On a Sunday morning as I was reading the newspaper I came across an article about Khobad Ghandy. He was recently arrested for his Naxalite activities. He was one of the many who left the comforts of an upper class to join the struggle for the poor but one of the few who stayed back. One little part in the article is the reason for me to write this blog. It instinctively brought to fore many of the concerns that I am grappling with in my own life.
While I am writing this I am fully aware of the pains that Khobad Ghandy had gone through and is continuing to go through in his quest for justice. I cannot ignore the sacrifices that he has made in this quest inspite of the fact that I do not agree with extreme left wing ideology that he possibly upholds.
Let me reproduce the passage from the newspaper that I am referring to. This is in the context of a divisional commander of the Naxalite movement who surrended to the police and was being interrogated. He did not know Ghandy by name but was referring to a lecture that Ghandy had given to the cadre. The passage in the newspaper describes it as follows
".....When a divisional commander surrendered and the police took him in for questioning, he did not know Ghandy by his name, the official adds. "After much prodding, he talked about a long lecture Ghandy had delivered, nibbling dry cashew nuts while talking about revolution in France, China and Russia even as a huge classroom of cadre sat hungry and tired for hours. 'When it was over, we told him we were hungry and he looked angrily at us and left,' the commander said."
Arguably the "nibbling dry cashewnut" is a snide remark and should be ignored as such. But if the rest of the story is true, then I would urge you to compare it with another lecture. This time from my favourite book the Bible.
This is Mark Chapter 6 verses 34 to 36.
"And Jesus, when he came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like a sheep not having a shepherd. So he began to teach them many things. When the day was now far spent, His disciples came to Him and said "This is a deserted place, and already the hour is late. Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread; for they have nothing to eat." But he answered and said to them, "You give them something to eat."
The story goes on to describe the miracle of five loaves of bread and two fish feeding the multitude. Of course the minor matter of ability to perform miracles comes in between a comparison of Ghandy and Jesus. But what I would like to point out is the compassion that characterised Jesus' response to the situation. He was concerned about the hunger of the people in a very immediate sense. He had not ignored the immediate concerns of the people in favour of the long drawn out battle for Kingdom of Heaven. In some sense he was also talking about a revolution, perhaps a more difficult one, because there were no convenient despots to be thrown out but only the struggle against one's own sinful nature. After such a message, he could have expected to witness a multitudes fired with passion. But it was not to be. (In fact that never happened in his life time. Even his closest disciples ditched him in times of trouble.) It was the hunger of the multitudes that stared at him. And he chose to be concerned about it and respond to it. I think it was indeed a powerful statement. The king and the servant rolled into one.....
While I am writing this I am fully aware of the pains that Khobad Ghandy had gone through and is continuing to go through in his quest for justice. I cannot ignore the sacrifices that he has made in this quest inspite of the fact that I do not agree with extreme left wing ideology that he possibly upholds.
Let me reproduce the passage from the newspaper that I am referring to. This is in the context of a divisional commander of the Naxalite movement who surrended to the police and was being interrogated. He did not know Ghandy by name but was referring to a lecture that Ghandy had given to the cadre. The passage in the newspaper describes it as follows
".....When a divisional commander surrendered and the police took him in for questioning, he did not know Ghandy by his name, the official adds. "After much prodding, he talked about a long lecture Ghandy had delivered, nibbling dry cashew nuts while talking about revolution in France, China and Russia even as a huge classroom of cadre sat hungry and tired for hours. 'When it was over, we told him we were hungry and he looked angrily at us and left,' the commander said."
Arguably the "nibbling dry cashewnut" is a snide remark and should be ignored as such. But if the rest of the story is true, then I would urge you to compare it with another lecture. This time from my favourite book the Bible.
This is Mark Chapter 6 verses 34 to 36.
"And Jesus, when he came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like a sheep not having a shepherd. So he began to teach them many things. When the day was now far spent, His disciples came to Him and said "This is a deserted place, and already the hour is late. Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread; for they have nothing to eat." But he answered and said to them, "You give them something to eat."
The story goes on to describe the miracle of five loaves of bread and two fish feeding the multitude. Of course the minor matter of ability to perform miracles comes in between a comparison of Ghandy and Jesus. But what I would like to point out is the compassion that characterised Jesus' response to the situation. He was concerned about the hunger of the people in a very immediate sense. He had not ignored the immediate concerns of the people in favour of the long drawn out battle for Kingdom of Heaven. In some sense he was also talking about a revolution, perhaps a more difficult one, because there were no convenient despots to be thrown out but only the struggle against one's own sinful nature. After such a message, he could have expected to witness a multitudes fired with passion. But it was not to be. (In fact that never happened in his life time. Even his closest disciples ditched him in times of trouble.) It was the hunger of the multitudes that stared at him. And he chose to be concerned about it and respond to it. I think it was indeed a powerful statement. The king and the servant rolled into one.....
