Caste Identity of Contemporary Naxalites: Reading the Battles of the Naxals Against the Caste Hierarchy Through a Close Reading of A Naxal Story (2008)

Introduction

This article aims to study the relationship between caste and contemporary Naxal organizations through A Naxal Story (2008) by Diptendra Raychaudhuri. Through the text, the article explores how the caste identity and attempt to eradicate the intricate web of caste hierarchy played a prominent role in the formation of one of the contemporary Naxal organizations. However, the article shows the futility of the attempts and how the persisting caste hierarchy succeeded in continuing while the Naxal organization broke up. This article begins by giving a brief summary of the text. It is followed by recognizing the caste identity as a major determining factor in contemporary organizations and reading it in the light of traditional and organic intellectuals. Thereafter, the article traces the intersection between caste and class in Indian society. It goes on to explore the caste discrimination experienced by the protagonist within the society, as well as in the left organizations. Finally, the article follows the protagonist’s endeavour to eradicate the caste structure through his rejection of Sanskritization and association with the militant-left organizations.

Caste and Class in A Naxal Story (2008)

The interweaving of the historical facts and the literary depiction is one of the prime reasons for choosing this text. The actions narrated in the text regarding the Naxal organizations, the formations, the splits, and the amalgamation are often historically and journalistically contextual where the names have been substituted. The second reason that makes the text contextual for the article is its approach toward the caste reality, how the caste hierarchy impacted the new organizations, and how this factor made a prominent difference between the new organizations and the Naxalbari movement of Bengal, which was indifferent towards caste inequality. Historical records on the Naxalbari movement of Bengal, which began around 1960s and continued till the late 1970s, and the contemporary Maoist organizations confirm that though the movement of Bengal demised by 1975–1976, it spurred a number of left militant organizations that were not limited to Bengal but spread to the whole of the country. A Naxal Story (2008) explores several contemporary organizations, with particular emphasis on the region of Bihar and Jharkhand, by interweaving the journey of the protagonist, Mahendra Chamar, with the different historical records, sociological surveys, and journalistic writings ¹ .

The protagonist’s place of birth is in Puraina, a village bordering Bengal and Bihar. Being born in the Chamartola in the Puraina district of Bihar, Mahendra’s motto was to end the caste hierarchy that had taken the shape of class in many Indian cities. Parallel to the story of Mahendra Chamar, the text also discloses other characters involved with other radical left organizations and their mode of continuing the movement. Besides these characters, the text also explores the family of Prataps residing in Puraina, in the same village of Mahendra Chamar. Indeed, as the text unfolds, Mahendra’s life’s goal to eradicate the caste structure stemmed from his childhood experiences in Puraina, where he witnessed severe humiliation from Bade Thakur, the patriarch of the Pratap family. Thus, the whole text interweaves the lives of many characters centred around Mahendra Chamar within the changing sociopolitical structure. By interweaving the fictional incidents, the text explores the contemporary armed left militant organizations that spurred after the demise of the movement. Although the prime focus of the text is on the contemporary organizations, particularly the one founded by the protagonist, it explores the connection between these organizations and the 1970s’ Naxalbari movement, thereby tracing the political hierarchy of Bengal’s Naxalbari movement.

The text begins with his birth in the household of an untouchable family, followed by his involvement in different left political organizations that began with CPI, CPI(M), CPI (ML), the contemporary radical and militant-left organizations like Emancipation, People’s Revolutionary Group (PRG), finally creating his own organization Red Star that later merged with PRG. In fact, the different organizations found in the historical records are reflected in the text through the association of Mahendra with the different organizations. The first organization that Mahendra Chamar joined was Emancipation. However, he soon quit the organization, since they were bent on democratic electoral policies, while Mahendra favoured armed rebellion (Raychaudhuri, 2008, pp. 171–173). Following this, he created Red Salute, which had its base in North India. This organization maintained a cordial relationship with unity. Red Salute was in constant rivalry with the Marxist Communist Organization (MCO), which also had a strong base in Bihar and adjourning regions. In South India, an organization named People’s Revolutionary Group (PRG) emerged that later split into two parts: while one, headed by Nagjyoti, the school teacher, joined the Emancipation to participate in elections through a mass organization, the other, headed by Raghupati, moved more towards armed rebellion.

