"The Revolt"

"Roger . Roger . # 318 calling. Over."

"Roger . Headquaters receiving. Over"

" Roger. Three are killed and still two remain at
large taking refuge inside a house. over"

"Roger. Headquarter calling. Wipe them out be whatever
the price may. Over."

"Roger. Ok Sir. over and all."



The conversation over heard is not the reminiscent of any big holocaust of the past rather a call of a beleagured Sergeant to the Headquarters , during his squad's encounter with the rebels. Who supposedly are dragging the nation to the war against its own
people. The Sergeant , no matter how much emphathetic to the family tangled in between , had no option otherwise than to execute the orders; for in Army orders remain ultimate!

Just few years earlier , even to think of such a confabulation would have sounded mere idiocy. The government of the people directing the Army to kill its own people would then have come as nothing but a simple act of lunacy. Today , however , after six years
, since the inception of the insurgency , this doesn't look frivolous to us. In fact , everyone with the incipient sense of peace has no objection whatsoever to get the country back to its natural lair ; Peace that would be!

The question of perennial intrigue is the predilection of the people to this rebellion. When looked in introspection , innumerable predispositions become apparent which are all nothing but the repercussions of improper governance.

When the colossal hunk of population are still tussling hard to overcome the poverty line , the ambitious plans of the democratic government would definitly look ludicrous! Ours is a country scuffling hard to get rid of the fetters of poverty. The democracy , however , gave the hope of better lives. But the reality on the ground remained as it was
; people were poor before and even so many years after the installation of Democracy. For them life remained a pool of hardships.

One change , however , became very much conspicuous since the dawn of elected governance ; before only a small group of opulents parasitised the national
treasury , later , however , this got distributed to a bit larger circle of down trodden leaders of the down trodden people.But the people were as delerict as ever. Despite the incessant wounding of their hope , they waited!

Over the course of time , one school of thought ruled and was replaced by another and then by yet another , each culminating in one or the other catastrophe!

This viscious cycle , gradually brewed frustrations , resentments and abhorrance among the masses. Time went by , with all these feelings subtly hidden with the burden of making the two ends meet.


The continuous exploitation of the proletariat by the ruling class gave birth to some " Heros" ; emerging among them as the self-proclaimed saviours . Although
, in real , the impetus was their own " self - interests" , they vowed for people's liberation from the rulers , who were by then , considered as tyrants!

At this juncture , saturated with the inequity of the government , people were already looking for an exit.Here , the "Saviours" got the opportunity to encash their cryptic intentions ; for they knew a slight provocation now , would relinquish a huge
consequnce since the people were already in the the brink of an outburst.

The most stretchable elastic has also its breaking point , says Physics. The resilence of the crowd is perhaps analogous. This moment of break was capitalized. People's mind was imbued with false dreams of utopic society , which , however , remained
vaudeville to the learned. But , the illiterates succumbed to the rebellion led by the people of hedonistic aspirations.

As a consequence , the government in its desperation sanctioned everything within the confinements of its resources to subjugate the revolt. Instead of trying to
figure out what really led the people to raise their weapons , they chose to use the bullets. As a result , the rattling of the gun became as mundane as the chirping of the birds in the morning!

Finally , the wrestling of the unquenced rebels led by their so called " saviours" with the authorities paved the road for this bloody feud ; from where , the nation is trying hard to dissociate!

Now is the time ; the time to contemplate and to contrive and to recuperate from what is already devouring us from within and to get the nation out of this abyss .Instead of persuing the hopeless causes like the Spanish hero Don Quixote did , we should now
give weight to reasonings rather than try to supress the revolt by the use of might. Let us all together, be resolute in resolving the problem by its root without just eliminating the effects.

This , however , reminds me of Robert M. Pirsig ( author of Zen and the art of motercycle maintenance) , where he says , "To tear down a factory or to avoid the repair of the
motorcycle or to revolt against the government because it is a system is to attack effects rather than causes ; and as long as the attack is upon the effects only , no change is possible. The true system , thereal system , is our present construction of systematic thoughts itself , rationality itself and if a factory is torn down but the rationality which produced it is left standing , then that rationality will simply produce another factory. If a revolution destroys a systematic government but the systematic patterns of thought that
produced that government are left intact , then those patterns will repeat itself in succeeding governments. There is so much talk about system and so little understanding!"

Well , this parable is succinct enough to elucidate our mistake in not acknowledging the wrong systematic patterns of thought that conceived this notion of rebellion. Until , it gets substituted with the doctrine of abandonment of self interest , we are destined to befriend yet so many other clashes of the people with the government.......be it Bolshevik or
Democratic or whatever !!!

 

K.Anish Pokharel
Kathmandu, Nepal

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