SUNDAY, MAY 19, 2024
Coping with Maoism!
Tribals have a legitimate grievance of being marginalised by the Indin Government writes ervell e. menezes
It all began in the late 1960s, possibly in 1967 in Naxalbari in West Bengal when the peasants rose up in revolt against the farmers and the government because they felt they were oppressed. Thus began the Naxalite movement with Charu Mazumdar, Jangal Santhal and Kanu Sanyal as its founding fathers. Charu Mazumdar, the chief theoretician of the Naxalites and the promoter of the “annihilation campaign,” died in police custody in 1972. His theory is that only the annihilation can produce “the new man who will defy death and be free from all thought of self-interest.”
Jangal Santhal later became an alcoholic and eventually died in jail in 1981 and Kanu Sanyal committed suicide on March 23 by hanging himself in his hut after his disillusionment with the way his colleagues used Communism for monetary gain. But he remained a true Communist who never asked for any fovours. In its new avatar, the Naxalites borrowed from Mao who said the guerrillas are the fish and the people are the water, they swim in it. Mao also advocated protracted war against the System. This amalgam of Naxalism and Maoism is fast spreading in the country and threatens to engulf it if it isn’t checked by the Government. Statements like Home Minister P.Chidambaran’s that Maoism will be wiped out by 2013 are not enough. It is the manner in which he plans to do so that is more important.
You cannot fight fire with fire always and in this case it is their firm belief that they will not surrender till their goal is achieved. When folks are willing to die for what they believe in, violence is no solution. It is like religious wars in Northern Ireland, and West Asia that went on an on indefinitely. One needs to convince them with an alternative plan to look into their grievances and try and redress them. After all the tribals do have a legitimate grievance of being displaced from their own land. It is the usual colonial theory or how the white man has taken advantage of the locals. Well known author Arundati Roy in her essay “Walking with the Comrades” in “Outlook” has much to say about the Maoist movement and she did this after living and travelling with them in those very areas where the People’s Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA) is active. In places like Dandakarnya, also referred to DK, in Chhattisgarh the People’s Governments (or Janatana Sarkars) is made up of nine departments. They are agriculture, trade and industry, commerce, economics, industry, education, defence, heath, justice, forests and Public Relations.
The Red Corridor, as it is now called, extends from Telangana in Andhra through Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Jharkand up to Bihar and pockets of West Bengal, East Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The tribal area in rich in minerals like iron ore and bauxite. If it is homeland to the tribals it is now dreamland to the corporate world. Ms Roy goes on to say : “…but I’m twisted enough to suspect that if there is a cancer hospital, there must be a flat-topped bauxite mountain somewhere.” This is called the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). It allows mining companies to become duplicitous, run with the hares and hunt with the hounds, The CSR masks the outrageous economics that underpins the mining sector in India. For example, according to a Lokayukta report from Karnataka, for every tonne of iron ore mined by the private company the government gets a royalty of Rs 27 and the mining company makes Rs 5000. Unbelievable !
To fight the PLGA the powers that be have set up the Salwa Judum, a government-sponsored vigilante group run by Congress MLA Mahendra Karma who is one of the big farmers and naturally affected by the Maoist agenda. They have set up a Counter-Terrorism and Jungle Warfare College run by B.K. Powar. Ms Roy calls him the Rumpelstiltskin of this warm charged with the task of turning corrupt policemen (straw) into jungle commandos (gold). “Fight a guerilla like a guerilla,” the motto of the warfare training school, is painted on the rocks. The men are taught to run, slither, jump on and off , air-borne helicopters ride horses, eat snakes and live off the jungle.
Eight hundred policemen graduate from this warfare school every six weeks. Twenty such schools are being planned all over India. The police force is gradually being turned into an army (in Kashmir, it is the other way around, the army is being turned into an administrative police force). Upside down, inside out. Either way, the Enemy is the people. Hence there are two parallel systems of government here, the Janatana Sarkar and the Looti Sarkar. It is the people’s government versus the government’s government. It is easier on the liberal conscience to believe that the war in the forests is a war between the Government of India and the Maoists who call the elections a sham, Parliament a pigsty and have openly declared their intention to overthrow the Indian State. But they do not realise that the tribals of Central India have a history of resistance that predates Mao by centuries. The Ho, the Oraon, the Kols, the Santhals, the Mundas and the Gonds have rebelled several times against the British, the zamindars and the money-lenders. It is this quality that has kept them alive. The rebellions may have been crushed with thousands killed but the tribals were never conquered. Hence, they rose again. The first uprising that could be described as Maoists was in Naxalbari village in West Bengal as we have said in the beginning. These tribals have a legitimate grievance as they have been marginalized by the Indian Government by way of the Constitution which ratified the colonial policy and made the State custodians of tribal homelands. Overnight they turned the entire tribal population squatters in their own land. Like the Americans did to the Indians after they went to that country. How can this travercity of justice be set right ?
