THE MYSTIC: PART I - THE SEEKER (Part 1 - THE SEEKER)

by Arindam Bhattacharjee

  Indian Constitution came to express the values of the freedom movement and was based on the concepts of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. The communal streams believed in the hierarchy of caste and gender, though in a subtle form. The Muslim elite inherently believed in the Ashraf, Azlaf and Arzal at caste level and the inferiority of women at gender level. The hierarchy of Hindu caste system, Brahmin, Khstriaya, Vaishya and Shudra was put forward as the glorious way of organizing the society and inferiority of women was reflected in the word.

  As a result, the militant arm of the fundamentalists developed their tactics over so many years since independence. They became experts in manipulating violence. Their techniques improved with the new technologies that came into existence in India with the weapon of choice ranging from petrol bombs to magnesium flares, to spread arson and fear. They got political patronage from different political parties and used the ever increasing urban-rural divide to meet their political ambitions. It was not just the Muslims who got affected due to riots. The higher castes used these events as an opportunity to capture the fertile grounds and exploit situations to their benefits. The poor were the worst hit in the conflict between the red Naxals and the saffron fundamentalists.

  2.2 Simon’s Blog on the History of the Maoist movement in India

  The story of socialist movements in India was that of sadness and despair. The heroes of this movement did not get the right acknowledgment they deserved from the history. One of the heroes was Swami Sahjanand Saraswati whom even the famous revolutionary Subhash Chandra Bose considered as his guru. He led the Indian peasant movement, a movement that had been conveniently ignored in the history books. The other heroes in the movement were tribals like Birsa Munda and many others.

  Subhash Chandra Bose left India to form the Indian National Army to fight the British but the soldiers of Indian National Army were not invited to join the Indian Army after independence. The Communist Party of India did not support Subhash Chandra Bose during this period as it was supporting the British during the World War. Many scholars believe that the Communist party skipped the entire peasant movement that was part of the struggle for independence.

  The history books don’t properly cover the events that took place between 1942 and 1947 because the Communists of India allied with the British against Germany. There were many other socialist leaders like Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Bismil whose martyrdom replicated their beliefs. During the late 60s, a violent socialist movement began from the small town of Naxalbari in West Bengal.

  The Zamindari system was abolished by the British but it still continued for many years after Independence. The failure to implement the land reforms, suggested in the Constitution, led to this problematic uprising. The term Naxalites comes from Naxalbari, a small village in West Bengal, where a section of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) led by Kanu Sanyal,Charu Majumdar and Jangal Santhal initiated a violent uprising in 1967.

  This was an armed struggle to redistribute the land from the zamindars to the landless peasants. The CPI-M later formed the government in West Bengal but the two groups the CPI (Maoists) and CPI (Marxists-Leninists) continued their armed struggle against the state. During their struggle in West-Bengal the Naxalites entered educational institutions like Jadavpur University and Presidency College. The Indian army had to flush them out. But after the death of Kanu Sanyal in police custody the movement crumbled breaking into various factions.

  The Naxals were not able to make much impact as the concept of no-religion as this was alien to Indian society. They also failed to experiment with other socialist philosophies like those of Gramsci (the founder of Communist party of Italy) on those who were moderate. They also failed to evolve with the changing times and the political movement died a silent death. There was also a growth of Maoist movement during the emergency era. But by the turn of the century, the nature of violence had become different. The growing divide between the rich and the poor after the liberalization of India, helped the Maoists in recruiting cadres by the thousands. They went deep into the forests and were efficiently able to target the state machinery. Their attacks became potent with efficient use of explosives that were meant to instill maximum damage but they lacked a unified political agenda.

  2.3: Raghav’s Background

  Dr Raghav, a businessman who sympathized with the Maoist cause was also a flamboyant man during his stay in the USA. He became a smart cunning businessman and later a CEO of a micro-credit company. He blended in many different businesses before getting into the social sector. Raghav’s performance in the academic circles and the professional world was impeccable and his records were spotless.

  He returned to India after finishing his PhD from the Yale University in the field of nanotechnology which he started to dislike. Before that, he did his B.Tech in Materials Engineering in the IIT, Kharagpur. He felt compelled to study all this as he had been forced by his father to do so in such a subtle way. However he never showed any inclination to take up any job in the field.

  After returning to India, he thought of opening a school for abandoned kids. However, he soon realized that he was going to experience nothing but a nightmare. He had to go for permission from one bureaucrat to another, a process that continued for months. When after a long struggle he finally got permission, the land that was allotted to him was claimed by a local politician. There was a legal case and the court gave a stay order for the building of the school.

