A couple of western media sources recently profiled a Maoist revolutionary from Andhra Pradesh, who calls himself “Gaddar,” after the anti-Imperialist revolutionary movement from the 1910s. Through his powerful folk songs about poverty and political repression, Gaddar has become the police’s biggest nightmare as they attempt to squelch the seemingly bottomless (or at least very deep) well of sympathy for the Maoists in India’s impoverished rural areas.
Maoists have been engaged in a longstanding civil war in rural areas in eastern and southern India, which stands as a stark rejoinder to recent upbeat developments in the cities. It started as “Naxalbari” in the late 1960s, but it has been reborn in the 2000s as the People’s War. It has, by any measure, been an extremely bloody insurgency, which has left thousands of people dead in the past few years. PM Manmohan Singh recently described the movement as the current greatest threat to India’s internal security.
You can hear Gaddar singing in this NPR segment. You should really give it a listen; the guy has a voice. And there is a print version of the article with many of the same details and background at the VOA.
It’s not clear to me whether Gaddar is himself an active “soldier” in the People’s War, or simply a Maoist sympathizer; most articles on him describe him as the latter. What to do about him? On the one hand, his singing ought to be protected as freedom of speech, and the lyrics of the songs in the NPR piece are all about suffering, not incitement to war. On the other hand, isn’t he indirectly inciting people to commit acts of violence simply by supporting the Maoist movement?
Swati, so how does killing police personnel and governement officials elleviate poverty of the villagers? How do guns and knives fill empty stomachs? Why do Gaddar’s dont converse without guns? Why are the marxists not radical enough for the Maoists? Why are the ‘pro-people’ governments not listening or the past 50 years? Is it the democratic India they want or do they claim a part of it (Andhra to Assam)? Or is it just plain old “communism”?
The following could answer most of the above:
Here goes my lunch break. Anyways George Orwell wrote all about this in ‘Animal Farm’. A classic allegory which is very prescient. I don’t think I will be able to add any more than good ‘ol George.
Couple of other examples of peaceful economic movements: Grammen and Sewa. Of course these are not idealogically compliant enough for our Leftist/Markist/Maoist/Socialist comrades.
“the problem is a) he is a moron. What is his accomplishment ? Does he understand any process… Has he managed any business ? Nothing…. Then we shall See more acts like rural employemt gaurentee acts.”
yes. what we need more are corporate ‘managers’ to execute neatly typed 5 to 10 point (it depends) plans for the ‘development’ (managing business) of the City. If that was the case, Chandrababu Naidu would still be in power and we would all be leapfrogging away into the next millenium. the reason that gaddar attracts those crowds is because he speaks/sings to the people a ‘reality’ that many of them are familiar with, however romantic that sounds. what is so moronic about that? “Development” is a highly problematic word and it needs to be employed carefully. It is not about building tall buidings and dams. Gaddar does put a “human face” on this movement. he does this by uncovering the highly dangerous, shaky rhetoric spewed by powerful, vested interests that get passed off in the name of “development.”
And again, when do rural employment guarantees become bad for the people? think hard and deep about who needs them but who instead are benefitting from them. Perhaps, then we can stop arbitrarily calling people morons.
And this is how poverty is fought and jobs are generated for the poor – straight from the land of the “Reds” in India. TatasÂ’ West Bengal plant to create 10,000 jobs
Here is the bottomline: either one can keep on lamenting about historical injustices and keep demanding justice or we can move on and do something that creates wealth in the society through innovation. Removing poverty is not a zero-sum game. You do not necessarily have to take from the rich to give to the poor. Wealth and economics do not follow “First Law of Thermodynamics“.
Oh no jee we need a wanker drop out poet who did not accomplish anything in his life and is out to ruin more lives
Mr naidu was as big a buffon as any of these folks, he just got a PC and thought that was the big deal, Lets see his rice at an affordable price plan… Which was you buy rice at Rs X pr KG and you sell it for Rs(X-5) sticking the government for the 5 so that you get popularity. Not only did mr naidu lost property he shafted the government for that 5 bucks
And yes we need more business types to run the country. (and less droputs, FYI Indira Rajiv sonia all were droupouts) It really is that simple. you dont have to be a rocket scientist to see where these policies are going.
so call me an elitist/castiest or whatever else you find repugnant. I dont want a goverment of morons who cant see economical outcomes of their decisions And i do want to see people with accomplishment in their background. Just like no one would put their IRA money in a company led by some one w/o any past accomplishment why should they give the legislative powers to dumbfucks.