It is surely something the government must act on. It is major mishaps like this that keeps one thinking. Is this accidental or deliberate. Is all this not a strategy meant to benefit certain sections of society. And it is difficult not to see the Indian state as essentially upper-caste Hindu state (regardless of the party in power) which harbours a reflexive hostility towards the “other.” One that, in true colonial fashion, sends the Nagas and Mizos to fight in Chhattisgarh, the Sikhs to Kashmir, Kashmiris to Orissa, Tamilians to Assam and so on. If this is not protracted warfare, what indeed is? Yes, what we read in newspaper reports is just the tip of the iceberg. Three-fourths of it is below water and cannot be seen waiting to fester and explode. It’s time to deal with it now on a war-footing Mr Chidambaran.
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You lot really scare the pants off me!
By Marc de Souza
I adore women. The eternal argument about sex equality is totally lost on me because there never has been any doubt in my mind that you lot are far superior to mere males. All I ask ladies, is that you do not take it too far.
How to handle this new, stronger breed of women without losing our masculine appeal, that is the question? I realise that original sin is more newsworthy than original goodness. Sometimes people’s goodness is so taken for granted we do not even see it.
Being born in a family of three sisters, I am not fully domesticated. My siblings did not allow me in the kitchen. They allowed me to escape, not adapt. They wanted to live as nature intended.
Years roll and just as everybody has a dream holiday – to see the seamy, sizzling side of life - every person embarking on the adventure of cooking has a dream kitchen. This is mine: It is large - there is nothing kitchenette about it - with rust-tiled floors, and white walls. In the centre stands a big scrubbed wooden table surrounded by battered chairs and worn stools. The biggest object is the washing-up machine. I used to like washing up, but now I like it better if dinner washes itself up. That way, I do not hate my guests when they go.
On the walls, I would like lots of books, blackboards, and clips so I can stick up recipes. A music system because I like tinkling music with my soup. I would also hang up odd saucepans, strange kitchen tools and measuring rings.
And window please! Because as I cook, I like looking out and wondering what passers-by will have for dinner. Are they frying pan people or coquette and ramekin creatures? And besides the window, a tooth mug holder, to hold my glass of cooking sherry. No, I am not addicted, one small glass lasts me three days, but it is sure a little luxury. I am not sure if I want a telephone. Cooking and contemplation are closely related, and I do not like being jarred.
I sometimes concentrate on spirituality so hard I forget God gave me a body as well, and that needs some consideration too. Recently, I was saying such silly things to people and getting so irritated with them. Such conduct did not do for an elderly person and I wondered what hit me. The doctor said it was much too high, and that was the cause of crabbiness.
I should certainly pray he said, for he was a devout medic, but I should ask the good Lord to help me do something about my diet for I was dreadfully overweight. The body can sometimes be overwhelming in its effects. I really understood this. My spirituality looked helplessly on while I was one moment a Jekyll and the next moment a Hyde. Thank God in a month’s time everything has returned to normal. Now, if you’ve had a shock, both your body and spirit need some attention.
Now cooking in my wonder kitchen. The terminology of recipes always foxes me. I am for simple cooking and whole-some meals.
I cook fish curry and rice, the staple of Goans, with requisite assorted pickles to chase it down. I was brought up that way in the village.
I relish the fat brown unpolished rice, bubbling with vitamins. With just enough water, I cook rice for a while, switch off the gas, cover the lid, leave it like that for some 26 minutes, and it is ready, no need to strain. I get quality fresh fish, the flashing eyes look into mine , readymade masala, coconut juice, home made toddy vinegar, lots and lots of vegetables, so that I don’t have to prepare a vegetarian dish. I fry sardines, my favourite, with scales on, to avoid messing. When cooked scales come out automatically, nothing fishy about it.
It’s not easy to fool people nowadays, as it used to be. Even if I force old friends, they are unwilling to stay for dinner, they seem to be satisfied with drinks and snacks and they beat a hasty retreat. If by chance they reluctantly stay, they peck at the food and leave lots on the plate. They do not enter into the spirit of the game. Not to worry, love me or loathe me, it is a free society.
