What does it mean to physically harm someone? To harm them with full understanding of your actions, to be brutal because you represent a certain authority, a state?
The Gospel of Yudas by K R Meera dwells on the brutality of the police force in Kerala as seen during the period of Emergency. Prema a daughter of a police officer who takes immense pride in his violence, is grappling with the consequences of his choices. Unknowingly or knowingly she is drawn to the victims of her father's actions.
The story follows her as she attempts to piece their history together, while her life falls apart.
Revolutions every where claim so many lives, some are successful and some revolutions are in vain. Governments that are to be for the people more often than not lose sight of their responsibilities. In the act of reminding them, scores of people become victims. Both the aggressors and the receiver are the victims of the state aren't they?
So many poignant thoughts packed in this short story, only K R Meera could do that.