Birthplace of Naxalism goes the market way

EKWARI: Irony strikes right at the doorstep of this village in the Bhojpur belt of Bihar which gave rise to the Naxal movement in the 1960s.
A monstrous market complex is coming up, funded by a "Naxalite", Sahar MLA Ram Naresh Ram of the Liberation faction of the CPI(ML) and the upper caste Bhumihar peasants are all in praise of Ram, the man who has symbolised, for the last four decades, the violent class struggle of landless farm workers against the landlords.
Not just that. The commander of Bhumi Sena, the private militia of landlords, widely believed to be responsible for many massacres of the landless, is in the fray, pitted, among others, against Liberation''s Ram Naresh Ram, and the compulsion of electoral politics has forced him to attempt a unique outreach across the class divide.
Singh''s supporters have gone out on a limb to to woo the Dalits arrayed behind the CPI(ML). Animosity be damned, for the market place means promise of a different kind.
The fact that the complex is adjacent to a Paswan''s house and in the heart of Dalit basti is not reason enough to ignore it. The village with 14,000 population needs a market, Ekwari mukhiya Nagendra Prasad Singh would tell you.
Peace is a pre-requisite for the market to survive and for the likes of Singh to become stakeholders. Everything is hunky-dory. Singh and a host of others catching up with siesta in his sprawling courtyard would make you believe.
Banihars (attached labourers) are back, they get their daily wage of Rs 52, plus breakfast and lunch and a part of land for personal cultivation.
There is no exploitation. Above all, not a single shot has been fired from either side in the past three years. "We are not pressing for the conviction in cases where CPI (ML) people had killed our relatives," Ram Anugraha Singh explains.
"Where is the problem?" they ask loudly in unison. "Where is the Naxal movement, where is the Male (Hindi word for CPI (ML))," the group almost whispers.
It takes us a while before we hunt down Ashok Singh, the son of Jagdish Master whose protest against rigging in the 1967 state elections sparked the Naxal movement.
In his late 30s, Singh is busy campaigning for Ram and the talk of movement having been consigned to oblivion has him in splits. This is simply a clever election stunt, he says.
According to him, if things have changed for good the credit goes to the Liberation and not to landlords who were forced into it.
As for the claim of bonhomie, Ashok is clear. Ever since Brahmeshwar Singh, Ranvir Sena chief, joined the election fray, Bhumihars of Arrah parliamentary constituency are a changed lot. Well, not a bullet has been fired.
"But we are not taking cases back, they are doing it out of their own volition. Could there be a conciliation between landlord and landless?" he asks.
Ashok feels that the electoral compulsion has changed the Bhumihar mindset in the constituency who are consolidating but it would not last long.
"They are playing on emotion. Brahmeshwar Singh, who has been behind so many massacres, is being projected as a philosopher. Look at his cutouts, he is shown behind bars with folded hands. What can be more humiliating for us," he says pooh-poohing claims by Ranvir Sena that many have deserted Liberation ranks.
"Look Baiju Yadav left us to join RJD. He had the future waiting for him. After Ram, he was our leader. But then he was in a hurry," he explains.
But Ashok admits that the movement needs to reinvent itself for the societal changes are threatening everything.
For instance, he says Dalit youths, who have migrated to Delhi, Punjab and elsewhere, are coming back with stories of how better wage can be earned without any struggle or violence.
With much reluctance, he also admits that jumping into the electoral fray has created enough stakeholders who can do anything for power and money. Even forget the ideology, males value strength.