Lalgarh---a distant habitation from Calcutta and West Bengal State Government

Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya
1.
The communists rather the CPI(M) has been ruling West Bengal for last
three decades. This is singularly unique Even in Kerala where the
communists are strong they could not rule continuously for decades
together In every state whatever in India there has been change in
the govt . But men may come men may go the communists ruled us for at
least one generation How could the communists do that. Well they
forged a front govt just as MaoTse Tung had forged a front govt in
Red China The front partners other than the CPI(M) have been in fact
the yesmen of their Big Brother CPI(M).Why did they linger in the
Front Govt despite being humiliated . The answer is simple As long as
yoiu are in the front govt you enjoy a ministry at least Thereby you
enjoy some power If you are not in the govt you dont get the power
When the Big Brother CPI(M) puts up a front with these yesmen of small
parties the outlook is as it were that there is no one party rule But
just as the Chairman had destroyed all opposition in Red China so the
CPI(M) abolished every trace of opposition in West Bengal Well there
was Indian National Congress And of course they won a few seats in the
assembly But they were few very few And it seems that it were the CPI
(M) that condescended to the opposition a few seats to show that they
were ruling us democratically In fact the CPI(M) was the monarch of
all that it surveyed Our question is--How could the CPI(M) do so .
How did Auranngzeb or Alauddin rule India? Well CPI(M) , they say saw
to that most of the industries come to a halt in last 30 years .Fine .
We must acknowledge that CPI(M) itself was the largest employer in
the state.. There is no account of it available. But I think that at
least 1 lakfh people were appointed as the wholetimers of the party.
With this great army of paid cadres the CPI(M) used to look after
every household Communists they exclaimed know how to run an
organisation . It is disciplined like an army It is so unlike the
Congress which seems to be an assembly of rowdies True. Suppose you
are paid Rs 200/;- only for lookin g after fifty households in
Raikatpara ,Murshidabad Everyone knows you as a representative of the
ruling party. So when a new tenant occupies a house to be let out the
tenant must give a nazrana to you The owner of the house must also pay
an honararium due to you Because it is you who looks after the peace
of the locality Quarrel if any between the husband and wife our
comrade interferes and if necessary summons the husbsnd to the party
office and our comrade occupies the judgement seat So although the
party pays you a paltry sum of Rs 200 only you can have a palatial
house to live in and your children read in the costliest schools and
so on Fine But wherefrom could the party get so much money to pay the
salary of say one lakh whole timers? The answer is simple Whatever
employment one gets in private firm or public sector one gets only
because of the reccomendation of the party . Thus if you want to be
the principal of a govt sponsored college---all the colleges teaching
B.A , B.Sc etc are govt sponsored till date methinks-- you must get
reccomendation from the chief of the Local Committee of the ruiling
party and when you become the principal you pay the party levy from
your salary So yopu guess how the income and the expenditure of the
party flowed But you cannot audit it it Because the political parties
need not pay any income tax in India
So this is how the cadreraj continued in West Bengal with great
efficiency.And Lalgarh a peaceful hamlet lived there unknown and
unsung

2
Lalgarh remained unknown and unsung for decades together. It first
found its place in the media approximately in 2007 when we heard that
the Maoists took law intheir hands and assassinated a few CPI(M)
leaders Yes Maoists have figured in West Bengal politics for last
four or five years Who are the Maoists ? I donot know. Yes I knew
the Naxalites. It was in the sixties that the Naxalites shot up in
West Bengal as an emergent force . At the outset they didnot believe
in the parlianentary process They beleved that the guns were the
fountainhead of power and with the aid of guns they would hasten a
peasants revolution in India Fine West Bengal passed through a decade
long blood bath and then yielded to CPI(M) The Naxaltes were
eliminated from Bengal in a sense though they now and then raised
their voice here and there . But the Naxalites found room in the
jungle areas of Jharkhand Andhra and the like They showed up in
Midnapur West and Purulia in last ten years The Naxalite is now a days
an umbrella term which denotes thirty different Maoist outfits And
most of them pin their faith on gettiong at power and distribution of
wealth through violent struggle And to repeat a Maoist outfit showed
up in Purulia and West Midnapore inthe main in West Bengal How dids
they figure Well suppose they publish posters asking thIs or that CPI
(M) leader of the locality to give up the party. Often one who
ignores the poster is assassinated Incidents like that has been
taking place at Lalgarh during last 2 or 3 years and Lalgarh slowly
made its way to prominence
3
Lalgarh is ropughly 150 kilometres away from Calcutta and some 40
kilometres away from Midnapore the District toiwn Midnapore by the by
is 130 kilometres away from Calcutta Lalgarh and Ramgarh and the like
are not towns They coulde be3 better called hamlets The people
inhabiting here are not tribes Despite that about 70% people here
are below poverty line There are n umerous villages in the
neioghbourhood of Lalgah Ramgarh and the like and the total
populatuiopn of the area is approximately 10 lakhs And mind you 80% of
them are below below-poverty line. Poverty itself itrself shudders at
their sight These people live on the eggs of ants Rarely do they get
rice to eat The moment they are born they have hunger and they live
with hunger. Suppose you are their guest and they offer you rice if
you ask them with what curry or soup should you take the rice they
will ask you to take the rice with the sauce known as hunger. Their
means of living is to collect some leaves of trees from the
neighbouring jungles
These people backed up a political outfit known as Jharkhand Naren
group in the ninetees. It was on the surface run by the leaders of the
backward class and its soile object was to rescue the backward people
from starvation.Here it will not be out of place to point out that the
recent legislation in our country has simply sent total unemployment
to exile. Because the govt assures 100 days employment to one and all
a year And one should get the employment presently after one lodges
an application . Besides ration at a cheap rate is distributed among
those who are there below poverty line. But it is a pity that the
tribal leaders were no better than the CPI(M) leaders. Both saw to
that tyhe poor are not benefitted The poor didnot get the ration card
due to them The rice bought with their ration cards are sold in the
black market .The money due for hundred days work scheme are
distributed among ghost workers and pocketed by the leaders The poor
rural people there fore shifted their support to TrinamulBJP combine
when they were strong enough to ask for the support of the people
there It is clkaimed that the CPI(M) leaders at this hour made a deal
with the Maoists and the latter got a footing here. They were supposed
to drive away Trinamul and BJP from this area Well if this story is
true then the Maoists were invoked by the ruling party

4

Every reoport is a recollection and narration . There was a thane
named Macduff .His wife and the little child in her arms were
assassinated by murderes sent by Macbeth Lady Macbeth recunts the
story while waking in sleep and turns into a ballad----The thane of
Fife had a wife and where is she now? Lalgarh when recalled and
recounted could be as real and unreal as tHe ballad. Indeed we are all
walking in sleep Our life is a sleep and forgetting Despite that
there is a school of thinkers who posit that dreams and ballads are
some times more true than the everyday waking truth God knows Are we
awake or asleep Ipresume that me the speaker is asleep Or when
assassinators came and unsheathed their sabres to starve our poor
fellowmen at Lalgarh and its neighbourhood I couldnot cry halt to
their heinous act The Naren Group and the CPI{M} were for a time
routed by Trinamul and BJP in the area And it is said that it was at
that time the CPI{M} like a witch conjured the Naxalites so they
might drive away the Trinamul and BJP The trick worked But CPI{M}
henceforth was always scared of Naxalite killing of the CPI{m]
leaders... This story might not be true But it is a good story Because
such passage of events is possible Think of America During the cold
war they fanned Muslim fundsamentalism in Afganisthan and Iran Though
the Shah of Persia was a faithful friend of America and though as a
ruler he was very good still America let Khomeini to show up Because
if fundamentalists ruleD the border states of Russia the
communist Russia would not be able to expand This is why the Talibans
came to power iin Afganisthan Once the Soviet Russia fell the
Americans have been restive regarding Muslim fundamentalism The
ruling party of the state conjured the Naxalites to drive away
Trinamul and BJP later the naxalites became the enemy of the ruling
party And the govt claims that the Naxalites have undermining the
sovereignty of the state that is India. But may be the story of
conjuring the naxalites in the eighties in West Midnapore Purulia or
Bankura could be a myth And there are a few Gandhiites still even in
England (a statue of Mahatma Gandhi, I read in the newspaper is going
to be raised in England presently}
5
True there are Gandhiites there But was not Robin Hood right Could
Gandhi himself throw away a ballad enshrining the heroics of Robin
Hood Although all of us know who Robin Hood is it is a pity that the
history of English Literature doesnot take cognizance of him The
Middle Age English Literature abounds with Romances They have been
composed by the nobility and their theme is war and love The hero
there goes of f to death in an attitude leaving the lovely heroine
looking upon him from the castle verandah in tearful rapture .And if
you want to step aside from the mall of Middle Age English Literature
you come across Wycliffe who transgressed the church and dared
translating the Bible and who was one of the chief figures of the
peasant revolution in the then England and you meet Robin Hood They
are the response of the down trodden to the mainstream of English
Literature Now who was Robin Hood He and his followers were outlaws
and they lived in the jungle in great merriment Even kings and dukes
were jealous of their merry life in the woods That is why the usurped
duke of As you like it lived life reminiscent of Robin Hood and his
merry band in the forest of Arden Robin Hood and his merry band lived
in the forests Now and then they visited the locality and brought
those of the nobility to books who tortured the poor and the
destitute The Maoists could be compared with the Robin Hoods True
that the name Mao is Mongoloid they havenot come from Beijing or from
the skies They were the creation of the Communists in two ways
Yesterday only the Chief Minister of West Bengal Buddhadeb described
the Maoists as those who donot honour the sovereignty of India If you
want to read what a doubledealer is like read the communists
wherever you find them be it in France or Mexico It was Joseph Stalin
who said that India was not a free country even after she got her
freedom on the 15th August 1947 Russia was the fatherland of the
Indian Communists And since the voice from the fattherland said
that India was not a free country even after 1947 the communists
didnot raise the tricolour in India as long as Stalin was alive in
Moscow So is there any right of Buddhadeb to debunk the Naxalites as
anti Indians when he himself has been groomed in the lap of the
traitors to the nation who were great communists and
internatiuonalists beyond all question though.