Again where is the talk about productivity here? why should we mask unemployment and underproductive segments like this The more india waits to do the hard thing which is tell the farmers that they are unproductive and get out of there way… The whole world did it any ways.
I will use my adjectives as per my tastes and judgements. do you want a legislation against that.
“The more india waits to do the hard thing which is tell the farmers that they are unproductive and get out of there way…”
while i agree with most of the substance of your post, i think you’re being harsh on the farmers, who’ve been committing suicide in droves recently. many of them are unproductive because of a variety and complexity of reasons beyond their immediate control. it doesn’t help them when the most productive farmers in the world are heavily subsidised for their overproducitivity (U.S., Europe).
I thought about transforming the last response of Swati completely but decided otherwise because of the constraints of time. But here is the first part of it with necessary subsitutions for humor.
yes. what we need more are to execute neatly typed 5 to 10 for the ‘development’ (managing business of ) of the City. If that was the case, would
stillbe in power and we would all be leapfrogging away into the next millenium.I do understand what Swati means to convey. However, rhetoric does not help in these arguments.
Regards,
hammer-sickle, i did write that i “see clearly the difference between song and gun” i do not condone violence, in any form. when i made films in Hyderabad, I came in contact with people who were directly affected daily by the police and the government, every single day, right from getting a water pipe connection to getting their child into school. when you listen to gaddar’s songs, they are mostly about this “reality.” about migrations to the city, demolitions of homes in the name of “development,” about false promises by the government, about basic everyday struggles. i will be the first to be suspect of those who claim to speak for others but listen to gaddar and it is clear that there is truth to what he says. also, when you think about it, why did the recent “rang de basanti” become such a huge hit in India? i had problems with the easy solution (killing) in the film but when one starts to look at why that sort of ideology is attractive one can argue that it is not just marxism or communism or maoism that propels that attraction. Please do not think i am essentializing these disparate ideologies, i am only trying to draw a very apparent connection between the two.
moornam, “But, there is a path that will make your troubles go away” “Open ended suggestions like this can easily be interpreted as: Go, get a gun, and do something.” it could also be interpreted as get up and get on your vehicle (bus, lorry, scooter, cycle etc), get to the government and make enough noise
Ok. I messed up again. Here is the revised version.
yes. what we need more are poets, revolutionaries, and union leaders to execute neatly typed 5 to 10 stanza poems/paragraph revolutionary literature for the ‘development’ (managing business of poverty) of the City. If that was the case, Gaddar would
stillbe in power and we would all be leapfrogging away into the next millenium.I agree with you GGK. Yes, you are a bit harsh in castigating the farmers for their plight.
Regards,
Look i am not sympathetic to any one who commits suicide. Be it depression, lack of money, being dumped by your honey, being a victim or what ever… So with that said I am not being harsh on the farmers. But the fact is simply agriculutre sector in india is hiding unemployment, 2 people sitting on a 1 tractor doesnt make the farming operation more productive the dud load has to get off and get out. My great grand father was a peasent a day laborer, thankfuly he realized that this is a dead end job and made sure that non of his sons went into this, was that tough…you bet your ass it was tough and add to that the partition happened but people move on and are far more resilient. And regarding farm subsidies yes european and US farmers get farm subsidies but dont forget indian farmers get farm subsidies that has distorted markets too Ie grains have a price control and are purchased by the government but the healthy veggies are not. And think of it this way, the %age of agricultural workers in US is ~2%(3 or 4 if illegals are added) in so if the rest of the 97% subsidizes 3% it is feasable. Now in india it is nothing but poverty redistribution. Simply put you can not get that much higher yield per person in india, yet the governments policy has been to encourage more people to be involved in agriculture through more and more subsidies. And we have not even discussed international trade yet, and you do realize that its a tough situation that india has been delaying tough decision and frankly plebian howling rabble rousers do not get it(and are causing more delays if not outright robbery).
looking at either interpretation its a win win situation.
you get noise and poverty.
you get voilence gun shot noise and still poverty.
ggk,
i am not against taking tough decisions and i do know that indian agriculture is also subsidized (and should have mentioned that). i’m not saying the agricultural sector shouldn’t be reformed (given that india is still a largely agrarian society) and have read of some small-scale innovative programs that have helped farmers whilst not being a drain on the economy. i’m sure you know more about it than i do. but i’ll still just have to disagree with you and say that i am sympathetic to those farmers who are driven to drinking insecticide because they have lost all hope (not debating whether it’s right or wrong or a cop-out or wrong to leave their families behind). while being strong in the face of seemingly insurmountable adversity is admirable and the desired outcome, not everyone has that strength nor should they be automatically scorned for not having it. just my opinion.
