Blogs

Sunday, September 27, 2009 19:44 IST

Kobad Gandhy’s arrest has generated reams and reams of newsprint in Mumbai. Every report has unfailingly mentioned how this scion of a wealthy family gave it all up for the sake of the poor; how he and his wife Anuradha, who also hailed from a middle-class family, lived with the poorest of the poor in the deep jungles, and how she finally succumbed to cerebral malaria while he today suffers from various ailments.

Why does Gandhy’s story generate so much interest? Why are so many of us so keen to know more about this man who’s family ran an ice-cream business (according to one report, his family introduced fresh strawberry ice-cream to Mumbai and India) and lived on Worli Sea-face, still one of Mumbai’s most posh localities?

Perhaps the most compelling reason is that deep down in our conscience, there are many of us who secretly admire him. In college, most of us (but certainly not all), dreamt of working for a better India, working directly for the poorest rather than believing in some economic trickle-down theory that doesn’t seem to be making a difference at all?

Yet, soon after college, life doesn’t allow us the luxury to chase our dreams. Many simply lack the conviction to actually do what is easily spoken of over cups of tea in the college canteen, while for many others, family takes precedence – debts to pay off, ailing parents to take care of, sister to marry off, etc. Not that these reasons are trifle: it is difficult to help the world if one cannot help one’s own family.

Then there the few brave souls do take up various causes, but among that lot is a huge divide: there are a few who really care for oppressed but believe the cause is better served from within the system (rights’ activists are an example). Finally, there a few who raise the loudest slogans (often during and immediately after college), and but who soon thereafter end up settled abroad or as wealthy bankers. For this lot, such causes are just another forum for serving their own egos rather than the poor.

Thus, when we read of an Anuradha and Kobad, or Vernon Gonsalves or Binayak Sen, or of the less revolutionary but equally path-breaking Baba Amte and his sons working in areas where civilisation hasn’t reached, we admire them for it, we envy them for doing what we could not do though we wanted to.

Meanwhile, the government has said it will launch a major operation against the naxals. A word of caution: while most Indians disapprove the use of killings by the naxalites, even fewer see them as terrorists of the Jihadi variety. Deep down, many of us have a deep sympathy for the naxals, seeing them as using the wrong methods while fighting for the right cause.

7 comments

Amberish K Diwanji, you are an idiot. One more period.

Mr Diwanji, there's a saying: "If you are not a communist when you are in your teens, you're heartless. If you're a communist even afterwards, then you're an idiot." And this one was spoken not by a capitalist ideologue, but by a communist himself. As far as the rest of your writings go, I can only say this much - "If you're on the wrong side of the law; if you're idolizing a guy who wanted to dismember India, then you ought to be punished." Bottom line is, guys like Kobad Ghandy should have been spoken to in the only language that they know, the language of guns, and should have never been acknowledged as having been arrested.

its funny how the Naxals fight violently for an ideology that has all but wreaked havoc on millions. The inherent corruption of men prevents this utopia from taking shape. instead the worst in us comes out through this idealism. i admire that someone dedicated his life to creating change, but at the same time i pity someone for choosing such foolish outlets. Especially when coming from a privileged background he could have done so much more.

The author and others who support Kobad Ghandy should immediately be arrested or at least investigated since these people are the ones who give monetary and other support to secessionist forces like the Maoists! They are traitors to the nation.

I completely agree with Amberish. It is the state who drove these talented people out of the mainstream. While media is quick to report naxal atrocities, they do not report state atrocity on poor people with as much alacrity. Even though people like Ghandy are using the wrong means and while I do not support the Naxal movement, but I strongly admire Ghandy for having the guts to give up his life and associated comforts for the cause of poor Indians. I salute him and his ilk.

Mr Diwanji still seems to be supporting the Commies in his article above when he says "wrong methods to fight the right cause"! Do you mean to say that you think the cause fought for by the Commies is a just case?

Unless one is a sympathizer of these murderers one cannot justify their acts in one sentence as done by you in this blog.

A jihadi will also iterate that he is fighting for the right cause... but using less than decent methods....!

Personally, I don't see a difference between a Naxal and a Jihadi except that the former fights for something that is an abstract concept written in a book by Marx and the latter fights for an abstract concept written in the Quran.

There is nothing to be admired in a foolish idealist who takes to arms and just ends up antagonising the state. Maybe there are a few youngsters who admire him, but I'm sure the overwhelming majority will just write him off as naive and misguided. Has all this insurgency changed the lives of the poor? Men like Ghandy would have made a really positive contribution had they taken up businesses and employed poor people, or contributed the profits to charity. There are so many entrepreneurs who have done exactly that. They will be the ones who will be remembered and honoured, not these naive 'city-bred' insurgents.