Amazingly Blunt and Revolutionary in Expression Yet Plain and Precise in Its Verbal Texture

8/8/2019 Amazingly Blunt and Revolutionary in Expression Yet Plain and Precise in Its Verbal Texture

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Ahutis Red Terrorist Answers White Terrorist : A Marxist Study | 1

Introduction:

Amazingly blunt and revolutionary in expression yet plain and precise in its verbal texture, Bishwa

Bhakta Dulal (aka.Ahuti)¶s Red Terrorist Answers White Terrorist is an overt exposition of the

fundamentals of Marxism. The best way to recapitulate the essence of this long poem is perhaps to cite

the concluding paragraph of the Communist Manifesto (1848): The Communists openly declare that

their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the

ruling classes tremble at the Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their

chains. WORKINGMEN OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE! (Engels & Marx, 1948)

The Manifesto ends with a call for revolution, and throughout the history of Marxism, socialism and

communism, µrevolution¶ is seen as the principle means of liberation. Ahuti gives voice to his

revolutionary spirit through the narrator of this poem and the key thematic issue of the poem that the

social injustice suffered by the underprivileged people of Nepal will be answered by a violent

revolution, a µforcible overthrow¶ in Marxian terms, is conveyed powerfully in this poem.

From the very title onwards, the dialectic nature of the central conflict of the poem is presented, and

the terms µred terrorist¶ and µwhite terrorist¶ can be interpreted in light of their political meanings in

order to catch a glimpse of the idea of the poem. Historically the term µred terror¶ refers to the µregime

of terror¶ in Soviet Russia where µa series of mass arrests and executions¶ (Walker and Gray, 2007,

p.137) were conducted by the Bolshevik government but here, the term has been used loosely to refer

to those who represent the socialist movement and use violence as part of their mission to liberate

themselves, because the dominant ideology is that use of violence against the government is terrorism.

On the other hand, the term µwhite terror¶ is commonly used to refer to violence used against socialist

forces. The narrator of the poem views his enemy, the tyrannical monarch and his so called democracy

as µwhite terrorists¶ because they too use violence to control the people¶s liberation movements by in

dominant political hegemony, they will not be classed as terrorists because their form of terrorism is

state sponsored and used in the interest of their µdemocracy¶, their µlaw and order¶. However, for a

detached observer, there seems to be little difference in the two parties and the conflict therefore is

between two different µterrorisms¶; one coming from the oppressed, the other from the oppressor.

Red Terrorist Answers White Terrorist as a treatise of Marxism:

From a Marxist perspective, the best way to understand this poem is to view it as an overt exposition

of Marxist principles since the poem can be read in light of the fundamentals of Marxist theory.

Ahuti skilfully presents the class conflict in contemporary Nepali society that has haunted the

subservient proletariat for generations. The socio-economic disparities between the dominant

oppressive class and the subservient oppressed class are brought forward through various

juxtapositions and these juxtapositions illustrate the dialectical and materialist concept of history that

Marx speaks of explaining how the history of the humankind has developed and can be perceived as a

perpetual struggle between the conflicting classes. The µterrorist¶ narrator in the poem, in his bold




address to the Nepali monarchy, maintains that they did not ask for the luxuries of regal life, the crown

jewels, their magnificent palaces, their expensive schools etc but for the basic amenities to survive

such as µa hot meal¶ and µa warm shelter¶, and plainly ³a small free life as part of human beings´.

Another significant pillar of Marxism is the critique of capitalism and it is explained how a minority

with economic and political power manipulate and exploit the proletariat majority of a society. Ahuti¶s poem is a prima facie assertion of this aspect of Marxism and we are given a full understanding of the

vicious form of capitalism in Nepali society where children of the privileged class are sent to

expensive foreign schools while the underprivileged children cannot afford µcheapcopy and pen¶ to go

to school among many other injustice of which some are presented in the poem.

Along with the critique of capitalism, the issues of exploitation and alienation of labour is given a

significant place in the poem. The red terrorist twice questions his white terrorist enemy, the Nepali

Monarchy:

³After spilling buckets

of sweat and blooddid my father not retain

this much right? ...´

³After giving over to your rule

all of life's creationsdid I not retain?

this much right?´

Both Marx and Ahuti perceive the exploitation and alienation of the labour of the proletariat as a

terrible failure of the human civilization throughout history and while the bourgeoisie or the dominant

class uncompromisingly flourish upon the µsweat and blood¶ of the proletariat.

