“There is definitely a marked imbalance in the society based upon the money. This entire world is broadly being differentiated into two groups – Haves and Have-nots. Those having money and those who have not. And as long as this difference would be there, you cannot imagine a society to work with a full potential.”
The entire hall got reverberated with the clap after Kadambani finished her speech.
Kadambani Sharma, a very brilliant student of sociology. She probably was one of the best orator of the college, at least her professor always was saying this to her. She even was popular in her circle of friends. Friends were calling her with the name Manu, as she was having very strong will power and was always doing what her heart think is right.
She was close to almost all the professor of her college, but whom she admire was Prof. Aruna Ghosh, the HOD of Sociology. A strong lady with a very clear thought about anything. She was so bold that even in 50's, when career was not a word go along with girl child, she studied in Presidency College of Calcutta and dared to marry a man of her choice rather than going with her father's choice. A rebellious lady in a very true sense.
Days were passing and Manu was getting more and more popular in the college campus. She was scoring good in every exam and also was getting sharper in her communication skill. People could easily get influenced with her thought. This was very much being observed by Prof. Aruna.
One day Prof. Aruna called Manu to her chamber.
“Come Manu. Sit.”
“Thanks madam” and she took the chair in front of Prof.
After a momentary silence, Prof. Aruna started with a very deep, thoughtful voice, “Manu, what are your plan for the future? Where do you want to see yourself five years down the line?”
“Professor, I didn't have thought much in that direction. Perhaps after completing my masters degree, I would get settled with some boy. My dad has already started searching a perfect match for me.” said Manu.
“But beta, you are quite very brilliant student. I think you are being sent by God for some special purpose on Earth.”
Manu was having a question mark over her face. She was a little confused of Prof. Aruna's sentence. She wasn't understanding what Aruna is saying. Though she never have thought of her career. She was quite a momentary person who enjoys what she is doing rather than worrying much about the future. She didn't have thought of her career or her aim in life.
Seeing Manu in deep thought, Prof. Aruna brought her back to her by continuing, “See Manu, I think you should be serious about your career. I know that you didn't have thought of your aim in the life, That's completely OK. It is not necessary for every girl to think of being independence in life. You only should have to be confident enough and have faith in yourself. This itself will help you to find aim in life, if it would be required in future due to some unforeseen circumstances.” Professor said keeping Manu still in a status of confusion.
“Madam...” Manu tried to clear her confusion by asking on what topic she is speaking.
“No Manu, don't say anything as long as I finish what I want to say.” Professor stopped her before she should interrupt her in her continuity.
“I think”, she continued, “you have got a great talent of speaking and influencing anyone with your very strong words. Moreover your communication skill is backed by a very strong knowledge and clear understanding which helps you speak very convincingly. Considering this ability, I would like you to meet one of the very important person I know. I think you have traits of becoming a great leader. And most importantly, the country need a leader like you who can influence and motivate the countrymen to work for country rather than going abroad and creating any brain drain situation here in India.”
“Leader! Madam don't you think you are over estimating me! I really don't have that caliber of motivating people with my speech. Giving speech in college is some different but giving speech for country is different.” Manu spoke in a single breadth.
“Don't worry beta, I know your potential. And trust me, I won't give you any wrong advice. Trust Me. We are going to meet that person tomorrow. He was one of my student long back. I had a talk with him regarding you. Do you want to meet him?”
“I think I should talk to my parents first.” Replied Manu concluding the meeting.
***
Mr. Harshawardhan Sharma was silently having his dinner. Manu and her mother was looking at Mr. Sharma to speak anything. They were almost spellbound of seeing Mr. Sharma having dinner silently.
“Manu, I didn't have stopped you doing anything. For me you had never been a daughter. I always have considered you my son. If you think politics is something that attracts you then go ahead. The only thing is, the life there is not that easy. You will not always find good people around you. You will have to deal even with people whom you hate to talk, but you still have to talk to them, even worst would have to work with them. Are you ready to face these hardships? If so then go ahead beta, I will always be with you.”
