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Report from

Maoist Political Base Areas


KASAMA
ESSAYS FOR
In Indias DK Forest
DISCUSSION
Arundhati Roy is an award-winning Indian writer
and renowned activist around questions of capitalist globalization,
social justice and environmental destruction.

Originally published on March 19, 2010,


in Outlook Magazine, Delhi, India

Published as a Kasama Essay for Discussion, March 2010

Kasama
is a communist project that seeks to reconceive and
regroup for a profound revolutionary transformation of society.

website: kasamaproject.org
email: kasamasite@yahoo.com
80038A 03.10
Walking with the Comrades
By Arundhati Roy
In February 2010, quietly, unannounced, Arundhati Roy decided to visit the forbidding and forbidden precincts of Central
Indias Dandakaranya Forests, home to a melange of tribespeople many of whom have taken up arms to protect their
people against state-backed marauders and exploiters.
She recorded in considerable detail the first face-to-face journalistic encounter with armed guerrillas, their families and
comrades, for which she combed the forests for weeks at personal risk. This essay was published on Friday, March 19, 2010
in Delhis Outlook magazine. Kasama urges all readers to give it close attention and wide circulation.

The terse, typewritten note slipped under my punctures, blockades, transport strikes and sheer bad
luck. The note said: Writer should have camera, tika
door in a sealed envelope confirmed my appointment and coconut. Meeter will have cap, Hindi Outlook
with Indias Gravest Internal Security Threat. Id been magazine and bananas. Password: Namashkar Gu-
waiting for months to hear from them. ruji.
I had to be at the Ma Danteshwari mandir in Namashkar Guruji. I wondered whether the
Dantewara, Chhattisgarh, at any of four given times on Meeter and Greeter would be expecting a man. And
two given days. That was to take care of bad weather, whether I should get myself a moustache.

Arundhati Roy with


the Maoists.
3
There are many ways to describe Dantewara. Its quences for us all.
If ghosts are the lingering spirits of someone, or
an oxymoron. Its a border town smack in the heart of something that has ceased to exist, then perhaps the
India. Its the epicenter of a war. Its an upside down, new four-lane highway crashing through the forest is
inside out town. the opposite of a ghost. Perhaps it is the harbinger of
In Dantewara the police wear plain clothes and the what is still to come.
rebels wear uniforms. The jail-superintendant is in jail. The antagonists in the forest are disparate and
The prisoners are free (three hundred of them escaped unequal in almost every way. On one side is a massive
from the old town jail two years ago). Women who paramilitary force armed with the money, the firepower,
have been raped are in police custody. The rapists give the media, and the hubris of an emerging Superpower.
speeches in the bazaar. On the other, ordinary villagers armed with tra-
ditional weapons,
backed by a superbly
organized, hugely
motivated Maoist
guerilla fighting force
with an extraordinary
and violent history
of armed rebellion.
The Maoists and the
paramilitary are old
adversaries and have
fought older avatars
of each other several
times before: Telen-
gana in the 50s, West
Centenary celebrations of the adivasi uprising in Bastar. Bengal, Bihar, Sri-
kakulam in Andhra
Pradesh in the late
Across the Indravati river, in the area controlled by 60s and 70s, and then again in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar
the Maoists, is the place the police call Pakistan. There and Maharashtra from the 80s all the way through to
the villages are empty, but the forest is full of people. the present.
Children who ought to be in school, run wild. In the They are familiar with each others tactics, and
lovely forest villages, the concrete school buildings have have studied each others combat manuals closely.
either been blown up and lie in a heap, or theyre full Each time, it seemed as though the Maoists (or their
of policemen. The deadly war thats unfolding in the previous avatars) had been not just defeated, but liter-
jungle, is a war that the Government of India is both ally, physically exterminated. Each time they have re-
proud and shy of. emerged, more organized, more determined and more
Operation Green Hunt has been proclaimed as influential than ever. Today once again the insurrection
well as denied. P. Chidambaram, Indias Home Minis- has spread through the mineral-rich forests of Chhat-
ter (and CEO of the war) says it does not exist, that its tisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, and West Bengal home-
a media creation. And yet substantial funds have been land to millions of Indias tribal people, dreamland to
allocated to it and tens of thousands of troops are be- the corporate world.
ing mobilized for it. Though the theatre of war is in
the jungles of Central India, it will have serious conse-
4
Its easier on the liberal conscience to believe that cy, was adopted by Parliament in 1950. It was a tragic
the war in the forests is a war between the Government day for tribal people. The Constitution ratified colonial
of India and the Maoists, who call elections a sham, policy and made the State custodian of tribal home-
Parliament a pigsty and have openly declared their in- lands. Overnight, it turned the entire tribal population
tention to overthrow the Indian State. Its convenient into squatters on their own land. It denied them their
to forget that tribal people in Central India have a traditional rights to forest produce, it criminalized a
history of resistance that pre-dates Mao by centuries. whole way of life. In exchange for the right to vote it
(Thats a truism of course. If they didnt, they wouldnt snatched away their right to livelihood and dignity.
exist.) The Ho, the Oraon, the Kols, the Santhals, the Having dispossessed them and pushed them into
Mundas and the Gonds have all rebelled several times, a downward spiral of indigence, in a cruel sleight of
against the British, against zamindars and moneylend- hand, the Government began to use their own penury
ers. The rebellions were cruelly crushed, many thou- against them. Each time it needed to displace a large
sands killed, but the people were never conquered. populationfor dams, irrigation projects, mines it
Even after Independence, tribal people were at the talked of bringing tribals into the mainstream or of
heart of the first uprising that could be described as giving them the fruits of modern development. Of the
Maoist, in Naxalbari village in West Bengal (where the tens of millions of internally displaced people (more
word Naxalitenow used interchangeably with Mao- than 30 million by big dams alone), refugees of Indias
istoriginates). Since then Naxalite politics has been progress, the great majority are tribal people. When
inextricably entwined with tribal uprisings, which says the Government begins to talk of tribal welfare, its
as much about the tribals as it does about Naxalites. time to worry.
This legacy of rebellion has left behind a furious The most recent expression of concern has come
people who have been deliberately isolated and mar- from the Home Minister P. Chidambaram who says he
ginalized by the Indian Government. The Indian Con- doesnt want tribal people living in museum cultures.
stitution, the moral underpinning of Indian democra- The well-being of tribal people didnt seem to be such

People of Kudur village protest the Bodhghat dam: It does not belong to the capitalists, Bastar is OURS.

5
a priority during his career as a corporate lawyer, rep- be exterminated. Maoists must be wiped out. In these
resenting the interests of several major mining compa- creeping, innocuous ways the language of genocide has
nies. So it might be an idea to enquire into the basis for entered our vocabulary.
his new anxiety. To protect the highway security forces have se-
Over the past five years or so, the Governments cured a narrow bandwidth of forest on either side.
of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal Further in, its the raj of the Dada log. The Brothers.
have signed hundreds of MOUs with corporate hous- The Comrades.
es, worth several billion dollars, all of them secret, for On the outskirts of Raipur, a massive billboard
steel plants, sponge-iron factories, power plants, alu- advertises Vedanta (the company our Home Minister
minum refineries, dams and mines. In order for the once worked with) Cancer hospital. In Orissa, where
MOUs to translate into real money, tribal people must it is mining bauxite, Vedanta is financing a University.
be moved. In these creeping, innocuous ways mining corporations
Therefore, this war. enter our imaginations: the Gentle Giants who Really
When a country that calls itself a democracy open- Care. Its called CSR, Corporate Social Responsibility.
ly declares war within its borders, what does that war It allows mining companies to be like the legendary ac-
look like? Does the resistance stand a chance? Should tor and former Chief Minister, NTR who liked to play
it? Who are the Maoists? Are they just violent nihilists all the parts in Telugu mythologicalsthe good guys
foisting an out-dated ideology on tribal people, goad- and the bad guys, all at once, in the same movie. This
ing them into a hopeless insurrection? What lessons CSR masks the outrageous economics that underpins
have they learned from their past experience? Is armed the mining sector in India. For example, according to
struggle intrinsically undemocratic? Is the Sandwich the recent Lokayukta Report for Karnataka, for every
Theoryof ordinary tribals being caught in the cross- tonne of iron ore mined by a private company the Gov-
fire between the State and the Maoistsan accurate ernment gets a royalty of Rs 27 and the mining compa-
one? Are Maoists and Tribals two entirely discrete ny makes Rs 5000. In the bauxite and aluminum sector
categories as is being made out? Do their interests con- the figures are even worse. Were talking about daylight
verge? Have they learned anything from each other? robbery to the tune of billions of dollars. Enough to
Have they changed each other? buy elections, governments, judges, newspapers, TV
channels, NGOs and aid agencies. Whats the occa-
sional cancer hospital here or there?
The day before I left, my mother called sound- I dont remember seeing Vedantas name on the
ing sleepy. Ive been thinking, she said, with a mothers long list of MOUs signed by the Chhattisgarh govern-
weird instinct, what this country needs is revolution. ment. But Im twisted enough to suspect that if theres
An article on the internet says that Israels Mossad a cancer hospital, there must be a flat-topped bauxite
is training 30 high-ranking Indian police officers in the mountain somewhere.
techniques of targeted assassinations, to render the We pass Kanker, famous for its Counter Terrorism
Maoist organization headless. Theres talk in the press & Jungle Warfare Training School run by Brigadier B
about the new hardware that has been bought from Is- K Ponwar, Rumpelstiltskin of this war, charged with
rael: Laser range finders, thermal imaging equipment the task of turning corrupt, sloppy policemen (straw)
and unmanned drones so popular with the US army. into jungle commandos (gold). Fight a guerilla like a
Perfect weapons to use against the poor. guerilla, the motto of the warfare training school, is
The drive from Raipur to Dantewara takes about painted on the rocks.
ten hours through areas known to be Maoist-infested. The men are taught to run, slither, jump on and off
These are not careless words. Infest/infestation im- air-borne helicopters, ride horses (for some reason), eat
plies disease/pests. Diseases must be cured. Pests must snakes and live off the jungle. The Brigadier takes great

6
On the Day of the Bhumkal: Face to face with Indias greatest Security Threat.
pride in training street dogs to fight terrorists. Eight I arrived at the Ma Danteshwari mandir well in
hundred policemen graduate from the Warfare Train- time for my appointment (first day, first show). I had
ing School every six weeks. Twenty similar schools are my camera, my small coconut and a powdery red tika
being planned all over India. The police force is gradu- on my forehead. I wondered if someone was watching
ally being turned into an army. (In Kashmir its the oth- me and having a laugh. Within minutes a young boy
er way around. The army is being turned into a bloated, approached me. He had a cap and a backpack school-
administrative, police force.) Upside down. Inside out. bag. Chipped red nail-polish on his fingernails. No
Either way, the Enemy is the People. Hindi Outlook, no bananas. Are you the one whos go-
Its late. Jagdalpur is asleep, except for the many ing in? he asked me. No Namashkar Guruji. I didnt
hoardings of Rahul Gandhi asking people to join the know what to say. He took out a soggy note from his
Youth Congress. Hes been to Bastar twice in recent pocket and handed it to me. It said Outlook nahi mila.
months but hasnt said anything much about the war. (Couldnt find Outlook)
Its probably too messy for the Peoples Prince to med- And the bananas?
dle in at this point. His media managers must have put I ate them, he said, I got hungry.
their foot down. The fact that the Salwa Judum (Pu- He really was a security threat.
rification Hunt)the dreaded, government sponsored His backpack said Charlie Brown Not your
vigilante group responsible for rapes, killings, burning ordinary blockhead. He said his name was Mangtu. I
down villages and driving hundreds of thousands of soon learned that Dandakaranya, the forest I was about
people from their homes is led by Mahendra Karma, to enter, was full of people who had many names and
a Congress MLA, doesnt get much play in the carefully fluid identities. It was like balm to me, that idea. How
orchestrated publicity around Rahul Gandhi. lovely not to be stuck with yourself, to become some-
Women guerriillas supervise the backstage for the one else for a while.
Bhumkal feast. Bhumkal an annual ceremony means We walked to the bus stand, only a few minutes
Earthquake away from the temple. It was already crowded. Things

