Poet in the Political Activist

P K Vijayan

aravara Rao is one of the most well-known names on the Indian literary scene. A major poet in Telugu literature, who has published 10 volumes of poetry since 1964, Rao is known as a revolutionary poet in Andhra Pradesh. His Captive Imagination: Letters from Prison is a collection of meditations from the poets time in prison, as a political prisoner under the Emergency regime (one of his collections of poetry, Bhavishyath Chitrapatam, was banned by the Andhra Pradesh government during the Emergency). Originally written in Telugu, with individual pieces translated by different people (six translators in all), Captive Imagination has a foreword by the Kenyan novelist and professor of literature at the University of California, Irvine, Ngugi wa Thiongo. There are totally 13 of these meditations, not including the foreword and an epilogue by the author. Rao has been in and out of prison for political reasons several times, has spent more than 10 years in prisons, and continues to face that danger for the boldly critical stands he continues to take against the excesses of the Indian state the latest threat of another incarceration being for his criticism of the Indian states stand on Kashmiri Azaadi. At the time of the writing of this book, he had been openly sympathetic to the Naxal movement, and continues to remain so. But this book is not directly about these issues, although they hum relentlessly in the background; it is not about Rao, the political activist, but about the poet in Rao the political activist, about the relationship between the poet and the political activist in Rao. I have refrained from referring to these pieces as articles or essays because they are more than simply either of these. The title refers to them as letters. We are informed in the Epilogue that they were commissioned originally by Arun Shourie for the Indian Express, but published first in Telugu, serialised every week in the
Economic & Political Weekly EPW

book review
Captive Imagination: Letters from Prison by Varavara Rao (New Delhi: Penguin-Viking), 2010; pp 193, Rs 350 (hardcover).

Andhra Prabha. In the Acknowledgments we are also told that they contain notes scribbled in the loneliness of jail[that] turned out to be poetry when it was dense and intense. And Rao adds, The division between poetry and prose is fluid in these letters from prison (p 197). Letters, especially personal ones, generally speaking, are characterised by a combination of remoteness and intimacy: the addresser and the addressee are separated by (sometimes great) distance, but are intimately entwined in the very alphabets of the letter. This peculiarity of the form of the letter is compounded by the univocality of the person writing it, so that this addresser emerges strongly and vividly, but the addressee remains a shadow figure whose traces emerge only through allusions and inferences, a ghost captive in the imagination of the addresser. The addressee may or may not recognise himself or herself in this figure conjured by the addresser; but certainly he or she is invited to occupy the empty space of that figure. But when the addressee is not anyone specific but a large body of anonymous readers, these dynamics of the letter are all invoked but simultaneously transformed dramatically, as Raos letters from prison so brilliantly show. Rao evokes the intimacy of the form of the letter to draw the reader into his world of solitude, filled with nocturnal sounds and moonlight, with books and imaginary conversations with their authors, with passing relations and infinite waiting, with endless pacing in insomniac circles, haunted equally by memories and by anticipations. (One of the truly alarming methods of the state that Rao describes is that of postponing trial: some undertrials
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wait in remand for periods as long as the longest sentence they could have been awarded, or more and the political prisoner is particularly susceptible to this kind of postponement, so that he or she remains incarcerated for unspecified periods even if ultimately found innocent.) As we read about these days and nights in prison where the body becomes stale and stagnant but the mind knows only, with increasing sharpness, the need to communicate, the growing impossibility of communication, and the endless waiting for the godot of dawn, real and metaphorical we also realise that what sustains the writer through this slow suffocation of the spirit, is the vision afforded him by his politics. The reader as the implied addressee of these letters is drawn into engaging with that vision, not through conceptual and theoretical arguments though these too may be found in plenty but through anecdotes, memories, reflections and contemplations, each sparked off by the little details of prison life the blossoming of roses, the cries of birds, the presence of a mouse in the authors cell in other words, through the minutiae of what it means to live that vision, and to have to suffer for it. For instance, while talking about the fact that all his letters are read and censored by the authorities, whether inside or outside prison, Rao remarks, with loaded irony, how can one who is connected with Naxalbari expect any privacy until private property itself is abolished? (p 56). The simple inversion of the meanings of privacy here produces rich matter for thought and the letters are filled with such nuggets. Formally, these letters may more accurately be compared to movements in music, except that each movement is itself more like a khayal, with each piece exploring a different aspect of the central raga. The tones of this central raga, that preoccupies Varavara Rao, are the diverse aspects of an enforced solitude, focusing on the condition, quality and circumstances of both, the fact of enforcement and of the solitude itself. In order to do so, Rao moves fluently between prose and verse; often the prose, as Rao has himself noted, is more poetry than prose, subtle to

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BOOK REVIEW

the point of deceptive simplicity, then startling the reader with its revealed profundity. Sample this:
The days are piling up on me like age. An equal number of days must have passed for those of whom I took leave when I came here. But there is a vast difference between the experience all of us would have shared if I had been free, and my jail experience which I cannot share with anyone. The load in the basket of silence on my head grows no lighter because of this. Added to the heaviness is the burden of words massing up each day. As a consequence, my days and nights have come to a standstill (p 141).