“But dad, I didn't have decided to join politics yet. I just want to meet some political person that Mrs. Aruna think I should meet. I want permission for that only.”
“Who have stopped you doing that. Go ahead”
“You know I never do anything against you. So give me permission of meeting him.” asked Manu.
“Who is that person?”
“I don't know dad”
“Whatever, go meet him. This, I am sure, would be a good experience for you. And, till how long you will keep blackmailing me with this Bharwa Karela! This is really good anyways.”
“Thank you dad. I love you so much.”There was a naughty twinkle in her eyes. This has brought a good smile over Manu's face. Although she wasn't understanding for what reason she is feeling happy.
What else Mr. Sharma expect than the happiness on his daughter's face.
***
Manu and Prof. Aruna were sitting just opposite to Pradumna Barik on a wooden chair.
Pradumna Barik. An averaged height, middle aged man with a very simple dressing. A checked white and black shirt, a plain grey paint and a pair of striped Bata sandles. An old HMT key string watch in hand. A thin mustache over long face. Black hair with a little graying near the side locks. A very different outlook than that of Manu had imagined. But he was having something which was making Manu a little nervous sitting infront of him.
“Manu, can I call you by name Manu?” Barik started the talk by breaking the ice.
“Why not sir. This would be my pleasure.” Manu, the great orator was literally struggling to find word to reply a simple question.
“See, I have heard a lot from Professor Aruna about you. I have heard that you are too rich in words. Politics today is really in need of intellectuals who can actually convey people what they think and not only this, they can influence people's head rather than their legs to follow them. And I am happy to know that you are not only a good orator but also a very brilliant student who have in depth understanding of the subject. The way Indian politics is degrading, I think young people like you would be a boon for the dying Indian politics. But it is not only the good communication skill or an above average marks in the university that is needed to stand apart in the crowd of politics but you should also know the sociology in a practical sense.” Pradumna was in a flow of saying this while making an eye contact with Manu.
Manu was listening him spellboundedly. It was like someone is narrating some epic poetry in a very classic manner and audiences are travelling with the narrator in the aura he had created with his narration.
“Professor Aruna really want you to work for country. So along with Professor, I have made an itinerary for you to actually travel and meet the real citizen of India to understand what is the importance of good leader in country and why a good leader is required. I am sure, in this process, you will also be able to identify yourself which you may not be knowing about you.” Pradumna continued.
“Manu, but you will have to be a little careful about your this visit to the real India, as this would be a little undercover visit for you. You will be going to some of the villages of interior most India which cannot be seen even in the micro maps of the country. Because of this, even the Government of India is not seeing these parts of the country and no development has reached these integral part of India yet. One of our young leader would accompany you throughout your journey of 4 days. And don't worry about your security and safety. This will be our concern. After coming back from there, you can decide your fate.” Pradumna concluded.
“I think this would be an exciting visit for me. I am ready to do this. But may I know where do I have to go?”
“You will have to go to Bailadila of Chattisgarh. Its the bordering area of Chattisgarh with Andhra Pradesh.”
“But that is a naxal affected area. It would be dangerous to go there.”
“Who said that naxalism is a dangerous thing. See Naxalites are revolutionaries. And you know any revolution is meant to bring changes in status quo. If there is a philosophy and if there are lot of followers of that philosophy, you cannot say that there is something wrong with that philosophy. The only need is to know that thought process a little closely.”
“Yes you are right. But Communism was required when there was a marked societal differences. Now its not the case with our country. By and large we have achieved a social justice kind of thing. Now what is the need of this aggressive communism?” Finally Manu coming in her real skin.
“Any philosophy should not necessarily address entire population of the country neither it is required to be acceptable by the entire country. But the fact is, if there is any philosophy, is it addressing the group of people whom it meant to be. And yes, Naxalism is one such philosophy that is addressing the needs of the class of people who are the real cause of this philosophy to bring forth. And trust me, they are considerably in a good number in our country.” Pradumna has taken a little pause to let Manu understand first what has been said. He came to the window of that small room which was facing one of the biggest slum of the country and lit his cigarette, took some puffs and returned back to Manu's chair. Manu was still in deep thought while until now an outspoken Professor Aruna was just listening the conversation between the two. Aruna has chose to be a listener in this whole process of realization of Manu.