6.

The Communists are the progenitors of the Maoists in two ways
Firstly the communists earlier used the slogan of revolution as a
tool to come to power in the parliamentary system. Some peiople
believed in their slogan and started revolution before the ripe time
for revolution --- to speak the Marxist way----was really there These
people suicceeded to throw the ancien regime or Congress regime of
West Bengal into doldrums It helped theCPI(M) to come to power in
West Bengal But the communist govt as it was it knew how to keep
itself away from left adventurism and right extremism So it were they
who saw to these revolutionaries are shorn off their poison The
avowed revolutrionaries were known at that time as Naxalites and they
claimed that they followed the ideas as put forward by Mao Tse Tung
West Bengal saw the Naxalite Tsunami die down But the name Naxalite
and Maoist continued to have significance Whenever you do some
violence against establishment you are either lionised or debunked as
Naxalite In the western districts of West Bengal such as Bankura
Purulia and patrts of West Midnapore even you donot have water to
bathe every day The cruelty of the CPI(M) satraps sent a few of them
to the jungles And may be these outlaws came upon these CPI(m)
nobility like tigers or panthers whose primordial homes have been
shattered These outlaws donot know anything of Chairman Mao But the
Maoist brand adds to their actions animage of political significance
The communist govt also can use it to divert the attention of the
people they rule So Lalgarh and its neighbourhood now and then saw
Naxalite attack just as Nayagram and its neighbourhood witness a band
of elephants destroying their crops

7

But Lalgarh captured the headline of the newspapers if I can rightly
remember in the month of November last year The Chief minister
Buddhadeb of West Bengal went past Lalgarh along with the then Central
Govt. minister Paswan and the big capitalist Jindal West Bengal
Govt. is committed to industrialisation of the state and to that end
it was ready to give away whole landscapes laden with untold treasure
of rich crops at Singur and Nandigram The forests of Salboni the WB
Govt pledged to give away to the Jindals And in the context of this
long march of the communist raj in West Bengal the Chief minister
accompanied Jindal and Paswan to Salboni if I rightly remember When
the convoy of the VIPs were passing a landmine exploded This raised a
hue and cry God Save the king God saved all the three VIPs Now who
planted the mine? The ready answer on behalf of the Govt was that it
were the Maoists who planted the mine to kill Buddhadev That
naturally added an aura to Buddhadev in the light of some But no
narrative goes uncontested There is a counter narrative that points
out that the mine exploded in an area where CPI(M) had undisputed sway
So it were the cadres of Buddhadev who planted the mine and that is
why the mine didnot hurt any oner of the VIPs This was done to add
aura to great CM committed to industrialise WB The Govt claimed that
it was an act of the Maoists But it is said that whenever the Maoists
act they i proudly announce that presently after their action is
accomplished But this time there was no immediate respose from the
Maoists Three days after media showed the Maoist leader Kishenji from
the back acknowledging that attempt at violence on the aforesaid
violence was the doing of the Maoists Kishenji was photographed from
the back and no one had the opportunity of seeing the face of
Kishenji Who is this Kishenji?

8
Who is Kishenji We have never heard of him as a Maoist activist And
why should Kishenji show his back only ?There have been interviews
of the outlaws in the jungle , but they never showed you their back
Is this Kishenji manufactured by the Govt and the media Well nothing
is impossible in the real world Is there anybody called Laden? When
President Clinton skidded into the Lewinsky scandal he at once saw to
that a particular state of Africa , I forget the name as well as
Afganisthan were bombed in search of Laden Who is this Laden? No one
heard of him earlier But the media and America have created a larger
than life portrait of Laden The world must live in fear of something
perhaps
Whether the landmine was masterminded by the ruling party itself or
the Maoists doesnot matter The ritual activities followed the
incident The police pounced upon the locality Lalgarh and its
neighbourhood like a pack of leopards They fell upon the poor Santals
who were clad in loin cloths The police injured the eyes of a woman
and wounded others May be they arrested some on suspicion Every time
the humiliation of the poor does not put them afire But this time it
did At the outset a few villages They summoned one Chhatradhar Mahato
to lead them against police atrocities Chhatradhars brother they knew
was a Naxalite But Chhatradhar seemed to be an ordinary gentleman with
head and heart Soon Chhatradhar got support from all the neighbouring
villages and Chhatradhar saw to that the police left the thanas
presently. Chhatradhar asked the administration to come to their
locality and apologise for the wrongs they have done to the poor
through the years The police earlier behaved in such a fashion with
these poor men that every one of these poor people was a Maoist as it
were. The police authority was not agreed to go to the villages and
apologise So Lalgarh and the neighbouring villages became virtually a
liberated zone where no police could be found The people of Lalgarh
started ruling themselves Rejoice
Rejoice if you love democracy and freedom
7
So Lalgarh and its neighbouring villages remained on their own The
bureaucracy and the police of the state could not execute their writ
S in those localities Are you scandalised When justice and freedom
are banished from the court or the Writers Building of Calcutta the
seat of the CM they take refuge in jungles and villages i am here
misquoting Shakespeare Do you get me? On another level the lawyers
live on the potential criminality of men and the priests live on the
potwential sinfulness of men If there were no lawyers there would be
no criminals and if there were no priests there would be no sinner Do
you see that I am an anarchist with Prince Kropotkin Such state of
affair continued for months The state Govt seemed to overlook it till
the date of election for parliamentary seats turned up . The
Election Commission said that the elections could not be conducted
unless police force were allowed in that area Chhatradhar Mahato was
invited to a meeting with the Election Commissioner at Calcutta
Mahato said that there was no need odf police personnel The people
themselves would look after the election process True. Democracy
becomes mature only when there are no police personnel to look after
the execution of uiits processes But the Election Commissioner would
not agree State police and paramilitary reached there in time The
number of booths where people would cast their votes was reduced to
four and govt transport moved about to bring the voters from the
remote villages to the booths so that the villagers could use their
franchise Few voters turned At the booth where Chhatrapati himself
voted only six votes were polled . On the surface Chhatrapati seemed
to be a revolutionary par excel;lence who stoutly stood against the
intimidations of the ruling party of WB viz. CPI{M} But mind you
if votes were polled none would go in favour of the CPI(M) And the 6
votews that were polled at the booth where Chhatrapati voted went to
CPI(m) Naturally the CPI(m) won the Lok Sabha seat to which Lalgarh
and its neighbourhood belong at a time when a tsunami overthrew the
rulin g CPI(m) in the rest of Bengal One wonders whether Chhatradhar
acted in the interest of the ruling party in a different way
8
The election results came upon the ruling coalition as a bolt from
the blue Mamata and her allies bagged most of the seats of the
Parliament in Bengal This is not all Mamata and her comrades earned
coveted berths in the ministry Hence the people who opposed the govt
but remained dumb earlier in the face of the brute majority of
the communists now started speaking . And misfortunes never come
singly Aila --- a storm from the sea came from nowhere and made
thousands homeless Dont shriek at this The count of the homeless in
Calcutta who donot have roofs on their head is 67000 only Despite
that the devastation caused by the storm was quite significant Do you
know how significant? I give you a sample Some 500 big trees were
uprooted in Calcutta Corporation It made Calcutta Corporation bald
Dont blame urbanisation for this Blame the management of the
corporation Be that as it may life stood still for days together in
Calcutta because iof the fall of the trees But this was no headache
for the corporation i have read somewhere that if there is any jam
in London the govt has to pay the buses for that I donot know
whether i am right or not But in West Bengal the more the people
suffer the more the govt rejoices When Rome burns Nero fiddles That
is the adage Here Nero has been maligned Nero was in fact a good man
and a god intoxicated man But he was not a christian So the
Christians forged the adage at the cost of Nero. But you could
legitimatelyt say When Calcutta and West Bengal weep the communists
dance And their parents and grand parents throng to see that
dance in the air Those forefathers I mean Com Muzaffar Ahmed S
A Dange V T Randive and others see them being unseen The
communists have ev er been fond of natural calamities And they have
been the architects of the annual flood taking place inb West Bengal
Floods in West Bengal and in most of the places are always man-made in
a sense Why do they do that? When there is a calamity they can ask
for funds from the Central Govt And the communists have a style of
giving relief.
9.
When there is a flood or storm in West Bengal the hearts iof the
communists dance like peacocks Oh like peacocks Where fore? Because
the cpommunists have style of their own in giving reliefs Those who
donot vote them are damned They donot deserve help Because the
communist philosophy believes in class struggle Atime will be there
will be the armageddon between the haves and have nots Read haves
for non communists and havenots for the communists Now a part of the
money earmarked for relief will be distributed among the afflicted of
the party The rest will go to feather the nests of the party leaders
and cadres But this time the Trinamul is a partner in the Govt aty
the centre They have also right as MPs and ministers to go wherever
they will and distribute relief That will put CPI(M) and its time
honoured practice to shame Right at this moment the state Govt took
thre vow of wiping the Maoists from the face of West Bengal

