Swabhimaan gone wrong.

Language and, as a corollary, ideas are notoriously susceptible to miscued interpretation. They wear the garb of the times in which they thrive. If that were not the case, so many of our overtly idealistic revolutions wouldn’t have come to a painful and disappointing conclusion soon after their genesis and Che Guevara might still have been alive to share a cigar with Castro. Wishful thinking, I guess.

On the eve of Gandhi’s 144th birth anniversary, a rather similar, illustrative construction comes to my mind – Swadeshi. In the context of an increasingly globalised world, where identity is the price one pays at the altar of development and modernity and where slogans like “Bada hai toh behtar hai” have become commonplace, even acceptable, what does Swadeshi mean? What are the philosophical, cultural, and economic constructs defining the essentially political ideas of ‘deshi’ and ‘videshi’? Without Bapu to conveniently clear the air for us, this simple word has been repeatedly hijacked in the name of personal and vested interests, with interpretations ranging from political and economic isolation (à la mode North Korea) to a source of nationalistic pride and self sufficiency.

Although wide ranging, our understanding of Swadeshi is deeply entrenched in our somewhat circumscribed comprehension of nationalism, for a Swadeshi spirit that bans the use of everything foreign, big or small, however beneficial it might be, and irrespective of the fact that it impoverishes nobody, is a narrow reading of the idea. It leads to ‘tunnel vision’ that severely restricts the scope of what can be accomplished through a more open interpretation. But just how tricky the situation is can be gauged from the fact that the expression was first used in 1905 by social activists to unite the various protests surrounding the Partition of Bengal. Given that Bangladesh is now deemed to be a separate nation (and, often, a nuisance due to the constant influx of immigrants), do Bangladeshi goods come under the ambit of Swadeshi or do we consider them to be foreign?

At its core, Swadeshi implies restricting ourselves to using goods produced by our immediate neighbours, with an eye on protecting the home industry. In a nation fractured along several lines like religion, caste, and class, it was meant to inculcate a spirit of brotherhood amongst all its citizens. This philosophy, having influenced the ideas and opinions of a majority of Indian leaders primarily through Gandhi, also guided the direction of trade and foreign policy for several decades after independence. However, the single-minded devotion to protection of domestic industries discouraged competitiveness and bred complacency. Assured of a market for their inferior goods, the public sector had no incentive to innovate or develop competency. All investment in research and development was centralized and private enterprise was severely inhibited because of the restrictions imposed by ‘License Raj’. As a result, instead of kickstarting the Indian industrial engine, an over emphasis on self sufficiency had exactly the opposite effect, that is, an increasing reliance on imported goods resulting in products that grew more and more inferior with each passing manufacturing cycle. The success of Japan, through alliances between the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and the informal industrial agglomerations called keiretsu, and Korea, through conglomerates known as chaebol, in revitalizing their economies while managing to protect the domestic sector show just how contingent implementation can be on interpretation and context.

One might loathe accepting this reality, but India, or any other nation state for that matter, no longer exists in a social, economic, or political vacuum. We influence our neighbours just as much as they influence us. Their culture and traditions mould and shape our practices and customs. Their crises spill over our borders and become the origin of a proxy war that can last for decades. The traditional image of villages as self-contained units that are capable of meeting all their needs might not hold water any more; after all, there is no way to definitively determine what constitutes as need what constitutes as want. Villages, cities, and nations alike have become part of a vast network that is consumptive and productive in equal measure. Thoreau might have pulled it off, but most of us have become utterly mired in a cesspool of excess consumption and wasted resources.

The world is constantly engaged in a struggle to renew itself and hold onto the past. When one cares to look at it that way, regret and nostalgia are equally futile. Therefore, there is a need to reclaim notions like Swadeshi and Swabhimaan from jingoists and rid them of rhetoric, selfish interests, and their unnecessary historical baggage. We must cast old ideas in a new shell and rejuvenate the debate surrounding them so that in light of fresh ideas, like sustainable development and networked economies, our understanding of them is not merely a reflection into the past, but a peek into the future as well. I guess that is what Bapu would have wanted.

