Ordinary People, Extraordinary Violence: Naxalites and Hindu Extremists in India
Book Review by S. Mohammed Irshad
05 March, 2014
Countercurrents.org
Ordinary People, Extraordinary Violence: Naxalites and Hindu Extremists in India . Dr. Chitralekha Dhamija. Routledge Publishers
Violence of any kind does not get acceptance in a liberal society, no matter whether it is politically motivated or other reasons. Analysing violence can be either political or choice driven. The author has applied both methods to analyse religious violence in Gujrat and Naxal violence in Chatisgrah. The amount of effort she put in the field was brilliant.The effort to understand the issue is acceptable. The book has two parts, one is exclusively for analysing Gujrat pogrom and the remaining part of Naxal violence. The data and information were collected from perpetrators rather than victims, which is the peculiarity of this book.
However, it does not stop a reader to see the author's silence on the caste dimension of the Naxalite movement, which would have brought the reader in another frame of analysis. The observations on the Naxal movement really do not go deeper into the crisis of the society, for instance in chapter 2, the author made a comment that lack of land redistribution among the Dalits is a serious issue. This is the most crucial issue of Dalits and should not be treated in a passive manner. Land and power are interrelated in Indian society, so, lack of access to land also does indicate the process of exclusion. The author has used the the case of a cadre, who become area commander and deputy area commander relatively quicker than their Dalits and tribal counterparts. Many Dalits intellectuals criticize the Naxal movement because of this view that only upper chest is getting leadership. The author could have done a rigorous analysis of this serious issue, hence, it could have been much more political. Also, in the case of Naxal violence a lot of heresy comments are used, for instance, in chapter two, the author again quote Gadchirali superintended of police's perception on the participating women in Naxal movement, according to the superintended , women were inducted into Naxal ranks purely to take care of the sexual needs of male cadres. The author does not do much inquiry into this nasty comment, she could have listened to the other side of the story where a number of women cadets were raped and died in police custody.
The author's perception of the Naxalite movement is not based on the political/ideological position of the movement in a capitalist order of economy/society. A historical cause of the origin and evolution of the movement is completely missing in her analysis of the movement. The author had not attempted to critically review the organisational perception of the cases. The people whom the author interviewed were explaining the reason based on individual/personal experiences. Those narratives had delved much into the political reason to join a movement which is being banned/targeted by the state. She could have explained why people are joining the movement while many of their cadets are subjected to custodial death and fake encounters. A critical analysis to locate the Naxalite movement in India 's parliamentary democratic government and it is a failure to deliver justice to huge toiling mass could have been done.
The analysis of Gujrat violence has exposed many myths about the perpetrators of pogroms, the author explains the cultural and religious fanatic view of the perpetrators of violence on Muslim. This is sufficient enough to explain the root cause of violence and continuing hatred towards Muslims. The author revealed the fact that many Congress men were involved in the pogrom. This is really unknown to the general public. The book's major contribution to the larger debate on communal violence in India is its analysis of the Hindu communal organisations. She quoted an incident where, within three months of working experience with Bajrang Dal, the person has fired his Muslim driver. The author quoted that , “ we should convert all the muslims here, we VHP and Bajrang Dal feel in to five years, there will be not masjid, no mullah. The most significant contribution of the book is that it has certain amount of first hand evidences against the involvement of VHP, she quoted, “ VHP gave Rs 1800, 10 Kilos of grain and some oil said by an accused in several gang rapes an violence ”. There are many such critical evidences in the book.
Construction of muslim identity
Muslims identity is one of the most problematic social concerns in India , in the case of Gujrat violence , the perpetrators have constructed the Muslim identity based on the popular right wing imagination of Muslims such as having four wives, wife beater, anti-national etc. etc. It is evident from the statement that , “ One muslim can feel safe among 500 hindus, but five hundred hindus are unsafe among 100 muslims” and “after partition we would have send the whole lot (muslims) to Pakistan ”. The case study of Saradapura village explained in the book, exposed that the perpetrators were ready with all equipments and weapons, people were told that, “if we call you, come immediately with stuff (kerosene)”. The book further elaborates an incident in the village that, “ they strategically inserted a live wire (rod) into the pucca house where 33 muslims (including women and children) has huddled into escape being burned to death ”. These acts and the perception of the Muslim community is by and large attached with the popular imagination of Islam especially the terrorist Islam. This is the major success of communal violence in Gujrat, it could create public perception and the infact which is sustaining the Modi government and his ideology.
Caste and Gender in the violence
One of the most controversial parts of the Gujrat violence was the involvement of Dalits in the violence. The author coated one the perpetrator that, “we did not give any order to kill Muslims ( in the post-Godhra violence), however, lower caste people did all these killings, not Savarna brahmins”. As said before the book contains many first hand evidences, for instance, it explains that with the help of the perpetrators statement that Durga Vahini -women's organisation was very active in the pogrom, “women were giving us sticks in hands, saying go”. Following this, it also narrates the story of Palau a tribal dominated village in Gujrat, where the Sang Parivar organisations were distributed sword so the tribe and told that they were traditionally Mutajis people ( soldiers of the mother Goddess).
The author has done extensive field work, hence there is no chance to question the authenticity of the book. However, that does not prevent me from critically evaluating some of her observations. Violence has to be offended, yet how Naxal violence and Hinduextremist especially what we saw in Gujrat are interrelated? A comparison of Naxalite cadets with a religious fundamentalist divert the root cause and history of violence and the existence of Naxalism eveals another history of violence. Naxalism emerged out of the history of resisting violence. If a Dalit gets dignity in the movement as a leader it indicates how oppressive the cast is and how caste violence oppressed the Dalit.
The author's perception of violence is deeply rooted in a radical humanist perspective it has its own history. However, when we apply that perspective in analysing the history of violence it should not prevent a person from looking at history of origin and history of resisting violence.
S. Mohammed Irshad PhD
Assistant Professor
Jamsetji Tata Centre for Disaster Management
Tata Institute of Social Sciences
Malatil and Jal A.D. Naoroji (New) Campus
E-Mail: [email protected]
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