³To build a Taj Mahalupon the fresh blood of slaves

in memory of a stale love

is not the custom of my lineage.´

The above lines highlight the historical nature of the exploitation and alienation of the proletariat

labour; the valuable labour of thousands of proletariats has been used to build these huge monuments

like the Taj Mahal but only the names of the rulers who ordered the labourers to build these

monuments are recorded in history; the history being written at the interest of the economically and

politically powerful. The implied question of the narrator is µwho is the real terrorist?¶ the one who

fights for his or her rights or the one who has deprived people of their right at the interest of

themselves through the divine right of kingship or through the economic or military power?

Marxists believe that no human society can achieve any further development without the elimination

of private ownership of the means of production, thereby bringing the productive capacities of society

under a collective ownership. This is the rationale of the Maoist movement and of any

communist/socialist liberation movement. This socio-economic liberation that Marx spoke of is the

implied rationale of Ahuti¶s poem but as a result of the means through which the Maoists including the




narrator choose to achieve their goal, they are branded as terrorists by the dominant social hegemony.

The law of the land would not acquiesce their course of action as a liberation movement but the term

µterrorist¶ will be used because they violate the laws which are created at the interest of the dominant

socio-political forces:

³But todayall requests are at an end

Not one

plea of mine for mercy

lies before you nowMake all preparations!

gather explosives, leg-irons, handcuffs or loaded riflesmake speeches, conspire, propagandize fully against meLaying down all requests

I've come to murder you´

The revolutionary force which is present throughout the poem is best expressed in the above lines

where the Monarchy or the white terrorist is openly challenged and threatened of the revolutionary

where the long oppressed masses will turn into revolutionaries and murder their oppressors in their

quest for freedom.

According to Marxism, the social and economic injustice suffered by the proletariat due to fetters of

private property and exploitation can be defeated through the seizure of political power by the means

of a forcible overthrow of the bourgeoisie; a proletarian revolution. Ahuti¶s poem ends with the hope

of such a seizure of power through a revolution where the µred terrorist¶ will murder the white

terrorist.

Ahuti challenges the authority of dominant social forces such as the institution of religion and the

democratic establishment of the state that are trying to control the oppressed masses and reject theliberation movement of the Maoists at the interests of the dominant economic and social forces. The

µred terrorist claims that he has:

³... Come to challenge your god

who would write the fate of my lineage´

Marxists believe that religion is a form of spiritual oppression of the people and is referred to as the

³the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions....

the opium of the people.´ Throughout the history of the humankind, religion, shaped into a socio-

political institution is manipulated by the oppressor to deceive the people and Marxists explain how

theological concepts such as God, fate, destiny, retribution, contempt, hell and heaven inter alia areused to deceive the masses, further disempowering them. Ahuti challenges this religious institution

that is used as a mallet by the dominant socio political hegemonies to undermine the liberation of the

proletariat mind. The term µgod¶ has been qualified with the second person passive adjective and this

depicts the terrorist-narrator¶s rejection of the hegemony.

In general understanding, God is for all but within the institutionalised form of religion found in

reality; god too is manipulated by the economic power. In societies like that of Nepal, the religious




institution severely promotes social evils such as µcaste discrimination¶ and the people of the so called

low castes are barred from mainstream religious functions. The rationale for such discrimination is

well worded through the manipulative interpretation of the scriptures; that these people are

untouchable because they are born from the feet of Brahma the creator, or because they are punished

for the sins of a previous birth.

The poem captures Marx¶s critique of liberal democracy when the terrorist narrators say that he has:

³ ....come to murder your beautiful 'democracy'́

Democracy is a form of government where people rule themselves and where the sovereign power of

the state remains with the people yet Marxists, being the most incisive and rounded critiques of

democracy, believe that such a democracy in the very sense of the term is not a practical reality in a

capitalist society where the so called democracy too can be manipulated as a tool by the oppressor;

therefore Democracy becomes a µ́ democracy for an insignificant minority, [a] democracy for the

rich ± that is the democracy of capitalist society´ (Lenin, 1917 Ch.5) . According to Marx, genuine

democracy can only be achieved if it is extended beyond the political to both the social and economic

spheres. This is why the poet uses the word democracy within inverted commas. The white terrorist

justifies all what he does in his own interest in the name of democracy.

