Not that it mattered to Ghosh. The companies would come to him, and he would find a way to get rid of the people. He always got the job done.

And this time he was not just about to remove a people. He was to remove a goddess. And her family. It wouldn’t be the first time for him, either. For a man for whom people did not exist, gods were a strange idea. Useful, sometimes. Useful if you wanted to make the followers do something in the name of their gods. Your god wants this to happen, or that. Not useful in other cases, like this one. Even gods had their ranks and Gond gods, like Gonds, did not matter. But bauxite was holy for other, more powerful people, like the Company, and these people would win.

Crossing Kantabanji and heading east, Ghosh referred to the massive files in his head. In a neat little folder next to the one about bauxite was a file marked ‘Gonds’. Strange that there were so many in Balangir. Kandha tribes, now there were a lot of them, perhaps a million in Odisha. Mundas too, but who knew there were so many Gonds in Balangir that they could create a problem?

He ran a mental checklist of the details of this problem. Gond villagers, sacred hill, resistance, protests. The usual problem. The Company had the government and its resources on its side. The hill and its surroundings were a bauxite treasure, better than any the Company had at present. All Ghosh had to do was get in touch with the local officials and see that things were done quickly. And quietly. The Company was firm about that. The last thing they wanted was more publicity about the way they got land for their mines. And if anyone was to be blamed in case of problems, it was to be the government. The Company wanted to be what people were to Ghosh—invisible.

Balangir, he saw as he entered through a crowded and noisy street, was yet another central Indian town. The only good hotel (built with money by another company, this one a steel giant) was not even worth looking at, but Ghosh had been in worse. The water in the bathroom sink smelled but he tried to not think about it. He took a small document bag with him as he walked out. He didn’t take his car; it would be faster on foot to the Collector’s office. And then the office of the Superintendent of Police. Ghosh was supposed to work with these two people.

They were just parts of the government, and he had to show them how things were done. Very well, he would show them.