites are in large numbers in every urban and they never want any development or upliftment for society. For them only their purpose should be solved.
There seems to be a self-destructive strand among sections of India that makes them actively court and woo forces that are inimical, hostile to or want to dismember whatever is left of the Indian-ness component in the Indian state.
Like Sandeep Balakrishna beautifully said "Perhaps jungle Naxalism is no longer required: we now have two and half generations of Naxals in our cities and towns who are thoroughly brainwashed that they don't even realise that they've have been brainwashed".
Hats off to the boldness of Author Vivek Agnihotri. The book gives an account of a filmmakers encounter with radicalism in urban India. Everyone should read it. I don’t give a damn when some people give negative reviews about this book. Read the book then judge it. Many will review it without even reading it.
Must read.
This book exposes the reality of the blood money behind the intellectual mafia ruling Indian Media and popular discourse. Exposes how criminals are ruling the roost in India wearing a mask of "human rights", "women’s right" and various NGOs. I am not saying every NGOs are corrupted, there are some who used NGOs to bypass the money or agenda. Not only terrorist are brainwashed, in this book you can see how educated normal citizen are brainwashed to the core. You can also find how professor and students are brainwashed. It also exposes how communist/leftist/breaking India ideology has infiltrated our educational institutions like termites for decades and how their narrative is supported by the sold out media. Earlier I used to think Naxals or communist are very few in numbers. After reading this book i realized that these hypocrites are in large numbers in every urban and they never want any development or upliftment for society. For them only their purpose should be solved.
There seems to be a self-destructive strand among sections of India that makes them actively court and woo forces that are inimical, hostile to or want to dismember whatever is left of the Indian-ness component in the Indian state.
Like Sandeep Balakrishna beautifully said "Perhaps jungle Naxalism is no longer required: we now have two and half generations of Naxals in our cities and towns who are thoroughly brainwashed that they don't even realise that they've have been brainwashed".
Hats off to the boldness of Author Vivek Agnihotri. The book gives an account of a filmmakers encounter with radicalism in urban India. Everyone should read it. I don’t give a damn when some people give negative reviews about this book. Read the book then judge it. Many will review it without even reading it.
Must read.
July 14, 2018
Urban Naxals by Vivek Agnihotri: A Gripping and Powerful Back Story of an Unusual Movie
I have known Vivek for over four years through Twitter, of which I have known him well last two years having met him several times in person. He has made ad films and movies, he is a social media celebrity, and he has written a book now. Across all these pursuits, a common theme is that Vivek is an excellent raconteur. When you talk to Vivek, time flies.
Reading Urban Naxals is exactly like talking to Vivek face to face. It is as if he is speaking to you in flesh and blood, and is passionately explaining his experience and his point of view on a movie which is clearly very close to his heart. Urban Naxals, the book, is everything that Vivek is in person — straightforward, direct, well meaning, and expansive.
Although Vivek has talked about his book as recounting of how he made “Buddha In A Traffic Jam”, the book is actually much more than that. Urban Naxals actually covers five key elements nicely interwoven in a gripping read.
There’s of course the making of the “Buddha In A Traffic Jam” on a shoestring budget at a time which was professionally tough for Vivek. The pains that he had to go through to make a politically charged movie going against the grain of accepted talking-heads wisdom comes through very clearly and openly. The book explains the hardships Vivek faced not just to fund the movie, but also to actually shoot it. He has also explained the story behind each episode in the movie, which comes across as very thoughtful.
Vivek’s own life story and personal beliefs on a range of subjects quite well knit in the story-line. That he has had personal experience at the fringes of the Naxal movement shows abundantly in the book. As Vivek’s Twitter followers know, he has strong opinions on a variety of sociopolitical topics. His views on a range of subjects — from life’s philosophy to where India is headed as a country — show up prominently and honestly through the book. He has not been afraid to name people who he likes, dislikes, and abhors.
But this book is quite important on two other counts.
There is a great archival value of this book to understand the underbelly of the Naxal movement. Vivek has clearly put in reams of research on the subject of how Naxal movement has spread its wings across the country. His movie and book aside, he can rightfully lay a claim to be one of the foremost subject matter experts on this topic. The book portrays how a seemingly rural uprising against localized ills has actually become a complex top-down, national network of interwoven anti-government and anti-India ideas. At the heart of this complex web of hatred lies the real desire to establish an armed militia dictatorship in the name of saving the marginalized and the downtrodden. Vivek’s book is quite helpful for anyone not familiar with the subject to understand the financial and the control dynamic of the Naxal movement.