“And... when we say that there a social justice has been established in the country in a broader sense, we hardly know our own country.” This voice of Pradumna has broke the trance of Manu.
The voice continued, “When we say so, we see our surroundings only. We see our maid sipping tea with us, we think a social justice has came. We see our driver knowing about sizzlers, we say that his exactly is a social justice. We see slum people copying any bollywood star dressing, we say that this is exactly the social justice. But if we really want to know the social gap, we need to see the actual India, which either is out of sight or we don't want to see that India.”
Pradumna took a deep breadth. As if while remembering the real India, he actually had went through that India.
“And that is the reason why we want you to see that India and decide yourself if the social justice has came in this country or not. You know your India till now, during these 4 days, you will be able to see India which I am talking about, the India which always gives me sleepless nights. I want to see a single India in the eyes of every Indian. And I know, people like you will help me bring that India of my dream into reality.” This thought only has brought a smile over Pradumna face.
“Sir, who are you?” Manu was started feeling goose bumps while listening to Pradumna.
“He is Pradumna Barik.” This time Aruna said breaking her century long silence.
“You are ... The Pradumna Barik.” Manu was more shocked than surprised. “You are that Maoist Leader who is underground and no official photo of yours is with government.”
“Yes, I am.” He threw the bud of the cigarette from the window.
“Don't worry. Nothing will happen to you. The Police don't know about me being here. They won't come here neither would they dare touching you.” Knowing what is going on in the mind of Manu, Pradumna consoled her.
Manu was speechless. She wasn't knowing what to say. She again was falling short of words. She didn't have understood why this person is talking to me without any veil and how police don't have snaps of this person.
“See Manu, we are social reformers. Police know about us that way only. But then there are supporter of this philosophy there also. I think you would need more time to decide whether you want to see my India or not.”
“No Sir. I want to see that India. I don't know whether I support this philosophy or not. But at least I want to understand the need of this philosophy. For that I surely want to go and see the India you are talking about.”
“Nothing strange Professor Aruna. What you said was right. Manu is really a brave girl. I could see my India coming to the reality. Girl I am proud of you.”
“Manu, Manavendra will meet you this Sunday at the Coffee House in the afternoon. He is one of the most dynamic leader of this philosophy. From there you will have to catch a train to Raipur in the evening. You'll reach Raipur on Monday morning. From their your journey of knowing yourself begin. Rest information you will get their.” Professor Aruna was narrating the itinerary to Manu in a very chronological manner. “You will stay their till Friday and on Saturday morning you will have to come back to Mumbai by flight. You will get your ticket there in Raipur. This is going to be a very exhaustive journey with every moment of learning. Are you ready for that?” The question was more like I know you are going rather than asking.
Manu shook her head in yes without saying anything. Perhaps she was still in Pradumna's India.
***
Manu was having 3 days with her going to Chattisgarh. She studied a lot of books on Naxalism. The more she was reading, the more she started hating this philosophy. Thousand of policemen have been killed by naxalites in their violent protests. Many civilians has been affected of the land mines and lost their lives. Thousands of miles of country's land is still underdeveloped as people feared of going to naxal affected area for any development work. The literacy rate in those area are substantially lower than the national average. The infant mortality rate is high as there is no medical facility available.
The Adivasi's are still using traditional ways of treating diseases. The philosophy was not bad but this didn't have bought any marked changes in the life of people for whom this philosophy is meant for.
But then there are people like Pradumna Barik who still have great belief in this thought process. Kadambani has read about Pradumna. He was the topper of SSC and HSC. He graduated from Mumbai University and was awarded Gold Medal their. Then have went to prestigious Cambridge University for his Masters degree in World History. There again was recognized as the best student of the year. Did his M Phill from there. Even after getting so much a degree and an offer of Research Scholar, he came back to India to serve his motherland. He was intellectual in every sense.