10

If you were to write a drama loaded with type characters who strut and
fret around our Chief Minister and if you want to sum up Buddha in a
word put only one phrase in Buddhas lips----Do it now Let - Do it
now ---- be a recurrent motif in Buddhas speech So once Buddha
decides to drive away the Maoists he acts He dashed to the Home
Minister and asked for special police force from the Centre the teach
the Maoists a lesson The communists in this state are always wont
go to centre for help whenever they are in crisis Failure if any on
the part of the Communists the Communists will say---Well that has
been due to the fault of the Central Govt Now law and order is a
state problem So Centre cannot take it in its hand So the Home
Minister at the Centre asked the Chief Minister to send the state
police in the front The force from the Centre will march in the aft
of the force Besides if Maoists are really to be flushed out from the
state then the Maoists should be officially banned in the state But
Buddhadeb will not declare that the Maoists are unlawful and despite
that Buddhadeb will fight the Maoists to finish If you want to meet a
double dealer come hither come hither and shake hand with our Chief
Minister Be that as it may after getting things ready a force of
police people para military personnels along with army men and so on
in full battle array set out foir Lalgarh and its neighbourhood With
whom will they fight? They will fight with those men and women who
never had a full meal in their life time and who are clad in loin
cloths Whose only weapon are bows and arrows Sending a trained army
against men who wield bows and arrows
But can you put up with their arrogance? They are poor people in rags
What arrogance do you find in them?


Do you know that these impudent halffed people demolished the
palatial building of Anuj Pandey As a CPI(m} whole timer his monthly
income should be 1500 Rupees only But see his house It costs 40 lakh
Rupees if estimated moderately.
11
Do you know how impudent these poor people were? When the Chief
Mimister and Jindal and the Central Minister were on their way back
from Salbani in the month of November a landmine exploded at Dalilpur
near Lalgarh . It destroyed a vehicle of the security The police
enquiry started in no time, There is a village named Kantapahari
flanked between Lalgarh and Ramgarh The police there arrested one
Sitamani Soren The poor women were so impudent that they opposed the
arrest of our lady Sitamani The police notonly hurt ones eyes but also
hit a few others on their head Of course The devil surely
entered their head. The poor villagers wondered whether they were
Maoists only because they are tribals The news spread from one
village to another the way the word of mouth spread from one village
to another during the Hool or Santali upsurge against the British Raj
And they chose Chhatradhar Mahaato of Bara pelia village as the chief
of the committee that was meant to resist police atrocities Sibu Soren
has become its another office bearer Lalmohan Tudu is its cashier
They started raising committees in different villages such as
Kantapahari Ramgarh Dharampur Goaltore And their member strength is
at the moment 10000 strong Should the govt remain inactive whewn these
poor people are getting organised? And do you know what did they ask
for? They said that the administration must go to them and apologise
The Suprintendant of police must rub his nose on the floor in front of
them and promise that the police will no more harass the poor and the
tribal Or else police wont be allowed to enter into that area The
police thanas they said would be coverted into health centres


Indeed if police thanas were turned into health centres

And if doctors were appointed as police men

the country would be different

Because what is crime but a kind of mental disease

12
And do you know how impudent these poor people under the leadership of
Chhatradhar Ours is a democratic country We elect our representatives
to parliament ordinarily every five years . Parliament is a lawmaking
body And it is the police force that sees to that the election is held
peacefully But these poor people boycotted the election because there
were police personnel There used to be 28 or 30 polling booths in
the Binpur Block Now the govt reduced the booths into four only. One
of them was at Pirakata High School Another was at Bhimpur High
School A third one was at Ramgarh High School and so on The
administration employed a bus so that voters from distant villages
could be transported to the booths But few voted The impudent poor
men boycotted the vote because they would not tolerate polibe
personnel


This was not all The committee of the people against police
atrocities organised procession to undermine the administration Why
should the police tolerate such insults When the procession was
passing through the forest just one kilometre away from Ramgarh the
police [people fired on them The angry mob retaliated by burning three
Maruti cars

Mamata Banerjee rushed to the neighbourhood The police wouldnot give
her any protection She went on her own and tyold the masses that she
is with them

The administration would not apologize The people insisted that they
must apologize The Peoples Committee published and distributed a
leaflet Its language was very powerful It touched the hearts of the
educated of the village It declared that the administration is there
to serve the people The administration is not doing its job Do you
see how impudent these unlettered people are If you do not see that
well our Chief minister saw that and went through the meeting of the
polit bureau of his party and asked for help from the Centre

The Chhatradhar Committee cut off all communication with the world
by damaging roads so that police vans couldnot enter They learnt
this tactics from the peasant movement at Nandigram They set up
committees in every village following the pattern of Nandigram Since
the communication there was electricity for one month No bus plied for
one month This surely irrtated the middle class who need contact with
the towns But the poor people donot need that May be many of them have
not seen the town in theire life time May be many of them have not
seen the rail in their lifetime How foolish and impudent these people
are
13
The Chief Minister asked for five companies of CRPF from the Centre
After some ifs and buts the Centre granted the prayer Besides there
came Cobra to help the Bengal Police These Cobra personnel are very
brave They donot have any uniform They come in plain dress When
there is a jungle or the like it is the Cobra men who enter the jungle
first and check whether there is any mine laid or whether there are
people lying in ambush When they give the green signal the other
security forces march



So Bengal Police accompanied with 5 companies of CRPF and Cobra made
their blure print at Midnapur Police Line Then they set out at 11 AM
for Lalgarh in buses and Tata Sumos They went till pirakata The
road there was damaged So buses would not ply there They alighted
from the buses and started marching It was then 1. 30 PM They
marched stealthily and cautiously lest they become a prey to a
landmine burst They marched past Koimaa Maalidaa.... they stopped
at Bhimpur It was then 4. 30 in the afternoon


Next day morning they set out from Bhimpur High School at 9 or so in
the morning They were fired from the back The police returned fire
in self defence There was gun battle for 2 hours The bullets were
coming from a house The police arrested five men or so there Then
they went foreward They marched through the villages It became
evening before they reached the jungles No they would not dare the
jungles inthe night So they retreated to Bhimpur and rested for the
night at Bhimpur School On the third day they went past the jungle It
was four kilometres long

The West Bengal Govt distributed leaflets from helicopter It warned
that the Maoists were in hiding in the villages The people must not be
misguided by them . The Maoists were using women and children as their
shield it was alleged

The Chhatradhar Committee was not a silent spectator as well They were
trying their hard to resist the police

The police also was ready to leave no stone unturned There are roughly
three routes to Lalgarh 1--via Goaltor 2- via Sarenga in Bankura
District and 3 via Bhimpur The police men were divided into three
divisions Each route was pursued by one of the divisions You can go
to Lalgarh via Jhargram also A few Calcutta police were going that
way There was a wooden bridge on that way and it was put to fire

14
The police entered Lalgarh and established its power over there On the
way also the police people reclaimed the thanas from where they were
banished So they no doubt rejoice But the joys of theCPI(M)
supporters know no bound They see in the restoration of the police
the restoration of law and order Their movable and immovable
properties will be hence protected They staged a motor cycle rally to
tell the illiterate and poor fools that tyheir power is impeccable
They are not back to fully as yet Many of the CPI{m) leaders are
still away from their native village Some of them have taken shelter
in Midnapore From Lalgarh the police party would march to Ramgarh
The Chhatradhar Committee had already put ther Ramgarh thana to
flames

In the meantime the intellectuals made a terrific hue and cry Whom do
yopu call intellectuals? Well you cannot be an intellectual in Bengal
unless the govt. calls you an intellectual But intellectuals can
easily change their direction just as halcyon birds do And the
intellectuals changed their ndirection They now cried-- Let us go to
Lalgarh They reached Lalgarh with police protection . Thereafter they
went to the village and had a chat with Chhatradhar Chhatradhar
claims that he has no link with the Maoists But the govt. insists that
he has link with the Maoist Chhatradhar asks for the development of
the locality What matters if he is a Maoist Rather the Govt should
thank the Maoists because they have drawn attention of the govt to
the needs of the locality Be that as it may it seems that spontaneous
up rise of the people also needs patronage of some political party
India is such a big country that the groans odf say 30 lakh people
even donot make any dent on the collective mind I told you floods in
our state is man made The river Keleghai is flooded every year
affecting lakhs of people But the govt doesnot wake up to the need of
the people living in the valley of Keleghai The copmmon people of
the Lalgarh rose against maladministration The repeated chanting by
the govt that they are Maoists seems to have conjured the Maoists
from thin air They now claim that the organisation of Mahato was
secretly run by them only God knows what awaits those impudent poor
people in future What is in store for us also


By the by do you know how the people arte reacting to the police
conquests? The police people have occupied the schools and schools
are closed to the students for indeterminate period The day before
yesterday the students of Binpur put locks on the doors and the gates
of the school They announced that the police must not tresspass into
their school premises 2400 students read in that school The students
and their guardians put oout a procession in protest against the
police occupying their school Do you know how the administration
reacted? They said that there was 144 in vogue So the the guardiands
and the children should be arrested presently Don Quixote charging
the windmills was perhaps less dull What do you think? The govt will
not allowany visitor to Lalgarh You cannot have any first hand
experience of what is really happening there


Lalgarh concluded The author must acknowledge his indebtedness to a
young man named Prithviraj from Lalgarh who equipped the author with
his first hand experiences Prithvirajs forefathers by the by
were the rajahs of the place 100 years back.

