Spread over 15 of the country's 28 states, India's Maoist movement is now one of the world's biggest and most sophisticated extreme-left movements. Hardly a week passes without people dying in strikes and counter-strikes by the Maoists - interchangeably known as the Naxalites - and the police and paramilitary forces. In this brilliant and sobering examination of the "Other India", Sudeep Chakravarti combines reportage, political analysis, and individual case histories as he takes us to the heart of Maoist zones in the country - areas of extreme destitution, bad governance and perpetual war.