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Small, insignificant provincial towns enjoy brief moments of prominence when they are catapulted on to the centre-stage of the country’s attention. The reason is a combination of people and events which culminates in outbreaks of violence in previously peaceful environs. M J. Akbar’s book is an attempt to report on the genesis of violence in post-Independence India, and to study the scars that remain long after the events have been erased from the ephemeral memories of our whimsical rulers.

Akbar begins his journey through the country’s battle-scarred towns in Jamshedpur in April 1979. The year is significant—thirty-two years after Independence, a new generation of leaders has come of age. A generation which has unfortunately accepted freedom as its birthright while forgetting the struggle which made it a reality.