SONG OF RADHA, THE MILKMAID ---text and critical study by Mandira Chattopadhyaya

I carried my curds to the Mathura fair…
How softly the heifers were lowing…
I wanted to cry, “Who will buy
The curds that is white as the clouds in the sky
When the breezes of Shravan are blowing?”
But my heart was so full of your beauty, Beloved,
They laughed as I cried without knowing:
Govinda! Govinda!
Govinda! Govinda!
How softly the river was flowing!
I carried the pots to the Mathura tide…
How gaily the rowers were rowing!
My comrades called, “Ho! Let us dance, let us sing
And wear saffron garments to welcome the spring.
And pluck the new buds that are blowing.”
But my heart was so full of your music, Beloved,
They mocked when I cried without knowing:
Govinda! Govinda!
Govinda! Govinda!
How gaily the river was flowing!
I carried my gifts to the Mathura shrine…
How brightly the torches were glowing!
I folded my hands at the altars to pray
“O shining ones guard us by night and by day”-
And loudly the conch shells were blowing.
But my heart was so lost in your worship, Beloved,
They were wroth when I cried without knowing:
Govinda! Govinda!
Govinda! Govinda!
How bright the river was flowing!
Substance of the poem
Radha, the milkmaid is carrying curds to Mathura (Krishna’s
birthplace) where the spring festival is going on. Cows are lowing
softly in the fields. Radha, wishing to give out her trade cry to sell
her curds that is as white as the autumn clouds, instead, calls out My
Lord! My Lord! Everybody laughs. The river Jamuna flows on softly, as
if appreciating her chant.
Radha reaches the bank of the river to cross by the ferry boat. Her
female companions want to wear the saffron garments, the color of
spring, and want to sing and dance and pluck the new buds. Radha’s
heart swells with the music of her Beloved Lord Krishna. She cries in
ecstasy when others humor her. The river Jamuna flows on joyfully
regardless.
Radha reaches, with her gifts of curds, the temple, where the torches
are brightly burning. She folds her hands to pray to the deity,
encircled by snakes, and prays for protection while the conch shells
are blown. Her heart is lost to the vision of her Beloved Lord and she
calls out the name involuntarily. Others become angry. But the river
Jamuna flows on while her water dazzles in the light of the torches.
A critical estimate of the poem
The title of the poem transports us to another world, to an
environment of fertility and abundance. Mother Nature abounds the
earth with the flow of her liquid. This white liquid symbolizes
affection and nurturing of life. Radha, the daughter of Mother Nature
carries the liquid of life and growth to all living beings. Mathura is
her destination where Krishna, the Divine Musician holds everybody
mesmerized with his mystic presence. The heifers herald her arrival to
Mathura where she will pour into the pots the liquid which she has
brought- energy and power from the mother Earth. It is worth noticing
that Sita, the other daughter of mother Earth also represents all that
stand for productivity.
Mathura is here the center of life and abundance. While the cow is the
species, that represents the flow of life and abundance. Radha feeds
and nurtures life. Even the clouds in the sky, white and creamy, are
part of the resources of life. The clouds and breeze together produce
rain to awash the earth with the energy and moisture that coaxes the
dormant vitality into life energy. The time of the year should also be
noted. It is the time of incessant rain, the month of Shravan (August-
September), when the life- giving moisture bursts forth.
Radha’s heart wavers from her task in hand. She yearns for her union
with Divine Musician, a presence that encompasses every soul of
Mathura. She is absorbed, heart and mind, in his mystic presence and
the trade cry she is supposed give out does not come to her lips- only
the name of Govinda, the Omnipresent, the Omniscient and the
Omnipotent, coming spontaneously from her heart, reverberates. The
poet, here, juxtaposes the two conceptions, the flowing of the river
and Radha’s yearning for a communion with Krishna.
Radha is presented in the poem in the first person. In the first
stanza she refers to the commodity she is carrying. Her mind is
somewhat attached to the earthly duties and nature of her work. Even
in her surroundings she hears the cry of the heifers, an animal she
connects with her trade. In the second stanza, her mind is drawn
towards the joy and gaiety of nature. She feels the abundance in her
heart Life is flowing everywhere.

Dear Mantu
We are nown drawn to Indian English literature and your
attempt at decoding Sarojini is a wonderful effort to that end Yes
Indian English literature could be successful only when India
breathes through the language of the Teutonic school and here is an
instance of success Ihave read your substance and critical comments
with great interest and I have a few reflections on the poem that I
submit before you

Firstly Idont think that there is any clue in the text wherefrom we
could infer that Krishna is at Mathura when Radha comes there


Secondly though Vrindavan has not been mentoioned here it is clear
that Radha comes from elsewhere to Mathura to sell her milk product
She comes from the other side of Jamuna
She comes from her village Mathura is a trade centre and town The poem
on the surface dwells on a maid who comes to the town for selling milk
product But her head is full of Govinda So instead of paying attention
to her getting and spending and instead of giving her trade cry with
gusto she unaware of herself cries aloud the name Govinda her
sweetheart A wonderful portrait of a loveladen heart of a village girl
Methinks the the heifers donot low at the place fair at Mathura They
lowed whhen she was carrying her milk product and setting out for
Mathura Then the Jamuna and the boat journey with her comrades and
finally at Mathura at the fair and at the temple Thus four vignettes
one after another pass by before our minds eye The prayer at the
temple is very touching Because it is for achieving nothing great May
all the gods protect us That is all Just as the naive boatman when
encounters the godhead incarnated as goddess Annapurna in
Bharatchandra only prays that her should remain well fed That is all
These simple folks are very much unlike us They dont want to be a
scholar or a scientist or a president Bush Me thinks that the truly
Indian attitude towards life along with the breeze of the month of
Shravan blows through the poem Mind you the poem has some riddles in
it to ponder over The curds are as white as the clouds in the clear
sky But the time when Radha crosses the Jamuna is Shravan when there
no white clouds But Radha fails to announce the good quality of her
curds Because the blue clouds of the month of Shravan seem to engross
her Again it is Shravan to Radha when her comrades want to don
saffron robes in harmony with the spring time So many seasons at the
same time draws my attention Thuis all the seasons are subjective
Jamuna flows between the place where Radha stays and the place where
Radha works for money Jamuna is a chasm between the two worlds ----one
where love reigns and the other where exchange reigns


The way you have interpreted milk is quite convincing Indeed it is
from the villages that energy flows to rejuvenate the life in the
cities


On another level Go vinda might mean the centre of the earth or
universe or the source of all light Of course Radha is the symbol of
the earth Her heart is full of the longing for the skies There you
read the myth of Gaia and Ourania Dyaus and Prithivi And you have
legitimately brought Sita and Radha together.
Regards
Ramesh


Dear Mandira,
The beautiful poem -Songs of Radha the Milkmaid that you have
selected from Sarojini Naidu's book of poems incites me to share something.
I, myself am very much fond of *Kirtana *-the art form that sings basically
the lila of Radha and Krishna,particularly the *Biraha *portion when Krishna
left Radha in Brindavan and himself went to Mathura to perform another duty
and activities.Radha remained ever engrossed in the thoughts of Krishna and
waited for his return. Whenever any cart etc. came from Mathura she rushed
there in the hope that her beloved must have come back .But in vain. The
love-lorn Radha became more sad. I am giving below a song that portrays this
in a poignant manner;


Piya tora kaisa abhiman


Saghana sawan laye kadama bahar


Mathura se doli laye charo kahar


Nahi aye nahi aye Kesaria balma hamar


Angana bara sunsan


Apne nayan se neer bahaye


Apne Yamuna khud aphi banaye


Lakh bar usme nahaya


Pura na hoi asnan


Phir pura na hoi asnan


Sukhe kesh rukhe besh Manua bejaan




In this backdrop I would like to give my interpretation.Radha had not
actually gone to Mathura .Rather in her inner mind flashed what would happen
had she gone to Mathura fair, Mathura tide,Mathura shrine respectively. In
the Mathura fair she would sell her curd.As Radha did not have any idea
about the life style of Mathura -the capital city,hence she imagined that
heifers would be there and they were lowing softly in the hope of the union
of Radha and Krishna as they had done in Brindavan. Radha would not sell
milk;in its stead curd. Why? Because her love for Krishna that hand turned
from milk to curd in the absence of Krishna/Gobinda .But it remained as pure
and white as the white cloud of the sky.But mind that though Shravan breeze were
blowing yet the cloud was white. How is it possible? As because Krishna was
not with Radha hence there was Shravan breezes blowing in her mind/sky
.Radha would sell her product only to Krishna Her mind was full of pure love
for Krishna;( i.e.. the white cloud). After shower the sky becomes clear. So
happened in case of Radha's mind. Unaware she uttered Gobinda! Gobinda. And
even when her friends might laugh at her her pent up thoughts were released
and her mind got a relief.Her conscious mind /the river started flowing
softly.


