This poem is culled from of the Naxalite movement in the country. Despite being quelled by the violent state repression mechanisms, the call for organised action in Naxalbari in 1967 served as a spark that set off protests across rural India. One of the outcomes of this defiance and concerted effort to bring about reform and place the plight of a large, marginalised section of society before the eyes of the country and a deceptively hegemonic state, was the jolt to the soporific and comfortable middle class and elite. The ideology of the far-left, and the militant resolve of the ones who gave their life to fighting against big corporations, and anti-people development policies, became real and necessary; so much so that many young intellectuals and students crossed this blurred line and became part of the movement.
One wonders what it will take to turn the hearts of sympathisers of the state today - a state that is practicing violence on its own people, that is empowering its police to protect violent goons (JNU, gunman at Jamia), and is turning deception into natiolistic fervour (Kovind talking about fulfilling Gandhi’s vision with CAA). Surely our electorate isn’t so blind! Surely we have not begun to love our “chains” so much that we have started to replace our ineffectiveness, our irrelevance to the grand narrative of the new India with them.
