Discovering I'm a Hindu

Book Review - Urban Naxals

Urban Naxals – The Making of Buddha in a Traffic Jam, by Vivek Agnihotri, Garuda Prakashan, Gurugram, 2018, paperback, Pages 379, Rs.399, ISBN 978-1-942426-05-9.

Naxal terrorism, also known as Maoism, has been waxing and waning in intensity and violence ever since the ‘Sixties. The causes have been manifold, not the least being the utter failure of Nehruvian socialism to pull people out of poverty.

Vivek Agnihotri (VA) has travelled through Naxal infested areas (so-called Red Corridor) and gained valuable first hand insight into the menace. The conclusions he has drawn are far from the usual expected ones. Sure, the exploitation of the tribals is there. But the exploiters are a diverse bunch: corrupt government officials and greedy corporate are of course there. But, surprise! surprise! The main exploiters are the Naxal terrorists themselves. The author clubs them with the ubiquitous middlemen. VA thought a film of the subject would be relevant. He set out to make the film Buddha in a Traffic Jam.

The book, through four parts, takes us through the difficult twists and turns the film went through, from conception, raising finances, getting together the nitty gritty of film making on a shoestring budget, getting the right actors, having the producers ditch him midstream, and finally trying desperately to show it to an audience.

The film is basically about a manipulative professor who brainwashes his students into becoming Naxals and the hero who eventually sees through his game. According to VA, the insurgency would be going nowhere without logistics and finance. This is where the Urban Naxals like the prof come in.

During the making of the movie, and the subsequent difficulties in showing it to audiences, we discover that Urban Naxals have infested almost every major university academia, the crooked Lutyens brand of media, politicians who lost power in 2014, NGOs, and uncleji and auntyji students. The hardest part may have been showing the movie. VA adopted the unorthodox approach of showing it in universities even before the release, starting with JNU. It was received by enthusiastic crowds, even in the Red Citadel of JNU to cheers of Vande Mataram, which must have caused deep worry in the Urban Naxals in the faculties. It turns out VA’s semi-fictional movie prof has real life clones up and down the country’s universities. It’s a fascinating read how they tried every trick, even downright cheap tricks which would do credit to a municipal clerk withholding your application for adding a floor to your house, but not to a well paid professor trying to deny you an auditorium. VA was violently attacked by blue eyed boys of the urban naxal profs on at least three occasions. Obviously, the film has rattled the Urban Naxals quite badly.

The movie went on to win awards and accolades in international fora, the YouTube version having clocked up more than a million views. (VA doesn’t tell us if he broke even or turned a profit from these tribulations).

The book is witty in parts, philosophical in parts. And rich in one liner quotable quotes. “The feeble common man is in the business of improving his life but the people who control his life are not in the business of improving his life” (pg 48). “Liberalism is defined by attacking and ridiculing the majority while secularism is practiced by appeasing the minority” (pg 334) and many more (I didn’t want to spoil my copy of the book by underlines and highlighters).

There are some interesting asides in the book. Example, the famous TV journalist Karan Thapar seems to be keenly colour conscious where the skin tone of heroines is concerned (No dusky leading ladies!) but displays symptoms of colour blindness where his own dress is the subject – notably his bow ties and socks.

The book gets us to meet numerous people, and since VA has met them all he can put a face on them. But guys like me soon get confused when a name crops up again after a few pages. “Eh? Who’s is this Ravi?” That’s where the old Russian novels had a good custom of putting an index of characters at the back; or like the Perry Mason novels which had a cast of characters in the front.

All in all, this is a book highly topical, fast paced like a novel and highly readable. It has already introduced the phrases Urban Naxal and Intellectual Terrorism into the national discourse. Until the last urban naxal prof or ageing student burns his Das Kapital and Little Red Book, these terms won’t go away anytime soon. That way, this book has already made an impact.