Description

Rajeev Bhattacharyya walked nearly 800 kilometres, over some of the most hostile terrain and through no mans land. His journey, which took three months and twenty days to complete, is unprecedented in Indian journalism. He visited the rebel bases in Eastern Nagaland, which covers a part of Myanmars Sagaing Division, stayed in the ULFA camp and interviewed its chief of staff Paresh Baruah, as also chairman of the NSCN (Khaplang), S.S. Khaplang himself. He interacted with rebels from banned outfits like the NDFB, UPPK, PLA and other groups for many of them, this was their first conversation with an Indian journalist. Bhattacharya is one of very few journalists in the world to have made this journey, and among the fewer still to have had such intimate access. Rendezvous with Rebels is the story of that journey. It is as much a travel memoir as it is a hard-hitting political account of the fissures that mark the conflicts in Indias northeast and Myanmars Sagaing Division. Bhattacharya analyzes the historical and current role of ULFA, NSCN and other rebel forces, and sizes up the current situation in eastern Nagaland vis--vis the changes taking place in Myanmar specifically, and the subcontinent generally. It is, ultimately, an up-close examination of a very thorny conflict. About The Author: Rajeev Bhattacharyya is the author of Lens and the Guerrilla: Insurgency in Indias Northeast, the first pictorial book on insurgency in India. He is a senior journalist based in Guwahati, and has worked in the past for the Times of India, the Telegraph, the Indian Express and Times Now. He is one of the founding editors of Seven Sisters Post and was its managing editor. In 2004, he was selected for the Chevening Fellowship in the UK where he studied the peace process between the British government and the Irish Republican Army. He contributes to academic journals and is an environmental activist.

Rajeev Bhattacharyya walked nearly 800 kilometres, over some of the most hostile terrain and through no mans land. His journey, which took three months and twenty days to complete, is unprecedented in Indian journalism. He visited the rebel bases in Eastern Nagaland, which covers a part of Myanmars Sagaing Division, stayed in the ULFA camp and interviewed its chief of staff Paresh Baruah, as also chairman of the NSCN (Khaplang), S.S. Khaplang himself. He interacted with rebels from banned outfits like the NDFB, UPPK, PLA and other groups for many of them, this was their first conversation with an...  Read More