The article engages with the historiography of the Naxalbari movement in West Bengal in order to underline some epistemological problems in the study of recent history and revolutionary movements. The essay be-gins with the circumstances that gave rise to the movement, trying to un-derline its complexity and multifaceted character. It then presents the ma-jor literary and research-based publications in English to show some bias in producing knowledge about the movement. Thereafter, the article questions the bias or lack of interest on the historicization of the move-ment pointing at the problem of bipolarization of ideas by the authors, and at the absence of empirical researches for a considerable time. Fi-nally, the author suggests that tropes, opposite narratives, and romantici-zation on socio-political movements may be overcome through question-ing participation, and admitting the nuanced character of the personal and the political in history.
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