A DOZEN men, women and boys, some no older than 15, milled about their rough tents as twilight fell in a remote forest clearing. Some were in lungyis and T-shirts; others wore fatigues, with bolt-action Enfield rifles slung on their shoulders and bandoleers around their waists. Comrade Vijja, a burly man with a bottlebrush moustache, sat with some of his troops around a cooking fire, sipping sweetened tea. He sounded...

THE PASSING OF THE Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill, 2008, on July 20 this year, a full seven years after the 86th Amendment to the Constitution stipulated that “the State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years in such manner as the State may, by law, determine”, should have been an occasion to celebrate. But both...