  Raghav's education came in handy at critical moments like this and he could soon get back into business with one job following another.. An intelligent man like him could easily learn the nitty-gritty of doing business. Yet he was not happy. Dejected Raghav was then asked by a friend to join a new initiative of a microfinance institution. His friend had had a stint with the World Bank in this field.

  The business of microfinance was thriving at that time following the grand success of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. The aim was to provide financial support and financial literacy to the poor in India and get them involved in financial dealings. Raghav, along with his friend, believed that following the collapse Socialism in USSR and the recent setback of Capitalism in the USA, the inevitable fall of banks could help the challenge of building an organization as a new type of enterprise incorporating the good elements of both worlds.

  Raghav, who was a romantic and above all an irreparable idealist, took keen interest in patronizing an organization that not only encouraged but defended these values and soon it became one of the best run microfinance institutions in India.

  Though on the personal level Raghav was a rabid follower of the left movement in India. While growing up seeing his uncles involved in the Naxalite movement, may have predisposed him towards leftist revolution in his early part of his life. But he was born with an independent soul and so Raghav refused to be a protégé of any form of class movement. He believed that economic development and education are the solution to all problems of the world. He believed "a free market is capable of maintaining its own balance in the society and unnecessary shackles are dangerous.”

  He also strongly believed that neither the economists nor the political scientists had found a way to wipe out the inequities of wealth and eliminate indigence from the society. He thought that the microfinance industry had some hopes to provide the poor the fighting chance to survive in the growing economy. His was one of the attempts to ameliorate the situation of the poor living in the slums. Raghav also believed that microfinance industry has solutions for the modern agrarian society and enrichment of farmers would eliminate suicides amongst them due to faulty government policies and climate change.

  Though Raghav was offered a job in the social sector by his friend there was no compulsion for him to join. He chose to join the social sector of his own volition and decided to build it up as his career. Raghav also had some experiences of working with a NGO when he was studying at IIT-Kharagpur. The slums, where Raghav worked during his IIT days were a veritable warren and the
ir pitiful conditions made Raghav want to do something for them. The thought of doing something for the poor was not lasting enough and was relegated to the back of his mind when he graduated.

  Raghav enjoyed his work in the company opened by few of his friends. The company was quite aggressive in its approach to work from the beginning and started expanding rapidly. The business boomed and within a period of four years it had offices in every major city of the country. His friends, back in the states, helped him get foreign direct investments for the company which helped it to break-even within few years. Raghav steered the company effectively during a crisis in the sector and everyone acknowledged that there were only few people of Raghav’s acumen who understood the dynamics of doing business in India. Raghav was soon promoted to the role of Chief Executive Officer of the company. Standing a little over 5ft7in in height he had a strong build; thanks to his strict upbringing he had developed an athletic body.

  2.4: Raghav’s writing skills: a threat to the nation

  Raghav, an engineer who returned from the states, was famous for his work in the business world but only a few had known about Raghav’s excellent writing skills. Lately Raghav had been vocal in his meetings opening against some very basic issues to meet the company’s interest; however, he often could not speak up his mind keeping in view the professional commitments and religious and political affiliations of the employees.

  But he found out that the World Wide Web can be excellent medium to channelize his anger against the system. Through this medium Raghav could express his feelings about the real issues that had been sidelined or marginalized by the official and dominant views. It took him very little time to be famous among the bloggers of the world.

  He used the pseudonym of Simon after the famous singer Paul Simon. Raghav felt that with the use of Internet, propagandists have been able to disseminate their pet doctrines to new audiences around the globe. He thought that it was necessary someone countered them on the same platform to prevent the fundamentalists from getting funds from all over the world in the name of religion. Raghav, through his blogs, tried to explain how the political experiments were going to be dangerous for the nation in the future.

  It didn't take Raghav much time and effort to win popularity over the web. Unlike many other bloggers, Simon’s (Raghav’s pseudonym) blogs were entertaining as well as erudite, lively as well as learned. He would bring out the stories and analysis unknown to the common people and present it in a poetic manner. He was a popular blogger.

  The droll anecdotes were always entertaining and pulled in a lot of traffic. Simon was always able to find the appropriate phrases for every political occasion he described and was also known for his witty repartee to criticisms about his writings. But the recipe that drew the most attention was the sarcasm in the writings while explaining an individual's character. The humor was always satirical through comments on imaginary characters; In his blogs Simon ridiculed political corruption and folly.

  He would depict his stories like an act in a small village similar to Malgudi days by RK Narayan. The village community that Simon depicted was a microcosm of the Indian society and he showed the damage done by fundamentalists and Maoists alike. Although Simon would write about happenings in small rural communities, his messages were universal and not parochial. He had a worldwide following but he made sure the blogs were posted from a foreign account so that his identity remained a secret.

