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weakening and ultimate complete withering away of the State Machinery ushering in Communism – the classless society without private property and its concomitants, the family, competition and division of labor – a stage of supreme bliss.

  Regarding the transition from socialism to communism the initial process was devised first by Mao Tse-tung. He wrote many articles on the process of the Cultural Revolution through which minds of people would be refined and the hang-over of class society would gradually be erased from the minds of people. His spectacular contribution was that of New Democracy for the Semi-feudal Semi-colonial countries like China, India and the other Third-World countries where capitalism could not complete its process – the colonial rulers have initiated capitalism only to the extent needed for colonial exploitation. In these countries the proletariat labor class should join hands with the petit bourgeois peasant class (the majority of the exploited people) to bring about ‘bourgeois democratic revolution’ under the leadership of the Communist Party led by the ‘advanced detachment’ of the proletariats. Then the direct transition to socialism (without recourse to capitalism) is to be brought about through ‘great leaps’, completion of the process of capitalistic development under the control of the Socialistic State.”

  Bechu made several hand-written copies of the article and sent to the leaders at the higher echelon. The article got high acclaim from the Naxalite leaders and Sandip was given a high position in the Naxalite Party as a teacher and theoretician of Marxism and Maoism.

  Sandip did not disclose anything to Arati but she could guess from the change of his behavior as he started avoiding her under various excuses. She wanted to warn him against the dangerous path he’s chosen but he did not give her any such opportunity.

  Sandip decided to give up ‘bourgeois-education’ and join the Red Guards. He was sent by the party to Sagar dwip for the propagation of Maoist doctrine among the masses and to prepare them for revolutionary upsurge. He was directed not to discuss with the illiterate masses difficult theories but to read out from only the Red Book of Mao and articles of CM published in Deshabrati.

  It was a three hours’ journey by train from Sealdah to Kandwip. The boy accompanying him took him to the bank of the Ganges by an open van; then they hired a boat for Sagardvip. The jolting journey by the van was new experience and the vast Ganges looking like an ocean enchanted Sandip. Here the Ganges has split up into two vast branches both of which fall into the Bay of Bengal, keeping the Sagar Island at the middle. The eastern branch is called Muriganga and the western branch retains the name Hooghly, the name of the River Ganges by the city of Calcutta.

  In ancient times this was the site for the mythological Ashram of the great sage Kapil Muni and is, from time immemorial, a place of pilgrimage of the devout Hindus who every year, on the sankranti (last day) of the Bengali month of Paus, take sacred baths in the Bay of Bengal at the southern end of the island near the temple of the Muni. During the last two millennia or more the shores of the island had been devoured by the sea several times and new temples had to be constructed at safer places. Hindus believe that a single bath here on the auspicious day removes all sins committed during present and past lives. Sagarmela, a great fare, is held here around Paus sankranti and millions of Hindus from all over India and from abroad congregate to take sacred baths.

  According to Hindu mythology, the impudent sixty thousand sons of the king Sagar of Audh had reached this place in quest of the sacrificial horse of the Horse-yajna and found the horse tied to a pole near the place where the Muni was in deep meditation and they thought he had stolen the horse. In fact, with a view to punishing the sons of Sagar and spoil his yajna (which could have enhanced his prowess and become a threat to the kingdom of Indra) Indra, the king of the gods, had stolen the horse and tied it near the meditating Muni. The angry sons roused the Muni and called him thief and at this fire emanating from the eyes of the enraged Muni burnt all the sons of Sagar and their souls got entrapped in the ashes.

  After a few generations of futile efforts, Bhagirath (so called because of his birth out of lesbian sex of two queens of the male-less royal family), a male descendant of the Sagar family, was advised by the sages to invite by prayer the river goddess Gangadevi to earth for the salvation of the entrapped souls of his ancestors.