Caste as Major Identity in Contemporary Organizations

The identity of the protagonist in A Naxal Story clarifies the primary agency of contemporary organizations. The text is centred on the life of a proletariat named Mahendra Chamar, an individual born in the Chamar caste, the caste associated with leather works, and it is through him that the readers learn about the progress of the movement. Thus, he belonged to the category of untouchables. Therefore, this text unfolds the events of the left organizations (militant and non-militant) from the standpoint of an individual who neither belongs to the privileged caste nor had the opportunity to climb the social ladder to reach the privileged class.

That caste played a significant role in many of the new organizations is shown in the text by revealing the fundamental qualitative difference between the 70s’ movement of Bengal and the contemporary Naxalite organizations. This difference is first revealed by comparing the features of the Naxalbari movement between Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. During a conference on the Naxalite insurgencies and ways to repress them, Pascal, one of the chief officers of the intelligence bureau, talks about the difference between the movement of Bengal and its impact on Andhra Pradesh. While the movement of Bengal was more concentrated on the middle-class leadership and intellectual anger, the main strength of Andhra came from the Harijan and Girijan base ² consisting of untouchables and tribal population:

Bengal was an expression of intellectual anger against inequality, unemployment, opportunism and whatever the middle class perceived as injustice. The downtrodden joined them, but the leaders were, with a few exceptions, all middle class. It was a romantic outburst that was easily crushed…Andhra was different. The intellectual element was there, but the strength came mainly from Harijans and Girijans, the hill tribes. (Raychaudhuri, 2008, pp. 145–146)

Therefore, while the movement in Bengal was disseminated, it continued to spread through different new organizations dominated by the marginalized castes and tribes. This difference brings to notice the essential composition of the participants of the 1970s movement in Bengal. The leadership, as well as most participants, emerged from upper-caste Bengali Hindu households in the movement of the 1970s. In this context, Dipak Gupta writes

Based on an intelligence report, we note that 78% of the participants were below 30 years of age…the vast majority of them (65.33%)…came from upper-caste Hindu families. Also, 41% had post-secondary education (college students or graduates), and over 41% had high school education. Less than 20% were illiterate. (2007, p. 172)

The statistical record in the study exposes that a so-called peasant movement had more than half of its members from middle-class families in Bengal with a college or high school degree. Caste hierarchy had, therefore, never directly affected most of the movement’s participants. This feature has been broadly analysed in the following sections of the article. However, the situation was the opposite in the newer Maoist organizations. As the report of Officer Pascal mentioned in the text says, most of the members of the contemporary organizations emerged from the untouchables and tribals. Hence, they had a first-hand experience of the caste reality. Thus, there was a significant chance of changing the new organizations’ attitude towards the prevalent caste hierarchy.

The dynamics of the composition reveal the difference between organic intellectual and traditional intellectual. An easy understanding of organic and traditional intellectual required for this paragraph is by determining the source of agency. Traditional intellectuals are professionals, doctors, lawyers, teachers. There is an essential inter-class aura of traditional intellectuals: they can come from any class, but their affiliation is towards the institution and authority and always claims to be objec-tive in their assertion instead of speaking in favour of their originating class. Organic intellectuals, on the other hand, descend from a particular class. Contrary to the traditional intellectuals, organic intellectuals voice the concern of their own class. They can be associated with any field of occupation, but they essentially represent the class to which they belong (Gramsci, 2001). In most cases, within the Indian society, it is primarily the middle class who not only adopted the roles of leadership but also were also traditional intellectuals. On the other hand, it is mostly the peasants and working class who played the role of the organic intellectuals voicing the concerns of their respective classes. Definitely, there are exceptions and overlaps between traditional and organic intellectuals in every class, but the histories of Indian political movements reveal how the categorization between traditional and organic intellectuals through the leadership roles. Often the organic intellectuals voiced their individual protests in the form of several mob violence and insurgencies and succeeded in including many of the traditional intellectuals to their side. Taking on the role of the leading group, the traditional intellectuals (the middle class in the Indian context) contributed to uniting the various insurgencies to form a single movement. As far as the contemporary Maoist organizations are concerned, the text shows that most of its participants, and many leaders too, were organic intellectuals who had directly experienced the marginalization and fought to change their situation. This is in stark contrast to the Naxalbari movement of Bengal, which had most participants and leaders from traditional intellectuals.