Ahuti: the poetic voice of the Dalits1

Generally speaking, the Marxist understanding is that works of literature often mirror the writer¶s

place in society, and they interpret literary texts in relation to their relevance regarding issues of class

struggle as depicted in a work of fiction. Therefore, discussing Author¶s social class, status and

background and its influence on the text is considered one of the key methodological approaches in

Marxist Literary Criticism.

Bishwa Bhakta Dulal (b.1966-) who is popularly known as Ahuti is a contemporary Nepali poet and a

political activist fighting for the rights of the Neapli Dalits. Born into a Dalit family of cobblers in

Kathmandu, he studied to become an engineer but later took politics as a fulltime career so that he

could raise his voice against the social injustice suffered by Dalits like him. Dulal was brought up in a

society where case-based discrimination was serious and pervasive and the painful experiences of

growing up as a Dalit would have shaped his poetic vision to use poetry as a weapon to combat with

social injustice. The principal subject matter of his creative works is this social injustice: the unfair

case discrimination in his society. Like many other Marxist litterateurs, Dulal strongly believes in the

mimetic function of literature that a writer should reflect nothing but the truth as it is without rejecting

or deflecting it and therefore social criticism becomes the keynote of his poetic imagination which is

clearly expressed in concluding lines of his poem, Ascetic's Song :

³I sang not songs only slogans/

not poems only rebellionBut the ravaged nipples of my mother's breasts bear witness

1Dalits: group of people traditionally regarded as untouchable.




I sang a new way just like the victory of lightWhat have I to fear?

I sang the song of the hungry ones.´

Dulal is therefore successful in taking away literature from the tool box of the superstructure employed

in the interests of the bourgeoisie, and adds a propagandist outlook to his poetry as he perceives poetry

as µrebellion¶ and µslogans¶ against injustice and disempowerment of certain ethnic groups based on

their caste.

In Red Terrorist Answers White Terrorist, we clearly notice how his personal experiences and Dalit

upbringing has contributed towards the forcefulness of expression in the poem. The first person

narration is noteworthy and the fact that he is honesty capable of speaking of the underprivileged

Dalits as µus¶. He stands as an agent of the oppressed and of the revolutionary at the same time.

The scanty biographical information available about Dulal reveals that he represents the Maoist branch

of socialism which is largely drawn from the teachings of Marx, Engels, and Lenin. He has been

attracted towards communism µbecause of the talk about ending the caste system and treatingeverybody as equals¶ (Darnal, 2009, p. 34) and there is high probability that he was a member of the

underground communist movement that was labelled as µMaoist rebels¶ or as a group of terrorists:

³I've come to stir up

an earthquake of terror

in your heavenly joy

I am the 'terrorist' of your heavenmurder me if you can!´

Writng under the pseudonym of Ahuti which stands for sacrifice/oblation in Sanskrit, the poetic

persona boldly identifies himself as a µterrorist¶ in the µheaven¶ of the bourgeoisie and warns them of

the µearthquake of terror¶ that is going to take place.

Dulal¶s philosophy of poetry therefore echoes Lois Althusser¶s notion that art can instigate the

µforcible overthrow¶ that Marx spoke of Dulal¶s use of poetry as a medium of social criticism reflects

how µcounter-hegemonies¶ can come into force through the medium of literature thereby empowering

the poetry as a force against the ideological state apparati used by the dominant classes to undermine

the subservient class. (Althusser, 1971)

Like many other Marist writers, Dulal plays the role of a visionary; the very µearthquake of terror¶ that

he writes in May, 2001 took place few weeks later, in June, when the Crown Prince mysteriously

assassinated the entire Royal family killing himself as well and hereafter we see how the Nepali

monarchy gradually falls and ultimately becoming non-existent in 2008 with the Maoist movement

coming in to power.

Red Terrorist Answers White Terrorist in its socio-political context:

This poem was written in 2001 amidst the Nepali Civil war (1996- 2006) which was called the

µPeople¶s War¶ by Maoists against the corruptive governmental forces with the aim of overthrowing




the Nepali monarchy in order to establish the "People's Republic of Nepal. On 28th

of May 2001, the

leader of the leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and Chief Commander of the People's

War in Nepal, Pushpa Kamal Dahal (aka. Prachanda) was interviewed by the Communist Journal, A

World to Win where he maintained that: [t]o all those comrades who are endeavouring to develop

various warfronts within a single campaign of world proletarian revolution, we, from the warfront in