Kadambani was feeling very much confused about this philosophy. At one side there is a very strong statistics of many brutal murders of people in the name of naxalism is letting Kadambani hate this philosophy then at other side she read about lot of people who support this philosophy and working for this. They all are best in their class as far as intellectualism is concern.
Finally she closed all the books and stopped thinking about naxalism. She decided better to see Pradumna's India from her own eyes than seeing different India from the eyes of the authors of the books she borrowed from the library of the college.
***
“Hi Kadambani. I am Manavendra Rana.” A voice followed by a hand came from the left side of Kadambani.
A tall and smart man with curly hair and clean shave in western attire was standing with a pleasant smile over his face. His hand was still projected towards Kadambani for hand shake.
“Yes I know I am smart enough to keep a lady staring at me, but you can get a chance of touching me by shaking your hand with me.”
“Oh I am sorry.” and she raised her hand to shake with him. “I am Kadambani. How are you?”
“I am good.” He took the chair in front of her. “I am sure, you must have read a lot of article about Naxalism.”
“Yes I have, but the more I am reading it the more confusion it creates. I think I should experience this whole world rather than going by the experiences of the authors.” She asked with a pause, “What would you like to have?”
“A coffee, hot eternal and nice coffee.” replied Manavendra with as warm voice as coffee.
“You must try Cafe Late here. They make the best Late in the world.”
“Whatever you say lovely lady.”
“Hey I have heard that you are one of the best youth leader of this philosophy. But you are more like a Casanova kind of a person.” Though enjoying his flirting, still she said to avoid any misunderstanding in the first meeting.
“Thanks a lot for this compliment, if it is.” he smirked, “But I am youth, and most importantly I am a youth man. Isn't it enough reason to be a little flirtatious. And yes I am follower of this philosophy by choice.”
“But I again have some apprehension about naxalism. I think this philosophy is somewhere being imposed unnecessarily to the poor Indian to keep the flame of the unnecessary revolution alive. And that is definitely not required in today's India or even in major part of world.” Finally Kadambani spoke out her heart.
“I like your aggression. This is going to help you in future. But only one thing, hold this thought. I will discuss you this again after a week.” Manavendra closed this topic as he felt this is not right place to discuss serious subjects like this, neither was this a right time as Kadambani is having one sided opinion based upon the books she read.
The coffee came there and they enjoyed the coffee talking about anything and everything they think is required to talk. Kadambani was enjoying this talk. Manavendra was really intelligent boy. Most importantly, he was quite dramatic while explaining anything. This made him sound very interesting.
***
The train was right time in the evening. Both boarded the train in the assigned coach. They took a little time to get familiar with the co-passengers. After a little talk, both went to their berth and got engrossed in the books they were carrying. While Manavendra quickly went to to sleep, Manu was still thinking about the Naxalism. She was in a state of surprise of thinking if she is really going to Bastar. And this visit is just to test her understanding about the naxalism. The philosophy that she still know a little. She never have imagined in the wildest of her dream that she would visit Bastar kind of dangerous place for justifying the philosophy which she already have developed a thought that this is not required in today's world.
“Peasants of the world are being exploited and didn't have got what they deserve, not even the assurance by the government to provide them the minimum amenities required for running a life. The right of existence is also being questioned by the capitalists on the basis of their cast, community and work. People has been differentiated into rich and poor. Now to exploit people further, poor again has been differentiated into those who qualify to run their life by serving capitalists and those who need to be exploited for maintaining the stature of capitalist. This lowest level of citizen has been least organized and hence were suffering. The suffering of this class of citizen has given birth to this philosophy called communism. All around the world, an effort had been made to organize the laborer of the world.
The fire of this has even reached India. And the communist movement started here. The movement was initially non-violent type. This didn't have got much popularity in the initial stage of coming to India. The reason was very simple. That was the time when India was struggling for her liberation. Independence struggle was more important than class struggle.