7
happened quickly. There were two men on motorbikes. cheerfully.
There was no conversationjust a glance of acknowl- Three beautiful, sozzled men with flowers in their
edgment, a shifting of body weight, the revving of en- turbans walked with us for about half an hour, before
gines. I had no idea where we were going. We passed our paths diverged. At sunset, their shoulder bags be-
the house of the Superintendent of Police (SP), which gan to crow. They had roosters in them, which they had
I recognized from my last visit. He was a candid man, taken to market but hadnt managed to sell.
the SP: See Maam, frankly speaking this problem Chandu seems to be able to see in the dark. I have
cant be solved by us police or military. The problem to use my torch. The crickets start up and soon theres
with these tribals is they dont understand greed. Un- an orchestra, a dome of sound over us. I long to look up
less they become greedy theres no hope for us. I have at the night sky, but I dare not. I have to keep my eyes
told my boss, remove the force and instead put a TV on the ground. One step at a time. Concentrate.
in every home. Everything will be automatically sorted I hear dogs. But I cant tell how far away they
out. are. The terrain flattens out. I steal a look at the sky.
In no time at all we were riding out of town. No It makes me ecstatic. I hope were going to stop soon.
tail. It was a long ride, three hours by my watch. It Soon. Chandu says. It turns out to be more than an
ended abruptly in the middle of nowhere, on an empty hour. I see silhouettes of enormous trees. We arrive.
road with forest on either side. Mangtu got off. I did The village seems spacious, the houses far away
too. The bikes left, and I picked up my backpack and from each other. The house we enter is beautiful.
followed the small internal security threat into the for- Theres a fire, some people sitting around. More people
est. It was a beautiful day. The forest floor was a carpet outside, in the dark. I cant tell how many. I can just
of gold. about make them out. A murmur goes around. Lal Sa-
In a while we emerged on the white, sandy banks of laam Kaamraid. (Red Salute, Comrade) Lal Salaam, I
a broad flat river. It was obviously monsoon fed, so now say. Im beyond tired. The lady of the house calls me in-
it was more or less a sand flat, at the center a stream, side and gives me chicken curry cooked in green beans
ankle deep, easy to wade across. Across was Pakistan. and some red rice. Fabulous. Her baby is asleep next to
Out there, maam the candid SP had said to me, my me, her silver anklets gleam in the firelight.
boys shoot to kill. I remembered that as we began to After dinner I unzip my sleeping bag. Its a strange
cross. I saw us in a policemans rifle-sightstiny figures intrusive sound, the big zip. Someone puts on the ra-
in a landscape, easy to pick off. But Mangtu seemed dio. BBC Hindi service. The Church of England has
quite unconcerned, and I took my cue from him. withdrawn its funds from Vedantas Niyamgiri project,
Waiting for us on the other bank, in a lime green citing environmental degradation and rights violations
shirt that said Horlicks! was Chandu. A slightly older of the Dongria Kondh tribe. I can hear cowbells, snuf-
security threat. Maybe twenty. He had a lovely smile, a fling, shuffling, cattle-farting. Alls well with the world.
cycle, a jerry can with boiled water and many packets My eyes close.
of glucose biscuits for me, from the Party. We caught
our breath and began to walk again. The cycle, it turned
out, was a red herring. The route was almost entirely W ere up at five. On the move by six. In an-
non-cycle-able. We climbed steep hills and clambered other couple of hours, we cross another river. We walk
down rocky paths along some pretty precarious ledges. through some beautiful villages. Every village has a
When he couldnt wheel it, Chandu lifted the cycle and family of tamarind trees watching over it, like a clutch
carried it over his head as though it weighed nothing. of huge, benevolent, gods. Sweet, Bastar tamarind. By
I began to wonder about his bemused village boy air. eleven the sun is high, and walking is less fun. We stop
I discovered (much later) that he could handle every at a village for lunch.
kind of weapon, except for an LMG, he informed me

8
Chandu seems to know the people in the house. Why not like the village houses, with mud and thatch?
A beautiful young girl flirts with him. He looks a little Because they double up as barracks and bunkers. In
shy, maybe because Im around. Lunch is raw papaya the villages in Abhujmad, Chandu says, schools are
with masoor dal, and red rice. And red chilly powder. like this He scratches a building plan with a twig in
Were going to wait for the sun to lose some of its ve- the earth. Three octagons attached to each other like a
hemence before we start walking again. We take a nap honeycomb.So they can fire in all directions. He draws
in the gazebo. There is a spare beauty about the place. arrows to illustrate his point, like a cricket graphic a
Everything is clean and necessary. No clutter. A black batsmans wagon wheel. There are no teachers in any
hen parades up
and down the
low mud wall. A
bamboo grid sta-
bilizes the rafters
of the thatched
roof and dou-
bles as a storage
rack. Theres a
grass broom,
two drums, a
woven reed bas-
ket, a broken
umbrella and a
whole stack of
flattened, emp-
ty, corrugated
Pots, rifles, jhillies... Everything in these villages is clean and necessary.
cardboard box-
es. Something
catches my eye. I need my spectacles. Heres whats of the schools, Chandu says. Theyve all run away. Or
printed on the cardboard: Ideal Power 90 High Energy have you chased them away? No, we only chase police.
Emulsion Explosive (Class-2) SD CAT ZZ. But why should teachers come here, to the jungle, when
We start walking again at about two. In the village they get their salaries sitting at home? Good point.
we are going to we will meet a Didi (Sister, Comrade) He informs me that this is a new area. The Party
who knows what the next step of the journey will be. has entered only recently.
Chandu doesnt. There is an economy of information About twenty young people arrive, girls and boys.
too. Nobody is supposed to know everything. But In their teens and early twenties. Chandu explains that
when we reach the village, Didi isnt there. Theres no this is the village level militia, the lowest rung of the
news of her. For the first time I see a little cloud of Maoists military hierarchy. I have never seen anyone
worry settling over Chandu. A big one settles over me. like them before. They are dressed in saris and lungis,
I dont know what the systems of communication are, some in frayed olive green fatigues. The boys wear jew-
but what if theyve gone wrong? elry, headgear. Every one of them has a muzzle-loading
Were parked outside a deserted school building, a rifle, whats called a bharmaar. Some also have knives,
little way out of the village. Why are all the government axes, a bow and arrow.
village schools built like concrete bastions, with steel One boy carries a crude mortar fashioned out of
shutters for windows and sliding folding steel doors? a heavy three-foot GI pipe. Its filled with gunpowder

9
and shrapnel and ready to be fired. It makes a big noise, thousands and thousands of trucks, taking ore to Para-
but can only be used once. Still, it scares the police, they dip port from where it will go to China. There it will
say, and giggle. turn into cars and smoke and sudden cities that spring
War doesnt seem to be uppermost on their minds. up overnight. Into a growth rate that leaves economists
Perhaps because their area is outside the home range of breathless. Into weapons to make war.
the Salwa Judum. They have just finished a days work, Everyones asleep except for the sentries who take
helping to build fencing around some village houses one-and-a-half hour shifts. Finally I can look at the
to keep the goats out of the fields. Theyre full of fun stars. When I was a child growing up on the banks
and curiosity. The girls are confident and easy with the of the Meenachal river, I used to think the sound of
boys. I have a sensor for this sort of thing, and I am im- crickets which always started up at twilightwas
pressed. Their job, Chandu says, is to patrol and pro- the sound of stars revving up, getting ready to shine.
tect a group of four or five villages and to help in the Im surprised at how much I love being here. There is
fields, clean wells or repair housesdoing whatevers nowhere else in the world that I would rather be. Who
needed. should I be tonight? Kamraid Rahel, under the stars?
Still no Didi. What to do? Nothing. Wait. Help Maybe Didi will come tomorrow.
out with some chopping and peeling.
After dinner, without much talk, everybody falls in
line. Clearly were moving. Everything moves with us, They arrive in the early afternoon. I can see them
the rice, vegetables, pots and pans. We leave the school from a distance. About fifteen of them, all in olive green
compound and walk single file into the forest. In less uniforms, running towards us. Even from a distance,
than half an hour we arrive in a glade where we are from the way they run, I can tell they are the heavy hit-
going to sleep. Theres absolutely no noise. Within min- ters. The Peoples Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA).
utes everyone has spread their blue plastic sheets, the For whom the thermal imaging and laser guided rifles.
ubiquitous jhilli, (without which there will be no Rev- For whom the Jungle Warfare Training School.
olution). Chandu and Mangtu share one and spread They carry serious rifles, INSAS, SLR, two have
one out for me. They find me the best place, by the best AK 47s. The leader of the squad is Comrade Madhav
grey rock. Chandu says he has sent a message to Didi. who has been with the Party since he was nine. Hes
If she gets it she will be here first thing in the morning. from Warangal, Andhra Pradesh. Hes upset and ex-
If she gets it. tremely apologetic. There was a major miscommunica-
Its the most beautiful room I have slept in in a long tion, he says again and again, which usually never hap-
time. My private suite in a thousand-star hotel. Im sur- pens. I was supposed to have arrived at the main camp
rounded by these strange, beautiful children with their on the very first night. Someone dropped the baton in
curious arsenal. Theyre all Maoists for sure. Are they the jungle-relay. The motorcycle drop was to have been
all going to die? Is the Jungle Warfare Training School at an entirely different place. We made you wait, we
for them? And the helicopter gunships, the thermal made you walk so much. We ran all the way when the
imaging and the laser range finders? message came that you were here. I said it was ok, that
Why must they die? What for? To turn all of this I had come prepared, to wait and walk and listen. He
into a mine? I remember my visit to the opencast iron- wants to leave immediately, because people in the camp
ore mines in Keonjhar, Orissa. There was forest there were waiting, and worried.
once. And children like these. Now the land is like a Its a few hours walk to the camp. Its getting dark
raw, red wound. Red dust fills your nostrils and lungs. when we arrive. There are several layers of sentries and
The water is red, the air is red, the people are red, their concentric circles of patrolling. There must be a hun-
lungs and hair are red. All day and all night trucks dred comrades lined up in two rows. Everyone has a
rumble through their villages, bumper to bumper, weapon. And a smile. They begin to sing: Lal lal sa-

10
laam, lal lal salaam, aane vaaley saathiyon ko lal lal sa- the senior most of them all. Maybe Central Commit-
laam. (Red salute to the comrades who have arrived.) tee, maybe even Polit Bureau. Im not told, I dont ask.
It was sung sweetly, as though it was a folk song about Between us we speak Gondi, Halbi, Telugu, Punjabi
a river, or a forest blossom. With the song, the greeting, and Malayalam. Only Maase speaks English. (So we
the handshake and the clenched fist. Everyone greets all communicate in Hindi!) Comrade Maase is tall and
everyone, murmuring Lalslaam, mlalslaa mlalslaam quiet and seems to have to swim through a layer of pain
Other than a large blue jhilli spread out on the to enter the conversation. But from the way she hugs
floor, about fifteen feet square, there are no signs of a me I can tell shes a reader. And that she misses having
camp. This one has a jhilli roof as well. Its my room books in the jungle. She will tell me her story only later.
for the night. I was either being rewarded for my days When she trusts me with her grief.
of walking, or being pampered in advance for what lay Bad news arrives, as it does in this jungle. A runner,
ahead. Or both. Either way it was the last time in the with biscuits. Handwritten notes on sheets of paper,
entire trip that I was going to have a roof over my head. folded and stapled into little squares. Theres a bag full
Over dinner I meet Comrade Narmada, in charge of of them. Like chips. News from everywhere. The police
the Krantikari Adivasi Mahila Sangathan (KAMS), have killed five people in Ongnaar village, four from the
who has a price on her head, Comrade Saroja of the militia and one ordinary villager: Santhu Pottai (25),
PLGA who is only as tall as her SLR, Comrade Maase Phoolo Vadde (22), Kande Potai (22), Ramoli Vadde
(which means Black Girl in Gondi) who has a price on (20), Dalsai Koram (22). They could have been the
her head too, Comrade Roopi, the tech wizard, Com- children in my star-spangled dormitory of last night.
rade Raju whos in charge of the Division Id been walk- Then good news arrives. A small contingent of
ing through, and Comrade Venu (or Murali or Sonu people with a plump young man. Hes in fatigues too,
or Sushil, whatever you would like to call him), clearly but they look brand new. Everybody admires them and

Members of the Chetna Natya Manch, the cultural wing of the party.