Vivek also explains through his personal experience, how Bollywood is basically a big clique of self-serving interests and bloated egos. Urban Naxals describes the economics of movie making, and how strong patronage networks can sabotage or derail any project at their whims and fancies. The sad part of this view of Bollywood is that people who market themselves as the champions of new, unsupported, and variegated voices are almost always at the forefront of shutting or ignoring these voices, in direct contrast to their carefully contrasted public personas. Although we have always known that all that glitters is not gold, Urban Naxals reminds us that all that glitters is not worthy of undying, unconditional love and adulation.
The fifth and the last aspect of the book deals with the troubles Vivek had to go through to release his movie. The movie directly and brutally confronts the popular Bollywood idea of government being the prime oppressor of villagers and adivasis and Naxals being their saviours. This truth was too much for his financiers and potential distributors to digest, either due to ideological reasons or due to their inability to upset their business networks.
Vivek thus adopted a unique social media led marketing approach to take the movie to this audience. He toured dozens of prominent universities to engage students and to warn them of the enemy within, the Naxal recruitment agents they deal with every day. Several such screening episodes led to acrimony and physical danger for Vivek, most notably in Hyderabad and Kolkata. Through these experiences of screening movies for students, Vivek also brings out real life examples of an extreme-left academia controlling the mental conditioning of India’s new generation.
Vivek was incessantly mocked by his critics — mostly who had not seen the movie — for making a substandard product. This book puts this criticism in perspective. A movie crew working on a budget of ₹1.5 crores only with no money to pay market rates of any established actors and just one month window to shoot a movie with non-standard technical equipment was compared with regular studio-led Bollywood offerings and panned. Although Vivek has tried explaining this aspect many times on Twitter and confronted his critics, the starkness of the mountain of backlash he was against comes through strongly and grimly in this book.
Much of what Vivek has described in his movie has already played out in real life in the last couple of years. Student led movements have attempted to disrupt the government and hijacked media discussions for weeks at end. Prominent names from with academia and social welfare groups have been linked with elements fanning social disharmony and caste schisms across India. Recently, these names have even been arrested in some cases for actively plotting to create social unrest.
In the last four years since he took to social media to promote his movie, Vivek has singlehandedly established a narrative space on the dangers of Naxalism in India. This book is a perfect culmination and a vivid documentary compilation of that process. Many more Indians are today aware of the enemy lurking around them through Vivek’s works and understand the crucial role of academia in shaping political behaviour much better.
But above all, this book coins the eponymous term Urban Naxals, which will be etched in India’s political lexicon for a long time to come. The term is already popular in TV debates and in social media, and gives a powerful descriptor to the Breaking India forces hiding behind their positions of power in academia, media, think tanks, and other nongovernmental organizations.
Urban Naxals is must read, not necessarily as a literary classic, but as a powerful narration of Vivek’s personal conviction against organized backlash and systemic decay.
Disclosure: Although I had already bought a copy of the book on Amazon, Vivek sent me an author-signed copy. Also as already stated, I know Vivek personally.
I have known Vivek for over four years through Twitter, of which I have known him well last two years having met him several times in person. He has made ad films and movies, he is a social media celebrity, and he has written a book now. Across all these pursuits, a common theme is that Vivek is an excellent raconteur. When you talk to Vivek, time flies.
Reading Urban Naxals is exactly like talking to Vivek face to face. It is as if he is speaking to you in flesh and blood, and is passionately explaining his experience and his point of view on a movie which is clearly very close to his heart. Urban Naxals, the book, is everything that Vivek is in person — straightforward, direct, well meaning, and expansive.
Although Vivek has talked about his book as recounting of how he made “Buddha In A Traffic Jam”, the book is actually much more than that. Urban Naxals actually covers five key elements nicely interwoven in a gripping read.
There’s of course the making of the “Buddha In A Traffic Jam” on a shoestring budget at a time which was professionally tough for Vivek. The pains that he had to go through to make a politically charged movie going against the grain of accepted talking-heads wisdom comes through very clearly and openly. The book explains the hardships Vivek faced not just to fund the movie, but also to actually shoot it. He has also explained the story behind each episode in the movie, which comes across as very thoughtful.
Vivek’s own life story and personal beliefs on a range of subjects quite well knit in the story-line. That he has had personal experience at the fringes of the Naxal movement shows abundantly in the book. As Vivek’s Twitter followers know, he has strong opinions on a variety of sociopolitical topics. His views on a range of subjects — from life’s philosophy to where India is headed as a country — show up prominently and honestly through the book. He has not been afraid to name people who he likes, dislikes, and abhors.
But this book is quite important on two other counts.