Therefore, when the movement encountered a threat from the state machinery, many middle-class youths left the movement. This text refers to the incident through the elder brother of Mrs Rani Sharma, who quit the movement and settled in America. According to him, the ideology that led to the Naxalbari movement was outdated and irrelevant in the contemporary world (Raychaudhuri, 2008, pp. 107–108). Speaking about the middle-class involvement followed by their desertion Mahendra says, ‘They came to fight for others. That’s great, salutary…but that gave them the freedom to leave. I fight for myself. I can’t leave me’ (Raychaudhuri, 2008, p. 117). This sentence brings out the difference between traditional and organic intellectuals. The statement of Mahendra reaffirms that the contemporary Maoist organizations though smaller than the movement, could not be crushed since they consisted of people who, unlike the middle class, fought against the oppression they encountered. Because it was not a battle for the ‘others’ (Raychaudhuri, 2008, p. 118) but ‘myself’ (Raychaudhuri, 2008, p. 118), it could not be repressed. Moreover, as the historical studies ³ explore, unemployment was a major driving force for the middle-class youths to join the movement. Therefore, when the problem could be resolved by taking a job in a foreign land, much of the middle class backed away. In contrast, the demand of the peasantry, or as the text shows, the contemporary Maoist organizations, was ownership of their small patch of land and ending the caste hierarchy. Since none of the demands could be resolved, the contemporaryMaoist organizations continued to fight through small organizations that the state machinery has yet failed to repress.

An Intersection Between Caste and Class

In many instances, it can be perceived that caste hierarchy often becomes the root of class hierarchy, the two have different characteristics. As Ghurye defines, ‘Castes were groups with a well-developed life of their own, the membership, unlike that of voluntary associations and classes, was determined not by selection but by birth’ (Ghurye, 1969, p. 2). Thus, being born in one caste asserts a person’s lifelong membership in a particular caste. Moreover, there is also the presence of a hierarchy based on the caste of an individual: ‘Everywhere in India, there is a definite scheme of social precedence amongst the castes, with the Brahmin as the head of the hierarchy’ (Ghurye, 1969, p. 6). The caste hierarchy follows specific rules and regulations regarding interactions between the castes. The restrictions are such that interaction with the lowest castes results in the defilement of the upper castes, particularly the Brahmins (Ghurye, 1961, pp. 10–11).

Interestingly, caste and class intermingle in India so that the people remaining at the upper end of the caste hierarchy also maintain a similar dominating position in the class hierarchy. Looking into the wealth distribution in India, this argument of the text can be validated. As the recent report in Economic Times said,

Nitin Kumar Bharti of the Paris School of Economics has estimated…the historical inequality along the caste lines…SC/STs way below overall average; OBC/Muslims closer to overall average but lower than FCs, 50% Brahmins, 31% Rajputs, 44% Baniya & 57% Kayastha fall in the richest class. Only 5% ST, 10% SC, 16% OBC, 17% Muslims belong in the richest category. (Gupta, 2005, p. 13) ⁴

This text shows the intermingling of caste and class hierarchy through the character of Hari Pratap Singh (or Harry as he renamed himself), the youngest son of the Pratap family. It unfolds the making of the industrialist and the background that allows them to raise to the highest rung of the social ladder. The Prataps had been the landlords of the village in Puraina, owning mansions, land, and properties. However, the youngest uncle of Hari Pratap was interested in business, and it was from him that Hari learnt the basics of business and industry. Coming to Calcutta as a student, Hari soon moved to a large-scale business. With the monetary support of his family, he set up a paper mill in Calcutta. This was followed by his investment in some tea gardens and pharmaceutical companies (Raychaudhuri, 2008, p. 206), and soon Hari started his own production houses of plastic products in Gurgaon (Raychaudhuri, 2008, p. 208). He united his companies as Puraina Haveli Group of Industries (Raychaudhuri, 2008, p. 210). Thus, the making of Hari Pratap as an industrialist affirms how his background and financial stability enabled him to grow as an industrialist. Even Hari Singh wonders that his identity as an industrialist is a combination of the feudalism of Bade Thakur, the eldest patriarch, and the business mentality of his uncle, who taught him the basics of business (Raychaudhuri, 2008, pp. 206–207). This example reflects how the upper caste held on the reins of power: in the feudal structure as landlords and within the capitalist structure as industrialists.