The other two stanzas may be similarly explicated. I resist myself to do
that.


Does it seem to be too far fetched .With love and with the hope to hear more
from you. Dipika
Dear Dipikadi,

Thank you very much for your own interpretation of the poem. You are
wonderfully lyrical and your point of view has added dimensions to the
simple village girl's vision of her divine Beloved. Please write your
point of view on the other two stanzas too.


best wishes
Mondira



In the second stanza, Radha imagined that she went to Mathura with her
pot. Within the pot Radha might have taken her love ,her longing for Krishna
The imagery of pot at once reminds us of the individual body that separates
us/here Radha from the union of our own god /Krishna. As soon as the earthen
pot breaks there will be the eternal union. In this context, the
word Mathura tide has a special import. Just as due to the attraction of the
Moon there comes the high tide in the river,similarly Radha's mind and body-
her heart and breast swelled up being attracted to Mathura where her beloved
resides. But as high tide and ebb tide come and go in alternate
manner,similarly Radha's emotion, feelings and demeanour changed- now elated
and the next moment depressed. While she thought of her union with Krishna
there came the high tide. And there was all mirth and merriment. Merrily merrily
the rowers, that is, her sweet memories were passing. There was abundance
and abandon .At once spring came forth. Radha Krishna's union is always
associated with her *sakhis *-the comrades like the asto sakhis-Lolita
,Bisakha etc. Hence there appeared the comrades in colourful dresses .
They were dancing, singing,plucking new buds to make garlands to greet the
two beloved ones- Radha and Krishna.The new buds were blowing.How? There air
blew gently. With this the flower plants also moved. As if the whole Nature
took part and was happy with the union of Radha and Krishna. The entire
stage bacame colouful and moving with coloufully clad comrades
dancing,singing along with ever blowing new buds on the plants as well as on
the hands of the sakhis. The sakhis wanted to wear saffron coloured dress.
Why? Because Krihna was not there. At once the colour reminds us the Hindu
sanyasi/nies who used to wear saffron coloured dress. This is the colour of
mensturation of the holy mother. This colour means detachment from the hurly
burly of the mundane world. And so Radha could not take part in any paltry
day to day activity and not in any mirth and merry. At once we can hear the
unheard sound -Krihna se to nei nei re. The ebb tide- the depressed mood of
Radha prevailed .Her ears always heard Krishna's music-Yeno nishi din murali
dhani suni /Ujan bohe prem Yamunari bari /Nupuro hoye yano he
Bonochari/Chorono jaraye dhore kandite pari/ Mamo madhuro minati sono
Ganashyama Giridhari….And Radha could not but cry out and utter
Gobinda! Gobinda! The pent up emotion at once got released .And Radha's mind
became relaxed .And so did the river flow gaily.The high tide came
instantly.





In the third stanza we find Radha in a different mood. All passion being
spent there was calm in mind.and in such a state on mind Radha imagined to
visit the Mathura shrine.Rather now Radha was in a position to visit the
Mathura shrine. If in the 1st stanza Radha 's conscious thoughts were
described , it was on the surface level because the heifar used to gaze on
the surface. and Radha's thoughts were moving softly like the soft lowing of
the cows. But as soon as Radha uttered the word Gobinda her thoughts could
delve deeper Her stream of consciousness started to flow softly . Thus then
at once the setting changed from the land to river. In the 2nd stanza
her thoughts went deeper. May be it touched the pre-conscious level
.Because there in the 2nd stanza in the dream like situation Radha could
face her carnal desire towards Krishna. The imagery of pot, the buds , the
dancing ,singing river water with high tide and ebb tide etc. all are
suggetive to something associated with sexual acts. See, Inthe first
stanza Radha 's mind was full of Krishna's beauty. Here she was con cerned
of her beloved's physical charm. But then the rowers came and rowed gaily
and they were all mirth and mery ( may be Physical /sexual enjoyment were
imaginatively faced.) To face a desire four square means to become free
of it. That is why in the second stanza Radha's Mind became free from
Physical desire rather she was concerned about Krishna's sound.But the
river i.e. the stream of conscous now moved gaily. The charm of sight and
sound cannot last long. Hence shorn of carnal desires Radha's love now can
have the power to submit herself totally to her Beloved. Now neither her
mind nor her body was disturbed . They had been burnt up and thereby
emitting light and thus acting as torches. Radha's was now fit to meditate.
Hence Radha in her mind went to the shrine. There she could find those
bright lamps of pure love that gathered their brightness through penance.
She with folded hands prayed not for herself but for us-the humanity as a
whole; may be for all sentient and insentient odjects under the Sun. She
asked not the union of Krishna but the well being of all and sundry by day
and night.When those pure lights protect, who could dare to do any harm?
Such catholicity of mind was at once applauded by gods also and the sound
of conch-shell was heard as a sign of it..( May be this was the sound of
Panchajanya -the conch shell that Krishna blew in the Kurukshetra at the
begining of the battle). But now it was blown to declare that Radha had
successfully over come her mean self-centred desires and she became
victorious.But the desires, which were termed as Mara in the Buddhist
literature, may be here personified .So they( the personified
desires) were wroth just after the sound of the conch-shell odviouly they
were annoyed as because they were defeated in their schemes to ensnare
Radha. And unknowingly Radha uttered Govinda! Govinda! And her stream of
consciosness shorn of all impurities became a river of bright light.T his
imagery of brightness reminds me the story of Ahalya who became bright
through her penance when Ram visited her ( in Valmiki)/touched his feet ( in
Krittivasa) on the place where Ahalya stayed and observed penance . Hard
Penance made Ahalya a woman to be remembered every morning as per Hindu
Sastra. Similarly Radha the eternal consort of Krisna is being worshipped
through out Northen India for her selfless pure love for Krishna. Because
now onwards ,we may easily guess thatRadha's heart will ever remain lost in
Krishna's worship in contrast of her earlier heart full of krishna's beauty,
then her full of his music in the 1st two stanzas. We may easily imagine
that now she can sit years after years in a meditative mood with her heart
lost in Krishna's worship . It is said that even today also Radha is waiting
in Brindavan for her Beloved Krishna.

Dear Dipikadi,

Your interpretation of the poem is absolutely wonderful. Your
consciousness plays on a level which is impossible to reach without
deep study and imbibing the process for years and years. I'm very
happy that you are helping me to think correctly.
Thank you and pranam

Thank you Mandira for such compliment. This is nothing but psychological
paradigm that I used to explicate the poem.
This poem itself is wonderful and very much thought provoking. It can be
interpreted in various ways if we little bit ponder over it. Last night
(after finishing and sending it to you all) Mandira I thought that this may
be interpreted as the three stages of sadhan bhajan. At the first stage
one is concerned about the demeanour of one's *istadevata*. So one
washes oneself , wears clean dress and follows rituals in puja in some
cases *phota kate, tilak kate*. Being listless of fellowmen/women s/he utters /sings *istanam
*. But in the second stage one's heart is full of the the sound of
one's god. Hence one also utters the name always like Ratnakar, Mirabai,
etc. In the third stage one is so much engrossed in the god that one can
visualise one's *istadevata*. His /her heart is full of the prayer-(call it
ajapa jop )And in this stage the sadhak/sadhikas write/sing for us the
common rung for our betterment. Hence the blind Surdasa composed , Mirabai sang
,Valmiki depicted what would happen in future and god himself finished
the couplet for Jaydev.
This is my own feelings. Seem to be too far off the mark?
With love
Dipika


Dipikadi,

Your beautiful thoughts are treasure to us.
Mondira

Dipikadi and Mondiradi,
The beautiful poems of Sarojini Naidu and their interpretations are
splendid. Your write ups created a soothing effect to their readers. I am
feeling that I am in Mathura observing Radha in eternal ecstasy. Similarly,
the discussions on the Goddess of wealth are real wealth of Sefirah.
Best Wishes
Mousumi

A Note on the Jataka Tales 14

A note on the Jataka-14

Curiously enough we have no extant version of the Tipitaka here in India. No original manuscript of the Tipitaka is at our hand anywhere. So we donot know the alphabet in which it was written Brahmi or Kharorostri in which it was written The work known as Tipitaka was retrieved by the Europeans from below Buddhist stupa or temple in Ceylone It was found there in Sinhalese alphabet In that case my earlier contention that whether Pali was at all a language widely known in ancient India seems to be a relevant question.

