India: The Story of a Rebel’s Birth

This article was originally published in OpentheMagazine. Thanks to D for sending it our way.

“It’s thousands of years old/their anger/thousands of years old/is
their bitterness/I am only returning their scattered words/with rhyme
and rhythm/ and you fear that/ I am spreading fire.”

———————————–

BY Rahul Pandita

26 September 2009

The Rebel

She was born into privilege and could easily have chosen the easy
life. But Anuradha Ghandy chose guns over roses to fight for the
dispossessed.

On a muggy April evening in 2008, somewhere in Mumbai, a doctor was
trying desperately to get in touch with his patient. The patient
happened to be a woman in her early 50s, who had come that morning
with high fever. The doctor had advised a few blood tests, and, as he
saw the reports, he started making frantic calls to the phone number
the patient had scribbled in her nearly illegible handwriting. The
number, he soon realised, did not exist. He was restless. The reports
indicated the presence of two deadly strains of malaria in the woman’s
bloodstream—she had to be admitted to a hospital without delay. Time
was racing by and there was no trace of her.

By the time the woman contacted the doctor again, a few days had
passed. The doctor wanted her placed under intensive care immediately.
But it was too late.

The next morning, on April 12, Anuradha Ghandy was dead. She had
suffered multiple organ failure, her immune system already weakened by
systemic sclerosis, an auto-immune disease responsible for, among
other things, her bad handwriting.

The news spread quickly among friends and followers of Anu, as she was
fondly called. Before long news had reached Indora, a Dalit basti in
Nagpur where Anu had lived for seven years. This was before her name
appeared in the Home Ministry dossiers as Janaki alias Narmada alias
Varsha – the only woman in the CPI(Maoist)’s Central Committee, the
highest decision-making body of the Naxalites.

India: From oppression to revolution

Naxalite commander comrade Kosa addresses crowd of 5000 tribal militia members and supporters

This article was posted on Indian Vanguard. Thanks to Ka Frank for pointing it out.

Poverty forces youngsters to join Naxal Movement, says Maoist commander

Gaya, Sept 20 – ANI: A Maoist commander has said that poverty is forcing the poor to turn to become naxalites. Paramjit, a platoon commander of Maoists in Bihar, said until the Indian Government becomes pro-poor they would continue their fight against the state.

He said utter poverty and illiteracy forced the Maoists to take up arms. “We never used to get bread, cloth and house. We had no money for treatment. There is no education for the poor,” said Paramjit. Paramjit claimed that the Maoists are fighting for the rights of poor farmers and landless labourers and in turn the rural people give their support to the cause of rebels.

“We like the locals. They are everything for us,” added Paramjit. Paramjit further said that rebels who have been denied their basic rights are taking them by force. He accused the Indian security forces for carrying atrocities against the ‘poor’ and ‘helpless’ people.