There is a great archival value of this book to understand the underbelly of the Naxal movement. Vivek has clearly put in reams of research on the subject of how Naxal movement has spread its wings across the country. His movie and book aside, he can rightfully lay a claim to be one of the foremost subject matter experts on this topic. The book portrays how a seemingly rural uprising against localized ills has actually become a complex top-down, national network of interwoven anti-government and anti-India ideas. At the heart of this complex web of hatred lies the real desire to establish an armed militia dictatorship in the name of saving the marginalized and the downtrodden. Vivek’s book is quite helpful for anyone not familiar with the subject to understand the financial and the control dynamic of the Naxal movement.
Vivek also explains through his personal experience, how Bollywood is basically a big clique of self-serving interests and bloated egos. Urban Naxals describes the economics of movie making, and how strong patronage networks can sabotage or derail any project at their whims and fancies. The sad part of this view of Bollywood is that people who market themselves as the champions of new, unsupported, and variegated voices are almost always at the forefront of shutting or ignoring these voices, in direct contrast to their carefully contrasted public personas. Although we have always known that all that glitters is not gold, Urban Naxals reminds us that all that glitters is not worthy of undying, unconditional love and adulation.
The fifth and the last aspect of the book deals with the troubles Vivek had to go through to release his movie. The movie directly and brutally confronts the popular Bollywood idea of government being the prime oppressor of villagers and adivasis and Naxals being their saviours. This truth was too much for his financiers and potential distributors to digest, either due to ideological reasons or due to their inability to upset their business networks.
Vivek thus adopted a unique social media led marketing approach to take the movie to this audience. He toured dozens of prominent universities to engage students and to warn them of the enemy within, the Naxal recruitment agents they deal with every day. Several such screening episodes led to acrimony and physical danger for Vivek, most notably in Hyderabad and Kolkata. Through these experiences of screening movies for students, Vivek also brings out real life examples of an extreme-left academia controlling the mental conditioning of India’s new generation.
Vivek was incessantly mocked by his critics — mostly who had not seen the movie — for making a substandard product. This book puts this criticism in perspective. A movie crew working on a budget of ₹1.5 crores only with no money to pay market rates of any established actors and just one month window to shoot a movie with non-standard technical equipment was compared with regular studio-led Bollywood offerings and panned. Although Vivek has tried explaining this aspect many times on Twitter and confronted his critics, the starkness of the mountain of backlash he was against comes through strongly and grimly in this book.
Much of what Vivek has described in his movie has already played out in real life in the last couple of years. Student led movements have attempted to disrupt the government and hijacked media discussions for weeks at end. Prominent names from with academia and social welfare groups have been linked with elements fanning social disharmony and caste schisms across India. Recently, these names have even been arrested in some cases for actively plotting to create social unrest.
In the last four years since he took to social media to promote his movie, Vivek has singlehandedly established a narrative space on the dangers of Naxalism in India. This book is a perfect culmination and a vivid documentary compilation of that process. Many more Indians are today aware of the enemy lurking around them through Vivek’s works and understand the crucial role of academia in shaping political behaviour much better.
But above all, this book coins the eponymous term Urban Naxals, which will be etched in India’s political lexicon for a long time to come. The term is already popular in TV debates and in social media, and gives a powerful descriptor to the Breaking India forces hiding behind their positions of power in academia, media, think tanks, and other nongovernmental organizations.
Urban Naxals is must read, not necessarily as a literary classic, but as a powerful narration of Vivek’s personal conviction against organized backlash and systemic decay.
Disclosure: Although I had already bought a copy of the book on Amazon, Vivek sent me an author-signed copy. Also as already stated, I know Vivek personally.
May 2, 2020
Naxalism is quite real, ugly and bloody. But how has it survived even after 70 years of independence with/without any help is what Vivek Agnihotri explores in his movie ‘Buddha in a traffic jam’ ( Do give the movie a shot too ).
This book is about conceptualizing, making of this movie and its release - in the course of which the author unveils the bloody Naxal racket spreading its tentacles in the country. It is no more associated with what it started and naxals are now no less than terrorists.
Agnihotri ji not only explores but also busts the nexus that’s running amongst Naxals, artisans, intelligentsia and academicians with news articles and detailed discussion with students around India.
The highest level of intolerance that the leftists and communists show, the extreme venom and hatred towards anything positive, the exploitation of FoE, the resort to violence whenever faced with facts on face - these are almost unbelievable and you have to actually read through the events that occurred during screening of the movie to believe these.
Agnihotri ji also correctly judges the media & so called seasoned opinion makers and intelligent folks of India. Since long they were the ones whose voices were heard. They could set and disrupt a narrative according to their own. This country was just a property of theirs.
They first lost this power corridor in Gujarat & turned venomous against “we all know who”. With the advent of social media they lost their relevance too. And if that was not the last nail in their coffin, they lost power corridor nationwide once Modi became PM. The banning of their monetary sources I.e. the NGOs and a drastic drop down in Naxal activities, unprecedented surrendering of Naxal radicals are now shifting their ground beneath.
