Babas troopers

Baba Ramdev,perhaps scared by a mental image of the terrible beauty he had threatened to create,had retraced his tongue steps on his decision to raise a private army to defend himself and his followers,should the police swoop down on them again. His Maginot Line against the brutish beast called the state is a figure of 11,000 young men and women,chosen at the rate of 20 from each of his organisations branches across India. Leaving aside the thought or insight spared for that magic number,these youths would be dual-trained in shaastra scriptures and shastra arms. Ramdevs storm troopers? Oh Seleucus,how did we get here!

The Baba may actually find more nationalist ammunition here,but the modern state is a distinctly European thing. And it emerged as recently as approximately 400 years ago,with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 that ended the Thirty Years War and conceived the sovereign state with a sole monopoly on the use of violence. Its that very youth of the modern state thats ensured that state monopoly on violence is more the exception than the rule worldwide,as illustrated by Peter W. Singer,a defence and security expert at the Brookings Institution. From ancient mercenaries through colonial private armies,Hitlers brown-shirted thugs,mafia gangs,Cold-War intelligence and assassination outsourcing,to terrorists,the world has abounded in non-state or stateless militia. Whats more,the post-9/11 environment has spawned corporatised private military companies in the business of security and risk advisory.

So,the Baba is in thick company. But that doesnt take away from the ridiculousness of this circus. The Congress and the BJP,part of the show themselves,must hit the right button,between overreaction that could unduly dignify the farce and opportunistic condoning of a lawless free-for-all. After all,we cant always tell exactly when and how the ludicrous might turn sinister.