ABSTRACT
One of the most intriguing questions about the spread of revolutionary insurgency, such as the Maoists in South Asia, is who is supporting the movement and why. This chapter argues that epistemological uncertainty plays an important role in the formation of revolutionary subjectivity. It also argues that hesitation, doubt and uncertainty might well be constitutive elements of those who end up joining the revolutionaries. The abolition of landlords in the early 1950s meant that the rural elites who faced gradual impoverishment, increasingly attempted to sustain their lifestyles through state-related resources—whether directly or indirectly. Violence became deployed in selling protection to bargain for power and material benefits. The moment of betrayal is perhaps equivalent to the moment of conversion. In the epistemic murk that accompanies the breakdown of the normative order in Jharkhand, Maoist terror arises from the creation of epistemic clarity—the possibility that on the other side norms and relationships will be more certain.