When ever the topic of agricultural reform comes up, I quote Mukesh Ambani. He said in a speech a year back, that, agriculture is the least efficient business in India and a there’s a big opportunity for corporations to get in and remove inefficiencies and increase productivity. His Reliance (Approx $12 billion rev.) has started this with Mangoes.
Now, Ambani is a bonafide money maker. So when Ambani speaks I listen. The government should too. (But electoral politics is going to make it harder for any real policy change in agriculture, Sad but true!)
This is the part that is obvious pandering…. So all the bugalow dwellers are snakes eh? G. Anjaiah seems to be a poverty pimp(plagiarized from watts)
The whole agricultural business from growing, harvesting, transport, processing, storage, distribution, etc. needs reform in India.
India always seems to get the cart ahead of the horse (and this goes back to independence) where investment in infrastructure of all sectors was always designed to meet the needs of yesterday instead of the present and future.
Ouch, you got me there. Refer to Malcolm X, please (not that I deserve to stand in the same sentence as him, but he had some choice words about accusations of demagoguery).
The telecom revolution?!?!?!?! Shrameek Vidyapeeth, Sikshana, and Lijjat all appear to be community organizations, advocating for change or self-sufficiency. None of these are a revolution in themselves. A revolution (in the sense I’m referring to) involves radically changing or overthrowing the state or ruling body in question. I never said that non-violent organizations, strategies, and tactics are not a critical part of accomplishing this overthrow of social machinery, but it depends on what oppression you are dealing with. And the full extent of a revolution is NEVER 100% nonviolent. Many confused desis seem to have made a fetish of nonviolence without even understanding its historical context.
The Naxalite movement has grown in response to landlords, brutal police who violently suppress all other means of agitation, and abusive military and paramilitary groups that enforce oppressive institutions. People do not naturally just pick up arms and engage in this kind of insurrection. They get pushed to this point when their initial demands are not met, or met with violent and brutal repression.
You need to go back and understand what a “revolution” actually is before you go about calling everything by this name.
Indeed, the Naxalite movement has non-violent components as well. Of course, demagogues such as yourself would never see this, and instead reactionarily rail against violent acts without really thinking.
This also goes for the idiot who effectively equated Che Guevara with Hitler.
Now, here are some examples of mass-based, social revolutions that actually did overthrow or attempt to overthrow the machinery, or significant pieces thereof, of the state. I’ll try to give you some that you can actually digest:
France (1789-1799) Haiti (1791-1803) the Sepoy “Mutiny”/Rebellion (1857) Zapatista movement (1994-?) Simon Bolivar’s prolific struggle you can find millions more examples of the nature of a real revolution.
Were these revolutionary movements solely comprised of armed insurrection? Of course not. But armed insurrection is/was a key element of them.
Violence and the threat thereof was also a key part of South Asia’s liberation from British rule, South Africa’s struggle against apartheid, and even the few successes of the Civil Rights / Black Liberation movement in the US.
There is some of that but a lot of it is dropouts like gaddaar jumping on the bandwagon. There is this beleif that they have which is ‘sab saale chor hain’ ie every one is a thief. They dont beleive that any one can improve his her personal situation let alone become rich. If he/she is rich that means he or she is a crook. It is also interesting that they get more attention from the libbie constituents in US like the one dude here who mentioned the poverty in the illegal immigrants here. (well they found that this poverty was better than living in home country).
Without the naxal movement Bengal wouldn’t have had its land redistribution. That did contribute significantly to reduce rural poverty. And Bengal is the only state in North India (with the exception of J&K) to have any significant land redistribution. So, occacional violence does some good, especially in an imperfect democracy. THe Maoist movement wouldn’t have happened and wouldn’t have found much support if India had a successful land redistribution efort in the 50’s (the population would have been lower too, with less rural poverty). Those of you who admire S. Korea or Japan or Taiwan or even China perhaphs know that their industrialization was preceeded by a massive land redistribution effort (and compulsory primary education). Funnily, this was executed under US tutelage (damn commie US army and State dept.) in the 50s.