Caste Discrimination and Sanskritization

The caste system was strongly followed in the protagonist’s natal village, Puraina. The structure was maintained both by force as well as hegemony, ‘Budha Chamar, the grandfather of the newborn, always preached total loyalty to the lords, and virtual gods of Puraina, the Thakurs of the haveli, since he had known that rebellion meant death, and loyalty paid’ (Raychaudhuri, 2008, p. 101). The amalgamation between the two compelled the lower castes and untouchables to remain in the subservient position. The punishments that were meted out to Mahendra Chamar in his childhood days because he had protested against the structure and rejected to remain subservient proves the use of force to maintain the hierarchy. Again, the creation of Ranojoy Sena, discussed broadly in the following sections of the article, also asserts the use of force. As far as payment is concerned, the favours were not only limited to monetary support but also the opportunity to raise one’s caste after many generations by following the practices of the upper caste ⁵ . The practice of caste and its restrictions were so prevalent that the lower castes could not keep the names of gods whom the upper castes worshipped:

Otherwise, the Chamar or any other untouchable were not allowed to name their sons and daughters after the names of gods or anything that tangentially related to a god or a noble character, except Ram, which many of them used as a surname. (Raychaudhuri, 2008, p. 103)

However, when Mahendra was born, his grandfather Budha Chamar, who had served the Prataps for several years, went in front of the house of the landowner, sitting outside the gate, the entire day, to have a name for his grandson: ‘the feudal relationship had finally paid him, as he had extracted an upper-caste name for his grandson’ (Raychaudhuri, 2008, p. 103). The relationship that the sentence speaks about is essentially the master–servant relationship where Budha Chamar is in the subservient position. However, it also reflects the internalization of caste hierarchy to such an extent that Budha was proud that he could gain the upper-caste name for his grandson. As the text shows, though he knew the meaning of Mohan, he denied having any clue about it (Raychaudhuri, 2008, p. 104). This is because he wanted the feudal lord to take the full credit and, in exchange, allow Budha to keep the upper-caste name permanently. That the caste hierarchy was deeply internalized can also be realized when Budha Chamar, sitting outside the gate of the haveli, found pleasure in serving the haveli for a long time: ‘He sat like a frog, putting his right palm over his wrinkled eye…[a]fter three hours, Bade Thakur…came out with Sampat Singh’ (Raychaudhuri, 2008, p. 101). Serving the haveli had gained access to personally speak to the feudal lord, though, from outside the haveli’s gate and after waiting for the feudal lord to appear on the balcony that might take a couple of hours to the whole day. However, most of the people in his community would not dare speak about some personal problem with the feudal lord. Thus, remaining in the subservient position had earned him the favour of speaking to the eldest feudal lord, which in turn earned him an upper-caste name for his grandson. The entire episode of gaining an upper-caste name proves that the caste identity had been internalized among the people to such an extent that the lower-caste individuals would choose to remain in their subservient position to gain certain favours. As the episode shows, these favours are not materialistic but related to the attempt to raise the caste hierarchy. Such behaviour and activities by the lower castes to adopt the lifestyle, rituals, and practices of the upper castes in an attempt to raise the former’s position while remaining within the caste structure are termed Sanskritization. Srinivas, who coined the term, defines:

Sanskritization is the process by which a low Hindu caste, or tribal, or other group, changes its customs, rituals, ideology, and the way of life in the direction of a high, and frequently, twice-born caste… Generally, such changes are followed by the claim to a higher position in the caste hierarchy than that traditionally conceded to the claimant caste by the local community. The claim, is usually made over a period of time, in fact, a generation or two, before the arrival is conceded. (1962, p. 6).

The permanent gaining of an upper-caste name for the grandson is one of the ways to uplift oneself within the caste structure socially. Remaining within the web of caste hierarchy, the lower castes could not imagine having the privilege of higher castes. However, by following the rituals and practices of the upper caste, there was a small opportunity of climbing the ladder, in a limited way, over a long period of time. The entire mobility operates within the caste structure instead of challenging it. In fact, Sanskritization strengthens the structure by asserting the hierarchy. Budha Chamar’s attempt to gain the upper-caste name proves that the community of Mahendra had accepted the hierarchy, and many of the members tried to uplift themselves individually within the structure.

