Chandrashekar Azad in Chhattisgarh

The Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) is building barracks for the paramilitary in Chhattisgarh. For this, they are supposed to be spending at least Rs 250 crore (Suvojit Bagchi in The Hindu - http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/bhilai-steel-plant-building-barracks-in-maoist-belt/article4154308.ece?homepage=true). The paramilitary is for protecting their iron ore mines, located in the Raoghat hills, and a new railway line, which will transport the ore to Dalli–Rajhara.

Systematic troop deployment in the central hills has already begun. The news story above refers to only Rs 250 crore for this particular rail link. 22 barracks is inadequate, as the rulers will see, for guerilla uprisings have a habit of repeatedly asking for attention. Yet, the strength of the State must not be scoffed at. If necessary, it can populate the green hills with soldiers.

Once the railway line is built—the trees over 110 hectares have already been cut (http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/logistics/article3646548.ece)—and it will be built, given the determination of the ruling classes, we will find ourselves at an odd juncture.

When the guerillas, also called Maoists, try to attack the railway line, which they just may, they will join a rather elite club in nationalist history. Freedom fighters during British rule often tried to attack railway lines. It wasn’t just for money, or to impede the administration, but rail lines were a symbol of British oppression. Constructed to expedite the exploitation of the land, they helped the rulers plunder. Many naïve, well-read individuals feel it was a gift we should treasure. Indeed, it made us poorer.

The Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, Chandrashekhar Azad among the luminary leaders, attacked rail lines quite a few times. In 1929, they tried to blow up the Viceroy, Lord Irwin’s train. Unfortunately, the viceroy escaped. Azad, previously, participated in the Kakori Train Robbery in 1925. Attempts at blowing up trains or rail lines litter many freedom struggles, not just ours.

So if and when our emaciated revolutionaries attempt to blow up the rail line in question, they would have a very interesting precedent. Not without differences. Azad was fighting a colonial power outspoken in its racist prejudice. The tribal guerrillas fight a class implicitly racist, not quite saying it out loud, for the fear of righteous controversy. Azad was fighting for national determination. The insurgents in Central India fight for ordinary dignity. Azad became a hero in his own time. The Maoists are terrorists. 40–50 kg each.

There are deep similarities too. Both desperate. Both dispossessed of basic freedoms. Both the inferior race. Both fighting for their own land. Both angry.

A bleak future is one where these pre-historic tribes are either annihilated or reside in our great cities, employed as construction workers or rag-pickers.

But it will not work out that way. It may just be ordinary hope. But India won’t die that easy.