He is bang on when he says that there are many Indias within an India. And no India has any clue about ground realities of any other India. But inspire of that the country survived and is still surviving.
The last section of the book unfolds and deals extensively on the leftist racket of this country more than the other sections. So, if you are an impatient reader, pls pls... do read at least the 4th section of this book.
Facts are facts, no matter if people like them or not; no matter if it is popular with people or not.
Recommended.
This book is about conceptualizing, making of this movie and its release - in the course of which the author unveils the bloody Naxal racket spreading its tentacles in the country. It is no more associated with what it started and naxals are now no less than terrorists.
Agnihotri ji not only explores but also busts the nexus that’s running amongst Naxals, artisans, intelligentsia and academicians with news articles and detailed discussion with students around India.
The highest level of intolerance that the leftists and communists show, the extreme venom and hatred towards anything positive, the exploitation of FoE, the resort to violence whenever faced with facts on face - these are almost unbelievable and you have to actually read through the events that occurred during screening of the movie to believe these.
Agnihotri ji also correctly judges the media & so called seasoned opinion makers and intelligent folks of India. Since long they were the ones whose voices were heard. They could set and disrupt a narrative according to their own. This country was just a property of theirs.
They first lost this power corridor in Gujarat & turned venomous against “we all know who”. With the advent of social media they lost their relevance too. And if that was not the last nail in their coffin, they lost power corridor nationwide once Modi became PM. The banning of their monetary sources I.e. the NGOs and a drastic drop down in Naxal activities, unprecedented surrendering of Naxal radicals are now shifting their ground beneath.
He is bang on when he says that there are many Indias within an India. And no India has any clue about ground realities of any other India. But inspire of that the country survived and is still surviving.
The last section of the book unfolds and deals extensively on the leftist racket of this country more than the other sections. So, if you are an impatient reader, pls pls... do read at least the 4th section of this book.
Facts are facts, no matter if people like them or not; no matter if it is popular with people or not.
Recommended.
May 27, 2018
This is a book to buy, read , gift, discuss and comprehend. Such a book comes once in a lifetime!
November 21, 2018
On the face of it, this book is a memoir of how the author directed and screened a "world-changing" movie beating all the odds.
This book is full of SHIT. Is the author schizophrenic? He is imagining things which don't exist. He has this weird philosophy that Naxalites/Maoists have planted their members in cities in the form of intelligentsia such as professors, activists and they will soon revolt against the nation.
Either the author wrote the book when he was high or he is just plain stupid.
And the book is basically a rant. a rant against Leftists. A rant against Bollywood. A rant against basically anyone who doesn't support or agree with the author.
Full of negativity.
If the author discards his conspiracy theory and fulminations against those who don't help him/agree with him, he is actually a good writer. I am pretty sure he can write a "world-changing" fiction novel if he decides to write one.
This book is full of SHIT. Is the author schizophrenic? He is imagining things which don't exist. He has this weird philosophy that Naxalites/Maoists have planted their members in cities in the form of intelligentsia such as professors, activists and they will soon revolt against the nation.
Either the author wrote the book when he was high or he is just plain stupid.
And the book is basically a rant. a rant against Leftists. A rant against Bollywood. A rant against basically anyone who doesn't support or agree with the author.
Full of negativity.
If the author discards his conspiracy theory and fulminations against those who don't help him/agree with him, he is actually a good writer. I am pretty sure he can write a "world-changing" fiction novel if he decides to write one.
September 4, 2018
a book that should be read and understood by every college going students in india.
i would put it a self-motivation book than a political one, the tone which he lives and narrates the incidents is amazing...
its high time to expose the urban naxals within oneself, and start contributing towards the betterment of India as a whole...
i would put it a self-motivation book than a political one, the tone which he lives and narrates the incidents is amazing...
its high time to expose the urban naxals within oneself, and start contributing towards the betterment of India as a whole...
May 30, 2018
One of the most serious reads i have read till date.Pages are full of dense texts and facts that you may never know if you have not read the book.Hats off to the boldness of Author Vivek Agnihotri.The book is a newsy account of a filmmakers encounter with radicalism in urban India.The book is about the urban naxals who romanticize the naxal cause.Urban Naxals is gripping and this book is going to linger in your mind for long time.Language of the book is simple.Cover and title is apt to the story and compel you to pick it up. Book is an excellent read, which keeps your interest alive till last page.The most hard hitting book i have ever read.Highly recommend for everyone, doesnot matter from which section you belong (Left or Right) just go this book.