Being born in a lower-caste family, Mahendra had first-hand experiences of discrimination. He realized the caste hierarchy in his childhood when dung would be repeatedly thrown on his shirt by upper-caste boys several times. However, unlike the other members of his family or community, he chose not to abide by the structural hierarchy. Instead, he tried to bring change to the entire structure that promoted hierarchal oppression. When one of the members of the Pratap family pushed his grandfather, Budha Chamar, off the road because his shadow had fallen on the road, resulting in the latter’s death, Mahendra, then known as Mohan, protested against it. He beat a boy who threw dung on him the very same day. This was his first form of protest against the entire caste structure. Since he tried to dismantle the structure, he had no aim to uplift himself within it ⁶ . As a punishment, he was tied to a tree all night, and this was the first incident that provoked him to leave the village. These incidents are markers of the dominating caste hierarchy prevalent in the village of Mahendra. It was to break this hierarchy that Mahendra had left the village and joined the different organizations that promised to disrupt this system.

Caste Hierarchy in Left Organizations

Although Mahendra travels to Bengal (running away from his birthplace) and learns about the movement from middle-class babus, there remains a class difference between these leaders and the protagonist. Therefore, though the middle-class leaders and comrades treat him as their equal, he always refers to them as babus. The term babu points out the intrinsic class hierarchy between the two. In colonial Bengal, the term babu was usually associated with the Bengali bhadrolok. As Sutapa Dutta extensively writes, ‘Babu was a honorific title that they received from the East India Company officials, and in some cases…from the Queen Victoria herself’ (2021, p. 348). Besides consuming wealth, the babus also indulged in manifesting their wealth through the exhibitionist lifestyle. Although there has been a notable change in such babu culture from the colonial era, the term babu is still used to denote the Bengali bhadrolok(s) who are, as Sumit Sarkar has pointed out, western educated, in professional service, and in most cases hold land of their own. In this formation, caste too played a significant role. While the section on the intersection between caste and class has unfolded the wealth distribution, caste is also a dominating characteristic that determines the babu among Bengali bhadrolok(s). Indeed, caste played a significant role in defining the Bengali bhadrolok: ‘The English-educated urbanised Bengalis, who were collectively categorised as “bhadralok”, were literally the “gentlemen” and distinguished from the “chotolok” by their caste, class, education and respectable status in society’ (Dutta, 2021, p. 349). The addressed term babu is therefore used to denote the master–servant relationship: ‘Babu could be a term of address used by servants for their masters or for a brown sahib’ (Dutta, 2021, p. 352). In either case, addressing one as babu indicates the intermingled caste and class hierarchy between the individuals. In this case, too, the situation is not an exception, and through the term, the complicated relationship between Mahendra and the middle-class comrades is easily recognized.

This hierarchy becomes more pertinent when the leaders instruct him to marry Ramia, one of the women comrades. Without her consent, she was to be married off by her, after which she could not continue the movement. The only way to rescue her, according to the leaders of the organization, was to marry her to a member of the organization. Although the leaders did not segregate Mahendra or the lower-caste members as far as eating, sleeping, or touch was concerned, they maintained marital segregation. In this regard, Ghurye argues, ‘Th[e] principle of strict endogamy is such a dominant feature of caste-society, that an eminent sociologist is led to regard endogamy as the essence of caste system’ (Ghurye, 1969, p. 18). Following this practice, the Naxalbari members also imposed endogamous marriage upon their members. Since most members belonged to the upper caste, they could not find any match for Ramia within the organization except for Mahendra, who descended from the same untouchable caste as the former. Mahendra, too, understood it and retorted:

I have understood why I have to marry her… She is a Chamar. Will the caste comrades marry her? …I have understood that the party wants me to marry her, because the party does not believe in caste…Mohan married Ramia a few months later…a constant reminder of the caste-character of the communists who claimed to have denounced caste! (Raychaudhuri, 2008, p. 169)

This incident shows that, similar to the larger society, the members of the 70s’ Naxalbari movement also followed the caste hierarchy. Although caste segregation was limited, marital rigidness remained firmly within the organization. This difference can be connected to organic and traditional intellectuals, as explained in the earlier paragraph, where the traditional intellectuals might fight with the organic intellectuals, but there shall always remain a difference in approach between the two. Hence, while the traditional intellectuals might quit the movement, the organic cannot since it is related to their very identity.