  In the blogs, Simon ridiculed the magniloquent speeches of the fundamentalists. Simon’s main targets of mockery were political candidates' conjuring up images of reformed cities and world at peace sans any foresight. Whenever Simon would write about the effect of religious fundamentalism in the future many called him spoil sport and culturally ignorant but there were many who found his remarks correct. Though Simon’s valuable remarks against the fundamentalists always got him into troubles, he enjoyed reading their repartee immensely. There were incidents where government agencies would prevent his blogs from opening in India but he would always find a way of coming back to the fans that followed him.

  His opening page of the blog read, “The first principal of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum.” He claimed that the government was curbing restrictions against these basic human rights and it was his duty to shame the government for this job. In some blogs Simon would crack jokes that the fundamentalists thrive on the adulation of the ‘yes man’. In other blogs he would refer the prominent political figures as titular leaders, who followed instructions from the religious leaders. Yet in some other articles he would lampoon the pretensions of many fundamentalist leaders of a developed society. Though he would also write about the Maoists, he was more critical towards role of fundamentalists in governance that led to the increase in Maoist activities.

  After the intensifying of attacks using the Delta Assault techniques by the Government of India, Raghav started publishing blogs at regular intervals criticizing the government actions. Whenever Raghav had to deal with people who would help him get information about government activities, he would always find a venal government officer to provide him with the data. He would use his influence and contacts in the field to get actual information about any news that had been severely misinterpreted by the media.

  His explicit descriptions of events were sometimes quibbled by the critics as being hypocritical without having any precise data to back his analogy but he retained a sizeable fan following. Looking at his fame in the web world, the fundamentalists started a new propaganda that dismissed Simon as a waggish individual who would like to draw attention without having a serious contention in his mind. But Simon’s popularity on the web meant his followers enjoyed his style of writing.

  Most readers acknowledged the effort Simon had put in to gather the information as against the media which helped create more enemies. Many a time Simon would come up with quixotic, unworkable schemes to save the world from tyranny. People then felt that in his blogs Simon had his heart in the right place, but his head was somewhere in the clouds. But because of Simon’s ability to evoke different feelings among his readers, bloggers all over the world liked Simon’s mordent writing about day to day political issues, even those who felt that he was totally out of line.

  Intelligence agencies were not hundred percent sure of Raghav’s involvement but he was very soon put on surveillance. He was always spared the hammer for his help in bringing in foreign investments. Also many leaders never understood the political implications of his writings but it was going to change soon.

  2.5: Raghav’s clash with Maoists and religious Fundamentalists alike

  Raghav’s company was growing by leaps and bounds and was becoming a very respectable organization both in India and abroad. He was instrumental in introducing cutting edge financial software into his organization. Even then, he had to deal with the menace of fundamentalists and the Maoists in different fronts. Though the organization was witnessing rough times recently with the increase in conflicts between religious forces it sustained its progress.

  But soon there was a lull in the market and Raghav called a meeting of the top management and board members to instill enthusiasm among the investors. The meeting was organized in the famous Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai and among his guests were foreign dignitaries linked to the business. The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel is a five-star hotel located in the Colaba region of Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, next to the Gateway of India.

  The history of Mumbai and The Taj Mahal Palace hotel are dramatically intertwined. For more than a century, the Taj has played an intimate part in the life of the city, hosting Maharajas, dignitaries and eminent personalities from across the globe. This was a favourite destination for discerning business travellers and so Raghav chose to organize the important board meeting in one of its boardrooms. A treasure-trove of invaluable memorabilia, there is a story to tell behind every pillar of the Taj and a storied celebration under every awning. There was also the recent bloody incident
- the massacre by Pakistani terrorists.

  Raghav took the dais with a PowerPoint presentation explaining to the members the political scenario existing in the society. The purpose was to make them aware of the challenges the company might face in the future from the new developments in the country and strategies that could be adopted. Raghav presented the breakup of different business products provided by the company and the profit associated with it.

  He addressed the board saying “While working in the field operations, we sometimes have to deal with the problems of Maoists and fundamentalists besides dealing with corrupt politicians and bureaucrats. All of them are actually people who are against the development of the state. We have tried to diversify the products to meet the challenge.” He went on to explain the different financial products offered by the company.

  Raghav’s extreme antipathy for disputes made him build a policy of not engaging with the fundamentalists in any form of dialogue. As of Maoists, Raghav maintained that Maoists would not bother them till they did not show any allegiance to the state. So instructions were given for representatives to go to some of the Maoist areas and talk to the elders in the village to get permission to do business. Maoists wouldn’t come forward to directly confront them. Regarding modern day Maoists, Raghav clearly had an opinion that their behavior and policies were amiss; it was not what he believed a revolution should have been, although in his heart he believed that the achievements of the Maoists in the past could not be undermined.