THBT anarchy, as an ideaology, has value.
Arundhati Roy is a writer who describes anarchy in a most poignant and, arguably, controversial manner. Her book, the God of Small Things, my teacher’s love for her and her activist activities brought me all that closer to her.
– I hope she inspires you just as much as she inspired me.
A twenty minute writing exercise
Anarchy, as an ideology, is based on the school of thought that a government is unnecessary, an authoritative body that is not of any use. To comprehend anarchy, we dissect it by understanding its cause. Why do a group of people embrace anarchy, violence which seems so random and hurtful?
The worst feelings are those which exist, at their core, as misunderstanding or the feeling of not being included in something. The feeling of hopelessness or despair at the evolution of the ages. The feeling of confusion when looking at the years to come.
People living in rural areas are often those who are most unaffected by the rise and fall of different powers , political scenario of the country, and the system of governments and legislature. They live their life a world away where all of this has no room nor any importance in their lifestyle. Being so different from the more urban population, they are overwhelmed to see us taking advantage of their terrain or homeland for the extraction of minerals from the fertile loamy land. Hence, they resort to this violence.
Anarchy is very much like a two sided mirror- it seems very difficult to comprehend for the more “Reasonable” mind and is discarded as a rebellious activity no better than crime committed by criminals, but is a synchronized method of expression through which a group of people are speaking.
This, for us, may not seem to be of any significance or value but for a person who does not speak a common language but a native one, a person who feels abandoned and lost in our country, it is the value which defines their life. When we consider different rural populations and some areas from places including that of Bihar, Assam, Odisha and the rest, we often forget that they too are a part of the country, and that each person reacts and acts differently under different conditions, especially when they feel they have no choice.
Another observation that I have made recently is that we all want to put parts of us into the world. We all want our voice to be heard and noted, and a home to love, a place to recover if we are unwell, a place to learn and grow. These are things we want and things we need. The Naxalite movement was a personification of anarchy, and if we do not see this as a live example, we do not see anarchy at all…