June 19, 2018
"One of the speakers at the Mumbai launch of the book, Urban Naxals by Vivek Agnihotri, was Sandeep Singh. He talked of the wars that are no more fought by swords and guns – but by words. The term #UrbanNaxal which is the product of Agnihotri’s book, is a weapon, in that sense. In times of unconventional warfare, where the enemy remains invisible; terms like #UrbanNaxals are used to define and name an enemy. Proper terms are like night vision and thermal imaging cameras that help us identify the enemy better."
Continue reading.
Full review at https://filmytake.wordpress.com/2018/...
Continue reading.
Full review at https://filmytake.wordpress.com/2018/...
November 23, 2019
A Must Read Book For Anybody
May 30, 2021
We all love watching movies. Some more than the other. Watching motion pictures and web series has now become our new pastime. Especially in this pandemic time, this has become our only mood-refreshing tool. Indian people are more inclined towards watching bollywood movies. Although present day youth have become more interested in watching Hollywood and english series, that got streamed on Netflix and other such apps. But have we ever wondered how such movies and series have been created at the first place ? How much time does it take to make a full-fledged movie ? What resources does one need to present the entire scene consolidated in three hours ? Vivek Agnihotri, one of the well-known indian directors, have taken the pain of explaining all the above questions in great detail. His book 'Urban naxals' is a sort of his experiences while making his third film 'Buddha in a traffic jam'. He has probably decided to share the torments and problems, he had once gone through between his year-long journey. As the name says it all, this book has targeted the reason behind his decision of choosing naxals as the central theme of his movie and the discoveries and informations associated with it.
The book began against the background of author's life before making the film. It taIks about his academic career and his decision to become a director. He discussed about his first two films and the situation he himself have gone through, in the entire process. Then he jumped about his idea of making a film about the naxals and the way they used to operate in urban culture. He got this eerie idea while hanging out with his students-cum-friends at a university. They discussed about their plan of creating a motion picture for their graduation ceremony and asked him to direct it for them.
Talking with his friends gave Vivek an idea of making a picture on one such topic, which haven't brought yet. He wanted to point out the nexus of naxals in cities and universities. He has done a deep research on how naxals work, how this idea germinate at the first place, who others fund them, from where did they get their weapons and how are they different from maoists. All this is earnestly explained in this book. Besides this, he also talked about the rejection he faced from bollywood and all other production houses and how at the end he was forced to screen his movie at various top-level universities. This book is both about his struggles and success in launching a movie of different taste and topic, which concerned a serious and less-discussed matter, that is, the spreading nexus of naxals in urban areas.
My Rating - 3.4/5
The book began against the background of author's life before making the film. It taIks about his academic career and his decision to become a director. He discussed about his first two films and the situation he himself have gone through, in the entire process. Then he jumped about his idea of making a film about the naxals and the way they used to operate in urban culture. He got this eerie idea while hanging out with his students-cum-friends at a university. They discussed about their plan of creating a motion picture for their graduation ceremony and asked him to direct it for them.
Talking with his friends gave Vivek an idea of making a picture on one such topic, which haven't brought yet. He wanted to point out the nexus of naxals in cities and universities. He has done a deep research on how naxals work, how this idea germinate at the first place, who others fund them, from where did they get their weapons and how are they different from maoists. All this is earnestly explained in this book. Besides this, he also talked about the rejection he faced from bollywood and all other production houses and how at the end he was forced to screen his movie at various top-level universities. This book is both about his struggles and success in launching a movie of different taste and topic, which concerned a serious and less-discussed matter, that is, the spreading nexus of naxals in urban areas.
My Rating - 3.4/5
October 27, 2018
Prima facie, it may look like a right-wing oriented book, or one with too distorted and one-sided arguments. But still it’s worth a read.
The fact cannot be denied regarding the presence of a formidable intelligentsia belonging to both the schools of thought.
First hand view regarding the naxal problem, how it has graduated over the years and has got converted from a class-war based issue to a full blown notorious enterprise today- there are many takers for this argument.
Congratulation to mr Agnihotri for vividly depicting the less shown face of the movement.
He has also aptly pointed out how the mainstream media can make or break any argument, and hence only a gullible fool today will base his views on the basis of media reports, rather than actually doing his own research.
What more needs to be understood is the significance of psychological warfare or the lengths to which a determined group can go, if it is systematically and clinically indoctrinated with a benign/ malignant propaganda.
The fact cannot be denied regarding the presence of a formidable intelligentsia belonging to both the schools of thought.
First hand view regarding the naxal problem, how it has graduated over the years and has got converted from a class-war based issue to a full blown notorious enterprise today- there are many takers for this argument.
Congratulation to mr Agnihotri for vividly depicting the less shown face of the movement.
He has also aptly pointed out how the mainstream media can make or break any argument, and hence only a gullible fool today will base his views on the basis of media reports, rather than actually doing his own research.