11
comments on the fit. He looks shy and pleased. Hes a Comrade Venu has a calm reassuring, manner and
doctor who has come to live and work with the com- a gentle voice that will, in the days to come, surface in
rades in the forest. The last time a doctor visited Dan- a context that will completely unnerve me. This morn-
dakaranya was many years ago. ing he talks for several hours, almost continuously. Hes
On the radio theres news about the Home Minis- like a little store manager who has a giant bunch of keys
ters meeting with Chief Ministers of states affected by with which to open up a maze of lockers full of stories,
Left Wing Extremism to discuss the war. The Chief songs and insights.
Ministers of Jharkhand and Bihar are being demure Comrade Venu was in one of the seven armed
and have not attended. Everybody sitting around the squads who crossed the Godavari from Andhra
radio laughs. Around the time of elections, they say, Pradesh and entered the Dandakaranya Forest (DK, in
right through the campaign, and then maybe a month Partyspeak) in June 1980, thirty years ago. Hes is one
or two after the government is formed, mainstream of the original forty-niners. They belonged to Peoples
politicians all say things like Naxals are our children. War Group (PWG), a faction of the Communist Par-
You can set your watch to the schedule of when they ty of India (Marxist-Leninist) CPI (ML), the original
will change their minds, and grow fangs. Naxalites. PWG was formally announced as separate,
I am introduced to Comrade Kamla. I am told independent party in April that year, under Kondapalli
that I must on no account go even five feet away from Seetharamiah. PWG had decided to build a standing
my jhilli without waking her. Because everybody gets army, for which it would need a base. DK was to be
disoriented in the dark and could get seriously lost. (I that base, and those first squads were sent in to recon-
dont wake her. I sleep like a log.) In the morning Kam- noiter the area and begin the process of building gueril-
la presents me with a yellow polythene packet with one la zones. The debate about whether communist parties
corner snipped off. Once it used to contain Abis Gold ought to have a standing army, and whether or not a
Refined Soya Oil. Now it was my Loo Mug. Nothings peoples army is a contradiction in terms, is an old one.
wasted on the Road to the Revolution. PWGs decision to build an army came from its experi-
(Even now I think of Comrade Kamla all the time, ence in Andhra Pradesh, where its Land to the Tiller
every day. Shes 17. She wears a homemade pistol on campaign led to a direct clash with the landlords, and
her hip. And boy, what a smile. But if the police come resulted in the kind of police repression that the Party
across her, they will kill her. They might rape her first. found impossible to withstand without a trained fight-
No questions will be asked. Because shes an Internal ing force of its own.
Security Threat.) (By 2004 PWG had merged with the other CPI
(ML) factions, Party Unity (PU) and the Maoist Com-
munist Centre (MCC)which functions for the most
A fter breakfast Comrade Venu (Sushil, Sonu, part out of Bihar and Jharkhand. To become what it is
Murali) is waiting for me, sitting cross-legged on the now, the Communist Party of India (Maoist)).
jhilli, looking for all the world like a frail, village school-
teacher. Im going to get a history lesson. Or, more ac-
curately a lecture on the history of the last thirty years D andakaranya is part of what the British, in
in the Dandakaranya forest, which has culminated in their White Mans way, called Gondwana, land of the
the war thats swirling through it today. For sure, its a Gonds. Today the state boundaries of Madhya Pradesh,
partisans version. But then, what history isnt? In any Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Maharash-
case, the secret history must be made public if it is to tra slice through the forest. Breaking up a troublesome
be contested, argued with, instead of merely being lied people into separate administrative units is an old trick.
about, which is what is happening now. But these Maoists and Maoist Gonds dont pay much
attention to things like state boundaries. They have dif-

12
ferent maps in their heads, and like other creatures of was an enormous amount of repression. In November
the forest, they have their own paths. For them, roads 1980, in Gadchiroli the police opened fire at a village
are not meant for walking on. Theyre meant only to meeting and killed an entire squad. That was DKs first
be crossed, or as is increasingly becoming the case, am- encounter killing. It was a traumatic set back, and the
bushed. Though the Gonds (divided between the Koya comrades retreated across the Godavari and returned
and Dorla tribes) are by far the biggest majority, there to Adilabad.
are small settlements of other tribal communities too. But in 1981 they returned. They began to organize
The non-adivasi communities, traders and settlers, live tribal people to demand a rise in the price they were
on the edges of the forest, near the roads and markets. being paid for Tendu leaves (which are used to make
The PWG were not the first evangelicals to arrive in beedis). At the time, traders paid 3 paisa for a bundle
Dandakaranya. Baba Amte, the well-known Gandhian of about 50 leaves. It was a formidable job to organize
had opened his ashram and leprosy hospital in Warora people entirely unfamiliar with this kind of politics, to
in 1975. The Ramakrishna mission had begun open- lead them on strike.
ing village schools in the remote forests of Abhujmad. Eventually the strike was successful and the price
In North Bastar, Baba Bihari Das had started an ag- was doubled, to 6 paisa a bundle. But the real success
gressive drive to bring tribals back into the Hindu fold, for the Party was to have been able to demonstrate the
which involved a campaign to denigrate tribal culture, value of unity and a new way of conducting a political
induce self-hatred, and introduce Hinduisms great negotiation. Today, after several strikes and agitations,
giftcaste. The first converts, the village chiefs and big the price of a bundle of Tendu leaves is Rs 1. (It seems
landlords people like Mahendra Karma, founder of a little improbable at these rates, but the turnover of
the Salwa Judumwere conferred the status of Dwij, the Tendu business runs into hundreds of crores of ru-
twice born, Brahmins. (Of course this was a bit of a pees.) Every season the Government floats tenders and
scam, because nobody can become a Brahmin. If they gives contractors permission to extract a fixed volume
could, wed be a nation of Brahmins by now.) But this of Tendu leaves usually between 1500 and 5000
counterfeit Hinduism is considered good enough for standard bags known as manak boras. Each manak
tribal people, just like the counterfeit brands of ev- bora contains about 1000 bundles.
erything elsebiscuits, soap, matches, oilthat are (Of course theres no way of ensuring that the con-
sold in village markets. As part of the Hindutva drive tractors dont extract more than theyre meant to.) By
the names of villages were changed in land records, as the time the Tendu enters the market it is sold in kilos.
a result of which most have two names now, peoples The slippery arithmetic and the sly system of measure-
names and government names. Innar village for exam- ment that converts bundles into manak boras into ki-
ple, became Chinnari. On voters lists tribal names were los is controlled by the contractors, and leaves plenty
changed to Hindu names. (Massa Karma became Ma- of room for manipulation of the worst kind. The most
hendra Karma.) Those who did not come forward to conservative estimate puts their profit per standard bag
join the Hindu fold were declared Katwas (by which at about Rs 1100. (Thats after paying the Party a com-
they meant Untouchables) who later became the natu- mission of Rs 120 per bag.) Even by that gauge, a small
ral constituency for the Maoists. contractor (1500 bags) makes about Rs 16 lakh a sea-
The PWG first began work in South Bastar son and a big one (5000 bags) upto Rs 55 lakh.
and Gadchiroli. Comrade Venu describes those first A more realistic estimate would be several times
months in some detail: How the villagers were suspi- this amount. Meanwhile the Gravest Internal Security
cious of them, and wouldnt let them into their homes. Threat makes just enough to stay alive until the next
No one would offer them food or water. The police season.
spread rumours that they were thieves. The women hid Were interrupted by some laughter and the sight
their jewellery in the ashes of their wood stoves. There of Nilesh, one of the young PLGA comrades, walk-

13
ing rapidly towards the cooking area, slapping him- like a bad dream, preventing people from ploughing
self. When he comes closer I see that hes carrying a their fields, collecting firewood, plucking leaves, pick-
leafy nest of angry red ants that have crawled all over ing fruit, grazing their cattle, from living. They brought
him and are biting him on his arms and neck. Nilesh elephants to overrun fields and scattered babool seeds
is laughing too. Have you ever eaten ant chutney? to destroy the soil as they passed by. People would be
Comrade Venu asks me. I know red ants well, from my beaten, arrested, humiliated, their crops destroyed. Of
childhood in Kerala, Ive been bitten by them, but Ive course, from the Forest Departments point of view,
never eaten them. (The chutney turns out to be nice. these were illegal people engaged in unconstitutional
Sour. Lots of folic acid.) activity, and the Department was only implementing
Nilesh is from Bijapur, which is at the heart of Sal- the Rule of Law. (Their sexual exploitation of women
wa Judum operations. Nileshs younger brother joined was just an added perk in a hardship posting)
the Judum on one of its looting and burning sprees and Emboldened by the peoples participation in these
was made a Special Police Officer (SPO). He lives in struggles, the Party decided to confront the Forest De-
the Basaguda camp with his mother. His father refused partment. It encouraged people to take over forest land
to go and stayed behind in the village. In effect, its a and cultivate it. The Forest Department retaliated by
family blood feud. burning new villages that came up in forest areas. In
Later on when I had an opportunity to talk to him 1986 it announced a National Park in Bijapur, which
I asked Nilesh why his brother had done that. He was meant the eviction of 60 villages. More than half of
very young, Nilesh said, He got an opportunity to run them had already been moved out and construction
wild and hurt people and burn houses. He went crazy, of National Park infrastructure had begun when the
did terrible things. Now he is stuck. He can never come Party moved in. It demolished the construction and
back to the village. He will not be forgiven. He knows stopped the eviction of the remaining villages. It pre-
that. vented the Forest Department from entering the area.
We return to the history lesson. The Partys next big On a few occasions, officials were captured, tied to
struggle, Comrade Venu says, was against the Ballarpur trees and beaten by villagers. It was cathartic revenge
Paper Mills. The Government had given the Thapars a for generations of exploitation. Eventually the Forest
45-year contract to extract 1.5 lakh tonnes of bamboo Department fled. Between 1986 and 2000, the Party
at a hugely subsidized rate. (Small beer compared to re-distributed 300,000 acres of forestland. Today,
bauxite, but still). The tribals were paid 10 paisa for a Comrade Venu says, there are no landless peasants in
bundle which contained 20 culms of bamboo. (I wont Dandakaranya.
yield to the vulgar temptation of comparing that with For todays generation of young people, the Forest
the profits the Thapars were making.) A long agitation, Department is a distant memory, the stuff of stories
a strike, followed by negotiations with officials of the mothers tell their children, about a mythological past
Paper Mill in the presence of the people, tripled the of bondage and humiliation. For the older generation,
price to 30 paisa per bundle. For the tribal people these freedom from the Forest Department meant genuine
were huge achievements. Other political parties had freedom. They could touch it, taste it. It meant far more
made promises, but showed no signs of keeping them. than Indias Independence ever did. They began to rally
People began to approach the PWG asking whether to the Party that had struggled with them.
they could join up.
But the politics of Tendu, bamboo and other forest
produce was seasonal. The perennial problem, the real T he seven-squad team had come a long way.
bane of peoples lives was the biggest landlord of all, Its influence now ranged across a 60,000 sq kilometer
the Forest Department. Every morning forest officials, stretch of forest, thousands of villages and millions of
even the most junior of them, would appear in villages people.

14
But the departure of the Forest Department her- Report that says forest has increased in Naxal areas?
alded the arrival of the police. That set off a cycle of Ironically, Comrade Venu says, the first people to
bloodshed. Fake encounters by the police, ambushes benefit from the Partys campaign against the Forest
by the PWG. With the re-distribution of land came Department were the Mukhiyas (village chiefs)the
other responsibilities: irrigation, agricultural produc- Dwij brigade. They used their manpower and their re-
tivity, and the problem of an expanding population sources to grab as much land as they could, while the
arbitrarily clearing forestland. A decision was taken to going was good. But then people began to approach the
separate mass work and military work. Party with their internal contradictions, as Comrade
Today, Dandakaranya is administered by an Venu puts it quaintly. The Party began to turn its at-
elaborate structure of Jantana Sarkars (peoples gov- tention to issues of equity, class and injustice within
ernments). The organizing principles came from the tribal society. The big landlords sensed trouble on the
Chinese revolution and the Vietnam war. Each Jantana horizon. As the Partys influence expanded, theirs had
Sarkar is elected by a cluster of villages whose combined begun to wane. Increasingly people were taking their
population can range from 500 to 5000. It has nine de- problems to the Party instead of to the Mukhiyas. Old
partments: Krishi (agriculture), Vyapar-Udyog (trade forms of exploitation began to be challenged. On the
and industry) Arthik (economic), Nyay (justice), Rak- day of the first rain, people were traditionally supposed
sha (defense), Hospital (health), Jan Sampark (public to till the Mukhiyas land instead of their own. That
relations), School-Riti Rivaj (education and culture), stopped. They no longer offered them the first days
and Jungle. A group of Janatana Sarkars, come under picking of mahua or other forest produce. Obviously,
an Area Committee. Three Area Committees make up something needed to be done.
a Division. There are ten Divisions in Dandakaranya. Enter Mahendra Karma, one of the biggest land-
We have a Save the Jungle department now. Com- lords in the region and at the time a member of the
rade Venu says, you must have read the Government Communist Party of India (CPI). In 1990 he rallied a