Let us now try to trace back the adventures undergone by the Tipitaka. Presently after the Buddha’s maha parini bbana the Rajagaha get- together took place and the Tipitaka was compiled Centuries passed by and towards the 2nd century BC. Asok embraced the Buddha’s faith. His son Mahendra became a Buddhist monk and it was he who carried the Tipitaka from here to Ceylone. There the Tipitaka was put down in Sinhalese transcriptiont. The same was carved in copper plates and
the plates were buried under a stupa. It waited there in the cool of
the earth forlorn for more than thousand years till the Europeans
came. They retrieved the Tipitak and revealed it to the world in
Roman transcripit. In India however Pali is nowadays being written in Devnagri script And that suggests as it were that studies in Pali has been a continuous practice in India and Pali. Buddhism is our heritage through the ages. But that is a myth Even we did not know anything about Asoka till the British discovered the same for us

Another important information needs to be communicated Although I told earlier that the sermons of the Buddha were only enshrined in the Tipitaka the Tipitaka we encounter has more speakers or authors than the Buddha Therigatha and Theragatha are clear instances Therigatha has a special niche in Indian literature It is an anthology of poems composed by nuns who were followers of the Buddha Think of ancient Indian literature It is also pronouncedly patriarchal. If Kalidasa wrote poems and plays did’nt his daughter if any or his wife or his sister in law try her hand at poetry? But women have been simply erased from human history and this patriarchal history is no history at all. Like Therigatha Theragatha is also an anthology of poems They were composed by saints of the Buddhist order.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now let us come to the Jataka As it has been already observed the
Jataka is a part of the Tipitaka and it is an anthology of tales told
by the Buddha himself. But, alas! the so called original Jataka even
in Sinhalese transcript has not been found What they got was a note on the Jataka tales called the Jatakatthavannana. It was edited by
Fausboll. So I want to remind the readers of Sefirah that the
Tales that are being retold by Nandita here are being retrieved from the aforesaid note on the Jataka The style of the Jatakatthavannana is as it seems to me rough and rugged I fancy Buddhavacana or the parole of the Buddha was made of the stuff of honey from heaven. But we are doomed never to have the taste of the same.
Another prescience about the Jataka tales might be of help to the readers of Sefirah To tell that I had better go back to Gaya where Siddhartha attained Buddhahood or enlightenment Siddhartha the prince of Kapilavatthu had proved himself in a tourney and got married When his son was born he called the son an obstruction or Rahula and at once he stealthily left his palace for a life of a recluse in search of indeterminate some which could save the mankind from groans Does it not remind of the demon Gaya who wanted that all things both great and small be liberated from the groans of the existence? No wonder that after a lot of sojourn here and there Siddhartha reached the city of Gaya. In my last write up submitted today only I discussed how the mind body dichotomy was explored by Descartes. The write-up does not appear yet in the Sefirah.


Descartes posited that mind and matter are different substances While mind is recognised through its faculty of thought matter is known through its extension So Descartes wondered how come that they do work together .

With us there cannot be any mind without the body. So body's existence testifies the existence of the mind But at the same time body is understood through the mind Thus body testifies mind and mind testifies the body. But is their any third thing that stands witness to either mind or body or both? None. So may be there is neither body nor mind.

May be Mukta Vasudev might posit that the is ness of the dichotomy suggests their reality and the reality of our existence She seems to be Cartesian in her assertion that once you doubt you exist. But my contention is that we might be the function of a dichotomy. When there is the dichotomy both cannot be true as per Aristotlean logic. Either this is true or that is true. In our opinion either both are true or neither is true .So with this present author reality is indescribable. It beggars description
-------------
I read twice the rejoinder of to my earlier installment on the Jataka and found that both of us see eye to eye on the issue that reality begsscription. Both of us are aware of the limitations of Descarte’s approach. We have our differences too. But let us overlook the point so that we are focused on the Buddha.

We were talking of the frame of references as to the self into which the Buddha was born. Unlike Descartes the ancient Indians did not separate mind from the body With them mind is physical A few days back the scientists felt that the seat of the mind is in the brain and it could be the function of the network of nerves where neurons are nodal points Well the inventor of the guillotine used to save the skulls of those who died being guillotined with the hope that one day he would be able to discover the seat of mind. But when the son leaves home getting newly married mothers heart breaks She does not have any pain in her head When the teddy boys threaten an Indian in the down town of Liverpool his knees shiver. Nothing happens in the head.May be the mind is every where in the body and not at any particular place. Although most of the illnesses now a days are described by the doctors as psychosomatic they do not know how to set the mind right with their needles and scissors
-----------
Be that as it may the ancient Indians used to speak of four planes of mind in mind intellect ego and consciousness just as those of us who use Freudian paradigm speak of conscious pre -conscious and unconscious mind and according to them mind is physical unlike consciousness . And the Buddha was born into this kind of thought and he out rightly rejected the notion of any permanent self On the surface this is where. Buddhism it is claimed differs from the traditional Indian religion or call it Hinduism to get rid of periphrasis and ambiguity. But ironically enough the Jataka tales under study launched by Mitu and Mousumi are but the tales told by the Buddha culled from his experiences of earlier births If the Buddha did not believe in a permanent self how is it that he could tell us the stories of previous births.

Tarry here a little. It is commonly presumed that while Hinduism believes in a soul or a permanent self that can journey through myriads of births and deaths Buddhism does not pin its faith on a permanent self or soul One of the distinguishing features of Buddhism is its middle path Middle path does not mean walking along the middle of a road in Calcutta so that you can be easily run over Middle path means not being logo centric.

What is not being logo centric? Well we have already introduced our readers with Ananda. Ananda had a friend named Bachhagotra. Bachhagotra was an intellectual who had thousand and one queries Ananda told him that the lord Buddha was capable of satisfying any query whatever So Bachhagotra met the Buddha Bachhagotra------Sir is there any thing called soul? Buddha-----I do’nt know whether there is any soul . Bachhagotra -----Is there no soul in that case?
Buddha------ I did not say that there is no soul. On the surface the Buddha either simply did not answer. Bachhagotra. Or else he did not know the answer to the questions that Bachhagotra raised. Later he told Ananda that if he had told Bachhagotra that soul is permanent then Bachhagotra would believe that the soul is permanent. On the other hand if he had told that there is no soul then Bachha would believe that there is no soul This is how the Buddha stuck to the Middle Path and avoided logo centrism.
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On the surface while Hinduism pins its faith on a permanent self or soul Buddhism claims that nothing is permanent whatever. The so called soul or the self is an agglomeration of the five Skandhas in (1) form (2) feeling (3) cognition (4) formation (5) consciousness .
The five skandhas or heaps that one finds in a living body of man is (1) the body which is the form skandha (2) As soon as the body or the form is there, their is the feeling skandha. (3) Feeling skandha leads one to think which feeling is a joy and which feeling is a pain. Thus thinking gives rise to cognition the third skandha. (4) The cognition of weal and woe impels one to seek happiness ; this is the fourth skandha known as formation.(5) Acting requires a certain amount of wisdom or consciousness which is a kind of small intelligence – it is the fifth skandha. According to the Buddha each one of the constituents of the self is impermanent and hence there can't be a permanent thing called the self or the soul.

On the surface though Hinduism believes in a soul that transmigrates from one body to another it is also permanent only in relation to the plane of the mundane world where we are engaged in getting and spending. But on another plane the so called permanent souls are like bubbles in the air. Because I have already referred to the causal sea where from the soul leaps up like oil film on oil and wherein the souls are dissolved. In fact seen from a particular plane nothing exists but the causal sea. Thus from the stand point of Hinduism the souls are permanent seen from one level and impermanent seen from another.

There are many other salient features which they say distinguish Hinduism from Buddhism. But it is only true on the surface and we may touch on them if opportunity comes.

Let us fire point blank at the question – if the Lord Buddha had not believed in the permanence of the soul or self how come that the Buddha speaks of his experiences of his eariler lives in the Jataka tales.
Well the Buddha says that the self or the soul does not exist after death. But the desire or the tanha – Sanskrit trishna that the self cherished lingers even after one dies. It seeks gratification.
And to that end it enters into a particular womb and undergoes a fresh lease of life on earth or any other plane in the multiverse.

One wonders whether there is any real distinction between the traditional philoshopy of Hinduism and the philosophy of the Buddha as to the notion of the soul or the self. Suppose there is a beautiful boy or a handsome girl dancing in the yonder court –yard. Instead of exclaiming – what a handsome girl '- one might exclaim – what a beauty or handsomeness. Is there any real difference between these two expressions? According to Hindu tradition the soul leaps up from the causal sea impelled by desire. Goaded by desire it under goes- myriads of births and deaths. In that case if the word soul or atman were replaced by tanha or desire it makes no difference. Mind can not exist without a body. Mind gives birth to body. Body is the manifestation of mind. The essence of mind is desire. If desire lingers after the demise of the physical body it must be itself another body- call it the astral self or soul or atman whatever name you choose.

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In my last installment, I observed that mind was prior to the body both as per the notions of Buddha and traditional Indian notion Well that might scandalise a few whose perceptions are different But think of a human body which has no life in it Don’t we shudder from it? Even the husband or the wife of a person who is dead fears to touch the dead body of his or her once upon a time better half Don’t we either put the dead body in the grave or else destroy it? If body were the fountain head of life why destroy it ? The truth seems to be otherwise Life or prana dawns earlier and living body follows suit Well life implies eros and thanatos. Eros means zest for life and thanatos means desire for death. These eros and thanatos would not be there if there were no mind So mind appears before life prana. But if mind did not have the intelligence to perceive the dichotomy of life and death there would be no mind. So intelligence appears before mind. But how could the intelligence be there if there were no ego to tell us—this is how you must survive. So ego --the invisible or the imperceptible unless in a living body is at the origin of body. Dont call it fantastic If you pin your faith on Big Bang as a sensible hypothesis, you will tell us that at the outset there was a dot. A dot has neither length nor breadth and still it exists. And the dot exploded into an expanding balloon called the multiverse where we live. Here it should be kept in mind that if the universe or the multiverse were at the outset a mere dot its density was infinite and unthinkable. Science also expresses itself in metaphors. If you ask me wherefrom the dot or the ego did appear for the time being I remain silent. I am not the omniscient one or the enlightened one. I am simply trying to explain the larger mindset or the language where from the Jataka tales sprang In my earlier installment I sought to point out that there is noqualitative difference between the notion of soul and what the Buddhists call tanha that transmigrates from one body to another. A person lives in this world being born into a society. He has to struggle here for survival. And there this man’s scope and that man’s talent haunts him .Man cannot eat the cake and have it too. This is a queer world. Think of Mrs Indira Gandhi at her height. She was worshipped by the whole nation perhaps and her every moment was under public scrutiny. May be she was tired of her busy life and longed for the peaceful life of an ordinary clerk In that life she would be able to enjoy a film or a family life rid of public attention. Such tanha would goad her to another birth where she might find herself far from the ignoble strife of politics.

