Maoism
has reached its peak in many senses in the Dandakaranya region in the extreme
south of the State of Chhattisgarh in India.
The Maoists have an active mass base of people in the area who are ruled
by their Janathana Sarkar and they have a People's Liberation Guerrilla army
and also armed jan militias which are capable of defending their areas of
control against the security forces of the Indian State. Due to their ruthless execution
of informers the Maoists have also ensured that not only are the movements of
their armed cadre and top leaders
shrouded in absolute secrecy but also that very little authentic information
about them is available to the intelligence agencies of the State and the
general public. Thus, the only way to get to know something about this armed political
movement, that has successfully fought the State in its remote forested bastion,
is when the Maoists themselves allow some intellectuals and journalists into
their area to talk to them and see their activities. Since in today's media
dominated world it is important to have publicity, the Maoists have selectively
chosen to open a few windows from time to time into their otherwise information
dark room. Shubhanshu Choudhury's book "Lets Call Him Vasu – With the Maoists in Chhattisgarh" is the latest in a slew of such books or
monographs that have been published in recent times, written by journalists or
intellectuals who have been favoured by
the Maoists to peek into their otherwise closed world.
This
book provides some interesting insights into the Maoist movement in
Dandakaranya on the basis of hard journalistic reporting. The most important is
the massive support that the Maoists have among the tribals in their area of
influence which ensures their being able to survive despite the State's
concerted offensive against them. The State's strategy of launching a counter
movement of tribals in the form of the "Salwa Judum" and displacing
them from the villages and putting them in camps near the highways has
backfired. The tribals who suffered the
atrocities of the Salwa Judum and witnessed the rampant corruption and
mismanagement in the camps have preferred to cast their lot with the Maoists
despite the risks of State oppression involved in this. The young tribals, both
boys and girls, have joined the Jan Militia and then graduated to the PLGA and
are fiercely committed to establishing their Janathana Sarkar and freeing
themselves from the yoke of the Indian State which they find to be unjust and
repressive. Clearly it is not only the fear of the Maoist's guns that keep the
tribals in their thrall but also a genuine disillusionment with the way the
Indian State has functioned in their area.
The
second important insight is regarding the weapons and military tactics of the
Maoists. Shubhranshu through discreet but pointed questioning has been able to
ferret out some information about this. Regulation firearms are at a premium
for the Maoists and they have to get them mainly by raiding the camps of the security
forces or police stations or blowing up their patrols. Even so bullets are
difficult to get and so there are standing instructions that firearms are not
to be used unless absolutely necessary. This increases the importance of the
less efficient country made firearms and especially the improvised explosive
devices which are the most favoured weapons for attack. Consequently, the
Maoists are rarely in a position these days to face frontally any big exercise
of the security forces and rely instead on well planned secret attacks on
smaller patrols who are foolish enough to ignore safety precautions. Their tribal
intelligence network immediately gives the Maoists information about possible
sitting ducks among the security forces and so there are regular such sorties which
result in the death of security
personnel and an increase in the arms cache of the Maoists.
The
book deals with the various aspects of Maoism in Dandakaranya laced into the
personal narrative of one Maoist who is given the name Vasu. This is the person
who has made it possible for Shubhranshu to get a chance to be with the Maoists
and even interview the elusive General Secretary Ganapathy. The story of Vasu
underlines the deep commitment of the non-tribal cadre of the Maoists who have
sacrificed everything for the cause of the Indian Revolution and are living in
extremely hard conditions, always on the move, even though they are now in
their fifties or more. However, Vasu's
story also underlines the futility of the Maoist enterprise of bringing about a
revolution from a remote tribal corner in the current global and national
context. Vasu has two children who are now grown up and are living a mainstream
life in Andhra Pradesh. He has never been in touch with them after going underground due to security
reasons and desperately writes a letter and gives it to Shubhranshu to deliver
to them which the latter obviously tears and throws away the moment he is out
of the Maoist area and before he encounters any police personnel!! This futility of the Maoist project is further
underlined when Shubhranshu does not succeed in getting any satisfactory answers
to the many uncomfortable questions he asks Ganapathy about the future of the
movement in the context of the dominance of the mighty Indian State and its
total encirclement and containment of the movement to a few remote forested
patches peopled by tribals.
There
are many more stories in this book which have been narrated in a simple style
and provide a very interesting read. Overall this book represents good investigative
non-judgmental journalism that has brought out some earlier unknown information
about one of the long standing underground armed political movements in this
country and is recommended reading for both lay readers and scholars.
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