Being born in a privileged caste, the members turned a blind eye to the caste inequality prevalent in society. The aim of the movements was to remove the class hierarchy and use the class as the agency for the movement. However, its leaders failed to recognize the intermingling nature of caste and class in Indian society. It can be because the Naxalbari movement was inspired by the left movements in other parts of the world. Since the caste system is an exceptionally Indian aspect, the movement failed to include it within its folds. Moreover, most of the leaders of the movement were males descending from upper-caste Hindu households, as shown in the earlier sections, and therefore, they neither experienced caste discrimination nor recognized it. Similar to patriarchy, caste segregation, as seen in the larger society, also seeped within the organization. Although its members recognized it to a certain extent and tried to reject the segregation, they failed to understand its roots completely. Therefore, while they did not practice segregation, they openly practiced endogamy. Thus, the 1970s’ Naxalbari movement that aimed to create an egalitarian society did not fight against the caste hierarchy that, as the text has shown, often was the root of the class hierarchy. However, as the text shows, the new organizations that sprang up after the movement’s demise recognized caste as a significant component of social inequality, often at the root of class inequality, and fought against it.

Attempt at Eradicating the Caste Hierarchy

Even when Mahendra got involved in the left politics of Bengal, from CPI and CPI (M) to the Naxalbari movement, his sole motive was to create a society free of caste hierarchy. The endeavour of Mahendra Chamar to join the movement to eradicate the caste hierarchy brings an interesting point into the foreground. It conveys that there might be individuals who joined the movement to end caste inequality. However, no historical records, sociological surveys or even the representations of the 1970s’ Naxalbari movement in literature bring out the caste reality. This feature that went unrecognized in the organization and the movement then became, as the text and the paper show, a primary factor in the contemporary militant-left group organizations. As Mahendra says:

I was born a Chamar, whom the rest of the world did not consider a human being. We are Untouchable. If they touch us, they become impure. They won’t be impure if they touch dogs, cats, or snakes…. They will address me as ‘tu’. They address each other as ‘aap’, they address children as ‘tum’. But we are always ‘tu’, because we are not human beings. Even young upper-caste boys would address my grandfather…as tu. (Raychaudhuri, 2008, p. 331)

Thus, the entire endeavour of Mahendra was to eliminate the difference between this ‘tu’ and ‘aap’. The protagonist well understood that the insults were due to his caste identity. From his experiences, Mahendra realized that the caste structure would always maintain its hierarchy. Even if there is a scope to ascend in the hierarchy over generations through Sanskritization, the hierarchy will remain. Hence, though the caste structure might appear inclusive, in practice, it was a close-ended hierarchy where one’s hierarchy would always be determined by birth. He also realized that even if he could gain some personal favour by remaining in the subservient position, it would be temporary. Moreover, it would be a favour bestowed upon by the upper caste that could be well taken away at their whims. Therefore, Mahendra tried dismantling the structure as a whole instead of opting for any personal upliftment within it. Since Mahendra also thought beyond his personal demands ⁷ and wanted to bring a permanent positive change in the condition of his whole community, he realized he had to fight against the structure. Hence, unlike the other members of the community, he did not opt to stay within the structure and uplift by Sanskritization but chose to dismantle the structure in itself. It was his characters that made Mahendra a rebel.

Further, as the earlier paragraph shows, caste and class merge in many cases to create the power hierarchy. Often, the caste and class intermingle in many instances of the Indian society, resulting in industrialists who emerge from the upper caste: Hari Pratap is only an example of it. Therefore, the struggle of the lower castes, as Mahendra perceived, would always remain against those who hold access to the ‘haveli’ (Raychaudhuri, 2010, p. 169). In this context, it is to be noted that haveli is not only the mansion of the Pratap family but symbolizes a merging point of caste and class. The people residing in it are primarily from the upper caste, who hold wealth remaining at the upper end of the class hierarchy. They hold power in the feudal structure and, as the last paragraph explored, with the change to the capitalist structure, they become the industrialists with complete hold over social and monetary security. Therefore, the haveli becomes a critical symbol where caste and class merge. Thus, demolishing the haveli(s) means ending the entire structure, resulting in a power hierarchy.

The text explicitly shows that the organization started by Mahendra had a significant section of members belonging to the lower castes. Most of the members and leaders of Red Salute, the organization started by Mahendra, such as Karma, and Sunder Besra, descended from lower-caste families. While the Naxalbari movement had a more extensive middle-class base, the new branches, as the text shows, gained a bigger base among the lower castes. Therefore, it is not surprising that the organization of Mahendra Chamar not only aimed to eliminate the class hierarchy but one of its major roots that lay in the caste hierarchy. Indeed, as this text shows, in most cases, the class hierarchy often merges with the caste hierarchy. Hence, removing caste hierarchy would help to eliminate the class hierarchy on its own course.