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I am back at the type writer. In my last installment which I wrote today in the morning I told you that although the Buddha did not believe in the permanence of the soul he pinned his faith on the odysseus of tanha. As I have tried to explicate how mind has to appear before the emergence of body if you take that for granted to pursue the present game of discourse then you will admit that tanha may incarnate into human body And that gives the Jataka tales viability.

Now the Buddha of Kapilavatthu is the narrator of the tales of the Jataka. He claims that the tales hark back to his earlier life. From this it logically follows that the Buddha of Kapilavatthu had undergone numerous births and deaths before he became the Buddha or the enlightened one. This is important for understanding the Jataka tales. But before dwelling on the aforesaid important motif let me tell how Buddha came to know of his earlier birth Well may be I told you earlier Siddhartha left his home when his child Rahula was born. He became a wandering monk He met many people who claimed to have attained the absolute truth as to the existence He followed their prescriptions. But they were of no avail to him. In fact everyone has to make his road to truth As soon as.he reaches truth the road built by him vanishes. When another man ventures a journey towards truth and freedom he cannot trace the steps of his forerunner. He must build a fresh road to reach salvation So having not found any proper preceptor who could
guide him through the encircling gloom to perpetual light Siddhartha came to Gaya. I have already told you about the great demon Gaya. His body has hallowed the region of Gaya. There only on the banks of Niranjana Siddhartha sat under a tree and burst into a soliloquy-- Let my body be sapless here. Let my skin and bones and flesh go to utter destruction. Unless I attain the enlightenment. I will not budge from here. And then an epic battle started between Mara and Siddhartha. Mara stands for the attachment to the worldly life. Siddhartha overcame Mara the
way Jesus overcame Satan. When the battle was lost and won enlightenment dawned upon Siddhartha and Siddhartha became the very Buddha-the Buddha of Kapilavatthu.
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Mind you the Buddha at the hour of enlightenment could see myriads of lives that he had undergone till he became Buddha or the en lightened one He saw them as it were in a flash. Don’t say that it is impossible. You can see a whole life story of a boy growing into man and die in a dream that might have covered 15 minutes only here on earth. So the Buddha may have seen myriads of his life in all its details within the span of two and half hours And Buddha recollects only 547 births of his in the Jataka tales.
It must be rememberd however that all these stories belong to Buddha’s journey through births and deaths only when the Buddha was a Bodhisattva. Believe it or not according to traditional Hindu and Buddhist faith a soul or tanha has to undergo 86 lakhs of births and deaths before it takes a human birth And after myriads of human birth one is qualified as Bodhisatta. Now the question arises what is Bodhisattva? Who is Bodhisattva?
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The concept of Bodhisattva is very important in the context of the Jataka Tales. Literally bodhi means enlightenment and sattva means being '. Bodhisattva means an enlightened being. In earlier Buddhism bodhisattva was an appellate of Siddhartha the prince of Kapilavatthu as long he was a seeker As soon as he achieved his enlightenment he was a Buddha In other words Buddhas merit the designation of Bodhisattva prior to their attainment of Buddhahood or full enlightenment Later there was a schism in the Buddhist church and the followers of the Buddha were either Mahayanis or Hinayanis. The followers of Mahayana or the Great Vehicle announced that only those seekers who work hard for the salvation of all things both great and small in the world and who take vows to that end are Bodhisattvas. They only are earmarked to be Buddhas in times to come On the other hand those who work for their personal liberation also attain Buddhahood .But they are known as PratyekBuddha In the context of us therefore Buddhas are nobler than Pratyek Buddhas. But when someone attains enlightenment does he not have good will for every atom in this existence? Let us not join issue with that. So the Jataka must be read as the leaves from the life stories of the very Bodhisattva that was destined to be Siddhartha Buddha. Here I would like to humbly point out that the demon Gaya was also dedicated to the achieving of the salvation of every living being and every particle on earth. No wonder therefore that the Siddhartha Bodhisattva whose vow was also achieving the salvation of the whole existence as such would get at his enlightenment at the hallowed place where the great demons body is at rest that is Gaya in Bihar. Thus it could be safely argued that Siddhartha Buddha’s life story is in consonance with the traditional faiths or so called Hindu faith And will it be too far-fetched to infer that our lord Siddhartha Buddha was but an incarnation of the great demon Gaya.

Even if we do not pay heed to the theoretical disputes that cropped up between the Mahayanas and the Hinayanas and closely read the texts of the Jataka Tales we find that the Siddhartha Buddha in all his earlier births was dedicated to the well being of his fellowmen and of everything on earth. And no doubt he was a Bodhiusattva in the literal sense of the term----not in the Mahayana sense.
As I have already told you according to Buddhist tradition there were many a Buddha before the advent of Siddhartha Buddha According to Hinayana texts six Buddhas previous to Siddhartha Buddha wereVipasyin Sikhin Viswabhu Krakuchhanda Kanakamuni and kasyapa. Earlier than them there was Dipankar Buddha. As the Nidana katha or the introduction of the Jatakatthavannana or the Jataka tales observes our Siddhartha
Buddha was born of rich parents and his name was Sumedha at the time when Dipankar Buddha shone in the world in all the effulgence of an enlightened self.
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Well when Dipankar Buddha was on earth the Siddhartha Buddha was born of very rich parents and his name was Sumedha Sumedha lost his parents early in his life and he inherited untold wealth. He did not join in any so called economic activity. He felt the meaninglessness of earning money and amassing wealth So what he did was to give away his inherited wealth to the poor. Poor people rushed to him from far and wide and Sumedha entertained them with great enthusiasm. Despite that, his treasury did not wane. Tired of giving away one day he renounced the world for a life in the forests. One day to his utter surprise, he found that there were people in the forlorn place where he used to lead a life of penance. He asked the people as to what made them come to his place. They said in reply that Dipankar was coming that way. The place where Sumedha practised his meditation was a plot of marshy land. The men requested Sumedha to use his esoteric powers so that the marsh did not pose any hindrance to the journey of Dipankar Buddha and his followers. Sumedha agreed to the proposal. But when he found Dipankar Buddha approaching he himself lay down on the marsh instead of developing the land. And Dipankar Buddha did not hesitate. He and his 60000 followers walked on the body of Sumedha and crossed the marsh. Sumedha was so charmed with the person of Dipankar Buddha that he
also thought that he would also strive to achieve Buddhahood. Dipankar was already miles away from Sumedha. But he knew what was taking place in Sumedha’s mind and he said --Yes Sumedha will be a Buddha in times to come And the earth danced and the nature laughed in glee. Mind you when Sumedha thought that he would strive for Buddha= hood he was already a very great person who could easily give away all his wealth and inheritance and who could stand the pressure of a Buddha and his 60000 followers trampling upon him. Despite that he had to pass through myriads of births and deaths .In the meantime many other Buddhas appeared and vanished. The Jataka tales only recollect 547 births and deaths of Sumedha who finally became our much loved Siddhartha BuddhaMitu alias Nandita a social worker of great repute will be doing us great service if she could read the Jataka tales from the standpointof social work. In every birth of his Buddha in his Bodhisattva stage was a leader and his only object was to lift up the groaning humanity from the mire of pain and sorrow Practically such tales as the Jataka tales that have been handed down to us from the antiquity could be visited over and over again for fresh ideas on any and every field. And Prof Mausumi Ghose sojourns in the realm of the Jataka tales in search of economic thoughts. Nandita’s recounting of the Jataka tales serve Mousumi as the material largely. Besides Nanditas point of view also provokes her and enriches her. Mukta’s searching questions also provoke our thought .I have myself tried to give an introduction to the Jataka Tales from the standpoint of Buddhist faith so that the readers can understand the context of the Jataka Tales from Buddhist standpoint. Thus does it not seem that collaboration is already aworking in Sefirah and may be it might bear great fruits in times to come.

It should be noted here that the Jataka tales are in the margin in the world culture today although with the followers of the Buddha they are at the centre and whatever modernity preaches is in the margin Mitu and Mousumi are venturing into the realms of the margin in search of fresh ideas if any.

