Satnam, author of Jangalnama, found dead

Jangalnama made no secret of where the author’s sympathies lay. In that first decade of the new century, it was an insightful first person account of the the Maoists and the tribals, and their complex relationship.

ALMOST A decade before Arundhati Roy’s ‘Walking with The Comrades’, Satnam’s two-month sojourn in the ‘red corridor’ in 2001 led him to write Jangalnama, the book he would become best known for. A travelogue through ‘Maoist’ Bastar, it was published in Punjabi in 2004. An English translation came out in 2010.

Jangalnama made no secret of where the author’s sympathies lay. In that first decade of the new century, it was an insightful first person account of the the Maoists and the tribals, and their complex relationship. Satnam had once said that he went to the jungles of Bastar in October 2001 to understand the existence of the tribals and Maoist guerrillas and tell their side of the story.

On Thursday morning, he was found dead at his home in Patiala. The police are treating it as a case of suicide. Satnam is survived by his wife and daughter. He was reportedly suffering from depression for the past few months.

Satnam, whose real name was Gurmeet Singh, was a leftist. In the jungle, he walked with the Maoists, meeting Gond villagers during these long treks, observing their innocence and their “collective culture”.

Vishav Bharti, who did the English translation of ‘Jangalnama’, described Satnam as “selfless”, recalling how he did not take any initiative to promote the book.

Writing in Hindi, Punjabi and English, Satnam also wrote short stories and was also penning a sequel to ‘Jangalnama’, which, according to those close to him, was nearly complete. Satnam hailed to a village in Amritsar and had studied humanities at JNU and had translated ‘Spartacus’.

Filmmaker and writer Daljit Ami, who know Satnam since 2002, described him as a “contemplative and extremely sensitive human being,” who lived a life of isolation, one that emerges from an ideology which believes in an equal society and alternative systems to create a space where development is for everyone.”The present issues we face as a society, failing health, loss of faith.the reasons could be so many. We have lost a friend and a sensitive writer,” said Ami.

Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram

Tags:
suicide