A familiar name in Kerala — courtesy her role in the Pulpally revolt in which she along with other Naxal comrades stormed a police station 40 years ago — it was her campaign against Kunhalikutty three years back that got her some national attention after the late 1960s when newspapers had flashed photographs of a defiant Ajitha under arrest.
Though the translation itself leaves much to be desired, Sanju Ramachandran and Srishti Publishers must be thanked for making Ajitha’s memoir accessible to a larger audience. So what if Ajitha has since moved away from Naxalism and become a feminist, there can be no denying the spirit that saw a school girl choosing revolution over a comfortable and carefree existence.
Not the best of reads — replete as it is with revolutionary rhetoric besides a touch of self-glorification — Ajitha’s memoir, however, doubles up as a window into the mind of a foot soldier of the short-lived Naxal movement of Kerala.
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