Writer Rahul Pandita's recent book, Hello Bastar, talks about Maoist ideologues Anuradha and Kobad Ghandy from the upper crust in the city and gives a peek into Mumbai and Maoism
Writer Rahul Pandita's recent book, Hello Bastar, talks about Maoist ideologues Anuradha and Kobad Ghandy from the upper crust in the city and gives a peek into Mumbai and Maoism
Give me red seemed to be the slogan of 1970s Mumbai, a time when Communism was at its peak. During this period, two individuals were at the forefront of these revolutionary movements.
Husband-wife Anuradha (now dead) and Kobad Ghandy, (in jail) both came from privileged backgrounds. 
Armed Maoist rebels escort a police officer, who was released at Midnapore district, West Bengal
Writer Rahul Pandita, in his book, 'Hello Bastar The Untold Story of India's Maoist Movement', describes Anuradha as a petite, attractive woman who was fearless and dedicated to the cause of the underprivileged and the poor.
Excerpts from the book recreate a picture of Maoist Mumbai and how the upper fringe of society got embroiled into the Maoist movement.u00a0
Pandita writes in a chapter called, 'The Rebel' referring to Anuradha, "She had the best handwriting among her group.
On a humid Bombay night, she would sit cross-legged on the floor at somebody's house and write political slogans on old newspapers. Yes, the world had to be changed, the world order had to be changed she was so sure about it.
u00a0So, ignoring the sweat gathering on her brow, she would create posters in her neat handwriting, in English, Hindi and Marathi. Then she and her friends would sneak out in the middle of the night.
Someone would carry a pot of glue made of flour. At some intersection, or in some lane, the group would stick the posters on the wall and electric poles. It was a job fraught with danger in the early '70s.
u00a0
The police were on the lookout for adventurous youth the Naxalbari who would talk of revolution and the plight of the poor. But the group didn't care..."
Return
Anuradha joined Elphinstone College in Mumbai in 1972. About Kobad and Anuradha Ghandy, Pandita writes,u00a0 "Among her admirers was a tall, lanky bespectacled man, who had returned from London, after serving a two-month sentence in a prison there.
u00a0
Kobad Ghandy had gone to London to pursue chartered accountancy, but had instead found himself one day in the thick of a violent attack on an anti-racism meeting...
u00a0
He decided to return to India, wearing an overcoat that had 24 secret pockets, all stuffed with Maoist literature.
u00a0
Kobad came in contact with PROYOM (Progressive Youth Movement), a student organisation inspired by the Naxal movement...This is where Kobad met Anuradha for the first time."
Love
Both fell in love and got married on 5 November 1977. Anuradha and Kobad then shifted to Nagpur, where the couple first stayed in a barsati. Describing the conditions in which the couple lived, Pandita writes, "Kumud (Anuradha's mother) remembers visiting her there with her husband. 'When we saw where she stayed, we couldn't believe our eyes,' says Kumud. The roof leaked from many places..."
Death
During mid 90s Anuradha and Kobad went underground and "In 1999, Anuradha was camping along with other guerillas in Chhattisgarh's Sarkengudem village when the police surrounded them ufffd The hard life of the jungle took its toll on her body she suffered frequent bouts of malaria."
Kobad Ghandy
Finally Anuradha, who was suffering from systemic sclerosis died of multiple organ failure. "The news was broken to Kobad in an internet chatroom. Kobad could meet her only two months later, and he saw that in a little time, Anu had aged a lot ufffd On 12 April 2008, Anuradha Ghandy was dead," writes Pandita.
Arrested
But Kobad Ghandy was very active, who, as Pandita writes in a chapter called 'Give Me Red', "For purposes of communication, he shunned modern devices such as the mobile phone... He had one trusted courier who had been with him for about five years.
Oblivious of what his trusted lieutenant had been up to, the man went about doing his work...Unknown to him, a few men sat in a car, waiting for him... In a minute or two, the operation was over...Two days later, the police made an announcement.
u00a0
They had arrested Kobad Ghandy, they said, one of the seniormost leaders of the Maoist movement in India...which had recently been declared India's gravest internal security threat by none other than Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself."
Excerpts From:
Hello Bastar The Untold Story of India's Maoist Movement by Rahul Pandita.
Available at various bookstores
Price: Rs 250
'It's a socio economic problem'
Rahul Pandita, author of 'Hello Bastar The Untold Story of India's Maoist Movement' speaks about his book.
Excerpts from an interview:
Q: What do you want to achieve from your book?
This book is not meant for academics or scholars, but for the general public. The aim of this book is to help people know what is going on in their own backyard. For a middle-class person , there is no difference between a terrorist killed on the Line of Control and a Naxal killed in the jungles of Bastar in Chhattisgarh.
Q: The book appears to be very pro Maoist. But the Maoists too are responsible for killing people. How do you justify that?
As an independent journalist, I condemn violence from both the sides. Killing innocent
people is just deplorable and unacceptable.
Q: Is there a solution to the Maoist problem?
Earlier nobody would talk about the Maoists but in the last few years the government has declared the Maoist problem as the 'biggest internal security threat'. It is important to understand that Maoism is not a terrorism issue; it is a socio economic problem. The government has to realise that and then act on it. This can at least start a dialogue between the two sides.
Q: How much had Kobad and Anuradha contributed to the movement?
Both were very powerful Maoist ideologues. Many years ago, it was uncommon for people from such privileged backgrounds to dedicate themselves completely to the cause of tribal rights. Both of them used to live in a one-room structure in Nagpur. Anuradha chose this life. One might disagree with her views but you cannot ignore her or question her commitment.
The communists of Mumbai
Dr Ravi Bapat, in his book, Ward No.5, KEM, originally written in Marathi and now translated into English, provides a glimpse into the life of Communist leaders in Mumbai.
An excerpt:
Comrade Bhagwan Thorat was a senior leader of the Communist Party of India ufffd He'd come to Bombay long years ago from his native Satara in search of a job. In 1966, he had come to show me a wound on his foot ufffdI asked him whether he smoked.
Almost all the Communist activists then liked their tobacco and a bit of intoxicant liquid in the evening ufffdHe had clearly been warned that ignoring this condition would lead to a wound, and if gangrene set in, amputation would be the only mode of action.
When his fellow communist colleagues were informed of this, he was sent to the Soviet Union for treatment. There, he told me, his foot was kept in 'a little rectangular box' this was the 'hyper barric oxygen chamber' and his circulation was slowly encouraged to increase. And it did improve. I was surprised. That treatment had served him well; it had lasted for 12 years.
This kind of a chamber had just about been installed in Bombay's Port Trust Hospital. It surprised me that this device was available in Russia those many years ago.
When I told him about the amputation, this Marxist cowered. His eyes brimmed with tears. I quickly counseled him: where there's life, there's hope, there's future...
He said, "I know, I understand all that, but I'm a leader of mill-workers. I have to move around amongst them, I have to journey extensively, that's my job. How will I work? Who's going to care for me if I sit at home?"
ADVERTISEMENT
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
