By a strange twist of irony, as a review ‘Hello, Bastar’, Rahul Pandita’s ‘untold story of India’s Maosist movement’ was being written, television channels across the country were celebrating Anna Hazare’s Gandhian victory over the might of the Indian state. It is difficult to comment whether the phrase ‘Gandhians with Guns’ was coined with extreme cynicism, or extreme irreverence (to the original Satyägrahi) or extreme facetiousness. Be that as it may, it has become a paradigm – not so much to describe the enemies of the state for whom ‘political power flows from the barrel of a gun’ – but to describe the mindset of ‘mischievous Cadillac communist[s]’, to quote Bharat Karnad’s mordant phrase, who hate the very democratic institutions that gave them the freedom to rant and rave. Why is … Read entire article »