[If the tone of this article has come across as preachy, then I have failed to convey my thoughts. In an effort to save them from just the kind of misinterpretation that have been going hoarse about, I will reiterate that I did not intend to sound opinionated.]

An edited version of the article appeared here.

Well-intentioned Altruism

The article quoted below originally appeared here: The Rugged Altruists.

Many Americans go to the developing world to serve others. A smaller percentage actually end up being useful. Those that do have often climbed a moral ladder. They start out with certain virtues but then develop more tenacious ones.

The first virtue they possess is courage, the willingness to go off to a strange place. For example, Blair Miller was a student at the University of Virginia who decided she wanted to teach abroad. She Googled “teach abroad” and found a woman who had been teaching English in a remote town in South Korea and was looking for a replacement.

Miller soon found herself on a plane and eventually at a small airport in southern South Korea. There was no one there to greet her. Eventually, the airport closed and no one came to pick her up. A monk was the only other person around and eventually he, too, left and Miller was alone.

Finally, a van with two men rolled in and scooped her up. After a few months of struggle, she had a fantastic year at a Korean fishing village, the only Westerner for miles and miles. Now she travels around Kenya, Pakistan and India for the Acumen Fund, a sort of venture capital fund that invests in socially productive enterprises, like affordable housing and ambulance services.

The second virtue they develop is deference, the willingness to listen and learn from the moral and intellectual storehouses of the people you are trying to help.

Rye Barcott was a student at the University of North Carolina who spent a summer sharing a 10-by-10 shack in Kibera, the largest slum in Nairobi, Kenya. One night he awoke with diarrhea and stumbled to the public outhouse. He slid onto the cement floor and vomited as his bare body hit puddles of human waste.

He left his soiled pants outside the hut, but when he went to find them later they were gone. He was directed to another hut where a stick-thin girl, with missing clumps of hair, had the pants, scrubbed and folded, in her lap. Barcott said softly, “I’m grateful,” and asked her why she had cleaned them. “Because I can,” she replied. A week later, she died of AIDS and her body was taken in a wheelbarrow to a communal grave.

Over the next several years, Barcott served as an officer in the Marines in places like Iraq and created an inspiring organization called Carolina for Kibera, which offers health services and serves as a sort of boys and girls club for children in the slum.

The greatest and most essential virtue is thanklessness, the ability to keep serving even when there are no evident rewards — no fame, no admiration, no gratitude.

Stephen Letchford is a doctor working in Kijabe, Kenya. One night, years ago, when he was working at a hospital in Zambia, a man stole a colleague’s computer. Letchford drove the police down the single road leading from town. The police found the man carrying the computer and, in the course of the arrest, shot him in the abdomen.

They put the man in the back of the car and rushed him back to the hospital to save his life. Letchford pressed his wounds to stem the bleeding, using tattered garbage bags as surgical gloves. He had scraped his hands gardening that day and was now covered by the man’s blood.

They saved the thief’s life and discovered he was infected with H.I.V. For several days, Letchford and his family were not sure whether he had been infected by the man who robbed them. Their faith was tested. (They later learned that he was not infected.) When the man recovered, he showed no remorse, no gratitude; he just folded in on himself, cold and uncommunicative.

This final virtue is what makes service in the developing world not just an adventure, a spiritual experience or a cinematic moment. It represents a noncontingent commitment to a specific place and purpose.

As you talk to people involved in the foreign aid business — on the giving and the receiving ends — you are struck by how much disillusionment there is.

Very few nongovernmental organizations or multilateral efforts do good, many Kenyans say. They come and go, spending largely on themselves, creating dependency not growth. The government-to-government aid workers spend time at summit meetings negotiating protocols with each other.

But in odd places, away from the fashionableness, one does find people willing to embrace the perspectives and do the jobs the locals define — in businesses, where Westerners are providing advice about boring things like accounting; in hospitals where doctors, among many aggravations, try to listen to the symptoms the patients describe.

Susan Albright, a nurse working with disabled children in Kijabe, says, “Everything I’ve ever learned I put to use here.” Her husband, Leland Albright, a prominent neurosurgeon, says simply, “This is where God wants us to be.”