A village militia, the base force of the Peoples Liberation Guerilla Army.
15
group of Mukhiyas and landlords and started a cam- came very popular with the Indian Army, which has
paign called the Jan Jagran Abhiyan (Public Awakening used it in Nagaland, Mizoram and in Telengana. The
Campaign). Their way of awakening the public was to BJP Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, Raman Singh an-
form a hunting party of about three hundred men to nounced that as far as his government was concerned,
comb the forest, killing people, burning houses and villagers who did not move into camps, would be con-
molesting women. The then Madhya Pradesh Govern- sidered Maoists. So in Bastar, for an ordinary villager,
mentChhattisgarh had not yet been createdpro- just staying at home, living an ordinary life, became the
vided police back up. In Maharashtra, something simi- equivalent of indulging in dangerous terrorist activity.
lar, called Democratic Front began its assault. Peoples Along with a steel mug of black tea, as a special treat,
War responded to all of this in true Peoples War style, someone hands me a pair of earphones and switches on
by killing a few of the most notorious landlords. In a a little MP3 player. Its a scratchy recording of Mr D S
few months the Jan Jagran Abhiyan, the white terror Manhar, the then SP Bijapur, briefing a junior officer
Comrade Venus term for itfaded. In 1998, Ma- over the wireless about the rewards and incentives the
hendra Karma who had by now joined the Congress State and Central Governments are offering to jagrit
Party, tried to revive the Jan Jagran Abhiyan. This time (awakened) villages, and to people who agree to move
it fizzled out even faster than before. into camps. He then gives clear instructions that vil-
Then, in the summer of 2005, fortune favoured lages that refuse to surrender should be burnt and
him. In April, the BJP Government in Chhattisgarh journalists who want to cover Naxalites should be shot
signed two MOUs to set up integrated steel plants (the on sight. (Id read about this in the papers long ago.
terms of which are secret). One for Rs 7000 crore with When the story broke, as punishmentits not clear to
Essar Steel in Bailadila, and the other for Rs10,000 whom the SP was transferred to the State Human
crore with Tata Steel in Lohandiguda. That same Rights Commission.)
month Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made his fa- The first village the Salwa Judum burnt (on 18th
mous statement about the Maoists being the Gravest June 2005) was Ambeli. Between June and Decem-
Internal Security Threat to India. (It was an odd thing ber 2005, it burned, killed, raped and looted its way
to say at the time, because actually the opposite was through hundreds of villages of South Dantewara. The
true. The Congress Government in Andhra Pradesh centre of its operations were the districts of Bijapur and
had just out-maneuvered the Maoists, decimated them. Bhairamgarh, near Bailadila, where Essar Steels new
They had lost about 1600 of their cadre and were in plant was proposed. Not coincidentally, these were also
complete disarray.) The PMs statement sent the share- Maoist strongholds, where the Jantana Sarkars had
value of mining companies soaring. It also sent a signal done a great deal of work, especially in building wa-
to the media that the Maoists were fair game for anyone ter-harvesting structures. The Jantana Sarkars became
who chose to go after them. In June 2005, Mahendra the special target of the Salwa Judums attacks. Hun-
Karma called a secret meeting of Mukhiyas in Kutroo dreds of people were killed in the most brutal ways.
village and announced the Salwa Judum (the Purifica- About sixty thousand people moved into the camps,
tion Hunt). A lovely mlange of tribal earthiness and some voluntarily, others out of terror. Of these, about
Dwij/Nazi sentiment. three thousand were appointed Special Police Officers
Unlike the Jan Jagran Abhiyan, the Salwa Judum (SPOs) on a salary of fifteen hundred rupees.
was a ground-clearing operation, meant to move peo- For these paltry crumbs, young people, like Nileshs
ple out of their villages into roadside camps, where they brother, have sentenced themselves to a life-sentence in
could be policed and controlled. In military terms, its a barbed wire enclosure. Cruel as they have been, they
called Strategic Hamleting. It was devised by General could end up being the worst victims of this horrible
Sir Harold Briggs in 1950 when the British were at war war. No Supreme Court judgement ordering the Salwa
against the communists in Malaya. The Briggs Plan be- Judum to be dismantled can change their fate.

16
The remaining hundreds of thousands of people building. They were so macabre, it was impossible not
went off the government radar. (But the development to look away. He looked pleased at my reaction.)
funds for these 644 villages did not. What happens to The attack on Rani Bodili caused an uproar in the
that little goldmine?) Many of them made their way to country. Human Rights organizations condemned the
Andhra Pradesh and Orissa where they usually migrat- Maoists not just for their violence, but also for being
ed to work as contract labour during the chilly-pick- anti-education and attacking schools. But in Danda-
ing season. But tens of thousands fled into the forest, karanya the Rani Bodili attack became a legend: songs
where they still remain, living without shelter, coming and poems and plays were written about it.
back to their fields and homes only in the daytime. The Maoist counter-offensive did break the carpet
In the slipstream of the Salwa Judum, a swarm of security and gave people breathing space. The police
Police stations and camps appeared. The idea was to and the Salwa Judum retreated into their camps, from
provide carpet security for a creeping reoccupation which they now emergeusually in the dead of night
of Maoist-controlled territory. The assumption was only in packs of 300 or 1000 to carry out Cordon and
that the Maoists would not dare to attack such a large Search operations in villages. Gradually, except for the
concentration of security forces. The Maoists for their SPOs and their families, the rest of the people in the
part, realized that if they did not break that carpet se- Salwa Judum camps began to return to their villages.
curity, it would amount to abandoning people whose The Maoists welcomed them back and announced that
trust they had earned, and with whom they had lived even SPOs could return if they genuinely, and publicly
and worked for twenty-five years. They struck back in a regretted their actions. Young people began to flock to
series of attacks on the heart of the security grid. the PLGA. (The PLGA had been formally constituted
in December 2000. Over the last thirty years, its armed
squads had very gradually expanded into sections, sec-
On 26th January 2006 the PLGA attacked the tions had grown into platoons, and platoons into com-
Gangalaur police camp and killed seven people . On panies. But after the Salwa Judums depredations, the
17 July 2006 the Salwa Judum camp at Erabor was at- PLGA was rapidly able to declare battalion strength.)
tacked, 20 people were killed and 150 injured. (You The Salwa Judum had not just failed, it had back-
might have read about it: Maoists attacked the relief fired badly.
camp set up by the state government to provide shelter As we now know, it was not just a local operation
to the villagers who had fled from their villages because by a small time hood. Regardless of the doublespeak in
of terror unleashed by the Naxalites.) On 13 Dec 2006 the press, the Salwa Judum was a joint operation by the
they attacked the Basaguda relief camp and killed 3 State Government of Chhattisgarh and the Congress
SPOs and a constable. On 15 March 2007 came the Party which was in power at the Centre. It could not
most audacious of them all. be allowed to fail. Not when all those MOUs were still
One hundred and twenty PLGA guerillas, attacked waiting, like wilting hopefuls on the marriage market.
the Rani Bodili Kanya Ashram, a girls hostel that had The Government was under tremendous pressure to
been converted into a barrack for 80 Chhattisgarh Po- come up with a new plan. They came up with Opera-
lice (and SPOs) while the girls still lived in it as human tion Green Hunt. The Salwa Judum SPOs are called
shields. The PLGA entered the compound, cordoned Koya Commandos now. It has deployed the Chhattis-
off the annexe in which the girls lived, and attacked the garh Armed Force (CAF), the Central Reserve Police
barracks. 55 policemen and SPOs were killed. None of Force (CRPF), the Border Security Force (BSF), the
the girls was hurt. (The candid SP of Dantewara had Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), the Central In-
shown me his Power Point presentation with horrify- dustrial Security Force (CISF), Grey Hounds, Scor-
ing photographs of the burned, disemboweled bodies of pions, Cobras. And a policy thats affectionately called
the policemen amidst the ruins of the blown up school WHAMWinning Hearts and Minds.

17
Significant wars are often fought in unlikely plac- rade too. They shot him. Dyou want more chapoli?
es. Free Market Capitalism defeated Soviet Commu- Shes only twenty. We wont let the Tata come there.
nism in the bleak mountains of Afghanistan. Here in People dont want them. Joori is not PLGA. Shes in
the forests of Dantewara a battle rages for the soul of the Chetna Natya Manch (CNM), the cultural wing
India. Plenty has been said about the deepening cri- of the Party. She sings. She writes songs. Shes from
sis in Indian democracy and the collusion between big Abhujmad. (Shes married to Comrade Madhav. She
corporations, major political parties and the security fell in love with his singing when he visited her village
establishment. If any body wants to do a quick spot with a CNM troupe.)
check, Dantewara is the place to go. I feel I ought to say something at this point. About
A draft report on State Agrarian Relations and the the futility of violence, about the unacceptability of
Unfinished Task of Land Reform (Volume 1) said that summary executions. But what should I suggest they
Tata Steel and Essar Steel were the first financiers of do? Go to court? Do a dharna in Jantar Mantar, New
the Salwa Judum. Because it was a Government Re- Delhi? A rally? A relay hunger strike? It sounds ri-
port, it created a flurry when it was reported in the diculous. The promoters of the New Economic Policy
press. (That fact has subsequently been dropped from who find it so easy to say There Is No Alternative
the final report. Was it a genuine error, or did someone should be asked to suggest an alternative Resistance
receive a gentle, integrated steel tap on the shoulder?) Policy. A specific one, to these specific people, in this
On 12 October 2009 the mandatory public hearing
for Tatas steel plant, meant to be held in Lohandiguda
where local people could come, actually took place in
a small hall inside the Collectorate in Jagdalpur, many
miles away, cordoned off with massive security. A hired
audience of 50 tribals was brought in a guarded con-
voy of government jeeps. After the meeting the District
Collector congratulated the people of Lohandiguda for
their co-operation. The local newspapers reported the
lie, even though they knew better. (The advertisements
rolled in.) Despite villagers objections, land acquisition
for the project has begun.
The Maoists are not the only ones who seek to de-
pose the Indian State. Its already been deposed several
times, by Hindu fundamentalism and economic totali-
tarianism.
Lohandiguda, a five-hour drive from Dantewara,
never used to be a Naxalite area. But it is now. Com-
rade Joori who sat next to me while I ate the ant chut-
ney works in the area. She said they decided to move in
after graffiti had begun to appear on the walls of village
houses, saying Naxali Ao, Hamein Bachao (Naxals
come and save us!) A few months ago Vimal Meshram,
President of the village panchayat was shot dead in the
market. He was Tatas Man, Joori says, He was forc-
ing people to give up their land and accept compensa-
tion. Its good that hes been finished. We lost a com-

18
specific forest. Here. Now. Which party should they dren before they can even think, are not seen as a form
vote for? Which democratic institution in this country of indoctrination.) The young communists are not al-
should they approach? Which door did the Narmada lowed to carry guns or wear uniforms. But they trail
Bachao Andolan not knock on during the years and the PLGA squads, with stars in their eyes, like group-
years it fought against Big Dams on the Narmada? ies of a rock band.
Mangtu has adopted me with a gently proprieto-
rial air. He has filled my water bottle and says I should
Its dark. Theres a lot of activity in the camp, but pack my bag. A whistle blows. The blue jhilli tent is
I cant see anything. Just points of light moving around. dismantled and folded up in five minutes flat. Another
Its hard to tell whether they are stars or fireflies or whistle and all hundred comrades fall in line. Five rows.
Maoists on the move. Little Mangtu appears from Comrade Raju is the Director of Ops. Theres a roll
nowhere. I found out that hes one of a group of ten call. Im in the line too, shouting out my number when
kids who are part of the first batch of the Young Com- Comrade Kamla who is in front of me, prompts me.
munists Mobile School, who are being taught to read (We count to twenty and then start from one, because
and write, and tutored in basic communist principles. thats as far as most Gonds count. Twenty is enough for
(Indoctrination of young minds! our corporate me- them. Maybe it should be enough for us too.) Chandu
dia howls. The TV advertisements that brainwash chil- is in fatigues now, and carries a sten gun. In a low voice

A Maoist camp. When they move,


all that will remain is the ash from the
kitchen fire.