Failure in Creating Caste Utopia

However, the new organizations also failed to prevent the seeping of the caste hierarchy. In this context, it is to be noted that other than the organization of Mahendra, most of the senior-most leaders of the other radical left organizations belonged to the middle class, despite the fact that the majority of members of the organizations hailed from the community of untouchables. While discussing the unity of the different organizations, Mahendra noted that most of the leaders of unity belonged to middle-class Bengali families (Raychaudhuri, 2008, p. 271). The distribution of wealth based on caste asserts that they belonged to the upper caste. In the postscript, the text shows one of the organizations named MCO had recruited many youths from the Yadav caste. Gradually the Yadavs started dominating the movement, ‘a tribal comrade from MCO told me that in their organization, the tribal comrades are looked down by the Yadav comrades, who are their middle level leaders’ (Raychaudhuri, 2008, p. 345). According to the text, this conversation takes place in 1999–2000 after the death of Mahendra Chamar. By then, the organization of Mahendra Chamar named Red Salute had merged with the People’s Revolutionary Group. These conversations occur between Sunder Besra and Karma, who temporarily quit the left organization since the former was arrested by the police and the latter suffered from a mortal illness. Thus, the dream of Mahendra Chamar to destroy the haveli(s) and the caste hierarchy fails since caste hierarchy had started to seep within the organizations that would perform the task.

Finally, the death of Mahendra at the hands of Ranojay Sena ⁸ , though after completely losing his memory (Raychaudhuri, 2008, p. 320), proves the failure of the protagonist to end the caste structure. When Hari Singh, the successor of the Pratap family, accompanied by some of the members of Sena, arrived to demolish the statue of Mahendra Chamar, they killed the old madman (Mahendra Chamar), who was guarding the statue (Raychaudhuri, 2008, p. 357). The attempt of a section of the upper caste to preserve the caste hierarchy by ending the lower-caste Naxals is evidenced through the creation of Ranojoy Sena. So, though Mahendra succeeded in demolishing the haveli of the Pratap family in his natal village Puraina, its surviving members, Hari Singh, decided to take revenge upon Mahendra and the entire Naxal organization. Accordingly, he funded an anti-Naxal militant organization named Ranojay Sena, founded and headed by Bisheshswar Singh. The target of Bisheshswar Singh was to put an end to these organizations by killing the members, most of whom, according to him, came from untouchable communities. As the text has depicted, the man was not wrong in his analysis, and indeed many members of the organization belonged to these marginalized communities. Thus, the central motive behind the creation of Ranojoy Sena was to put an end to any protest voiced by the marginalized section of the society (Raychaudhuri, 2008, p. 320). Therefore, beyond the state machinery, the new-armed left organizations developed new enemies in the form of militant organizations like Ranojoy Sena, funded and controlled by the upper castes to kill the Naxal members. The Naxalbari movement, which had a large base from upper-caste Hindu households, had no such enemy among the civilians. But the contemporary left militant organizations, having a major section from lower castes, had to fight not only against the state machinery but also against armed Hindu militant force created and joined by a section of Hindu upper caste.

As long as the grandfather and father of Mahendra adhered to the caste hierarchy and remained in the subservient position, Ranojay Sena was not created. It was when Mahendra, accompanied by his comrades, most of whom hailed from the marginalized communities, protested against the hierarchy and rejected to remain in the subservient position that the upper caste used militant force to suppress the protesting voice. This recalls the thoughts of Budha Chamar, who knew that rebellion would mean death, and has been explained in the earlier paragraphs. Thus, if the lower castes would not remain subservient by their own choice, the upper caste would resort to any degree of violence to end the uproar. Therefore, though Mahendra succeeded in demolishing the Pratap haveli, he failed to dissolve the power structure that the haveli held. Thus, as far as this text shows, in no situation, a major section of the upper-caste individuals would give up their caste privilege. They would continue to remain in the dominating position in the hierarchy, either using tradition and convention or following force in the failure of the former. In this light, the experiences of Mahendra, the symbolization of the haveli, the creation of Ranojoy Sena, and the death of Mahendra by Ranojoy Sena ensure that class and caste merge at several points to such an extent that one cannot be dismantled without dismantling the other. Though the attempt of Mahendra failed, the text revealed the reality of the caste scenario in India and the endeavour, though flawed, of at least a few left militant organizations to end the hierarchy despite the regular repression by state machinery and militant upper-caste organizations.