The Pink Chaddi Campaign

In response to the recent acts of moral policing by cadres belonging to Shri Ram Sene, a Consortium of Pub-Going, Loose, and Forward Women has been formed in order to send some love to Shri Ram Sene this Valentine's Day. A campaign, The Pink Chaddi Campaign, has been launched for the same reason. Here's an official version of what the campaign is all about.

What is the Pink Chaddi Campaign?
The Pink Chaddi Campaign kicked off on 5 February 2009 to oppose the Sri Ram Sene. The campaign is growing exponentially (1,300 at this point in the Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women) and that is not surprising. Most women in this country have enough curbs on their lives without a whole new franchise cashing in with their bully-boy tactics. Of course, a lot of men have joined the group as well. Here is they want you to do with the Pink Chaddi Campaign - Join in. Be imaginative, have fun and fight back!

What can you do?
Step 1: It does not matter that many of you have not thought about Valentine's Day since you were 13. If ever. This year send the Sri Ram Sene some love. Send them some PINK CHADDIS. Look in your closet or buy them cheap. Dirt-cheap. Make sure they are PINK. Send them off to the Sene.

The address to send the package is:
The Pink Chaddi Campaign,
C/O Alternate Law Forum,
122/4 Infantry Road
(opposite Infantry Wedding House)
Bangalore 560001
Contact Person: Nithin (9886081269)

If you don't want to mail it yourself, you can drop it off at the Chaddi Collection Points. They will be collecting across the country through this week and sending the packages on February 12. More information about Chaddi Collectors in your city soon on their blog: http://thepinkchaddicampaign.blogspot.com/

If you are in Delhi,
Bring your packages to
Nisha Susan
C/O Tehelka
M76, M-Block Market
Greater Kailash 2
New Delhi

LAST DATE OF COLLECTION FOR DELHI: 11 February

And If you are in Mumbai,
Ashwini Shetty (99833075013)
C-Wing, Lake Pleasant
Phase-2, Lake Homes
Powai
Mumbai
(Hand it over to the security guards in Mumbai)

LAST DATE OF COLLECTION FOR MUMBAI: 11 February

PS - In case it is very tedious to find Pink Chaddis in your closet, the guys at the campaign say any colour would do. All that is needed is the spirit!

Step 2: Send the Pink Chaddi Campaign a photograph of the package.
Tell them how many chaddis you are sending out and inspire other women in other cities. You can either mail the information to freelancehabba (at) gmail (dot) com or you can mail it at their facebook address.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=49641698651&ref=mf

Step 3: On Valentine's Day do a Pub Bharo action. Go to a pub wherever you are. From Kabul to Chennai to Guwahati to Singapore to LA women have signed up. It does not matter if you are actually not a pub-goer or not even much of a drinker. Raise a toast (it can be juice) to Indian women. Take a photo or video. They will put it together (more on how later) and send this as well to the Sri Ram Sene.

What happens after Valentine's Day?
After Valentine's Day we should get some of our elected leaders to agree that beating up women is ummm... AGAINST INDIAN CULTURE.

For right now, ask not what Dr VS Acharya, Home Minister of Karnataka can do for you. Ask what you can do for him. Here is his blog. http://drvsacharya.blogspot.com

Annus Horribilis

As a new year dawns on the horizons of our lives, so do new aspirations, new resolutions, new ambitions, and the most important of all, a new hope. In a time when our reason is being held hostage by non-stop, barbaric, commercial free television drama being played out in broad daylight for the convenience of everyone, hope is probably the lone thread that tethers our confidence in clichés like love and peace. For as Andy Dufresne rightly said, “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies”. The task at hand, therefore, is not to set aside the last twelve months and forget about them. But rather, to learn from what happened then, so that we can effectively manage the tensions and conflicts within, hoping all the while that reason will prevail and the madness which has gripped our consciousness will come to an end.