As far as India goes, it is a case of missed opportunites returning to haunt us. It’s too late for land redistribution and India isn’t industrializing fast enough (real light manufacturing, not software) too make a diffenrece to a lot of the rural poor. The Maoist movements and its many avatars will be here for long if the democratic setup cannot live up to the people’s aspirations. Anti-incumbency can only take you this far…
The land distribution in WB was done by CPI-Marxist and not Maoists. Also, WB is next only to Bihar in overall “development” of a state.
“The Maoists’ recent electoral victories in certain regions of West Bengal is also part of it: the rural poor are very, very unhappy with both the Congress Party and the BJP”
Amardeep perhaps I am interpreting this incorrectly but the “maoists” did not have any electoral victories in WB.It was the CPI-(M), Communist Party of India (Marxist), led Left Front that swept the polls in WB. If i recall correctly the Naxalites/Maoists is a revolutionary movement that aims to bring about sweeping changes through the barrel of the gun and not through the ballot box.
On a brighter note, Tata Motors just announed that they will manufacture their Rs 100,000 car in West Bengal. This investement is going to create 10,000 direct & indirect jobs so hopefully this will be able to make a dent in the social problems in the red corridor.
Ranjit,
I know what a “revolution” is. My use of the word “revolution” along with those links signified something. I guess, you completely missed the point.
Anyways, you are free to believe that revolution – a total change in the system, will solve India’s problem. In my opinion, this will start of endless rounds of vicious killings that will never stop. Eventually, India will end up as one of the African nations.
I do not believe we need a revolution. Things are not that bad in India that we need to spill blood. There are enough outlets for the steam to flow out. Although the democracy in India needs to mature more, yet I must admit that it has come a long way in solving the problems of the people. In spite of all the cautionary tales against economic liberalization and the increase in the gini index, I think India has done remarkably well to give hope to its poor in recent times as compared to twenty years ago.
I refuse to believe in any philosophy that tells me to think for the common good of the society rather than what it means for me and my sphere of influence i.e. my family, my friends, and my life etc.
Pink Bong, let us not get into what the communists did for Bengal and how Bengal is next beacon of hope for India. This will hijack this thread unnecessarily. As far as development in Bengal is concerned, I can only laugh at your naivete.
Regards,
Ranjit,
I would advise you to read ‘Animal Farm’. You will realize what the end result of ‘your’ revolution will be. “Sticking it to the Man” sounds good in theory, but ultimately always will end with another “Man” with different tendencies of exploitation
Pinkbong
An alternate example would be Tamil Nadu. Never had a classical leftist govt, though lot of populists who were smart enough to not kill the golden goose. Tamil Nadu’s statistics on the social index compares very well with Kerala, but without the baggage. Also, TN is more industrialized than WB, though TN never had the scale of central govt investment. Most of the villages in TN are electrified, the rural roads are atleast for the most part, motorable and the bus service is excellent, so people in the rural side can do their business. And Tamil Nadu is not a resource rich or water surplus state like WB or Kerala.
To paraphrase Wodehouse, then our washing machines would have about as many revolutions per second as the country.
Ranjit, not ONCE have you justified how the revolution applies to the present case. The freedom struggles you mention were not social movements – they were nationalistic movements by far. Also, you think things will become perfect after a bloody revolution? It seems like such a quick fix to have one big glorious storming of the Bastille — the question ofcourse is, do you have a clear idea of what your Bastille is? Moreover, I am sure you are familiar with the term Reign of Terror that followed the French Revolution — and the Restoration that pretty much invalidated the Revolution in itself. Class battles ultimately leave people dissatisfied since in the long term the notion of class is mutable — once the power and economic equations shift, the erstwhile opressed become the opressors as they clamour to extract revenge with the misguided notion of erasing some sort of historical debt.
Yeah, lets have a revolution and put a dork like Mugabe to be our Fearless Leader and Chief Supremo. Maybe then we can all sing songs, march in unison and feel all warm and fuzzy.