What more needs to be understood is the significance of psychological warfare or the lengths to which a determined group can go, if it is systematically and clinically indoctrinated with a benign/ malignant propaganda.
January 27, 2019
Echoing the author's thoughts 'Its the victory if Buddha'.
An alternate narrative so easily explained in the book and in the movie.
I would recommend watching the movie 'Buddha in a traffic jam' before you start reading this book so that it will make more sense.
I also feel that typically in some good institutes the trend of hating India is gaining traction day after day. It's become fashionable to be leftist (some even upgrade to urban Naxals) as well. We have seen people in all walks of life showering support to breaking India forces on TV, in newspapers, in cinema, in politics, in colleges. However, I always used to think how do we connect all of these dots. This book has done exactly the same.
Some things that you might have observed will start making more sense. Even if you read some of the hateful reviews here, you will find the sense behind their inspiration.
May God give sense to all. Let their be peace. And opportunities for all. Because Azaadi India ki growth se milegi, India k strong banne se milegi, Azaadi ke naaro se Nahi.
An alternate narrative so easily explained in the book and in the movie.
I would recommend watching the movie 'Buddha in a traffic jam' before you start reading this book so that it will make more sense.
I also feel that typically in some good institutes the trend of hating India is gaining traction day after day. It's become fashionable to be leftist (some even upgrade to urban Naxals) as well. We have seen people in all walks of life showering support to breaking India forces on TV, in newspapers, in cinema, in politics, in colleges. However, I always used to think how do we connect all of these dots. This book has done exactly the same.
Some things that you might have observed will start making more sense. Even if you read some of the hateful reviews here, you will find the sense behind their inspiration.
May God give sense to all. Let their be peace. And opportunities for all. Because Azaadi India ki growth se milegi, India k strong banne se milegi, Azaadi ke naaro se Nahi.
June 8, 2019
The journey of man of his fight against norm believed blindly.
It is not an eye opener for me, I have always believed that there are powers at play that put out anti-India, anti-solution narrative to break our nation. But to see how hard it is one should read this book.
The pain of a creative person for divulging the horrors and fiction of a society needs support from so many direction. But I would suggest that one gives a round of applause for Mr. Vivek Agnihotri's family.. The lady who I adore as an actress Ms. Pallavi joshi and their kids.. To support a person who being creative is fanciful to his emotion needs a rock solid base to move the nation's opinions.
And he did it.
I thank him for this book. Easy read, informative and the self musings captured by him are a topic of books onto themselves.
Sir, I am looking forward to your next book.
As put by you. This is a victory of Buddha. 🙏
It is not an eye opener for me, I have always believed that there are powers at play that put out anti-India, anti-solution narrative to break our nation. But to see how hard it is one should read this book.
The pain of a creative person for divulging the horrors and fiction of a society needs support from so many direction. But I would suggest that one gives a round of applause for Mr. Vivek Agnihotri's family.. The lady who I adore as an actress Ms. Pallavi joshi and their kids.. To support a person who being creative is fanciful to his emotion needs a rock solid base to move the nation's opinions.
And he did it.
I thank him for this book. Easy read, informative and the self musings captured by him are a topic of books onto themselves.
Sir, I am looking forward to your next book.
As put by you. This is a victory of Buddha. 🙏
June 21, 2018
I won't be exaggerating if I call this book as Anti Communist/ Anti Hypocratic Manifesto.
When I watched the film, I thought that the Nexus was limited only to the self-proclaimed intellectuals of universities and some art clubs. After reading this book and due to some of my personal experience I realized that these hypocrites are omnipresent in large numbers in every urban society and never thinks twice to obstruct any development or upliftment works of for that matter any work taken up by their opponents for the development of society.
This book inspires us to fight the evil with an idea and not with the same strategies that evil adopt.
Although its well known that Kauravas were 100 and Pandavas were 5, the author's reference to it at an appropriate moment inspires me to fight with an idea against these Hypocritic Commie Pigs.
When I watched the film, I thought that the Nexus was limited only to the self-proclaimed intellectuals of universities and some art clubs. After reading this book and due to some of my personal experience I realized that these hypocrites are omnipresent in large numbers in every urban society and never thinks twice to obstruct any development or upliftment works of for that matter any work taken up by their opponents for the development of society.
This book inspires us to fight the evil with an idea and not with the same strategies that evil adopt.
Although its well known that Kauravas were 100 and Pandavas were 5, the author's reference to it at an appropriate moment inspires me to fight with an idea against these Hypocritic Commie Pigs.
July 30, 2018
A writer's dare to seek his ideologies facing all kinds of odds and challenges in a country like India. Vivek Agnihotri take a bow. I cannot comment on his ideologies but i can comment on his writing. Crisp and Classic at the same time. Many things which could have been easily masked were reaveled in the book. Many controversial, sensetive and political topics are very well explained from thew writer's point of view.
