Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Independent India
Nicholas S.Hopkins
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Given that the essence of the project was to carry out the
technical instructions for the rehabilitation of the land, the family
would work strictly according to the instructions and guidance of the
project management (pp. 17, 83). The rehabilitated land would be
considered garden land (p. 51). The project began with 40 families
in 1982, and had reached 1,373 families by December 1986; the main
constraint on further development was the shortage of suitable land.
The nature of the project makes it fairly costly per beneficiary, but it
is argued that the cost should be considered investment: This is
really an investment in man (p. 64). At the same time, the approach
focuses on the individual family rather than the community, which
means that concern for inequality is n o t high (p. 73).
The project is managed from a campus called Vrindavan (a
name with a strong classical Hindu connotation since it refers to the
paradise where Krishna was young) in the village of Lachhakadi,
under the supervision of the top leaders of the B A I F who come from
headquarters near Pune once a month for a couple of days. There is a
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will slowly begin to participate in the decisions being made. Bhatt and
the BAIF leaders feel that this evolution is occurring (pp. 82-83).
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The Valod and Vansda models have in common that they come
out of the Gandhian experience, and that they are focused on the
material improvement of living conditions for tribals in south Gujarat.
Both projects seem to come from outside the community of
beneficiaries, and yet there is a certain rhetoric of participation. The
Valod experiment is closer to the ground in the sense that the
organizers are from the area, and mostly continue living in the area.
They have a wide range of activities, and are more involved politically
with the people there. The Vansda experiment is a classic case of a
powerful group coming in from the outside and developing a project
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according to its norms. It has perhaps not been operating long enough
to have evoked the same local political response.
The sense of frustration among the VIAS leaders is reflected in
the observation by Shah and Chaturvedi (1983: l 1) that
a few among them felt dissatisfied with what they have
been doing. They maintain that it was n o t that their
programmes had failed, but they were not fully satisfied
with peoples attitude and behavior. They were upset by
the lack of peoples participation in programmes.
And they felt that people, having gained a little on the economic side,
were becoming oriented to profit and conspicuous consumption
rather than the Gandhian values of the VIAS leaders.
Both experiments are reformist in their general orientation. In
the Vansda case there seems to be a feeling that this is the correct
path. The BAIF is backed by powerful forces, and has created a major
rural development organization with branches throughout western
India. In the Valod case,8 the local organizers were feeling impatient
with the slow pace of reforms, and with the difficulty of coordinating
all the various parties. They had already concluded in the mid-1970s
that they could no longer aim at the community as a whole, but had to
target the poorest elements in the population to prevent their programs
from being hijacked by the more powerful. The Vansda project, on the
other hand, is aimed at families, particularly those disciplined enough
to be cooperative, and is less concerned with the distributional
implications of its project activities. The Vansda project is oriented
towards material wellbeing (economic upliftment), while the older
Valod project is focused on cultural change, the need to develop
human values and the personality of man.
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The Tilonia
experience. It
academics or
the result of
Along with this is the recognition that Change comes only out
of conflict (hopefully nonviolent), and that there is likely to be
something wrong with a project that everyone accepts (p. 370).
Moreover, the SWRC began to rely less on urban specialists and more
on locally recruited professionals, so that it would become more
rooted in its setting (p. 363). Thus the local staff rose from 42% in
1978 to 62% in 1981. The SWRC has also accepted that sometimes
changes in awareness, a growth of confidence, are a necessary basis
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approaches.
The project headquarters I visited in 1991 was in a specially
designed new campus about 1 km from Tilonia town; but for many
years the center was in a complex of buildings (a former tuberculosis
sanitarium leased from the Rajasthan government) next to the railway
station. It is relatively isolated. There are branch offices in some
villages.
The new campus includes accommodation for regular staff and
for guests, including a mess with simple food. It also includes offices
and space for certain special projects. For instance, there is a puppet
theater department, which maintains puppets and presents skits on
health and social themes in the villages. There is also an audiovisual
center equipped to show videos, and a library with a collection of
books and journals. The Center tries to be ecologically conscious. An
underground cistern collects rainwater. Cooking uses biogas, and no
wood should be burnt. Solar energy is used for lighting and for
electricity. The computer room is semi-subterranean and ventilated
with fans, in an effort to provide cooling for the computers without air
conditioning. There is a showroom for the crafts that have become one
of the hallmarks of the SWRC and that are mainly sold at urban fairs.
