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New Delhi:
Jailed Maoist ideologue Kobad Gandhy, highlighting the problems of
Dalits and the poor in an essay reminiscing his wife Anuradha
Shanbag and her work, says in India caste consciousness supersedes
everything, including "national consciousness, identity, loyalty".
In the essay titled, "Comrade Anuradha Gandhy and the Idea of
India", Gandhy writes: "Caste consciousness supersedes national
consciousness, identity, loyalty - and everything."
"Major sections are seen as inferior (and nearly 20 percent people
treated as untouchable), merely due to birth results. It is a
society that is hierarchical, not democratic."
In the essay Gandhy wrote in April from his cell in Tihar Jail, he
says Anuradha began "studying the caste/Dalit question at a time
when the issue was an anathema to most shades of communists and by
1980 she had presented extensive analytical articles".
The essay is one of the 11 chapters in the book "Hello, Bastar",
by journalist-writer Rahul Pandita. The release of the book
coincides with the third death anniversary of Gandhy's wife.
Kobad Gandhy, an alumnus of Mumbai's St Xavier's College, was
attracted to Anuradha Shanbag, a Mumbaikar. The two married in
1977 and 'Anu', as Shanbag was called, became Gandhy's wife of 35
years, until she died of sclerosis.
Gandhy's essay is a tribute to his wife, who had sown the idea of
a perfect India into his head, early in life with her pro-Dalit
and pro-poor outlook.
"Anuradha's simplicity and total lack of ego or arrogance and her
innate attitude to see all others as her equal drew her to the
issue of caste in her early college days," the jailed Maoist
ideologue Gandhy reminisces in the book.
He was arrested in 2009. The 63-year-old leader headed the south
western regional bureau of the Communist Party of India-Maoist
before his arrest.
Anuradha inspired Gandhy into Maoist ideology and to work on the
ground in states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and
Maharashtra.
"It is an occasion to remember her monumental contribution to the
understanding of caste, the Dalit question in India and the
significance of its resolution for the democratisation of
individuals and with it the society. In a society, where a small
percentage of people consider themselves superior to others due to
birth, there can be no democratic consciousness," Gandhy writes.
Gandhy explains the plight of the Dalits in 21st century India
with an example.
In Uttar Pradesh, ruled by Chief Minister Mayawati, a 16-year-old
Dalit girl was attacked by three upper caste youths Feb 5... They
dragged her away in an attempt to rape her; but when she resisted
and shouted for help, they chopped off her ears, part of her hands
and injured her face, the Maoist leader says.
This single incident brings out three facts, Gandhy says.
"First: the intolerance to any form of Dalit assertion, even if it
is an assertion to resist rape. Second: the impunity with which
Dalits can be attacked even in a state ruled by a Dalit leader
which stems from the confidence that the state will not touch the
culprits. And third: it brings out the arrogance of the upper
caste youngsters," Gandhy says in the book.
Gandhy attributes his wife's fiercely independent thinking as a
great help to a rational understanding of events, people and
issues. "There was no other person with whom I have had as
vehement debates. This normally brought a balance to my often
one-sided views," he says.
Anecdotes such as these abound in the book, which weaves the story
of Maoist insurgency in Chhattisgarh's Bastar.
The book comprises accounts, interviews and analyses based on
reportage by Pandita for over a decade. The writer traces the
growth of Maoist insurgency in Bastar in the context of the
greater Left insurrection movements in south and central India.
"I have been going to Bastar since 1998 as a young reporter. In
the course of my visits, I got an idea that it would turn out to
be one of India's biggest internal security threats," Pandita told
IANS.
"The thin line between the ordinary tribal and the Maoist has
blurred. They have more weapons to attack the paramilitary forces
and more support in the villages. The focus of Left insurgency has
also shifted from traditional hotbeds of Bihar and Jharkhand to
the Andhra Pradesh-Orissa border and Bastar," the writer said.
(Madhusree Chatterjee can be contacted at madhu.c@ians.in)
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