The Naxalites take their name from an uprising of workers in the tea gardens of the north Bengal countryside, near Naxalbari, in early 1967. Since then ‘Naxalite’ and ‘Naxalism’ have become synonymous in India with communist revolutionary ‘terrorism’.

The Naxalite movement itself, and most specifically its distinct ideology, has never been as closely and comprehensively studied as in the present book. Rabindra Ray argues that any true interpretation of Naxalism must come to grips with what it meant to be a Naxalite, and with what the practice of Naxalism meant to the participants themselves. In order to do this he distinguishes between, on one hand, the ideological statements and documents produced by the Naxalite leadership (their ‘literate ideology’) and, on the other, their activity and the significance of their actions (their ‘existential ideology’).

The Naxalites are seen, further, within the contexts of Bengali society, the varieties of Indian party communism, and the Indian peasantry and urban middle classes. The author also relates Naxalite ideology to Nietzsche and the European philosophical tradition of nihilism, as well as outlines the social and cultural heritage of Naxalism.

This third edition includes a new Afterword that explores the trajectory of communist movement in India till current times. The author examines the ideological conflict that the movement faces as well as its relevance to India today.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A “compulsively readable” (Diana Gabaldon) novel teeming with love, betrayal, and religious conflict that brings ancient Egypt to vivid life, from the author of Cleopatra’s Daughter and Maria

“Meticulously researched and richly detailed . . . an engrossing tribute to one of the most powerful and alluring women in history.”—The Boston Globe

Nefertiti and her younger sister, Mutnodjmet, have been raised in a powerful family that has provided wives to the rulers of Egypt for centuries. Ambitious, charismatic, and beautiful, Nefertiti is destined to marry Amunhotep, an unstable young pharaoh. It is hoped that her strong personality will temper the young ruler’s heretical desire to forsake Egypt’s ancient gods.

From the moment of her arrival in Thebes, Nefertiti is beloved by the people, but she fails to see that powerful forces are plotting against her husband’s reign. The only person brave enough to warn the queen is her younger sister, yet remaining loyal to Nefertiti will force Mutnodjmet into a dangerous political game—one that could cost her everything she holds dear.
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For over a decade, Nefertiti, wife of the heretic king Akhenaten, was the most influential woman in the Bronze Age world: a beautiful queen blessed by the sun god, adored by her family, and worshipped by her people.

Her image and her name were celebrated throughout Egypt and her future seemed golden. Suddenly Nefertiti disappeared from the royal family, vanishing so completely that it was as if she had never been. No record survives to detail her death, no monument serves to mourn her passing, and to this day her end remains an enigma—her body has never been found. Fully revising her classic biography of Egypt’s sun queen, historian Joyce Tyldesley draws on a wealth of scholarly and archeological evidence to investigate the truth behind the life, times, and mysterious disappearance of the legendary Nefertiti.