Enforced Solitude
Not only is a central theme of the book enforced solitude captured here, but the specific effects of this on a writer are movingly caught, in the tension between the burden of words and the basket of silence, as he positions himself in the figure of a labourer bearing his burden on his head, imprisoned in his own way by the burdens of his labour. The metaphor is so subtly inserted that it almost escapes attention, but when it does catch it, we realise that even Raos metaphors are products of a profound political commitment, manifested in the implicit figure of the labourer, rather than in the pursuit of some rarefied rhetoric or poetics. This is not to say that Rao either has no poetics or is not aware of his poetics; rather, that he is fully aware that his poetics, his poetry and his politics flow seamlessly into each other:
Poetry is an open secret That destroys the disquiet Stirring in my heart. It reaches in a trice Those it is meant to reach. Suddenly the ones who need to, Will understand. Rising in my thoughts, It inspires movements. The secret is, My poetry was born From the pangs of struggle. Cover it if you must You will see it escape through The spaces of your fingers, Its vibrant, anguished notes Snapping in anger, Setting tears on fire And flowing forth A river of blood-red syllables (80-81).

opinion, so many political prisoners turn to writing poetry when in prison. And which is also why, in Raos explorations of the experience of the prison, the prison itself transforms into a metaphor for the innumerable curtailments of freedom in the world outside it. At one point, Rao explicitly notes this as a bitter truth shared often by his visitors to the jail: they say, You are in a small jail whereas we are in a big jail. That is the only difference (p 162). It is another way of indicating to us the extent to which the Indian state has extended its controls into the lives of its citizenry: if you cannot take the people to jail, because there are too many of the former, and too few of the latter, then take the jails to the people by curtailing freedoms, revoking rights, silencing protests and dissents and other, less obvious but perhaps more sinister schemes (as for instance, through the diabolically conceived UID project). As we hurtle towards the transformation of the country into a vast, privatised, corporatecontrolled prison, we can expect many more cases of the sequestering of those who rise up in protest. (But who will be left to read the letters from this prison?)

outside. At one point he notes, It was only during the Emergency when a whole class of future central government ministers entered jail that white-collared folk realised there were human beings in jails (p 125). This is Raos way of bringing the jail, and the experience of the jail, to white-collared folk: while we read these letters to us, we are given the opportunity to enter the empty space of the addressee but this is where the dynamics of the personal letter change dramatically. Precisely because we remain anonymous, we are not the addressee-figure we are supposed to identify with, we are left with nobody to identify with except Rao himself, and we for the space of these few letters are given the opportunity to become Rao-in-prison. We are allowed to enter into a world in which freedom is always in the future, but the present is defined by necessity and this is the condition that awaits us, in the inexorable extension of the prison into the world that is underway. We are given the opportunity to engage with the meanings of one of the most powerful passages in the book:
When repression becomes an everyday reality and when there is no end in sight, how long can we postpone our needs?...[But]In confinement, one cannot but treat necessity and freedom as equal (p 61).

Extension of the Prison

So, when Rao draws the reader into his world through his letters, he is following the direction of the state, and taking the experience of the prison to the world

We would do well to heed these words, before we reach the stage if we havent

Manipal Centre for Philosophy & Humanities

Manipal University, Manipal

Philosophy for the Social Sciences and Humanities

(Sponsored by the Indian Council of Philosophical Research)
The Sixth Summer School on Philosophy for the Social Sciences and Humanities organised by Prof Sundar Sarukkai, will be held at Manipal University again this year. In this course students will not only enrich their conceptual understanding of social sciences and humanities through a series of lectures, workshop presentations and activities but will also engage with their own disciplines and research areas through writing, discussions and reflection. The uniqueness of this year's workshop is the theme Banality of Evil. Under this broad theme we will discuss political and social philosophy drawing from both Indian and Western approaches. Dates: Monday, July 4, 2011 Friday, July 15, 2011 Who can apply Students who are doing their PhD, MPhil or MA can apply for this course. We encourage young faculty in social science and activists who are interested in philosophy to also apply. How to apply Send a CV (with marks, email, phone, and contact address details) along with a statement on why you want to attend this course and particularly how this theme is related to your work or future interests. The last date for receiving the complete application is April 1, 2011. There is no course fee. Accommodation Selected participants will be provided accommodation at Manipal University during the course period.

SIXTH SUMMER SCHOOL on

Contact: Send your application as an email attachment to Manipal Centre for Philosophy & Humanities (MCPH), mcphoffice@gmail.com or mail a hard copy to the address below. Please type Summer School 2011 in the subject line.

