Truly Extraordinary
K. Balagopal
Gandhians thought he was a communist. Communists thought he was a Gandhian. As for him, he used to work on both platforms without any problem. He would fit into any forum that worked for the good of the people. On the other hand, he didn’t refrain from expressing his opinions. In fact, in each group that he worked with, he would often bring in a different perspective, and raise issues and questions which wouldn’t otherwise come up. He would ask Gandhians about class robbery and class struggle. With Communists, he would raise questions about violence and lack of democracy. Those who raise these questions from the outside are many. But Naren used to work with both groups and raise these questions in their own forums.
This approach was not a clever strategy of Naren; it was simply integral to the person that he was. He wholeheartedly liked anyone who worked for the common good. He collaborated with Medha Patkar who worked to adopt Gandhian approach in mass movements. He also admired communist Kolla Venkaiah and worked with him for the implementation of land reforms.
Naren was not short on opinions and ideas of his own. But he didn’t have an iota of dogmatism. For instance, he believed that violence committed by anyone for any reason was wrong. Yet when it came to civil liberties organizations which refused to condemn violent people’s movements, he continued to work with them proactively. When Human Rights Forum was formed and took a stand that they will condemn unjust use of violence by naxalite groups, he raised a further objection saying that all violence is unjust so we should not attempt to distinguish between just and unjust acts of violence. Still, he continued to work with Human Rights Forum, taking on responsibilities actively.
At a stage when even the Communists were wondering whether there was any land left for distributing to the poor, Naren started the “Movement for Implementation of Land Reforms”, taking along Dalit groups and other activists. In his native district of Chittoor, he dug up the details, one by one, of available lands – ceiling surplus lands which have not been distributed to the poor, lands acquired by landlords through bogus settlement titles and so on – which amounted to thousands of acres, and went after Collectors and Joint Collectors. No revenue officer who worked in the district in the past few years would ever forget Naren. He also played a proactive role with the Lands Commission which was formed as per the Maoists’ recommendations after the failure of the peace initiative between them and the state government.
Once he believed in a certain principle, Naren couldn’t help following it in his own life. Having graduated with an M.A. from Delhi University he could have settled into a well-paid job and then received public accolades by speaking and writing about progressive ideas. But that was not in his nature. He moved back to Hyderabad. Those were days of frequent communal clashes in Hyderabad. With the belief that it is not enough to just condemn communal ideology and communal politics but that it is essential to organize and agitate for much-needed civic amenities in the Old City area, he joined Hyderabad Ekta. He immersed himself in organizing free clinics in the old city.
When it was clear to him that Hyderabad was not his arena of action, he moved to his native village Venktramapuram in Chittoor district along with his wife and companion Uma Shankari who shared most of his ideas. While engaged in agriculture as a farmer, he continued his work for social causes. He campaigned against liquor and worked with the poor on giving up their addiction. He organized inter-caste weddings, and went from village to village campaigning against discriminatory practices such as the “two-glass system” for Dalits and succeeded in many places. When he found that there were several villages where Dalits had never cast their votes, he campaigned successfully to get special voting booths established in Dalitwadas.
As a dryland farmer, he responded to the wrong policy approaches which undermined agriculture through neglect and flawed development paradigm. As always, he believed that it was not enough to criticize the government, that we should put in our own efforts to address the situation. In his own land, he practiced experimental organic agriculture without using chemical pesticides and fertilizers. He learnt by experience the practical difficulties of a single farmer attempting organic farming. Though he faced disappointments, he never despaired because of his self-deprecating nature and ability to make fun of himself even if difficult situations. He wrote a book in Telugu about his experiences, titled “Itlu Oka Raitu” (Yours truly, A farmer), published recently by Hyderabad Book Trust.
Ever since the beginning of power sector reforms a decade ago, Naren developed a response as a farmer using electricity and as an activist. He studied the issues deeply and educated the public. He attended the public hearings of the Electricity Regulatory Commission regularly every year with detailed analysis, critique and suggestions. He used to train his colleagues and cajole them to ensure their participation.
While it is now commonplace to agitate about the displaced and project-affected communities, Naren worked on the issue twenty five years ago at the time of the Srisailam dam project when entire villages were summarily vacated. He gathered information by talking to the affected people, and set up debates. He always liked to bring issues to debate among the people. Rather than meetings in cities, he preferred going from village to village by foot. Even as his brain cancer worsened by formation of secondary tumors, he enthusiastically participated in foot marches against Singareni open cast mining projects in Karimnagar district.
Not only did Naren do all this work, but he did it with a smile. A child-like smile was his hallmark. He would cheerfully bring difficult issues to debate. When Narendranath attended an organizational meeting, everyone knew that he intended to bring up some debate. He used to argue persistently but never demeaned others. In our movements and organizations, we often come across those who consider hurting the other party as winning the argument. This is an important reason for organizations splitting when faced with disagreements. As a person, Naren was completely different in nature. This was true about him not only within organizations and movements, but also in social conflicts. He hated injustice but he never hated any individual. I believe this is what he understood as Gandhism. I don’t know how far Gandhi followed this principle, but Narendranath followed it wholeheartedly. He proved that we can be partners in the fight for justice without losing our humanity and good nature to the smallest extent.
When paying tributes posthumously, it is common to describe a person as ‘extraordinary’. But in the true sense of the word, there are only a few extraordinary people in the world. Gorrepati Narendranath was one of them. It is truly heartbreaking that cancer has taken away such a person from the world when he was just 57.
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