19
Comrade Raju is briefing the group. Its all in Gondi, I flimsy. But the new Chhattisgarh Special Public Secu-
dont understand a thing, but I keep hearing the word rity Act (CSPSA) allows the police to hold her with-
RV. Later Raju tells me it stands for Rendezvous! Its a out bail for several years. Now the Government has
Gondi word now. We make RV points so that in case deployed several battalions of Chhattisgarh police to
we come under fire and people have to scatter, they protect the poor Members of Parliament from their
know where to regroup. He cannot possibly know own mail. Comrade Raju says. He didnt get caught
the kind of panic this induces in me. Not because Im because he was in Dandakaranya at the time, attending
scared of being fired on, but because Im scared of be- a meeting. Hes been here ever since. His two school-
ing lost. Im a directional dyslexic, capable of getting going children who were left alone at home, were in-
lost between my bedroom and my bathroom. What terrogated extensively by the police. Finally their home
will I do in 60,000 square kilometers of forest? Come was packed up and they went to live with an uncle.
hell or high water, Im going to be holding on to Com- Comrade Raju received news of them for the
rade Rajus pallu. first time only a few weeks ago. What gives him this
Before we start walking, Comrade Venu comes up strength, this ability to hold on to his acid humour?
to me Okaythen Comrade. Ill take your leave. Im What keeps them all going, despite all they have en-
taken aback. He looks like a little mosquito in a wool- dured? Their faith and hopeand lovefor the Party.
en cap and chappals, surrounded by his guards, three I encounter it again and again, in the deepest, most per-
women, three men. Heavily armed. We are very grate- sonal ways.
ful to you comrade, for coming all the way here. he PLGA militants are the hardhitters of the Maoist
says. Once again the handshake, the clenched fist. Lal fighting force.
Salaam Comrade. He disappears into the forest, the Were moving in single file now. Myself, and one
Keeper of the Keys. And in a moment, its as though he hundred, senselessly violent, bloodthirsty insurgents. I
was never here. Im a little bereft. But I have hours of looked around at the camp before we left. There are no
recordings to listen to. And as the days turn into weeks, signs that almost a hundred people had camped here,
I will meet many people who paint color and detail into except for some ash where the fires had been. I cannot
the grid he drew for me. We begin to walk in the oppo- believe this army. As far as consumption goes, its more
site direction. Comrade Raju, smelling of iodex from a Gandhian than any Gandhian, and has a lighter carbon
mile off, says with a happy smile, My knees are gone. I footprint than any climate change evangelist. But for
can only walk if I have had a fistful of pain-killers. now, it even has a Gandhian approach to sabotage; be-
Comrade Raju speaks perfect Hindi and has a fore a police vehicle is burnt for example, it is stripped
deadpan way of telling the funniest stories. He worked down and every part is cannibalized. The steering
as an advocate in Raipur for eighteen years. Both he wheel is straightened out and made into a bharmaar
and his wife, Malti, were Party members and part of barrel, the rexine upholstery stripped and used for am-
its city network. At the end of 2007, one of the key munition pouches, the battery for solar charging. (The
people in the Raipur network was arrested, tortured new instructions from the high command are that cap-
and eventually turned informer. He was driven around tured vehicles should be buried and not cremated. So
Raipur in a closed police vehicle and made to point out they can be resurrected when needed.) Should I write
his former colleagues. a play I wonderGandhi Get Your Gun? Or will I be
Comrade Malti was one of them. On 22 January lynched?
2008 she was arrested along with several others. The Were walking in pitch darkness and dead silence.
main charge against her is that she mailed CDs con- Im the only one using a torch, pointed down so that
taining video evidence of Salwa Judum atrocities to all I can see in its circle of light are Comrade Kamlas
several Members of Parliament. Her case rarely comes bare heels in her scuffed, black chappals, showing me
up for hearing because the police know their case is exactly where to put my feet. She is carrying ten times

20
Comrade Kamloa, 17.
more weight than I am. Her backpack, a rifle, a huge loved singer-poet Gadar who founded the radical cul-
bag of provisions on her head, one of the large cooking tural organization Jan Natya Manch ( JNM) in 72.
pots and two shoulder bags full of vegetables. The bag Eventually JNM became a formal part of the PWG
on her head is perfectly balanced, and she can scramble and in Andhra Pradesh could draw audiences number-
down slopes and slippery rock pathways without so ing in the tens of thousands.
much as touching it. She is a miracle. It turns out to be Comrade Leng joined in 1977 and became a famous
a long walk. Im grateful to the history lesson because singer in his own right. He lived in Andhra through the
apart from everything else it gave my feet a rest for a worst repression, the era of encounter killings in which
whole day. friends died almost every day. He himself was picked
Its the most beautiful thing, walking in the forest up one night from his hospital bed, by a woman Su-
at night. And Ill be doing it night after night. perintendent of Police, masquerading as a doctor. He
was taken to the forest outside Warangal to be encoun-
tered. But luckily for him, Comrade Leng says, Gadar
W ere going to a celebration of the centenary of got the news and managed to raise an alarm. When the
the 1910 Bhumkal rebellion in which the Koyas rose PWG decided to start a cultural organization in DK
up against the British. Bhumkal, means earthquake. in 1998, Comrade Leng was sent to head the Cheta-
Comrade Raju says people will walk for days together na Natya Manch. And here he is now, walking with
to come for the celebration. The forest must be full of me, wearing an olive green shirt, and for some reason,
people on the move. There are celebrations in all the purple pyjamas with pink bunnies on them. There are
DK divisions. We are privileged because Comrade 10,000 members in CNM now, he told me. We have
Leng, the Master of Ceremonies, is walking with us. In 500 songs, in Hindi, Gondi, Chhattisgarhi and Halbi.
Gondi Leng means the voice. We have printed a book with 140 of our songs.
Comrade Leng is a tall, middle-aged man from Everybody writes songs. The first time I spoke to
Andhra Pradesh, a colleague of the legendary and be- him, he sounded very grave, very single-minded. But
21
days later, sitting around a fire, still in those pyjamas, Im drinking tea with Comrade Narmada, Comrade
he tells us about a very successful, mainstream Telugu Maase and Comrade Rupi. Comrade Narmada talks
film director (a friend of his), who always plays a Nax- about the many years she worked in Gadchiroli before
alite in his own films. I asked him, Comrade Leng said becoming the DK head of Krantikari Adivasi Mahila
in his lovely Telugu accented Hindi, why do you think Sanghathan (KAMS). Rupi and Maase have been ur-
Naxalites are always like this? and he did a deft ban activists in Andhra Pradesh and tell me about the
caricature of a crouched, high-stepping, hunted-look- long years of struggle of women within the Party, not
ing man emerging from the forest with an AK-47, and just for their rights, but also to make the Party see that
left us screaming with laughter. equality between men and women is central to a dream
Im not sure whether Im looking forward to the of a just society. We talk about the 70s and the stories
Bhumkal celebrations. I fear Ill see traditional tribal of women within the Naxalite movement who were
dances stiffened by Maoist propaganda, rousing, rhe- disillusioned by male comrades who thought them-
torical speeches and an obedient audience with glazed selves great revolutionaries but were hobbled by the
eyes. We arrive at the grounds quite late in the eve- same old patriarchy, the same old chauvinism. Maase
ning. A temporary monument, of bamboo scaffolding says things have changed a lot since then, though they
wrapped in red cloth has been erected. On top, above still have a way to go. (The Partys Central Committee
the hammer and sickle of the Maoist Party, is the bow and Polit Bureau have no women yet.)
and arrow of the Janatana Sarkar, wrapped in silver foil. Around noon another PLGA contingent arrives.
Appropriate, the hierarchy. The stage is huge, also tem- This one is headed by a tall, lithe, boyish looking man.
porary, on a sturdy scaffolding covered by a thick layer This comrade has two namesSukhdev, and Gudsa
of mud plaster. Already there are small fires scattered Usendi neither of which is his. Sukhdev is the name
around the ground, people have begun to arrive and are of a very beloved Comrade who was martyred. (In this
cooking their evening meal. Theyre only silhouettes in war only the dead are safe enough to use their real
the dark. We thread our way through them, (lalsalaam names.) As for Gudsa Usendi, many comrades have
,lalsalaam,lalsalaam) and keep going for about fifteen been Gudsa Usendi at one point or another. (A few
minutes until we re-enter the forest. months ago it was Comrade Raju.) Gudsa Usendi is
At our new campsite we have to fall-in again. An- the name of the Partys spokesperson for Dandakaran-
other roll call. And then instructions about sentry po- ya. So even though Sukhdev spends the rest of the trip
sitions and firing arcsdecisions about who will cover with me, I have no idea how Id ever find him again.
which area in the event of a police attack. RV points are Id recognize his laugh anywhere though. He came to
fixed again. DK in 88 he says, when the PWG decided to send one
An advance party has arrived and cooked dinner third of its forces from North Telengana into DK. Hes
already. For dessert Kamla brings me a wild guava that nicely dressed, in civil (Gondi for civilian clothes) as
she has plucked on the walk and squirreled away for opposed to dress (the Maoist uniform) and could pass
me. off as a young executive. I ask him why no uniform.
From dawn there is the sense of more and more He says hes been traveling and has just come back
people gathering for the days celebration. Theres a from the Keshkal Ghats near Kanker. There are re-
buzz of excitement building up. People who havent ports of bauxite deposits3 million tonnesthat a
seen each other in a long time, meet again. We can hear company called Vedanta has its eye on.
the sound of mikes being tested. Flags, banners, post- Bingo. Ten on ten for my instincts.
ers, buntings are going up. A poster with the pictures Sukhdev says he went there to measure the peo-
of the five people who were killed in Ongnaar the day ples temperature. To see if they were prepared to fight.
we arrived has appeared. They want squads now. And guns. He throws his
head back and roars with laughter, I told them its not

22
so easy, bhai. From the stray wisps of conversation and Sanghathana (AMS) which evolved into the Kranti-
the ease with which he carries his AK-47, I can tell hes kari Adivasi Mahila Sangathan (KAMS) and now has
also high up and hands on PLGA. 90,000 enrolled members. It could well be the largest
womens organization in the country. (Theyre all Mao-
ists by the way, all 90,000 of them. Are they going to
Jungle post arrives. Theres a biscuit for me! Its be wiped out? And what about the 10,000 members
from Comrade Venu. On a tiny piece of paper, folded of CNM? Them too?) The KAMS campaigns against
and re-folded, he has written down the lyrics of a song the adivasi traditions of forced marriage and abduc-
he promised he would send me. Comrade Narmada tion. Against the custom of making menstruating
smiles when she reads them. She knows this story. It women live outside the village in a hut in the forest.
goes back to the 1980s, around the time when people Against bigamy and domestic violence. It hasnt won all
first began trust to the Party and come to it with their its battles, but then which feminists have? For instance,
problemstheir inner contradictions as Comrade in Dandakaranya even today, women are not allowed
Venu put it. Women were among the first to come. to sow seeds. In Party meetings men agree that this is
One evening an old lady sitting by the fire, got up unfair and ought to be done away with. But in prac-
and sang a song for the Dada log. She was a Maadiya, tice, they simply dont allow it. So the Party decided
among whom it was customary for women to remove that women would sow seeds on common lands, which
their blouses and remain bare-breasted after they were belongs to the Jantana Sarkar. On that land they sow
married. seed, grow vegetables, and build check dams. A half-
victory, not a whole one.
Jumper polo intor Dada, Dakoniley As police repression has grown in Bastar, the wom-
Taane tasom intor Dada, Dakoniley en of KAMS have become a formidable force and rally
Bata papam kittom Dada, Dakoniley in their hundreds, sometimes thousands to physically
Duniya kadile maata Dada, Dakoniley confront the police. The very fact that the KAMS exists
has radically changed traditional attitudes and eased
They say we cannot keep our blouses, dada, many of the traditional forms of discrimination against
Dakoniley women. For many young women, joining the Party, in
They make us take them off, Dada, particular the PLGA, became a way of escaping the
In what way have we sinned, Dada, suffocation of their own society. Comrade Sushila, a
The world has changed has it not Dada, senior office bearer of KAMS talks about the Salwa
Judums rage against KAMS women. She says one of
Aatum hatteke Dada, Dakoniley their slogans was Hum Do Bibi layenge! Layenge! (We
Aada nanga dantom Dada, Dakoniley will have two wives! We will!) A lot of the rape and
Id pisval manni Dada, Dakoniley bestial sexual mutilation was directed at members of
Mava koyaturku vehat Dada, Dakoniley the KAMS. Many young women who witnessed the
savagery then joined the PLGA and now women make
But when we go to market Dada, up 45% of its cadre. Comrade Narmada sends for some
We have to go half-naked Dada, of them and they join us in a while.
We dont want this life Dada, Comrade Rinki has very short hair. A Bob-cut
Tell our ancestors this Dada, as they say in Gondi. Its brave of her, because here,
bob-cut means Maoist. For the police thats more
This was the first womens issue the Party decided than enough evidence to warrant summary execution.
to campaign against. It had to be handled delicately, Comrade Rinkis village, Korma was attacked by the
with surgical tools. In1986 it set up the Adivasi Mahila Naga Battalion and the Salwa Judum in 2005. At that

23
Bob-Cut Brigade: In Bastar, a womans short haircut is enough evidence for summary police execution as a Maoist.
time Rinki was part of the village militia. So were her Comrade Sumitra joined the PLGA in 2004, be-
friends Lukki and Sukki, who were also members of fore the Salwa Judum began its rampage. She joined
the KAMS. After burning the village, the Naga bat- she says, because she wanted to escape from home.
talion caught Lukki and Sukki and one other girl, gang Women are controlled in every way, she told me. In
raped and killed them. They raped them on the grass, our village girls were not allowed to climb trees, if they
Rinki says, but after it was over there was no grass did, they would have to pay a fine of Rs 500 or a hen.
left. Its been years now, the Naga Battalion has gone, If a man hits a woman and she hits him back she has
but the police still come. They come whenever they to give the village a goat. Men go off to the hills for
need women, or chickens. months together to hunt. Women are not allowed to
Ajitha has a bob-cut too. The Judum came to go near the kill, the best part of the meat goes to men.
Korseel, her village and killed three people by drown- Women are not allowed to eat eggs. Good reason to
ing them in a nallah. Ajitha was with the Militia, and join a guerilla army?
followed the Judum at a distance to a place close to the Sumitra tells the story of two of her friends, Telam
village called Paral Nar Todak. She watched them rape Parvati and Kamla who worked with KAMS. Telam
six women and shoot a man in his throat. Parvati was from Polekaya village in South Bastar. Like
Comrade Laxmi who is a beautiful girl with a long everyone else from there, she too watched the Salwa
plait, tells me she watched the Judum burn thirty hous- Judum burn her village. She then joined the PLGA
es in her village Jojor. We had no weapons then, she and went to work in the Keshkal ghats. In 2009 she
says, we could do nothing, but watch. She joined the and Kamla had just finished organizing the March 8th
PLGA soon after. Laxmi was one of the 150 gueril- Womens day celebrations in the area. They were to-
las who walked through the jungle for three and a half gether in a little hut just outside a village called Vadgo.
months in 2008, to Nayagarh in Orissa, to raid a po- The police surrounded the hut at night and began to
lice armoury from where they captured 1,200 rifles and fire. Kamla fired back, but she was killed. Parvati es-
200,000 rounds of ammunition. caped, but was found and killed the next day.