On the whole business of agriculture in India, this is what know from personal anecdotes and relatives who still farm. Of course, some people may not give credence to personal anecdotes, but it is better than sitting in an American university and talking about how Maoist revolution is needed for the agri reforms:
My grandfateher has a small 4 acre farm where he grows various vegetables and some basic cerals. Unfortunately for most of the time he can’t turn a profit and my uncle who is a teacher has to subsidize him. The reason, is the farm is too small and is in a dry area depending on well water. No irrigation canals nearby as there is no significant body of water close. So my grandfather is basically dependent on a good rain. There are thousands of farms like his, which which will never cut it, unless the farms are big enough. So it is a catch 22 – make the farms big and have more people out of agri sector or have small farms and eke out a hand to mouth existence. These farms will never have a surplus to make improvements or generate taxes to suppot infrasturcure, agri research, schools and healt clinics to support the farmers families. So you probably need the big bad industrialists and bourgeouise middle class to generate substantial surplus revenue and taxes to support these farmers.
Lot of farmers commit suicide because they get into too much debt. One of the reasons is not easy access to cheap finance. The other thing is they get bad or unsuitable agri inputs (seeds, fertilizers, pesticides etc). One of the reasons is that the state agricultural officers do a shoddy job of certifying seeds because of corruption and a lot of small scale and/or fly by night operators supplying bad seeds and pesticides. Sometimes a version of Monsanto (maybe without the GM seeds) may not be bad at all, because you can have throat to choke or sue if the seeds and/or pesticides are not upto par. The other reason that the farmers commit suicide is (which a lot of people don’t want to discuss) is they spend the money that they get from a good harvest to spending money on functions like marriage etc or gambling, without saving for a rainy day.
Farmers misuse subsidies. Free electicity is used not just for farming, but also other uses. They try to browbeat the govt into writing off loans and not pay for services, and the govt keeps on getting into a deeper hole where they can’t provide for other social services like primary education or health, because there is no constituency for it.
Farm workers and manual laborers (this is in a most prosperous part of Tamil Nadu, so it may not apply to other parts) are not very reliable. They will show up to work for a couple of weeks and then disappear for a week or more till they run out of money. This may be difficult to believe for most people, but these guys can make almost close to Rs 75-100/day. My uncle’s theory is they don’t have a concept of saving for the long term and enjoying the fruits of their labor. Also he says, their thought is even if they work regularly, they may be able to save enough to buy a house only after number of years and they want to enjoy life now. Unfortunatlely, saving for tomorrow is a very capitalist concept, whereas in a maoist world there is no need to save (and against the ideology), as the state provides everything. There is no way to reconcile this. And this is why movements like Grameen, Lajjat, Amul etc are anaethma to the Maoists. There is a Tamil saying ‘Siru Thuli, Peruvellam’ which translates to ‘Small Drops make a big flood’ and that is what Grameen is about.
Anyway, I can give others but anyway this is a start.
If only George Washington had stuck to farming…
If only Simon Bolivar had stuck to… If only Mahamtma Gandhi had stuck to… If only Lech Walesa had stuck to… If only Nelson Mandela had stuck to…
…and so on…
Nice false dichotomy.
I think the saying is “If only Hitler’s parents used contraceptives”..
What!?! You mean Che didn’t drop out of medical school to go on a motorcycle trip!
Umrao Jan,
Amardeep perhaps I am interpreting this incorrectly but the “maoists” did not have any electoral victories in WB.It was the CPI-(M), Communist Party of India (Marxist), led Left Front that swept the polls in WB.
Yes I must have misread some earlier news article about this. They have been in the news a lot over the past two weeks. The Maoists were killing members of the CPI-(M), to try and thwart the election, but weren’t running for office.
Here is a way of alleviating poverty. Gun-less. Marrying existing ideas in an innovative way. Reduce Cost. Make a profit.
Of course, to the Maoists anyone making a profit is a snake.
http://blog.unitus.com/?cat=5
You only have to look carefully in the picture above to see that he is holding a meeting in a CITY. You see, the MAIN PROBLEM for violent communists in India has alway been that their “revolutions” that are so successfully portrayed in the media in cities have little or no support in villages.
Try telling that to over 200 victims of Maoist violence in the villages.
Personally, I find this highly insensitive to the villagers that are being butchered by Maoists. The least you can do is read the news before you claim that Maoists are “popular”.
