It is a transition from guns to roses. Bandi Istari alias Gattaiah, now 50, travelled from armed Maoist insurgency to spiritualism in the forests of Gudem, giving up his guerilla fatigues in favour of monk’s robes.
“I was consumed by a desire to change the world and joined the underground outfit in 1982-83. But police caught me in 1990 and I spent three years in Asifabad jail. I was eventually acquitted in all 24 cases against me, including murder cases,” recalled Istari, as he narrated his story of days of left wing extremism in what was unified Adilabad district.
Today, his ‘abode’ 300 metres uphill, which is described as a Shiva temple, echoes not with the battle cry of armed Maoist cadres, but the chanting of ‘Om.’
He is now known as ‘Shivapalli baba’, and offers health potions to sick people.
It is a long journey from being the commander of the Sirpur Local Guerrilla Squad of the CPI(ML) People’s War Group of naxalites (the CPI-Maoist) in the 1980s, to working as a peace activist.
The ‘baba’ spends his time in the thick forests of Gudem, about 23 km from Chintalamanepalli mandal headquarters in Kumram Bheem Asifabad district of Telangana.
The police personnel here remember his early days. “Yes, we arrested him from his home in Katipalli in Bejjur after a three month-long watch,” said an officer who worked in anti-naxal operations until a few years ago. “He was a hardcore cadre and among the most-wanted extremists,” he added.
But the ‘baba’ asserted that he “always believed in God contrary to what I was told in indoctrination classes during my initial days as an extremist.
It was, however, my days in jail that made me take to spirituality as a peaceful way to change the world. I started performing puja in a cell which I had cleaned up,” he said.
After his jail stay ended in 1994-95, Istari was left alone by his former comrades. Persecution from police, however, continued, which prompted him to shift to Gudem village where his in-laws lived.
The visit from there to the hill is a daily trip on a two-wheeler.
Prior to making his spiritual move, he ran a ration shop at Gudem, but was not very happy.
Pursuit of happiness
“I attained happiness and peace only after discovering this temple which appeared in my dreams in 1997,” he says, explaining its location.
The ‘baba’ attracts villagers from nearby mandals, who have questions for him mostly related to health. He answers them and distributes a mixture of ‘sacred’ ash and turmeric.
Istari raised a family after he shifted to Gudem and has two daughters and a son.
The eldest daughter now married and the other two enrolled in a hostel.