In the past twelve months we saw fanatics from both the sides of the fence falling over each other. So while cadres from Bajrang Dal and VHP attacked villagers in Orissa for having converted to Christianity, terrorists struck with impeccable and brutal precision at the very heart of the country, striking down not only the poor and helpless but also the rich and mighty. And while old division lines became much prominent, new lines were drawn for reasons both selfish and petty. For the Bombay that our forces defended with spirit and gumption in November was the same one that Raj Thackeray and his goons from Maharashtra Navnirman Sena had sought to purge of the “bhaiyyas” only a short while ago. For while the MPs from the Telangana Rashtra Samiti resigned from their posts to demand the creation of a new state, ULFA militants set off a series of bombs in Assam to send a similar ultimatum to the government. Even Nature wreaked havoc in the Indian heartland and Bihar saw several millions of its inhabitants wading through waist deep waters, scouring the horizon for dry land and respite. But that is not where the buck stopped. The relatively stable domain of economy took a fall because of the global meltdown and the great Indian middle class became a victim of an uncertain future. The domino effect the Wall Street recession hit India hard, with jobs becoming scarce, firms asking workers to stay back at home for several days a week, and the BPO sector laying off thousands of employees.

No wonder that the past twelvemonth has been eliciting comments like “Thank God it’s over” from all and sundry. But was 2008 the annus horribilis indeed? Would matters be simpler if I were to list down years that were just as bad, if not worse? For a nation that has only recently celebrated 60 years of independence, the contenders for this dubious distinction are a plenty. Each one of 1984, 1966, and 1948 can vie for this honour with remarkable ferocity. For each one of these years was peppered with murder and violence, riots and rebellion, and uncertainty and distrust. However, it is only expected that a bias or prejudice will creep into any choice that we make. For instance, for a secular Indian no year was more nightmarish than 1992 or 2002, when the pogrom against Muslims was executed with utmost finesse and impeccable coordination. Indian citizens of the Sikh faith must be having the darkest memories from 1984. This predicament is only expected because India is not Sweden or Norway where everyone speaks the same language, follows the same faith, and no one is very poor. Never before has a single political unit been carved from such diverse and disparate parts. Moreover, because media tends to be biased in favour of spectacular, dramatic events, the citizen tends to do so too. As a result, many of the less visible sufferings of the even lesser visible people are conveniently ignored and forgotten. For even if the fidayeen had not attacked Bombay and Thackeray’s hooligans not taken law into their own hands, millions of Indians would still not have access to proper sanitation or civic amenities. Any choice that we make, therefore, must either take into account all these factions, or risk being labelled either parochial or broad.

Who is to decide, then, which year has been the most horrible of them all? Is it even feasible to do so? Will time throw up a new contender each passing year? As an unlikely democracy and an unnatural nation, India had always been destined for a bumpy ride. To compound the grievances, in its eagerness to make rapid strides towards development, India has neglected the fissures, factions, and tensions in its own society. These splinters have drifted so far apart that even in times of national calamity they find it hard to suppress their sectarian affiliations. Noted historian Ramchandra Guha remarks that “for India to remain united and untroubled would be a miracle. For it to be democratic and free of conflict would be doubly so”. Reflecting upon these troubles times, Ashis Nandy, a renowned sociologist, says “in India the choice could never be between chaos and stability, but between manageable and unmanageable chaos, between humane and inhuman anarchy, and between tolerable and intolerable disorder.” No wonder that I have been able come up with so many nominations for the dubious honour of annus horribilis. But does that mean India is doomed forever? Is there no way in which its chaos can become manageable, its anarchy, humane, and its disorder, tolerable?

In a society that is being torn apart along various lines, it is very important to seek out the breeding grounds of hatred. India remains a nation where legend, myth, history, tradition, and culture often overlap. Sometimes, Indians can not tell one from the other. What prompts the annihilation of innocent people in the name of God or regional diversity? Why new division lines continue to be drawn on some pretext or the other? The answers to these questions won’t be easy to come up with. However, it is essential we try to resolve these perpetual problems in light of reason and rationale. Even if the solutions prove to be detrimental to many of the notions we have adhered to most of our life. As the bureaucrats deliberate on methods of settling the variety of disputes, the cycle of violence rages on, varying in intensity and form. As it does so, new hostages to history are spawned, ensuring “that the future generations are taught new wrongs to set right” and even older wrongs to avenge.

