by Ranchandra Guha
Endless suffering
After a month of running around in London, Gandhi wrote in exasperation that, “The more experience I have of meeting so-called big men or even men who are really great, the more disgusted I feel after every such meeting. All such efforts are no better than pounding chaff. Everyone appears preoccupied with his own affairs. Those who occupy positions of power show little inclination to do justice. Their only concern is to hold on to their positions. We have to spend a whole day in arranging for an interview with one or two persons. Write a letter to the person concerned, wait for his reply, acknowledge it and then go to his place. One may be living in the north and another in the south [of London]. Even after all this fuss, one cannot be very hopeful about this outcome. If considerations of justice had any appeal, we would have got [what we wanted] long before now. The only possibility is that some concessions may be gained through fear. It can give no pleasure to a satyagrahi to have to work in such conditions.”
I knew exactly what Gandhi felt —and meant. Ninety-seven years after his fruitless exertions in London, I spent several weeks in New Delhi, seeking appointments with the most powerful men in the land. I was not alone — with me, indeed leading me, were the senior journalist, B.G. Verghese, and the brilliant anthropologist, Nandini Sundar. We had been part of a team of independent citizens who had recently returned from a trip through the district of Dantewada, in Chhattisgarh, where a bloody conflict raged between Maoist revolutionaries and a vigilante group promoted by the state government. Dozens of villages had been burnt, hundreds of people had been killed, and tens of thousands had been rendered homeless.
The Telegraph for more
Thanks to Harsh Kapoor of SACW)