  Gangadevi, according to mythology, emerged from Lord Vishnu’s feet which had melted at the cosmic song of Lord Shiva. To save the heavens from the vast water, Lord Brahma got her entrapped in his vessel called kamandalu. Bhagirath’s prayer satisfied both Brahma and Gangadevi and the Devi agreed to flow down the Earth to Bay of Bengal and salvage the entrapped souls. Lord Shiva agreed to hold her in his matted hair to save the earth from the thrust of her falling down from heaven. By painstaking efforts and prayers Bhagirath could ultimately overcome all the hazards on the way and bring the river-goddess to the island and the souls of his ancestors were salvaged.

  Till the nineteenth century this island was uninhabited, was a part of the Sunder ban forest and was infested with Royal Bengal Tigers and other ferocious beasts. Transportation was hazardous and many pilgrims were killed by tigers and snakes and died of epidemics.

  Later on some benevolent land lords from Calcutta took lease of the land from the government and undertook development works. Jungles were cleared into fertile cultivable land, a large number of settlers– cultivators, craftsmen, transport operators and small businessmen – from the Midnapore district to the west of the Hooghly River started pouring in. In course of time, villages were founded; schools, a college, hospitals, dharmashalas of religious institutions and hotels were established and the island became a highly populated locality with transport, education and many other amenities and the government came forward to arrange for special transport and medical facilities during Paus sankranti.

  Sandip went with a fellow party cadre to a party-supporter’s house and was ostensibly assigned the job of the manager of his small food shop serving tea, breakfast, lunch and dinner to the tourists. The man drove his own trekker and his wife cooked food for the customers of the shop and their adolescent son ran the cigarette and pan shop adjacent to the food shop. Sandip was offered a room to stay in the house of the man in a nearby village.

  Sandip started liking the rustic men around, learnt to speak their Midnapore dialect and had friendship with many of them. Contact with the villagers soon made him realize that villagers are not what the theoreticians from the towns think about them. Instead of giving them lessons he started taking lessons from them and the foundation of his conviction got a serious jolt. He was to conspire with them to murder landlords and money lenders, but he could not find any opportunity to instigate them, nor did he find acquiescence from his conscience to indulge in such heinous crime. He even failed to answer convincingly their queries about the vandalism and murders committed by the Naxalites, nor could he convince them about the purpose of the movement. Doubts gradually started blossoming in his inner mind.

  One day he visited the Bharat Sevashram Sangha opposite the food shop, and met a saffron-clad Swamiji who took Sandip to his room. The Swamiji heard with patience Sandip’s life-story and the present disquiet of his mind owing to doubts about his creed. Swamiji talked on the ideals of Swami Pranabananda Maharaj and read out his gospels and Sandip visualized a new world of peace and harmony.

  In the mean time, Naxalite movement had degenerated into sheer anarchy and wanton violence. Hooligans in large numbers had infiltrated the ranks of the CPI-ML in West Bengal and Calcutta experienced the unprecedented violence with murder of the members of not only other parties or Naxalite factions but also the dissidents in their own party. Criminals took advantage of the chaotic situation unleashing violence, murder, arson and looting; educational institutions were burnt with slogans, ‘down with bourgeois education’; personal enemies were murdered and passed on in the name of Naxalite action. Some Marwari businessmen of Burrabazar of Calcutta made enormous money by selling smuggled foreign arms, weapons and explosives
to the Naxalites and the goons. A head clerk of a school defalcated funds and hoodlums hired by him invaded the school at night, burnt the relevant documents in the school office uttering Naxalite slogans and hoisted a red flag. A few urchins had stolen green cocoanut from a tree and while the owner with some neighbors tried to chase them, the boys shrieked out, “Long live Chairman Mao, long live CM.” and the men fled in panic. Terror reigned in West Bengal. People did not dare being out of home after evening, no body dared to go to other places or houses of friends and relatives, even known friends could not be trusted. Life in the State became unbearable.

  The situation was aggravated by the infighting among the recognized political parties, CPI-M being the most aggressive and successful among them, to capture one another’s area of influence. In the district of Burdwan, a gang of criminals invaded a house of a Congress supporter, murdered him brutally and forced her mother to gulp wads of rice dipped in her son’s blood.

  International scenario too looked ominous for the communists. In China the fact could no longer be hushed up that more than thirty