I am new to this so, trying again
article on for-profit idea
BranchDravidian,
GeorgeWashington, Gandhi etc. quit their day jobs because they wanted to fight for 1. freedom for everyone, starting with 2. freedom for themselves.
Hence, their actions were selfish to begin with, but not contradictory to anyone. Which is why they are reverred today.
Hitler/Maoists etc fought/fight for: 1. Less freedom for others combined with 2. More freedom for themselves (to loot, tax, kill etc)
Which is why they will never be reverred.
M. Nam
Dear All,
I am a late entrant to this debate and in fact, this is my first comment on SM.
After reading the blog and most of the comments, I am surprised that not a single person from Andhra Pradesh has responded with more info abt Gaddar or some of the real perceptions about this ‘balladeer’.
I have seen Gaddar perform on stage and he sure is a powerful communicator.And he has also sung a few melodious folk songs for some Telugu movies with revolutionary themes.
However, I am afraid the good news stops here.
Gaddar and his Jana Natya Mandali must have raised crores through donations from impressionable students, idealists, villagers etc. The money goes to fund the Naxal movement, which as we all know, has resulted in the death of thousands of innocent people and the police personnel. No amount of ideological hogwash justifies their philosophy of ‘revolution through the bullet’.
It is true that Gaddar has sacrificed an enginnering seat that he got through reservation. And a bank job he obtained by simply applying for it.
Gaddar and others like him have crafted a career for themselves as the creative wing of the naxal movement. A friend once told me (a few years ago) that Gaddar owns Reliance shares worth several lakhs, and also properties in Hyderabad and Bangalore. Not just Gaddar, but most of the Naxal top leadership have amassed fortunes over the years. The modus operandi includes, collecting protection money from businesses, landlords, politicians and so on. During the 2004 assembly elections in AP, the Congress struck a deal with the Naxals to ensure that TDP can’t even conduct campaigns in Telangana areas.
Gaddar has gone underground a few times in his career when JNM and PWG both were banned by the Govt of AP. But I think he survived (not just my suspicion, but the feeling of many observers of AP political scene)by striking deals with the Govt and the Police, acting as a conduit between businesses and the Naxals, and of course, collecting money for the PWG.
And now, Gaddar has surfaced in the US of A. I bet this would have been his life time ambition to visit a country he has derided for over three decades now, as the capitalist demon! I really wonder how he can justify his visit to US; does he want to start a donation scheme in US to fund arms purchase for the PWG? Who has paid for his trip? Many gullible rural youth in Telangana are living in a state of constant fear – if they don’t join the mainstream, the Police will encounter them; if they renounce Naxalism, the PWG will term them as ‘informers’ and execute them. And meanwhile, their spokesman Gaddar is performing on NPR.Brilliant !
Kumar Narasimha,
Thanks for your comment. One clarification: I don’t think Gaddar is in the U.S. Rather, he’s been interviewed by U.S. reporters in Andhra somewhere. (Perhaps from the Voice of America)
I don’t think the U.S. would grant someone with his history a visa — nor is it likely that the Indian government would let him leave!
Amardeep,
Gaddar was not the only one inspired by anti-Imperialist revolutionary movoment. The source of all the south asian ultra-left (SAUL) movements in US have also been inspired and share a common goal with “Gaddar”. Before starting a publication called “Ghadar”, the SAUL debated on “Red brownies” !!!, “counterFOIL” etc after deciding on “Ghadar”.
Thanks for the clarification, Amardeep.
I went back and read some of the comments that I missed earlier.
You say: “The size of that crowd out in the open tells you something about what the Indian government is dealing with. The Maoists’ recent electoral victories in certain regions of West Bengal is also part of it: the rural poor are very, very unhappy with both the Congress Party and the BJP.
Again, I’m not defending him, or his ideology. I’m just saying we need to take seriously an uprising that is verging on going nationwide, with millions of followers and the potential to totally destabilize Indian democracy. Even if it’s only a matter of “understanding one’s enemy.”
Size of the crowd: It is common to transport people in trucks and lorries to such meetings. Entire villages are mobilised this way. Where there is a train service, the trains are packed with the villagers and no one dares to ask them for tickets. For them, its just a day out to the city/town- the transport is free and in most cases, food packets are arranged as well. Also, Gaddar’s meetings, unlike the meetings of professional politicians, are hugely entertaining with lots of folk performances. If the size of the crowd was a true indicator of following, these groups would have gladly joined the mainstream and claimed political power.