Reference: Outlook (January 12, 2009)

Ram Ke Naam

An unlikely conversation between two people on the morning of October 30, 1990. The venue is the Saryu Bridge, which leads into Ayodhya.

Anand Patwardhan: Aap kahan se aaye hain?
A Ganges Priest: District Eta.

AP : Aur kya karte hain aap ?
GP : Hum panda (pujari) hain Gangaji ke.

AP: Aap kya karne aaye hain yahan?
GP: Parikrama dene.

AP: Parikrama dene aaye hain?
GP: Haan.

AP: Aur Kar Seva ke liye bhi aaye hain ya nahin?
GP: Nahin. Uhun.

AP: Sirf parikrama karne aaye hain?
GP: Sirf parikrama dene.

AP: To aapko ye maloom tha ki yahan kar Seva bhi kar rahein hain Ram Janmabhoomi ke liye?
GP: Ye maloom hai. Par humko jab curfew khul gaya...aur jo humko...kal bhi humne suna ki parikrama lagegi, to phir hum aaye.

AP: Yaane aapko ye mandir ke aur masjid ke jhagde se koi lena dena nahin hai?
GP: Koi lena dena nahin hai.

AP: Apko farak nahin padta ki masjid bhi rahe ya mandir bhi rahe?
GP: Koi nahin. Hum to jake mandir mein thehrenge...ek mandir mein....yahan ek mandir hain....sagirapatti mein....wahan thehrenge.

AP: To aap ye nahin keh rahein hain ki "mandir wahin banayenge"?
GP: Hum to kuch nahin keh rahein hain. Hum to apne chashme ko khoi gaya to andhe aur ho gaye hain. Hum kya kahenge.

AP: Toh…..toh….chaliye.

A Policeman escorts the priest to the bus which will take him away from Ayodhya.

Policeman: Chasma aapka gayab ho gaya?
GP : Haan. Chasma gir gaya yahin kahin dhakka mukki mein.

Reverse Brain Drain

Disclaimer Something I wrote a long time back but which makes a lot more sense today. A chance glance through today's Education Times made me post this here. The issue has a cover article on the same subject.

Now Brain Drain is a lexicon most of us are familiar with; having been made popular by the much discussed and much criticized migration of smart Indian minds to greener meadows like US of A, UK, Australia etc. But what we are not very familiar with is the Reverse Brain-Drain which is, quite literally, the return of India's prodigal sons. A number of technology professionals leave their foreign jobs and return to India, lured by a booming economy whose growth rates are burgeoning by the month.

Most of the Indians coming back see this move not only as an emotional one but also career enhancing. Economy is at an all time high and the sensex is literally booming. Ajay Kela, one of such re-patriates, says that he receives several resumes per month from Indians, with decades of work experience in the US, wanting to relocate. Ex-patriates are returning because India is hot, and this definitely does not have anything to do with the mercury. There is an increasing feeling that the chunk of action in the technology industry is moving to India. We did get an idea about this from the frequency with which Microsoft honchos have been visiting India.

US is sitting up and taking notice of this trend. It realizes that minus the talent of the best of the brightest, it may lose its edge in technology and innovation. This fact was made very clear in a recent study in which it was found that 35% of the students securing excellent grades in American schools and universities were of Indian origin (while the second spot went to China). Further adding to their woes is the disturbing statistic that the number of Indian applicants to US universities is going down every year.

Bangalore, with its western work culture, funky metropolitan image and of course generous pay cheques, is proving to be the destination of choice for these ex-patriates. Other cities on the radar of these returnees include Hyderabad, Delhi, Noida and Gurgaon. Posh housing colonies like Palm Meadows, Florida Estate, Lake Vista and Ozone have sprung up in the Bangalorean suburbs to cater to these elite professionals. NASSCOM has estimated that nearly 30,000 technology and software professionals have moved back in the last 18 months (as of December 29, 2005).