24
Thats what happened last year on Womens Day. and newspapers reported that Naxalites had attacked
And heres a press report from a national newspaper a herd of cows and bludgeoned them to death with
about Womens Day this year. hammers because they were anti-Hindu, anti-BJP.
You can imagine what happened. We issued a denial.
Bastar rebels bat for womens rights
Sahar Khan, Mail Today, Raipur, March 7, 2010
Hardly anybody carried it. Later it turned out that the
The government may have pulled out all stops man who had been given the cows to distribute was a
to combat the Maoist menace in the country. But a rogue. He sold them and said we had ambushed him
section of rebels in Chhattisgarh has more pressing and killed the cows.
matters in hand than survival. With International And the most serious?
Womens Day around the corner, Maoists in the Oh there are dozens, theyre running a campaign
Bastar region of the state have called for week- long after all. When the Salwa Judum started, the first day
celebrations to advocate womens rights. Posters they attacked a village called Ambeli, burned it down
were also put up in Bijapur, a part of Bastar district. and then all of them, SPOs, the Naga Battalion, po-
The call by the self- styled champions of womens lice, moved towards Kotrapalyou must have heard
rights has left the state police astonished. Inspec- about Kotrapal? Its a famous village, it has been burnt
tor- general (IG) of Bastar T. J. Longkumer said, I
22 times for refusing to surrender. When the Judum
have never seen such an appeal from the Naxalites,
reached Kotrapal, our militia was waiting for it. They
who believe only in violence and bloodshed.
had prepared an ambush. Two SPOs died. The mili-
And then the report goes on to say: tia captured seven, the rest ran away. The next day the
newspapers reported that the Naxalites had massacred
I think the Maoists are trying to counter our high-
ly successful Jan Jagran Abhiyaan (mass awareness
poor adivasis. Some said we had killed hundreds. Even
campaign). We started the ongoing campaign with a respectable magazine like Frontline said we had killed
an aim to win popular support for Operation 18 innocent adivasis. Even K.Balagopal, the human
Green Hunt, which was launched by the police to rights activist, who is usually meticulous about facts,
root out Left- wing extremists, the IG said. even he said this. We sent a clarification. Nobody pub-
lished it. Later, in his book, Balagopal acknowledged
This cocktail of malice and ignorance is not unusual.
his mistake. But who noticed?
Gudsa Usendi, chronicler of the Partys present knows
I asked what happened to the seven people that
more about this than most people. His little computer
were captured.
and MP3 recorder are full of press statements, denials,
The Area Committee called a Jan Adalat (Peoples
corrections, Party literature, lists of the dead, TV clips
Court). Four thousand people attended it. They lis-
and audio and video material. The worst thing about
tened to the whole story. Two of the SPOs were sen-
being Gudsa Usendi he says, is issuing clarifications
tenced to death. Five were warned and let off. The peo-
which are never published. We could bring out a thick
ple decided. Even with informers which is becoming
book of our unpublished clarifications, about the lies
a huge problem nowadays people listen to the case,
they tell about us. He speaks without a trace of indig-
the stories, the confessions and say Iska hum risk na-
nation, in fact with some amusement.
hin le sakte (Were not prepared to take the risk of
Whats the most ridiculous charge youve had to
trusting this person) or, Iska risk hum lenge (We are
deny?
prepared to take the risk of trusting this person.) The
He thinks back. In 2007, we had to issue a state-
press always reports about informers who are killed.
ment saying Nahi bhai, humney gai ko hathode say
Never about the many that are let off. Never about
nahin mara. (No brother, we did not kill cows with
the people who these informers have had killed. So
hammers.). In 2007 the Raman Singh Government an-
everybody thinks it is some bloodthirsty procedure in
nounced a Gai Yojana (cow scheme), an election prom-
which everybody is always killed. Its not about revenge,
ise, a cow for every Adivasi. One day the TV channels
25
its about survival and saving future lives Of course
there are problems, weve made terrible mistakes, we
have even killed the wrong people in our ambushes,
thinking they were policemen, but it is not the way its
portrayed in the media.
The dreaded Peoples Courts. How can we accept
them? Or approve this form of rude justice?
On the other hand, what about encounters fake
and otherwisethe worst form of summary justice
that get policemen and soldiers bravery medals, cash
awards and out-of-turn promotions from the Indian
Government? The more they kill, the more they are
rewarded. Bravehearts they are called, the Encoun-
ter specialists. Anti-nationals we are called, those of
us who dare to question them. And what about the
Supreme Court that brazenly admitted it did not have
enough evidence to sentence Mohammed Afzal (ac-
cused in the Dec 2001 Parliament Attack) to death,
but did so anyway, because the collective conscience of
the society will only be satisfied if capital punishment
is awarded to the offender.
At least in the case of the Kotrapal Jan Adalat, the
Collective was physically present to make its own deci-
sion. It wasnt made by judges who had lost touch with
ordinary life a long time ago, presuming to speak on
behalf of an absent Collective.
What should the people of Kotrapal have done I
wonder? Sent for the police?

The sound of drums has become really loud. Its


Bhumkal time. We walk to the grounds. I can hardly
believe my eyes. There is a sea of people, the most wild, has been with the Party since 1997, is such a threat to
beautiful people, dressed in the most wild, beautiful the nation, that in January 2007 more than 700 police-
ways. The men seem to have paid much more attention men surrounded Innar village because they heard she
to themselves than the women. They have feathered was there. Comrade Niti is considered to be so dan-
headgear and painted tattoos on their faces. Many have gerous, and is being hunted with such desperation, not
eye make-up and white, powdered faces. Theres lots of because she has led many ambushes (which she has),
militia, girls in saris of breathtaking colors with rifles but because she is an adivasi woman who is loved by
slung carelessly over their shoulders. There are old peo- people in the village and is a real inspiration to young
ple, children, and red buntings arc across the sky. people. She speaks with her AK on her shoulder. (Its
The sun is sharp and high. Comrade Leng speaks. a gun with a story. Almost everyones gun has a story:
And several office-holders of the various Jantana Who it was snatched from, how, and by whom.)
Sarkars. Comrade Niti, an extraordinary woman who

26
Dance troupes of various Janatana
Sarkars perform on Bhumkal Day.

A CNM troupe performs a play about the Bhum- They cannot find their daughter. In their sorrow the
kal uprising. The evil white colonizers wear hats and old couple starts to sing, and hearing them, the voice
golden straw for hair, and bully and beat Adivasis to of their daughter sings back to them from the ruins:
pulpcausing endless delight in the audience. An- The sound of our village has been silenced, she sings.
other troupe from South Gangalaur performs a play Theres no more pounding of rice, no more laughter by
called Nitir Judum Pito (Story of the Blood Hunt). the well. No more birds, no more bleating goats. The
Joori translates for me. Its the story of two old people taut string of our happiness has been snapped.
who go looking for their daughters village. As they Her father sings back: My beautiful daughter, dont
walk through the forest, they get lost because every- cry today. Everyone who is born must die. These trees
thing is burnt and unrecognizable. The Salwa Judum around us will fall, flowers will bloom and fade, one day
has even burned the drums and the musical instru- this world will grow old. But who are we dying for?
ments. There are no ashes because it has been raining. One day our looters will learn, one day Truth will pre-

27
vail, but our people will never forget you, not for thou- I cant believe all this is happening right under the
sands of years. noses of the police. Right in the midst of Operation
A few more speeches. Then the drumming and Green Hunt.
the dancing begins. Each Janatana Sarkar has its own At first the PLGA comrades watch the dancers,
troupe. Each troupe has prepared its own dance. They standing aside with their guns. But then, one by one,
arrive one by one, with huge drums and they dance wild like ducks who cannot bear to stand on the shore and
stories. The only character every troupe has in common watch other ducks swim, they move in and begin to
is Bad Mining Man, with a helmet and dark glasses, dance too. Soon there are lines of olive green dancers,
and usually smoking a cigarette. But theres nothing swirling with all the other colours. And then, as sisters
stiff, or mechanical about their dancing. As they dance, and brothers and parents and children and friends who
the dust rises. The sound of drums becomes deafening. havent met for months, years sometimes, encounter
Gradually, the crowd begins to sway. And then it be- each other, the lines break up and re-form and the olive
gins to dance. They dance in little lines of six or seven, green is distributed among the swirling saris and flow-
men and women separate, with their arms around each ers and drums and turbans. It surely is a Peoples Army.
others waists. Thousands of people. For now, at least. And what Chairman Mao said about
This is what theyve come for. For this. Happiness the guerillas being the fish, and people being the water
is taken very seriously here, in the Dandakaranya for- they swim in, is, at this moment, literally true.
est. People will walk for miles, for days together to feast Chairman Mao. Hes here too. A little lonely, per-
and sing, to put feathers in their turbans and flowers haps, but present. Theres a photograph of him, up on
in their hair, to put their arms around each other and a red cloth screen. Marx too. And Charu Majumdar,
drink mahua and dance through the night. No one the founder and chief theoretician of the Naxalite
sings or dances alone. This, more than anything else, Movement. His abrasive rhetoric fetishizes violence,
signals their defiance towards a civilization that seeks blood and martyrdom, and often employs a language
to annihilate them. so coarse as to be almost genocidal. Standing here, on

Pictures of slain comrades displayed on Bhumkal Day.


28
Villagers from the submergence areas of the proposed Bodhghat dam.
Bhumkal day, I cant help thinking that his analysis, so Revolutions. Silence over Tibet. Within the Naxalite
vital to the structure of this revolution, is so removed movement too, there have been violent excesses and its
from its emotion and texture. When he said that only impossible to defend much of what theyve done. But
an annihilation campaign could produce the new man can anything they have done compare with the sordid
who will defy death and be free from all thought of achievements of the Congress and the BJP in Punjab,
self-interest could he have imagined that this an- Kashmir, Delhi, Mumbai, Gujarat And yet, despite
cient people, dancing into the night, would be the ones these terrifying contradictions, Charu Mazumdar was
on whose shoulders his dreams would come to rest? a visionary in much of what he wrote and said. The
party he founded (and its many splinter groups) has
kept the dream of revolution real and present in India.
Its a great disservice to everything that is hap- Imagine a society without that dream. For that alone
pening here that the only thing that seems to make we cannot judge him too harshly. Especially not while
it to the outside world is the stiff, unbending rhetoric we swaddle ourselves with Gandhis pious humbug
of the ideologues of a party that has evolved from a about the superiority of the non-violent way and his
problematic past. When Charu Mazumdar famously notion of Trusteeship:
said, Chinas Chairman is our Chairman and Chinas The rich man will be left in possession of his
Path is Our Path he was prepared to extend it to the wealth, of which he will use what he reasonably re-
point where the Naxalites remained silent while Gen- quires for his personal needs and will act as a trustee
eral Yahya Khan committed genocide in East Pakistan for the remainder to be used for the good of society.
(Bangladesh), because at the time, China was an ally of How strange it is though, that the contemporary
Pakistan. tsars of the Indian Establishmentthe State that
There was silence too, over the Khmer Rouge and crushed the Naxalites so mercilessly should now be
its killing fields in Cambodia. There was silence over saying what Charu Mazumdar said so long ago: Chi-
the egregious excesses of the Chinese and Russian nas Path is Our Path.

