Book Launch : Revolution Highway

Private Event

Book Launch : Revolution Highway (Fiction)
by Dilip Simeon
Organized by  : Penguin Books India
Wednesday  20 October 2010
6.oo p.m. – 9.00 p.m.
M.L Bhartia Auditroium

First fictionalized account of the Naxalite movement of the 1960s and 1970s

‘… Tell me something. Are we answerable to anyone or do we just happen to know what’s best for humanity? We kill someone in secret and leave the people to deal with the consequences. How do we know the action was acceptable to them?’
The world seems to be on the brink of change in the late 1960s—a peasant uprising in Naxalbari, West Bengal, has set off a bloody rebellion, the Vietnam War is drawing the world into a cauldron, and French workers and students have just brought their country to a standstill. Inspired by the spirit of the times, a group of friends at Delhi’s elite Mission College grapple not only with the dilemmas of their coming-of-age, but also with indignation at the injustice and poverty around them. Unaware of the implications of their actions, the friends—Mohan, Pranav, Rathin, Sin Taw and Divya—are drawn to the logic of Revolution and begin to prepare for the violent overthrow of the System.
But as they travel to filthy urban bustees, far flung towns and impoverished villages across the north Indian plains mobilising the masses for Revolution, they meet people far removed from their fantasies: Hardip, the truck driver, Jehur, the enlightened worker and Lata, the prostitute. Soon, the Bangladesh war looms over the horizon.
No longer sure of their mission, they are forced to confront the question, can a just society ever emerge from violence?

Intensely sympathetic to the choices of its characters, Dilip Simeon’s first novel, Revolution Highway, is a passionate and intelligent account of a time so turbulent that its echoes still haunt us.

About the author
Dilip Simeon studied in Delhi University in the late 1960s and taught there till 1994. His publications include a monograph on labour history, academic essays, short stories and articles on contemporary politics. He is interested in books, birds, mountains, music and the sea. He lives in Delhi.

For more information, please contact Smriti Khanna:  Penguin Books IndiaEmail :[email protected] Tel: 91 11 4613 1412