The Maoists and the urban Naxalites!

Bastar: The Naxal Story (Hindi; 2024)
Director: Sudipto Sen

This is supposed to be inspired by actual events. That part may be accurate, but the problem is that this part of Indian history has been ongoing for so long that the moviemaker took the liberty of cutting and pasting events that happened at different times in India's history. 

For the record, there was a rebellion in 1910 when the British were eyeing the minerals in Central India. Come to think of it, that may be when the word 'thug' came into the English language. Tribal people who resisted British invasion were labelled as carnivorous people worshipping a blood-thirsty form of Kaali named Thugeesewari. The tribals donned machetes for farming but were labelled as armed resistance forces instead.

In the late 60s, when the Communist Party of India split after the Sino-Soviet split, a group of them had the idea of a peasant revolution changing the status quo. This group came to be named Maoist (after Chairman Mao). In 1967, in Naxalbari, tribal people fought with armed forces for land, aided by radical left-wing Maoists. After that, they came to be called Naxalites. In the region's most remote areas, in the spine of India, cutting up to 10 states, the Naxalites took charge with their own brand of justice, local panchayat, and control of amenities.

Naxalite activities have been going sporadically. Occasionally, news of skirmishes along this 'red corridor' emerges. 

In 2010, 76 Indian Central Reserve Police Force personnel were killed in Dantewada district in Chattisgarh. This was sort of the starting point for the movie. Before that incident, an advaasi (tribal person) was hacked to death for hoisting the Indian flag. The vendetta against the Naxalite leader spurred the widow to join forces with the police to fight the terrorists. 

In the background is a trial in which the State Government is accused of forming a paramilitary vigilante force named Salwa Judum under the auspices of the ruling party. The accusers were concerned social activists and academics. The movie insinuates that the leftists of the world have united and are having a stronghold and working in tandem with academicians, Bollywood, writers, politicians, and even the judiciary. There is a not-so-veiled reference to Arundathi Roy as a leftist sympathiser. 

The silver lining behind the above incident is that things have improved since then. Violence has de-escalated, infrastructure has improved, and tourism has increased by many folds.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

"I am a revolutionary!"

Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)

It is not easy to change society. The people of the top of the perch want to continue having their nice view undisturbed. Those in the middle rung wish to have continued access to the top and maintain their gateway to positions whilst asserting dominance upon the plebians under their feet. The plebians, well, they are a pathetic lot. They bicker amongst themselves to be king, imagining the changes in their lives upon springboarding to the top. 

The minions' blinded voracious appetite is not the only impeding factor that prevents them from reaching the top. The kingmakers also send in their instigators and moles to derail any flicker of progress.

The Civil War was not started by the Northerners because of altruistic intentions, because they could not stomach seeing black slaves being treated worse than animals. It was economics, stupid. The Union just wanted to liberate the slaves and pack them off to Africa, specifically Liberia, not treat them as an equal inhabitant of the USA. The slaves were emancipated, but nobody wanted to go anywhere. So they stayed back but were harassed of their liberties by the Klan members and bound by the Jim Crow laws.

Rainbow Coalition logo

Despite the restrictive living conditions that they were exposed to, some sociologists saw marked improvement in their living standards. As slavery was outlawed the world over, fellow African formers from the Carribeans and South Americans looked up to their American counterparts as role models. This era also saw intellectuals like Booker T Washington (1856-1915), born into slavery, who rose to become an intellectual and advisor to President Theodore Roosevelt. He established Tuskegee Institute (later University) in Alabama. Washington believed that the way to advance is to be pally with the ruling establishment, concentrate on education, learn valuable trades, and investing in their own businesses. This, he believed, would eventually lead to equal political and civil rights.

However, his nemesis, W E D Du Bois (1868-1963), a Ph D in history scholar, disagreed. He abhorred segregation and demanded equal rights for all blacks. Du Bois believed that racism is an inevitable effect of capitalism. He became a card-carrying member of the Communist Party, but his work spearheaded the subsequent black civil rights movement. 

The 1920s America also saw the Harlem Renaissance when African American culture, manifesting in literature, music, stage performance, and art, became mainstream.

Despite Washington and Du Bois' efforts, lynching and inequality continued.  

In the mid-20th century, other black leaders came to the fore with different strategies. Dr Martin Luther King advocated his passive, non-violent movement. Some took a militant stance. Elijah Muhammad and his 'Nation of Islam' united blacks under the Islamic religion were asking for a separate nation. Malcolm-X broke away from the 'Nation of Islam' and concentrated on social improvement efforts. The 'Black Panther Party' screamed for a revolution.

Fred Hampton (1948-1969)

In 1968, the Illinois Chapter of the 'Black Panther Party' piqued the FBI's radar, notably J Edgar Hoover. Its charismatic leader, Fred Hampton, was getting popular. He found a place in the hearts of the poor via the party's breakfast programme to feed the poor kids. Medical clinics were set up to meet their medical needs. He even tried to unite various fringe societies through his Rainbow coalition. Not only did he reached out to blacks, but his party also formed allegiances with Latino immigrants 'Young Lords', black gangs of Chicago and the group called 'Young Patriots', of poor white Confederate-supporting workers who came from the Southern states of the USA.

It was a time when Chicago was easily the most divided cities in the world. Police brutality was rife, and the mayor's support base was uneasy with the migration of poor blacks, Latinos and even 'white trash' into their neighbourhood. However, cooperation between these newcomers and the scream of political revolutions did not augur well for the local white population who had lived there for generations.

With the FBI's cooperation, the Chicago police planted a mole in the Black Panthers Party to monitor the party's activities and subsequently kill Fred Hampton. This movie is the story of the whole operation through the eyes of the police informant, William O'Neal.

Fred Hampton is portrayed like Jesus, the Messiah, the revolutionary who united a motley crew of marginalised people against a mighty but despotic Roman regime. But, unfortunately, Pontius Pilate and his sycophants saw Christ as a troublemaker instead. And Judas, like O'Neal, doublecrossed Jesus by being a follower for a meagre sum of money. Like Judas too, in the latter part of his life, O'Neal is said to have committed suicide for the sell-out. This, he is said to have done after his 'bare-it-all interview with the PBS channel. Others like to believe the 'accident' was 'arranged' by the FBI for his exposé.

The issues, all the while, have been the same by all movements - demand for good education, decent housing, adequate medical coverage, fair trials and an end to police brutality. It is pretty much the same ring even today.

Note the Confederate flag and Black Panther logo in the background on the same platform. 

One screams of White Supremacy and the other of Black Consciousness.

[When black, white and brown banded together to make life better for communities in need via 

The Rainbow Coalition, the power elite got so frightened, they had to kill it.]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.