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In my introduction to Jataka tales I told that the Siddhartha Buddha did not think that he was propounding any new religion different from the traditional religion or Hinduism. In course of our discussion I have tried to point out that Siddhartha Buddha’s enlightenment at Gaya seems to have direct link with the traditional faith regarding the sacredness of the place. I have also tried to show that there is no qualitative difference between the notion of soul in Hinduism and tanha of Buddhism. Let me tell you further according to the received opinion the Siddhartha Buddha did not believe in caste system. But this is not true He believed that the ksatryas were noblest of all the castes. By the by Mahavira at first entered into the womb of a Brahmin woman But since ksatryas seemed to be the higher caste Mahavira’s foetus was transferred to the womb of a ksatrya woman. Further Buddhism apparently does not believe in any supreme god. So does Hinduism at its core. On the surface we speak of the Brahman But the Nasadya Sukta of the Vedas say---Is Brahman conscious or unconscious who knows? Does Brahman himself know whether it is conscious or unconscious? To quote Mukta Vasudev---Reality begs description. So we can not reach it through inference. And when I say while commenting on a poem published in Sefirah----I know therefore I exist Mukta’s ready retort is -------You do not know and therefore you exist. Either both of us are true or none of us are true Reality is something absurd—isn’t it? Mukta always keeps us away from logo centrism with the aid of her peerless wit. And neither Hinduism nor Buddhist faith is at heart logo centric.

Now I have tried to show that there is no great difference between Hinduism and Buddhist faith. But I have already referred to Mahendras missionary activities. He went to Ceylone during the reign of Asoka. It was during Asoka and Kanishka the Buddhist faith was institutionalized and it was spread beyond the borders of India While in course of time Buddhism was almost wiped out from the face of India it was the religion of the majority of the people of Ceylone, Thailand, Burmah etcetera. No wonder that the foreigners could not appreciate the organic link between Hinduism and Buddhism. And Buddhism became a separate religion indeed.

A note on the Jataka-13 by Ramesh

Be that as it may excuse my repetitions the Buddha spoke in Pali and he gave some 84000 sermons and they are enshrined in the Tripitaka or Tipitaka [Pali] and it is known as canonical literature of Pali language. Now one is apt to ask how come that such voluminous teachings of the Buddha could be recorded during a time as far back as 6th century BC. That opens another window in course of this discourse. Did they know how to write in the 6th century BC The extant evidence of earliest writing dates back to approximately 2nd century BC. So far as I know the Asokan edicts are the earliest evidence of writing in India. The scripts there are either Brahmi or Khorosti . This is singularly important to note. Now a days Devnagari script is employed to write Sanskrit or Pali. But the Devnagari script was unknown when Buddha spoke or when the Vedas were chanted. When vernacular languages appeared every region wrote Sanskrit in the regional script. Thus Sanskrit was written in Bengali script in Bengal and in Marathi script in Maharastra. When the Britishers started teaching at Fort William in Calcutta, they earmarked the Devnagari script for Sanskrit and Hindi. Here a little digression should be excused. Earlier both the Hindus and the Mohammadans used to write either in Urdu script or in the Devnagari script. It was the Fort William that taught the Muslim to write in Urdu script and Hindus to write in Devnagari script. Urdu and Hindi were not different languages. People belonging to same language could write in any of the aforesaid two scripts. Another window opens. Is not Urdu a different language from Hindi? The answer is both yes and no. They worked in the Mughal army and they had to pick up some commands from their Muslim bosses who spoke in Persian. Mind you Persian language is basically a language belonging to the Aryan brotherhood of languages such as Sanskrit, Persian, Greek, Latin and English etc. Another window opens English, Bengali and so called Hindi or Punjabi are cognate languages because English words are derived from Sanskrit just as Bengali and Punjabi words are. For example compare Septem of
September with Sanskrit Saptam, Octo of October with Sanskrit Astam novem of November with Sankrit Navam Decem of December with Sanskrit Dasam. In fact earlier the year used to begin with March. Once again compare Sanskrit tri with three or duhitri with daughter, bhratar with brother pitar with Peter and Father, batika or house with vatican. Instances could be multiplied and thus English is not that strange a language for us and an English man is not a stranger to an Indian. By the by the Western scholars do not see eye to eye with us. They fancy that there was the Proto Indo European language from which the whole range of languages from Sanskrit to
Portuguese were derived. We will not discuss the issue at this moment. Let us go back to Urdu. Urdu could be said to be a kind of pidgin or a kind of Hindi dialect with a lot of Persian vocabulary and turns. And no literature leaped up from those who spoke Urdu. In fact the Islamic capital was Delhi and so the people in the vicinity of Delhi forged the pidgin called Urdu. When two or three languages are mixed it is
pidgin. For example there are more than 20 tribes among the Nagas in the Eastern India. Each tribe has its own language and the member of one tribe does not understand the language of another. Hence, a pidgin called Nagamese has been forged there so that it might act as the link language among the tribes. Nagamese has been made of different Naga dialects and Assamese. In South Africa there is Afrikaans that
originated as pidgin. Now our point is that the first Urdu literature was not forged by
those who spoke in Urdu. Because they did not know that they were speaking a new language. They lived in the neighbourhood of Delhi. When Muhammad bin Tughluk shifted the capital from Delhi to Daulatabad the South Indians who had no commerce with Hindi learnt Urdu with seriousness and it were they who scripted the first literature in Urdu. Let us return to the art of writing. Asoka himself was a Buddhist and
of course he got his edicts written in Pali. I believe till then Pali was but a dialect of Sanskrit. Asoka writes about himself--- Devanam piya piyadassee raja which in Sanskrit would be devanam prya priyaodarsee raja. But as because there is no extant evidence of writing in the pre Asokan era we can take it for granted that in the 6th century BC they did not know how to write. How come then they could recollect a
voluminous work like that of Tripitak that has 84000 sermons by the Buddha. Well if the Buddha showed up in the 6th century BC, the Vedas according to the Western scholars flowered in a time before 1500BC. And it contains at least 350000 letters. How is it that the Vedas lingered through the ages orally? In America if you go for shopping and buy 3K.g. of potato and 1Kg of mustard oil the shopkeeper can not tell you how much you have to pay if his computer is off. This is surprising to us Indians. Because we know how to work out addition and subtraction without a computer. But an American can wonder how an Indian does the feat without a calculator. Similarly in those days they could save in their memory lakhs of letters and thousands of lines. So whatever the Buddha said could have been saved in the memory of the then masterminds. That is not impossible. And when the Buddha passed away there was a conference at Rajagaha or Rajagriha. That is Rajgir now in Bihar. There the Buddhist saints met and it was there that Upali recounted the whole of Vinaya pitak. Anada Thera recounted the whole of Sutta pitak. And Kassapa recounted the whole ofAbhidhamma pitak . Thus the Buddha's teachings were codified in the three pitaks or the three baskets of knowledge known as Tripitaka. While the Vinaya pitak dwells on the dos and donts of the Buddhist monks and while Abhidhamma dwells on Buddist psychology the Sutta pitak contains discourses conducted by the Buddha on philosophical metaphysical and sundry other issues. There is untold wealth of the finest narrative and exquisite gathas or poetry in the Sutta pitaka. Sutta pitak has a number of divisions and one of them is Khuddaka nikaya. The latter once again has a number of divisions and the Jataka tales constitute one of those divisions if I can rightly remember.

A Note on the Jataka Tales 12 by Ramesh

In my opinion Pali was a dialect of the then Sanskrit language It was in currency only in the Nepal valleys and the Buddha gave his sermons in it and made it a language and literature. One might ask how could the Buddha be understood by the people of the neighbouring regions. In that case, well I am from Calcutta. Calcutta has its own dialect Often I go to Midnapore. Midnapore has its own dialect of Bengali language. I cannot speak that. But I can understand what they say That is the fun about a dialect. The Buddha, it is said, gave 84000 sermons in Pali and later the followers of the Buddha looked upon it as the sacred language and they cultivated it and expressed their religious and spiritual thoughts and ideas in it and thus it became the language and literature of a particular religious community. In course of time the Buddha’s notions became a faith with the peoples of different countries such as Ceylone, Burmah, Thailand etc and they wrote in Pali too. Thus Pali as a language flourished.

A Note on the Jataka Tales 11

The addressee of the Purana were the masses. The Puranas are full of Cock and Bull stories (?) on the surface only to feed the imagination of common folk. The Western scholars opine that that the Ramayana and the Mahabharata were oral that is they were sung day after day at the village fair or at a street square or at a courtyard of a temple. So if even after 900 years after the Buddha’s demise or Mmayanaahaparinibbana they heard Sanskrit Ramayana at village courtyards. One doubts whether the Buddha spoken in the language of the common men or Pali. So far as my knowledge goes there there is little secular literature in pali and there is hardly any harking back to the times of the Buddha or prior to Buddha or presently after even for centuries in Pali literature. So what was Pali ?.
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In my opinion Pali was a dialect of the then Sanskrit language It was in currency only in the Nepal valleys and the Buddha gave his sermons in it and made it a language and literature. One might ask how could the Buddha be understood by the people of the neighbouring regions. In that case, well I am from Calcutta. Calcutta has its own dialect

A Note on the Jataka Tales 10

VWhy did I splutter on languages like Pali, Prakrit, Sanskrit etc foe so long? The answer is simple. When we are focused on the Buddha when we read any good book on the Buddha we are told that Buddha spoke in the language of common men. There he was an iconoclast . That suggests that during the Buddha’s time Sanskrit was already a language of the elite. That is in the sixth Century BC. But When we take into account of the whole gamut of Ancient Indian literature it seems that Sanskrit was the spoken language also and its sway all over India was beyond question. Because according to the official history the Ramayana and the Mahabharata were complete by 3rd century AD. And the other Puranas were composed still later. You can not speak when there is no addressee. The Ramayana and the Mahabharata and the Puranas were not addressed to intellectuals like Sankara or Nagarjuna.