Whatever the reason be, India is surely benefiting from this change in mind-set. For many returnees the newly challenging work environ in has tied in neatly with emotional and personal reasons like raising their children in the Indian culture and caring for their aging parents. This might very well turn out to be an altruistic pull to return to India and help their country achieve greater power than it had ever imagined.

Religious Fanaticism In India

There might be deficiency of infrastructure in India but one thing in which it has always been a superpower right from day one is Religious Fanaticism. Every other day we hear about zealous supporters of some cult or religion blindly following their leaders and doing whatever they command. Such is the state of affairs that it is hard to expect anything rational from such men whose reasoning has been clouded by what some unscrupulous Chandraswamis have said. We can go on about this topic in an endless debate and still find ourselves miles from reaching any solution.

I am not an atheist but blind faith is not what a developing nation like India needs. We find that entities like “ojhas”, "babas" and the like are still very much in business. We can never become a developed nation as long as people like these are allowed to fool the public. This ignorance might very well be tracked back to illiteracy. But just simply learning our lessons by heart won’t help in solving out this crisis. What we really need is education in the true sense. And that is hard to find anywhere. Some people try hard but they are often silenced; sometimes by force and sometimes by situations.

But education, or lack of it, is not the only things responsible for such shameful stats. Politicians, almost all of their unscrupulous species, seek to draw mileage out of India’s botched communal history and fulfill their motives. And when such motives give birth to riots and their like, it is the general public, irrespective of its caste, creed or religion, which suffers. There is no exception to this rule. The futility of riots is even much more than that of wars or battles.

But haven’t we heard all this and much more hundred of times. So why you should even read this article. Well don’t read it if you feel you don’t want to change things and let them be the way they are. What we can do to change things in our own small way is talk about such issues in public and be very vehement in our criticism of them. Try to talk people out of the darkness with which they have surrounded themselves. Tell them they are fools to even think on those lines. It is only by rhetoric that we can combat the rhetoric of those “ponga pandits” or the species which lacks any scruples. Don’t be too ideal and give up everything to change things. That is neither expected out of anyone nor commendable. But try to change people in your own sphere. If we succeed in modifying the thinking of even one person then our mission is accomplished.

Try to think of someone or something that is not connected to you directly and you will find that it is great not to be selfish or conceited all the time. Don’t forget your own responsibilities and ambitions but pay just a tad bit of time to things that matter to a bigger section of the world you occupy. I am sure you are going to find out in the end that all the trouble was certainly worth the effort.

Paritrana

It seems that the ideals of neo-patriotism, as cinematized in movies like Yuva and Rang De Basanti, are finally getting off the reels. Five IITians, all in their early twenties, have floated a new political party called ‘Paritrana’ and decided to enter into mainstream politics. The young guns kicked off their campaigning from the city of Jodhpur, where the party was formally launched.

Entering into a field which has been corroded by corruption and filth right to the very roots was not an easy decision for these guys. Tanmay Rajpurohit, the National President of the party, says, “Giving up handsome pay packages, comfort of family, and support of friends took a lot of thinking.” Ashwalayan Singh, Vice-President of the party, said, “An inner voice told me I should invest my efforts in my country rather than making my pockets heavier.”

As elucidated on the official site of the party, http://www.paritrana.org/, ‘Trana’ means the act of relieving a conscious entity from the state of distress and pain. But it may be ephemeral. ‘Paritrana’ is the complete relief implying the end of the very cause of distress.

Gen-Next always ends up criticizing the politicians and bureaucrats who have poisoned the whole system. But when the push comes to shove we wash our hands off the affair and prefer to be spectators in this gruesome melee of sorts. And it is for this reason that the efforts of these youths need to be applauded. Shortage of funds has not deterred them from reaching out for their aim. The zeal and burning desire of these guys seems genuine. They claim that they are there not for the power game but to be able to take the benefits of their efforts to the grassroots level.

Politicians of today are no longer the voice of the common man and thus it is up to people like us to take the burden of responsibility here on. We will not be able to succeed immediately and some of us might even falter - falling into the very trap we had sought to remove. But our efforts count towards the ultimate goal and we should have faith that one day, the droplets will fill the ocean.