Departure of a reformer

For Homo sapiens in their prime, revolutions are sexy. When hormones are hyperactive and energy levels are high, everybody wants to have a go at changing the world. Insurgencies often seduce the best and brightest to test their strength. In the late-1960s, the world was considered ripe for rebellion, and students everywhere thought that political power was theirs for the taking. Those were the days when brilliant youngsters from the Presidency in Calcutta and St Stephens in Delhi marched to Naxalbari, chanting the mantra, "China's Chairman is our Chairman!" Once the war erupted on the eastern front and the Indian Army stormed Dhaka, daydreamers in jeans and kurtas went AWOL from the frontlines in West Bengal. They were later to be found scattered in academia from Bombay to Boston and Oxford to Oslo, in serious pursuit of subaltern studies, postcolonial history and postmodern literary theories.

Meanwhile, another set of radicals had begun to coalesce around born-again revolutionary Jayaprakash Narayan to wage war against the authoritarian ways of Indira Gandhi. It is easier to name the soldiers of JP's 'total revolution', since they have totally discarded the creed of social justice that propelled them to the pinnacles of political power. Who will now believe that Lalu Yadav and Nitish Kumar were once torchbearers of probity in public life? But that is the effect that unfinished revolutions often have on their children: tired soldiers tend to descend into the depths of decadence with the vengeance of apostates.