Maoist victories in some parts of WB: In WB, people have no alternative to the CPI (M), which in any case is as mainstream as Cong or BJP. The ideology is an eye wash. So, in some places, certain rural factions that have been neglected by CPM rule have found the Maoists as the alternative.There is hardly any Cong/BJP presence in those areas for the people to be unhappy about them.
Do we need to take Maoists/Naxals seriously? Yes..we need to. But I don’t think we need to characterise it as an uprising. Thats too strong a word 🙂 Indian democracy is not in any danger from these players.
We need a two-pronged approach: Political will to stamp out the violent elements and Focused rural development and employment creation in these areas. The problem is with the political will and the left-leaning intelligentsia.
” like this wasnt
Well, if you want to explain to me how it is, I’m happy to listen.
I was a great fan of Gaddar when i was a kid. Then this incident occured. An industrialist by the name Subbarami Reddy was killed by a group of Revolutionary People for money. These guys were caught and, the widow of the murdered person pleaded the Court not to award death sentence to the killers since they had families and small kids.This gaddar guy appreciates her nobility and says that in revolutions like this innocent people die and we should not care much about it.But when he was attacked by some people(may be they had their own revolution in mind) he ran out onto the road and accused government of trying to kill him and had newspaper conferences and what not,he was given poice security i think. He cares much for his life and not for others. Its easy to sing and speak sweet songs and words,but really hard to follow them.
Thank you, I didn’t think there would be a Wikipedia profile for a notorious Maoist figure.
At the bottom of the Wikipedia page are links to songs he did for Telegu movies! If anyone reading this knows Telegu, it would be great to have some translation help on the content of those film songs…
Well I have read all the comments in this group. Some people have said that Naxal movement is a result of economic deprivation , social inequalities and so on. Well all that is ok but if the Naxals are for poverty eliviation them they should support government schemes for development of backward areas not no disrupt them.THEY SHOULD ASSIST GOVERNMENT IN CONSTRUCTING ROADS , building hospitas,schools ,enbling connectivity by telephone and not sabotaging them.
Hinduism has given us a fractured society. Our main divider is our religion and it’s lovely caste system.
We are soooo blind to the those that hinduism disenfranchises, we and that means me too are too warped up in our daily lives to think about these “invisible” low caste people. Oh! if they just disappeared.. unfortunately that is not going to happen.
Everytime I’ve talked about poverty, it’s always projected as their problem.
In my humble opinion, it is the religion that needs to be banned, it serves no purpose except to keep us poor and divided and gives the bigots reasons to keep continuing with the exploitative caste system.
A few of us have made good, it is these few that show amazing lack of empathy. They claim to be educated, maybe are literate, I always assumed “education” meant more than begin able to do math and crank out a grammatically correct sentence. It has to do with being able to look past our prejudices and per conceived biases, but unfortunately our education system still cranks out literate morons who will sell their neighbors mothers for a fist full of $$.
Religion (and in our case Hinduism) is the root cause of all evil, Ban all religious holidays, separate the state from religion and in a few generations we will be a lot kinder to our fellow humans.
hindutvavadi, I love how you address the landless laborers “they”. I guess in your circles, everyone was supposed to be born into a high caste family. But the poor low caste land less laborers are throwing a spanner in your lovely beautiful world.
Dude, they are as they are because they don’t know better, plus Hinduism has kept them on the fringes of society for over 3000 years. If any thing, blame the religion and its bigoted practitioners. If there were as many schools as are temples, we’d be far better off and the best educated country in the world.
All temples should be taxed 100% and the money used for education.
It is the entrenched mentality of people like you that keep and will keep a large part of the population deprived and all of us perpetually poor.
In the villages I’ve seen a lot of discrimination towards the lower caste land less laborers. It is perpetuated by people like you who take pride in religion and lack empathy, but not in humanism.
Violence of all kinds for what ever reason is bad.. really really bad, there is no justification to it, worst still is religion and people who profess it. More people have died for religion than due to diseases and natural calamities.
So tell me what is with assholes like you? Really I completely fail to understand people like you who can address the poor and the week as “they” and profess understanding of “their” problems and give solutions to “their” problems. You my dear are the problem.