Naxalism which is a debatable topic is throughly researched and presented in a best possible outcome. The book has everything, be it politics, films, relationships, masala, reality, struggle, research, naxals, adivasis, and what not. His writing has truth in it since it has put everything so bluntly. He has not tried to please any set of intellectuals or politicians.
Amazing. Glad i read it.
Naxalism which is a debatable topic is throughly researched and presented in a best possible outcome. The book has everything, be it politics, films, relationships, masala, reality, struggle, research, naxals, adivasis, and what not. His writing has truth in it since it has put everything so bluntly. He has not tried to please any set of intellectuals or politicians.
Amazing. Glad i read it.
February 23, 2019
This Book title often used by Indian Right Wing but if someone read the whole book it helps to understand how Indian left hierarchy works how Indian youth easily fall in the trap in the name of progressive, anti caste, modern etc., and helps to understand with authentic evidence how the defense system of Indian liberals work. Am a social worker I have read its views about India after I started to read vivekananda, Breaking India and "communism drought, murder, catastrophic" i was shocked social work was biased Anti India, Anti Hindu narrative with fabricated facts but after reading this book it was eye opener that why such biased intelligentsia works against India 🇮🇳 but I would say its not a BJP Or RSS ideology rather it's a plot which discuss making India forces 🆚 breaking India forces
#Vandematharam
#bharath matha ki jai
#Vandematharam
#bharath matha ki jai
May 6, 2019
Urban Naxals can be defined as: spreading Fake Propaganda of Azadi (Freedom) to tribals, Adivasis, minorities, Dalits being narrated by people sitting in an influential position. Persuading young minds in Universities/Colleges as there tools for damaging Democratic, Republic India. Amplifying selective portions of stories by prestitute and showcasing huge unrest in the country.
This book is an eye-opener for every one who wants to understand how Naxalism has spread its roots in Urban India and trying to propagate fake narrative about how state/nation has always overpowered the rights of tribals & adivasis. And how in between all these agenda driven politics, middleman is enjoying and flourishing.
Thanks to Vivek for bringing the true story in limelight and thus causing widespread debate & thinking, separating so-called Liberals from Nationalist.
This book is an eye-opener for every one who wants to understand how Naxalism has spread its roots in Urban India and trying to propagate fake narrative about how state/nation has always overpowered the rights of tribals & adivasis. And how in between all these agenda driven politics, middleman is enjoying and flourishing.
Thanks to Vivek for bringing the true story in limelight and thus causing widespread debate & thinking, separating so-called Liberals from Nationalist.
January 6, 2020
Must read book for every Indian. Read this book even if you don't read any other book in your life for this book brings to light the whole Nexus of the naxalite movement in its current form along with the vision and mission of the movement and how they plan to bring it about. You'll be amazed by all the things you didn't know from how movement started to how it has entered the academia and how controls everything from behind the curtains. This is also a book of perseverance. The way in which Mr Vivek Agnihotri stood his ground even when he had no money, contacts, contracts, sponsors, etc for an idea he believed in inspires and motivates me to the core. The movie is awesome too by the way, in my opinion, it's one of the best that Bollywood has to offer. Others being 'The Tashkent Files' and 'Tumbadd'.
March 6, 2020
EYE -OPENER
If the JNU incident hadn't happen . One may not believe the author. But Mr youth proved it. Whatever he has said will definitely spark the mind of the reader and will certainly make one aware of the agenda running in our country by the so called intellectuals. Part 4 is where the real fun begins. Must read for anyone who wants to do something for our country.
If the JNU incident hadn't happen . One may not believe the author. But Mr youth proved it. Whatever he has said will definitely spark the mind of the reader and will certainly make one aware of the agenda running in our country by the so called intellectuals. Part 4 is where the real fun begins. Must read for anyone who wants to do something for our country.
April 6, 2020
A must for all Indians who see all so called intellengsia ploughing a common agenda and a narrative, time to look forward to a progressive outlook to a decades old challenge.
March 9, 2019
Riveting one word to describe the book!! Agnihotri has a fluid pen and an agile mind to be able to pen the book in such a lucid . He goes not mince words brutally frank in naming people where he can. Exposing the hypocrisy of Left wingers and so called intellectuals of this country , the ones who want to break this nation to “ pieces” and the very ones who cannot contribute a bit to society. He exposes their hunger for power. Thank you author for engaging my mind whilst reading , something I experienced after a very long time . Fully deserved 5 star rating. Next must watch the movie too.
October 27, 2018
Satyameva Jayate.
I have tears in my eyes. This is the victory of Buddha. The truth. There may not be a place for the alternate narrative in Naxal-infested jungles, campuses, media and minds but in the world of real, rational and sane people, there is always a place for truth – the only narrative one needs to know. Satyameva Jayate.