29
Upside Down. Inside Out. protracted war for the last thirty years, where would
Chinas Path has changed. China has become an they be now?
imperial power now, preying on other countries, other And are the Maoists the only ones who believe in
peoples resources. But the Party is still right, only, the protracted war? Almost from the moment India be-
Party has changed its mind. came a sovereign nation it turned into a colonial power,
When the Party is a suitor (as it is now in Dan- annexing territory, waging war. It has never hesitated
dakaranya), wooing the people, attentive to their every to use military interventions to address political prob-
need, then it genuinely is a Peoples Party, its army gen- lems Kashmir, Hyderabad, Goa, Nagaland, Mani-
uinely a Peoples Army. But after the Revolution how pur, Telengana, Assam, Punjab, the Naxalite uprising
easily this love affair can turn into a bitter marriage. in West Bengal, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and now across
How easily the Peoples Army can turn upon the peo- the tribal areas of Central India. Tens of thousands
ple. Today in Dandakaranya, the Party wants to keep have been killed with impunity, hundreds of thousands
the bauxite in the mountain. Tomorrow will it change tortured.
its mind? But can we, should we let apprehensions All of this behind the benign mask of democracy.
about the future, immobilize us in the present? Who have these wars been waged against? Muslims,
The dancing will go on all night. I walk back to Christians, Sikhs, Communists, Dalits, Tribals and,
the camp. Maase is there, awake. We chat late into the most of all against the poor who dare to question their
night. I give her my copy of Nerudas Captains Verses (I lot instead of accepting the crumbs that are flung at
brought it along, just in case). She asks again and again, them. Its hard not to see the Indian State as an essen-
What do they think of us outside? What do students tially upper-caste Hindu State (regardless of which
say? Tell me about the womens movement, what are party is in power) which harbours a reflexive hostility
the big issues now? She asks about me, my writing. I towards the other. One that in true colonial fashion,
try and give her an honest account of my chaos. Then sends the Nagas and Mizos to fight in Chhattisgarh,
she starts to talk about herself, how she joined the Par- Sikhs to Kashmir, Kashmiris to Orissa, Tamilians to
ty. She tells me that her partner was killed last May, in Assam and so on. If this isnt protracted war, what is?
a fake encounter. He was arrested in Nashik, and taken Unpleasant thoughts on a beautiful, starry night.
to Warangal to be killed. They must have tortured him Sukhdev is smiling to himself, his face lit by his com-
badly. She was on her way to meet him when she heard puter screen. Hes a crazy workaholic. I ask him whats
he had been arrested. Shes been in the forest ever since. funny. I was thinking about the journalists who came
After a long silence she tells me she was married once last year for the Bhumkal celebrations. They came for a
before, years ago. He was killed in an encounter too, day or two. One posed with my AK, had himself pho-
she says, and adds with heart-breaking precision, but tographed and then went back and called us Killing
in a real one. Machines or something.
I lie awake on my jhilli, thinking of Maases pro-
tracted sadness, listening to the drums and the sounds
of protracted happiness from the grounds, and think- The dancing hasnt stopped and its daybreak.
ing about Charu Mazumdars idea of protracted war, The lines are still going, hundreds of young people still
the central precept of the Maoist Party. This is what dancing. They wont stop, Comrade Raju says, not
makes people think the Maoists offer to enter peace until we start packing up.
talks is a hoax, a ploy to get breathing space to regroup, On the grounds I run into Comrade Doctor. Hes
re-arm themselves and go back to waging protracted been running a little medical camp on the edge of the
war. What is protracted war? Is it a terrible thing in dance floor. I want to kiss his fat cheeks. Why cant he
itself, or does it depend on the nature of the war? What be at least thirty people instead of just one? Why cant
if the people here in Dandakaranya had not waged their he be one thousand people? I ask him what its looking

30
like, the health of Dandakaranya. His reply makes my Jaane waley Sathiyon ko Lal Lal Salaam,
blood run cold. Most of the people he has seen, he says,
including those in the PLGA, have a Haemoglobin (Red Salute to departing comrades)
Count thats between 5 and 6, (when the standard for
Indian women is 11.) Theres TB caused by more than Phir milenge, Phir milenge
two years of chronic anaemia. Young children suffer Dandakaranya jungle mein phir milenge
from Protein Energy Malnutrition Grade II, in medi-
cal terminology called Kwashiorkor. (I looked it up lat- Well meet again, some day, in the Dandakaranya
er. Its a word derived from the Ga language of Coastal Forest.
Ghana and means the sickness a baby gets when the
new baby comes. Basically the old baby stops getting Its never taken lightly, the ceremony of arrival and
mothers milk, and
theres not enough
food to provide it
nutrition.) Its an
epidemic here, like
in Biafra, Comrade
Doctor says, I have
worked in villages
before, but Ive nev-
er seen anything
like this.
Apart from
this, theres ma-
laria, osteoporosis,
tapeworm, severe
ear and tooth in-
fections and pri- Adivasi boys in colourful traditional garb for Bhumkal Day celebrations.
mary amenorrhea
which is when malnutrition during puberty causes a departure, because everybody knows that when they
womans menstrual cycle to disappear, or never appear say well meet again they actually mean we may never
in the first place. meet again. Comrade Narmada, Comrade Maase and
There are no clinics in this forest apart from one Comrade Roopi are going separate ways. Will I ever
or two in Gadchiroli. No doctors. No medicines. see them again?
Hes off now, with his little team, on an eight-day So once again, we walk. Its becoming hotter every
trek to Abhujmad. Hes in dress too, Comrade Doctor. day. Kamla picks the first fruit of the Tendu for me. Its
So if they find him theyll kill him. tastes like chikoo. Ive become a tamarind fiend. This
time we camp near a stream. Women and men take
turns to bathe in batches. In the evening Comrade Raju
C omrade Raju says that it isnt safe for us to con- receives a whole packet of biscuits.
tinue to camp here. We have to move. Leaving Bhum-
kal involves a lot of good-byes spread over time. News:
60 people arrested in Manpur Division at the end
Lal lal salaam, Lal lal salaam, of Jan 2010 have not yet been produced in Court.

31
Huge contingents of police have arrived in South The young communists take the clips away to prac-
Bastar. Indiscriminate attacks are on. tice their reading. They walk around the camp read-
On 8 Nov 2009, in Kachlaram Village, Bijapur Jila, ing the anti-Maoist articles loudly in radio-announcer
Dirko Madka (60) and Kovasi Suklu (68) were voices.
killed.
On 24 Nov Madavi Baman (15) was killed in Pan-
godi village New day. New place. Were camped on the out-
On 3 Dec Madavi Budram from Korenjad also skirts of Usir village, under huge Mahua trees. The ma-
killed. hua has just begun to flower and is dropping its pale
On 11 Dec Gumiapal village, Darba Division, 7 green blossoms like jewels on the forest floor. The air is
people killed (names yet to come) suffused with its slightly heady smell. Were waiting for
On 15 Dec Kotrapal village, Veko Sombar and the children from the Bhatpal school which was closed
Madavi Matti, (both with KAMS) killed. down after the Ongnaar Encounter. Its been turned
On 30 Dec Vechapal village Poonem Pandu and into a police camp. The children have been sent home.
Poonem Motu (father and son) killed. This is also true of the schools in Nelwad, Moonjmetta,
On Jan 2010 (date unknown) Head of the Jana- Edka, Vedomakot and Dhanora.
tana Sarkar in Kaika village, Gangalaur killed The Bhatpal school children dont show up.
On 9 Jan, 4 people killed in Surpangooden village, Comrade Niti (Most Wanted) and Comrade
Jagargonda Area Vinod lead us on a long walk to see the series of water
On 10 Jan, 3 people killed in Pullem Pulladi village harvesting structures and irrigation ponds that have
(no names yet) been built by the local Janatana Sarkar. Comrade Niti
On 25 January, 7 people killed in Takilod village, talks about the range of agricultural problems they
Indravati Area have to deal with. Only 2% of the land is irrigated. In
On Feb 10 (Bhumkal Day) Kumli raped and killed Abhujmad, ploughing was unheard of until ten years
in Dumnaar Village, Abhujmad,. She was from a ago. In Gadricholi on the other hand, hybrid seeds and
village called Paiver. chemical pesticides are edging their way in. We need
2000 troops of the Indo Tibetan Border Patrol urgent help in the agriculture department, Comrade
(ITBP) are camped in the Rajnandgaon forests Vinod says. We need people who know about seeds,
5000 Additional BSF troops have arrived in Kank- organic pesticides, permaculture. With a little help we
er could do a lot.
Comrade Ramu is the farmer in charge of the
And then: Janatana Sarkar area. He proudly shows us around
PLGA quota filled. the fields, where they grow rice, brinjal, gongura, on-
ions, kohlrabi. Then, with equal pride, he shows us a
Some dated newspapers have arrived too. Theres huge, but bone-dry irrigation pond. Whats this? This
a lot of press about Naxalites. One screaming head- one doesnt even have water during the rainy season.
line sums up the political climate perfectly: Khadedo, Its dug in the wrong place he says, a smile wrapped
Maaro, Samarpan Karao, (Eliminate, Kill, Make them around his face, its not ours, it was dug by the Looti
Surrender.) Below that: Varta ke liye loktantra ka dwar Sarkar. (The Government that Loots). There are two
khula hai (Democracys door is always open for talks.) parallel systems of government here, Janatana Sarkar
A second says the Maoists are growing cannabis to and Looti Sarkar.
make money. The third has an editorial saying that the I think of what Comrade Venu said to me: They
area weve camped in and are walking through, is en- want to crush us, not only because of the minerals, but
tirely under police control. because we are offering the world an alternative mod-

32
el. asked her what the Party means to her. Naxalvaad ka
Its not an Alternative yet, this idea of Gram Swaraj matlab humaara Parivaar (Naxalvaad means our fam-
with a Gun. There is too much hunger, too much sick- ily.) When we hear of an attack, it is like our family has
ness here. But it has certainly created the possibilities been hurt. Sukhiari said.
for an alternative. Not for the whole world, not for I asked her if she knew who Mao was. She smiled
Alaska, or New Delhi, nor even perhaps for the whole shyly, He was a leader. Were working for his vision.
of Chhattisgarh, but for itself. For Dandakaranya. Its I met Comrade Somari Gawde. Twenty years old,
the worlds best kept secret. It has laid the foundations and she has already served a two-year jail sentence in
for an alternative to its own annihilation. It has defied Jagdalpur.
history. Against the greatest odds it has forged a blue- She was in Innar village on 8 January 2007, the
print for its own survival. It needs help and imagina- day that 740 policemen laid a cordon around it because
tion, it needs doctors, teachers, farmers. they had information that Comrade Niti was there.
It does not need war. (She was, but had left by the time they arrived.) But
But if war is all it gets, it will fight back. the village militia, of which Somari was a member, was
still there. The police opened fire at dawn. They killed
two boys, Suklal Gawde and Kachroo Gota. Then they
O ver the next few days I meet women who caught three others, two boys, Dusri Salam and Ranai,
work with KAMS, various office bearers of the Jana- and Somari. Dusri and Ranai were tied up and shot.
tana Sarkars, members of the Dandakaranya Adivasi Somari was beaten within an inch of her life. The po-
Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan DAKMS, the families of lice got a tractor with a trailer and loaded the dead bod-
people who had been killed, and just ordinary people ies into it. Somari was made to sit with the dead bodies
trying to cope with life in these terrifying times. and taken to Narainpur.
I met three sisters, Sukhiyari, Sukdai and Sukkali, I met Chamri, mother of Comrade Dilip who was
not young, perhaps in their forties, from Narainpur dis- shot on 6 July 2009. She says that after they killed him,
trict. They have been in KAMS for twelve years. The the police tied her sons body to a pole, like an ani-
villagers depend on them to deal with the police. The mal and carried it with them. (They need to produce
police come in groups of two to three hundred. They bodies to get their cash rewards, before someone else
steal everything, jewelry, chickens, pigs, pots and pans, muscles in on the kill.) Chamri ran behind them all
bows and arrows Sukkali says, they wont even leave a the way to the police station. By the time they reached,
knife. Her house in Innar has been burned twice, once the body did not have a scrap of clothing on it. On the
by the Naga Battalion and once by the CRPF. Sukhiari way, Chamri says, they left the body by the roadside
has been arrested and jailed in Jagdalpur for 7 months. while they stopped at a dhaba to have tea and biscuits.
Once they took away the whole village, saying (Which they did not pay for.) Picture this mother for a
the men were all Naxals. Sukhiari followed with all moment, following her sons corpse through the forest,
the women and children. They surrounded the police stopping at a distance to wait for his murderers to fin-
station and refused to leave until the men were freed. ish their tea. They did not let her have her sons body
Whenever they take someone away, Sukdai says, you back so she could give him a proper funeral. They only
have to go immediately and snatch them back. Before let her throw a fistful of earth in the pit in which they
they write any report. Once they write in their book, it buried the others they had killed that day. Chamri says
becomes very difficult. she wants revenge. Badla ku badla. Blood for blood.
Sukhiari, who, as a child was abducted and forc- I met the elected members of the Marskola Janata-
ibly married to an older man (she ran away and went to na Sarkar, that administers six villages. They described
live with her sister), now organizes mass rallies, speaks a police raid: They come at night, 300, 400, sometimes
at meetings. The men depend on her for protection. I 1000 of them. They lay a cordon around a village and

