Dispatches From the People's War in Nepal [Hardcover]

This unique, intimate look into the People's War in Nepal provides invaluable background to the world's most vigorous Maoist movement, and insight into the theory and practice underlying contemporary Maoism elsewhere in South Asia and globally. Based on the author's reportage and interviews in guerrilla-controlled areas in 1999, Dispatches from the People's War in Nepal helps to explain why, five years later, the insurgency has acquired control over most of the Nepali countryside. Li Onesto's examination of the guerrilla army, the roles of women and national minorities in the People's War, and the conduct of general strikes in the capital of Kathmandu shed much light on the current struggle underway for the future of the Himalayan nation. (Gary Leupp, professor of history at Tufts University and Coordinator of the Asian Studies Program )

In her dispatches from the ongoing revolutionary war in Nepal, where she was the first, and longest-staying, foreign journalist to report from the Maoist-held areas, Li Onesto keeps up the committed, conscientious revolutionary journalism of John Reed, George Orwell, and Agnes Smedley. Building around the narratives of guerilla soldiers and their families, of group leaders, farmers, local officials, teachers, and artists, she provides an intimate and sympathetic view of the early stages of the People's War while giving a sense of the arduous nature of fighting a war in the Himalayas. Hers is probably the best, if not only, account of how the Maoists built their organization and movement, and of how they operate and govern. She is especially sensitive to the voices and experiences of women in the guerilla columns, who have tended to be invisible in such accounts. Included here are new chapters in which the story is updated, taking into account international intervention and future prospects for the struggle. (Stephen Mikesell, author of Class, State and Struggle in Nepal: Writings 1989-1995 )

This lively, exciting and enlightening presentation of the true portrait of the Maoist insurgency in Nepal will help people to understand the real state of affairs behind the 'People’s War' waged by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) to liberate the Nepalese people from all kinds of exploitation and repression. The most important value of this book lies in its serious analysis of several human features of the Maoist Revolution with on-the-spot descriptive facility. I agree with the writer to say that 'the Maoist Revolution in Nepal is causing surprise with its success and re-raising the question of the relevance of Communist revolution to today’s turbulent world.' (Padma Ratna Tuladhar, independent left leader, senior human rights leader and one of the facilitators in the peace talks between His Majesty’s Government of Nepal and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) )

'Li Onesto keeps up the committed, conscientious revolutionary journalism of John Reed, George Orwell, and Agnes Smedley.'