Nepal, would like to convey our well wishes that the comrades will be fully successful in applying the

universal principles of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism to the specific conditions of their own respective

countries. However tortuous the road may be, the victory of the world proletarian revolution is

certain. Like Dulal¶s poem, Prachanda statement cited above echoes the concluding paragraph of the

Manifesto and is a straightforward exposition of communist principles. The revolutionary voice of

Prachanda is masterfully embedded in Dulal¶s poem and therefore it sounds like an Anthem for the

Nepali Liberation Movement. ( A World to W in, 2001)

Moreover, Prachanda and the Maoists were branded as guerrillas by the then-Nepali government and

there were serious war crime allegations against the Maoist Movement. In a similar fashion, the poetic

persona of Dulal¶s poem openly acknowledges the µterrorist¶ status attributed to him by the ideological state apparatus at the interests of the dominant socio-political forces yet he further qualifies himself as

the µterrorist of their heaven¶ so as to highlight the fact that he is views as a terrorist by the dominant

political forces because he is gainst their oppression of the proletariat.

Upon the perusal of the poem, we notice how Dulal brings the socio-political experiences of the

proletariat to build up his thesis; the injustice that his linage had to suffer as a result of the corruptive

monarchy and the so called democratic governmental forces shaped in the interests of the monarchy.

Dulal explains how his people are deprived of their basic requirements in life such as food, health, and

education while the monarchy and the dominant classes were enjoying their luxurious lives in their

palaces built upon the blood of the proletariat. The Dalit community of which the poet is a member too, is double-burdened; on the one hand there are severely discriminated as a result of their µlow

caste¶ and on the other hand they are financially disempowered due to the parasitic exploitation of the

more affluent classes including the monarchy.

The poetic technique of Ahuti from a Marxist Perspective:

Ahuti uses a plain and straightforward diction with less stylistic complexities to write him poem and

this is perhaps to make emphasis on what is conveyed rather than on how it is conveyed. This style

may reflect a lack of refinement in his language in the bourgeoisie sense but the motive of Ahuti is to

give voice to the ailing proletariat soul.

The long sentences without punctuation suggest the ever enduring class struggle between the

oppressor and the oppressed the structure of the Hegelian dialectics, i.e. the synthesis is reached from

the comparison of thesis and antithesis is clearly reflected in the presentation of the argument: what

the oppressor had and the oppressed did not want to have; what the oppressor wanted to have but did

not have and finally the synthesis that what the oppressed masses did not have can be and should be

won by a communist revolution.




Universality of the poem:

Marxism and Engels wrote The Communist Manifesto with the 19th Century Europe in their mind but

the Marxism has been developed into a universal philosophy that can be applied to any society with a

class struggle. At the same time Marxist critics are often interested in the universality of literary works

µas a criterion of a formal nature¶ and were strongly considered by the prominent Marxist scholar,Leon Trotsky. (Lunacharsky, 1928) Ahuti¶s Red Terrorist Answers White Terrorist is mainly about

the proletariat of Nepal under the oppression of the Nepali Rajs but the politics that Ahuti discuss in

his poem can applied to any state where there is an oppressor and an oppressed class be it a

democracy, a banana republic, a constitutional monarchy, a federation, a dictatorship, or even an

executive presidency.

Bibliography:

Althusser, Louis. 1971. ³Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses´ in Lenin and Philosophy and

Other Essays. Translated from the French by Ben Brewster. New York: Monthly Review Press

Dahal, Pushpa Kamal, 2001. ³However tortuous the road may be´ in A World to Win no. 27 Available

at: www.humanrights.de/doc_en/archiv/.../170202_interview _pra.htm

Darnal, Suvash. 2009. A LAND OF OUR OWN , Translated from Nepali by Prawin Ahdikari Pulchowk

: Samata Foundation

Engels, F. Marx, K., 1944. The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 and the Communist

Manifesto. Translated from German by Milligan, M. Essex: Prometheus Books

Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich, 1917. State and Revolution, found on A Glossary of Marxist Terms

Available at: http://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/d/e.htm.

Lunacharsky, A., 1928. ³Theses on the Problems of Marxist Criticism´ in On Literature and Art .

Translated from Russian by Y. Ganuskin. Moscow: Progress Publishers

Tyson, Lois. 2006. Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. New York: Routledge Taylor and

Francis Group

Walker, D. Gray, D., 2007. Historical dictionary of Marxism. Maryland: Scarecrow Press.

Amazingly Blunt and Revolutionary in Expression Yet Plain and Precise in Its Verbal Texture

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