33
lie in wait. At dawn they catch the first people who go flicting on the group conditions of life calculated
out to the fields and use them as human shields to en- to bring about its physical destruction in whole
ter the village, to show them where the booby-traps are. or part; imposing measures intended to prevent
(Booby-traps has become a Gondi word. Everybody births within the group; [or] forcibly transfer-
always smiles when they say it or hear it. The forest ring children of the group to another group.
is full of booby traps, real and fake. Even the PLGA All the walking seems to have finally got to me. Im
needs to be guided past villages.) Once the police enter tired. Kamla gets me a pot of hot water. I bathe be-
the village they loot and steal and burn houses. They hind a tree in the dark. But I cant eat dinner and crawl
come with dogs. The dogs catch those who try and run. into my bag to sleep. Comrade Raju announces that we
They chase chickens and pigs and the police kill them have to move.
and take them away in sacks. SPOs come along with This happens frequently, of course, but tonight its
the police. Theyre the ones who know where people hard. We have been in camped in an open meadow.
hide their money and jewelry. They catch people and Wed heard shelling in the distance. There are 104 of
take them away. And extract money before they release us. Once again, single file through the night. Crickets.
them. They always carry some extra Naxal dresses with The smell of something like lavender. It must have been
them in case they find someone to kill. They get money past eleven when we arrived at the place where we will
for killing Naxals, so they manufacture some. Villagers spend the night. An outcrop of rocks. Formation. Roll
are too frightened to stay at home. call. Someone switches on the radio. BBC says theres
In this tranquil-looking forest, life seems com- been an attack on a camp of Eastern Frontier Rifles
pletely militarized now. People know words like Cor-
don and Search, Firing, Advance, Retreat, Down, Ac-
tion! To harvest their crops they need the PLGA to
do a sentry patrol. Going to the market is a military
operation. The markets are full of mukhbirs (inform-
ers) who the police have lured from their villages with
money. (Rs 1500 a month) Im told theres a mukhbir
mohallahinformers colony in Narainpur where at
least four thousand mukhbirs stay. The men cant go to
market any more. The women go, but theyre watched
closely. If they buy even a little extra, the police accuse
them of buying it for Naxals. Chemists have instruc-
tions not to let people buy medicines except in very
small quantities. Low price rations from the Public
Distribution System (PDS), sugar, rice, kerosene, are
warehoused in or near police stations making it impos-
sible for most people to buy.
Article 2 of the United Nations Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide Maoists on the move in Bastar.
defines it as:
Any of the following Acts committed with intent
to destroy, in whole or part, a national, ethnic, ra-
cial, or religious group, as such: killing members
of the group; causing serious bodily or mental
harm to members of the group; deliberately in-

34
in Lalgarh, West Bengal. 60 Maoists on motorcycles. Comrade Raju is considerate this morning. We
14 policemen killed. 10 missing. Weapons snatched. dont move till evening.
Theres a murmur of pleasure in the ranks. The Mao-
ist leader Kishenji is being interviewed. When will you
stop this violence and come for talks? When Operation O ne night people are crowded like moths around
Green Hunt is called off. Any time. Tell Chidambaram a point of light. Its Comrade Sukhdevs tiny computer,
we will talk. Next question: Its dark now, you have powered by a solar panel, and theyre watching Mother
laid landmines, reinforcement have been called in, will India, the barrels of their rifles silhouetted against the
you attack them too? Kishenji: Yes of course, other- sky. Kamla doesnt seem interested. I asked her if she
wise people will beat me. Theres laughter in the ranks. likes watching movies. Nahi didi. Sirf ambush video.
Sukhdev the clarifier says, They always say landmines. (No didi. Only ambush videos.) Later I ask Comrade
We dont use landmines. We use IEDs. Sukhdev about these ambush videos. Without batting
Another luxury suite in the thousand star hotel. an eyelid, he plays one for me.
Im feeling ill. It starts to rain. Theres a little giggling. It starts with shots of Dandakaranya, rivers, water-
Kamla throws a jhilli over me. What more do I need? falls, the close up of a bare branch of a tree, a brainfever
Everyone else just rolls themselves into their jhillis. bird calling. Then suddenly a comrade is wiring up an
By next morning the body count in Lalgarh has IED, concealing it with dry leaves. A cavalcade of mo-
gone up to 21, 10 missing. torcycles is blown up. There are mutilated bodies and
burning bikes. The weapons are being snatched. Three

35
policemen, looking shell-shocked have been tied up. theyre on their way to an anti-dam meeting in Kudur
Whos filming it? Whos directing operations? village. Theyre over ground and unarmed. A local rally
Whos reassuring the captured cops that they will be for the valley. I jumped ship and joined them.
released if they surrender? (They were released, I con- The Bodhghat Dam will submerge the entire area
firmed later.) that we have been walking in for days. All that forest,
I know that gentle, reassuring voice. Its Comrade all that history, all those stories. More than 100 villag-
Venu. es. Is that the plan then? To drown people like rats, so
Its the Kudur Ambush Comrade Sukhdev says. that the integrated steel plant in Lohandiguda and the
He also has a video archive of burned villages, testi- bauxite mine and aluminum refinery in the Keshkal
monies from eyewitnesses and relatives of the dead. On ghats can have the river?
the singed wall of a burnt house it says Nagaaa! Born At the meeting, people who have come from miles
to Kill!. Theres footage of the little boy whose fingers away, say the same thing weve all heard for years. We
were chopped off to inaugurate the Bastar chapter of will drown, but we wont move! They are thrilled that
Operation Green Hunt. (Theres even a TV interview someone from Delhi is with them. I tell them Delhi is a
with me. My study. My books. Strange.) cruel city that neither knows nor cares about them.
At night on the radio theres news of another Nax- Only weeks before I came to Dandakaranya, I vis-
al Attack. This one in Jamui, Bihar. It says 125 Maoists ited Gujarat. The Sardar Sarovar Dam has more or less
attacked a village and killed 10 people belonging to the reached its full height now. And almost every single
Kora Tribe in retaliation for giving police information thing the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) predicted
that led to the death of 6 Maoists. Of course we know, would happen has happened. People who were dis-
the report may or may not be true. But if it is, this ones placed have not been rehabilitated, but that goes with-
unforgiveable. Comrade Raju and Sukhdev look dis- out saying. The canals have not been built. Theres no
tinctly uncomfortable. money. So Narmada water is being diverted into the
The news that has been coming from Jharkhand empty riverbed of the Sabarmati (which was dammed
and Bihar is disturbing. The gruesome beheading of a long time ago.) Most of the water is being guzzled by
the policeman Francis Induvar is still fresh in every- cities and big industry. The downstream effects salt-
ones mind. Its a reminder of how easily the discipline water ingress into an estuary with no riverare be-
of armed struggle can dissolve into lumpen acts of coming impossible to mitigate.
criminalized violence, or into ugly wars of identity be- There was a time when believing that Big Dams
tween castes and communities and religious groups. By were the temples of Modern India was misguided, but
institutionalizing injustice in the way that it does, the perhaps understandable. But today, after all that has
Indian State has turned this country into a tinderbox happened, and when we know all that we do, it has to
of massive unrest. The Government is quite wrong if be said that Big Dams are a crime against humanity.
it thinks that by carrying out targeted assassinations The Bodhghat dam was shelved in 1984 after local
to render the CPI(Maoist) headless it will end the people protested. Who will stop it now? Who will pre-
violence. On the contrary, the violence will spread and vent the foundation stone from being laid? Who will
intensify, and the Government will have nobody to talk stop the Indravati from being stolen? Someone must.
to.

On the last night we camped at the base of the


O n my last few days we meander through the steep hill we would climb in the morning, to emerge
lush, beautiful Indravati valley. As we walk along a hill- on the road from where a motorcycle would pick me
side, we see another line of people walking in the same up. The forest has change even since I first entered it.
direction, but on the other side of the river. Im told

36
The chironjee, silk cotton and mango trees have begun ing. (The climb would be hell on his knees). Comrade
to flower. Niti (Most Wanted), Comrade Sukhdev, Kamla and
The villagers from Kudur send a huge pot of fresh- five others will take me up the hill. As we start walking,
ly caught fish to the camp. And a list for me, of 71 kinds Niti and Sukhdev casually, but simultaneously, unclick
of fruit, vegetables, pulses and insects they get from the the safety catches of their AKs. Its the first time Ive
forest and grow in their fields, along with the market seen them do that. Were approaching the Border. Do
price. Its just a list. But its also a map of their world. you know what to do if we come under fire? Sukhdev
Jungle post arrives. Two biscuits for me. A poem asks casually, as though it was the most natural thing
and a pressed flower from Comrade Narmada. A lovely in the world.
letter from Maase. (Who is she? Will I ever know?). Yes, I said. Immediately declare an indefinite
Comrade Sukhdev asks if he can download the hunger-strike.
music from my Ipod into his computer. We listen to He sat down on a rock and laughed. We climbed
a recording of Iqbal Bano singing Faiz Ahmed Faizs for about an hour. Just below the road, we sat in a rocky
Hum Dekhenge (We will Witness the Day) at the fa- alcove, completely concealed, like an ambush party, lis-
mous concert in Lahore at the height of the repression tening for the sound of the bikes. When it comes, the
during the Zia-ul-Haq years. farewell must be quick. Lal Salaam Comrades.
When I looked back, they were still there. Waving.
Jab ahl-e-safa-Mardud-e-haram, A little knot. People who live with their dreams, while
Masnad pe bithaiye jayenge the rest of the world lives with its nightmares. Every
night I think of this journey. That night sky, those for-
When the heretics and the reviled. est paths. I see Comrade Kamlas heels in her scuffed
Will be seated on high chappals, lit by the light of my torch. I know she must
be on the move. Marching, not just for herself, but to
Sab taaj uchhale jayenge keep hope alive for us all.
Sab takht giraye jayenge

All crowns will be snatched away


All thrones toppled

Hum Dekhenge

Fifty thousand people in the audience in that Paki-


stan begin a defiant chant: Inqilab Zindabad! Inqilab
Zindabad! All these years later, that chant reverber-
ates around this forest. Strange, the alliances that get
made.
The Home Minister has been issuing veiled threats
to those who erroneously offer intellectual and mate-
rial support to the Maoists. Does sharing Iqbal Bano
qualify?
At dawn I say good-bye to Comrade Madhav and
Joori, to young Mangtu and all the others. Comrade
Chandu has gone to organize the bikes, and will come
with me upto the main road. Comrade Raju isnt com-

37
Essays for Discussion pamphlets
available at kasamaproject.org
Shaping the Kasama Project:
Contributing to Revolutions Long March
by Enzo Rhyner, J.B. Connors, John Steele,
Kobayashi Maru, Mike Ely,
Rita Stephan, and Rosa Harris
Ambush at Keystone No. 1:
Inside the Coal Miners Great Gas Protest of 1974
by Mike Ely
Wheres Our Mississippi?
by John Steele
The Historical Failure of Anarchism:
Implications for the Future of the
Revolutionary Project
by Christopher Day
Revolution in India: Lalgarhs Hopeful Spark
by Sam Shell
On the Maobadi and the Crisis in Nepal
Slipping Into Darkness:
The Last Revolutionary Years of the Communist Party (1929-35)
by Mike Ely
9 Letters to Our Comrades:
Getting Beyond Avakians New Synthesis
by Mike Ely
At a Fork in the Road: A Debriefing of the RCP
by Bill Martin
Avakians Assessment of Thomas Jefferson:
A Critical Reading
By Pavel Andreyev
Avakians Away With all Gods!:
Critiquing Religion Without Understanding It
By Pavel Andreyev
Cost of Empire:
Time Bombs, Anarchy, Guns
and the New Depression
by Eddy Laing
kasamaproject.org

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