Sanghaganam (1979)

A symbolic story continuing Backer’s effort to provide a geneology of political activists (cf. Kabani Nadi Chuvannappol, 1975; Chuvanna Vithukal, 1976). This story is structured as a quest for a reliable leader called Goutama. The educated but cynical hero meets different men bearing that name but all reject him until he meets a CP union activist being tortured in a police cell. Only after he sees the activist killed in a lathi charge does the hero realise that he must take responsibility for his own actions and rebel against injustice rather than put his faith in a charismatic figure.