1967 was one year that had bought revolution in the communist philosophy. The premier of the communist philosophy was Mao -Tse- tung. He once had said “Weapons are an important factor in war, but not the decisive factor; it is people, not things that are decisive.” This thought had lead to limited violence in the class struggle. The communist struggle was limited to strike and non-cooperative movement with a little violence. Then again, the violence was limited to harming the government properties or properties of the capitalist as a part of their protest against the government / capitalist policy.
Till 1967, the term Naxalism was not into existence. In fact, there was no any philosophy called Naxalism.
The term Naxalites comes from Naxalbari a small village in West Bengal. Here a section of Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) led by Charu Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal led a violent uprising in 1967, trying to develop a "revolutionary opposition" in opposition to the CPI(M) leadership. The insurrection started on May 25, 1967 in Naxalbari village when a peasant was attacked by hired hands over a land dispute. Local peasants retaliated by attacking the local landlords and the violence escalated. Majumdar greatly admired Mao- Tse- tung of China and advocated that Indian peasants and lower classes must follow in his footsteps and overthrow the government and upper classes whom he held responsible for their plight. He engendered the Naxalite movement through his writings, the most famous being the “Historic Eight Documents” which formed the basis of Naxalite ideology.
This movement started going beyond the poor and peasant. The philosophy has contaminated the youth also. The Naxalites gained a strong presence amongst the radical sections of the students’ movement in Calcutta. Large number of students left their education to join revolutionary activities. Majumdar adjusted the tactics of CPI(ML), and claimed that the revolutionary warfare was to take place not only in the rural areas but everywhere and spontaneously. Thus Majumdar's 'annihilation line', a dictum that Naxalites should assassinate individual "class enemies" as a part of the insurrection was put into practice not only against landlords, but also against university teachers, police officers, politicians and others.
Throughout Calcutta, schools were shut down. Naxalite students took over Jadavpur University and used the machine shop facilities to make pipe guns to fight the police. Their headquarters became Presidency College, Kolkata.
The Naxalites soon found ardent supporters among the educated elite, and Delhi's prestigious St. Stephen's College, alma mater of many contemporary Indian leaders and thinkers, became a hotbed of Naxalite activities. This somehow became a kind of fashion among elite class to go rural and work for the improvement of the rural India. This had made this extremist communism philosophy popular in entire India except the North - East part and Jammu & Kasmir.
But right from 1967 till date, no marked changes has been observed in the life of the suppressers. The class differences are becoming narrower not because of the fact that the movement is bringing changes in the life of peasant, but because of the massive urbanization in India. The famous Bhoodan Andolan has bought marked changes in the life of land-less peasant. Then Jai Prakash Narayan's movement had played vital role in generating awareness among the suppressed class. This all was followed by the great IT Revolution in India. This spread in India like a Prairie Fire. Many changes was seen in the agriculture sector with the advent of information technology. People got acquainted with the latest technology and modern ways of cropping. Though the development didn't have reached in each and every nooks and corner of India. This is because, in those underprivileged areas, there was some or the other problems. In the far interiors of Bihar, Uttar Prades, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Andha Pradesh, the reason for being underdeveloped was this aggressive communism called Naxalism. In the North – East part of the country, the reason was very geographical as well as frontier issues with the bordering countries and the Naga – Kuki struggle. Similarly in the J & K, the reason for not reaching the development with the speed that is required is because of the terrorism.
In just 20 years of independence, some of the class of people became restless with the kind of development going on. When we as an India was struggling to run a country in an effective ways, various reforms was coming, innovation and industrialization was taking place; a small group of people get into hurry of giving the right to peasant and laborers of the country and saw violence the only way of getting that right. They motivated Peasants to hold weapons instead of their traditional agricultural equipment and participate in the violent struggle. The entire movement has brought a jolt in the communist fraternity of India. But this has been seen as an opportunity in India by China. They had started supporting this by pumping money to this violent liberation movement...”
When she slept while reading, she didn't know. She even didn't have switched off the reading light of the berth. She woke up only with a noise. She asked the passerby of the gangway about the station. The passing man said in hurry, “Madam, this is Akola Jn.”
“And when would Raipur Jn. Come.” she asked.
That man replied, “this is 5:30am. You'll reach Raipur by afternoon 3:00.”
***
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