Manipal Centre for Philosophy & Humanities

For Rao, the hand that imprisons him cannot hold captive his imagination: it will slip through as poetry which is why, in his

Old TAPMI Building, Behind Post Office, Manipal - 576104, Karnataka, Phone: 0820-2923157 http://www.manipal.edu/Institutions/UniversityDepartments/MCPHManipal/Pages/Welcome.aspx

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BOOK REVIEW

already where we start understanding the curtailments of freedom as necessity, most often in the name of that holiest of holy cows, national interest/security. Raos is not a captive imagination; rather, it is we, the readers, who become captives to his imagination. Many years ago, discussing the future of Marxism and socialism with a friend, we speculated on whether they suffered from a failure of the imagination, on whether the depredations of capital had invaded the imagination so much that an alternative imaginary was near impossible. I still do not know if that is true; but that speculation is certainly

what Rao would call a white-collar speculation. If it were true, then Raos letters are among the many resurgent signs of such an alternative. Raos is not a whitecollar imagination which is why the title of the book is both so true and so ironical. Treat it as a warning, or as a wake-up call, or even as a users manual for the days to come but for all its dark, bleak passages and its blackly vivid evocations of confinement, it celebrates the power of the human spirit and the imagination to withstand, survive, grow, even in such conditions. There are minor irritants for sure like a tendency at times to excessive

self-consciousness, or the near-deification of some of the characters he evokes but these are quickly subsumed in the rich, subtle flow of thoughts on the myriad matters that fill these letters. The deceptively simple language allows one to go quickly through these letters. But be warned: they are not to be read one lazy Sunday afternoon and forgotten: these letters demand time and reflection, and a slow process of digestion, for fullest satisfaction.
P K Vijayan (pk.vijayan@gmail.com) is with the Department of English, Hindu College, Delhi University.

Interstate Disparities
Upinder Sawhney

he study of subnational economies in a federal nation is important to understand many of the economic, social and political issues of a country. Some meaningful work has been done on state economies in India in the past decade. This book is a timely contribution by M Govinda Rao and Anwar Shah when both the issues of fiscal management of subnational economies and inter-regional equity remain of great significance in India. The dissimilarity in the capability to manage state finances as well as difference in volume of the inter-governmental transfers in India are the main reasons for the widening gap between the state economies. It is a well-recognised fact that building states fiscal capacity can improve service delivery, and thereby address some vital developmental issues of the states and lead to reduction of regional imbalances.

States Fiscal Management and Regional Equity: An Overview edited by M Govinda Rao and Anwar Shah (New Delhi: OUP), 2009; pp xvi + 290, Rs 695.

Fiscal Reform
The fiscal reform programme of the Government of India, initiated in 1991, has not been implemented with the same amount of enthusiasm and vigour by the central and state governments. This collection of eight papers is divided into two sections, one dealing with the fiscal challenges of Indian states and the other relating to regional fiscal equity.
Economic & Political Weekly EPW

Govinda Rao and Partap Jena study the recent trends in state finances using the data of the first decade of this century and bring out the fact that most of the states, in their effort to reduce fiscal deficit, have compressed their developmental expenditure. This has widened the gap between the developed and backward states and the system of transfer of funds from the centre to the states has not addressed this problem adequately. Kavita Rao touches upon the relevant issue of reforming the state tax system in the era of globalisation. Having discussed the varied performance of states own tax revenue across states, the author highlights the pertinent issue of limitations in the coverage of tax systems, i e, they do not cover the services as the Constitution does not provide for the states to tax services. She also deals with the problems in the implementation of VAT. Hopefully these issues will be addressed when the goods and services tax (GST) is introduced.

Anti-Poverty Programmes
D K Srivastava analyses the debt management in the states including debt restructuring, write off, debt swap and relief, etc.
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He also looks into the repayment profile of the states and their access to ways and means advances as also the experience with market borrowings. The paper covers a wide array of issues relating to the debt of the state governments, but it does not reflect any relationship with interstate differences in development. Pinaki Chakraborty and Partha Mukhopadhyay assess the anti-poverty interventions under cooperative federalism, with special reference to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). They extensively discuss the mechanism of intergovernmental finances in India as well as the implementation of NREGA. The discussion brings out the deficiencies in the delivery system of NREGA and other social programmes. The fiscal costs of these are very high, whereas the benefits to the target group leave a lot to be desired. These programmes involve all levels of government in the country, i e, national, state and local, but no level of the government has the capacity to deliver. The paper covers the very relevant issue of anti-poverty programmes, but this is distinct from the overall theme of the book. In the second part of the book, Govinda Rao touches upon the significant issue of lack of fiscal ability of the poor states to create adequate infrastructure despite inter-governmental transfers. He points out that the central governments investments as well as funds of the banking sector are allocated more to the comparatively better-off states than the poorer ones. This chapter discusses the disparities in interstate differences in

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