I have tears in my eyes. This is the victory of Buddha. The truth. There may not be a place for the alternate narrative in Naxal-infested jungles, campuses, media and minds but in the world of real, rational and sane people, there is always a place for truth – the only narrative one needs to know. Satyameva Jayate.
September 24, 2019
This is a seminal work by Vivek Agnihotri ji. As 'eye-opening' as anything could get. An absolute must read for every one of us, especially for the young generation, regardless of the ideology one may generally subscribe to.
Also do watch the film "Buddha in a traffic jam".
Also do watch the film "Buddha in a traffic jam".
September 2, 2018
Must read. Lifts the veil over the so called Activists who in the garb of helping tribals are actually support systems of the Naxals
November 26, 2018
Read this book because some people don't want you to..........
Just read it to get a break in flow of pseudo liberal media Dictators.
Just read it to get a break in flow of pseudo liberal media Dictators.
May 7, 2019
Those who really want to know what urban naxals is about. Read this book.
April 28, 2019
I'm a voracious reader and have read over a few hundred books in my life. I'm an ardent Robert Ludlum fan and a John Grisham fan. While they do discuss the facets of a near unimaginable but true section of the society, they do bother or question. I've read all books of Anuj Dhar and do know that the Indian history has been manipulated by a certain family and it's followed whose prime objective is loot and corruption. But...
Urban Naxals does scare. It scares me for it exposes a pattern. The most destructive of forces is one that hits the intellect and the most dangerous of the gangs is one that lies low, patiently, gradually sneaking into the lives of common men, and injecting venom into the social ecosystem.
I have read Marx and Hegel, and while their philosophy is good, reality speaks differently.
The reality stands "exposed" here. Decades of planning have given way to disruption. The mafia has brilliantly chosen to attack a vital cog in the society - students, aspirants, the architects of a new India. They have damaged the foundation as a termite attacks the insides. Their agenda is dangerous.
Summing up.. What the author fearlessly (I use the word deliberately) portrays is how much our own oblivion and a general lack of belief in India, and ignorance has contributed to the most selfish, the most ignomous section of intellectual mafia and it's silent but scary growth.
About time that this book forms the baseline of more findings. This book is a calling bell... To awareness and self realisation! Well done Video Agnihotri. This is however only the beginning of the vision, as Kher Saab had pointed out to you.
Urban Naxals does scare. It scares me for it exposes a pattern. The most destructive of forces is one that hits the intellect and the most dangerous of the gangs is one that lies low, patiently, gradually sneaking into the lives of common men, and injecting venom into the social ecosystem.
I have read Marx and Hegel, and while their philosophy is good, reality speaks differently.
The reality stands "exposed" here. Decades of planning have given way to disruption. The mafia has brilliantly chosen to attack a vital cog in the society - students, aspirants, the architects of a new India. They have damaged the foundation as a termite attacks the insides. Their agenda is dangerous.
Summing up.. What the author fearlessly (I use the word deliberately) portrays is how much our own oblivion and a general lack of belief in India, and ignorance has contributed to the most selfish, the most ignomous section of intellectual mafia and it's silent but scary growth.
About time that this book forms the baseline of more findings. This book is a calling bell... To awareness and self realisation! Well done Video Agnihotri. This is however only the beginning of the vision, as Kher Saab had pointed out to you.
July 9, 2018
Though the book has not been written in a very engaging manner (Not in terms of content but in terms of writing style), but still a good read for everyone. Hardly matters if you are a leftist or a right-wing, this book will give you a different perspective which you rarely find to read.
This Book contains the whole Journey of the author (Vivek Agnihotri) during his movie "Budhaa In Traffic Jam". All the trouble he faced during shooting to promotional events in different elite institutes. It sounds too filmy that most of the places he visited during film promotion, contains a typical climax like every typical Bollywood movie and after a point of time you will start getting bored of this baby crying content.
This book shows a psychological aspect of human behaviour that when someone starts hitting at your G spot (Weakness), you start behaving like a pimp. Your philosophy of being liberal starts sucking and then to hide the weakness of your belief system, you become intolerant and violent.
This Book contains the whole Journey of the author (Vivek Agnihotri) during his movie "Budhaa In Traffic Jam". All the trouble he faced during shooting to promotional events in different elite institutes. It sounds too filmy that most of the places he visited during film promotion, contains a typical climax like every typical Bollywood movie and after a point of time you will start getting bored of this baby crying content.
This book shows a psychological aspect of human behaviour that when someone starts hitting at your G spot (Weakness), you start behaving like a pimp. Your philosophy of being liberal starts sucking and then to hide the weakness of your belief system, you become intolerant and violent.
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