There is a small workshop to assemble electronic control systems for
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their solar panels. The SWRC has recently installed solar panels in the
isolated Himalayan area of Ladakh. Many of these are both functional
for the Center, and also demonstrations of technological experiments.
On display inside the gate is an Indianmade jet fighter, donated by
the Indian Air Force; its bellicosity may seem out of place, but Roy
explains that local children have never seen an airplane close up, and
they love to clamber into the cockpit, so it is also a demonstration.
The SWRC runs a number of different projects from this
campus, within its areas of water resource development, health,
education, agricultural extension, women, rural industries (crafts),
appropriate technology, animal husbandry, and communications. Here
are t w o examples. One project is to encourage literacy for children in
a night school format; the classes are taught by local teachers in a very
basic setting. The focus is on reading and some basic science. The
goal is practical literacy rather than schooling. The SWRC has also
long been active in craft activities, seen asa way of generating income
for poor people in the villages. Leatherwork, performed by people
belonging to an untouchable caste, is prominent, but there are also
examples of sewing, carpet weaving, etc. The SWRC has been
particularly successful at marketing the products, and earned about
100,000 pounds sterling in 1990. Some of this is profit that is used to
support other activities in the center. Overall the SWRC earns about
40% of its income from fees for services, sales of goods, and other
activities (p. 362.)
The SWRC helped several villages install water systems. In one
village where the SWRC has been working for some time, members
of different castes had been quarreling about access to wells. The
solution was to connect a piped water system to a well near a temple.
Members of all castes could serve themselves from that water without
irritating or interfering with others. A pump fills a reservoir twice a
day, and people are supposed to draw 5 liters each time. This water is
supposed to be restricted to drinking; for other purposes, such as
washing, there is nonpotable water. There are 27 house connections
and 15 public taps. Those with house connections pay 10 Rupees a
month; households that use the public taps pay 5 Rupees a month. The
money is collected by t w o lower caste persons chosen by a special
meeting. These persons pay the costs of the pump, and then bank the
rest. When one person tried to take more than his share of water,
public pressure brought him around. Thus there is better water and no
intercaste disputes.
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politics. Instead of trying to get along with the local political powers,
the SWRC challenged them by reaffirming its goals and redirecting
itself to the weaker sections. A third issue is that of replication. While
Roy argues that the Tilonia Model is n o t necessarily universally
valid for India, he is clearly proud that there are a number of
daughter projects, some of which have done well in their o w n
terms. The SWRC also constitutes a contribution to the debates about
development: development over charity; awareness and confidence
building over economic progress; local skills and ingenuity over urban
specialists; whole community versus weaker sections versus a trickle
down approach; project versus movement; the relationship of internal
democracy to democracy in the larger system. While n o t explicitly
keyed to Gandhis ideas, there is clearly a carryover of ideas and
terms.
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The first step in the village was to refurbish the temple, the
second was to attack and drive out the homebrew liquor shops so as
to reduce alcoholism in the village. Smoking was also prohibited.
Once this was done Hazare turned his attention to improving the
agricultural situation. The main focus there was watershed
management to provide irrigation water for the second, dry-season
crop. The defective percolation tank built by the government was
improved, a lift irrigation scheme from a nearby canal was
undertaken, and drinking water was brought closer to peoples homes.
Most of these water schemes are run by smallscale users
cooperatives. There is a general agreement n o t to grow water
demanding crops like sugar cane (p. 15). At a more general level, an
afforestation program was undertaken. Other projects have explored
the use of solar and wind power. There is a preference for financing
projects through loans, since that ensures greater commitment by
people to the project (p. 29), but the villagers are uneasy with the
large debt load (p. 16). Grants, especially from aid agencies, are
avoided as they lead to dependence. On the other hand, many
government agencies have chosen to use the village as a site for
demonstrations.
One of Hazares concerns is with sustainable development, with
using local resources so as to preserve them for future use. Together
with water conservation, there is the motto of the four bans: bans on
sterilization, alcohol, grazing and tree felling (p. xv), the last t w o
being aimed at preserving the vegetation cover. Other social programs
aimed at eliminating untouchability, family planning, collective
marriage ceremonies, and voluntary labor contributions.
From a social point of view, Hazare encouraged the larger
farmers to help the smaller ones, and also a form of collective labor,
or labor donation to village projects:
From the teachings of Vivekananda, Anna has imbibed
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standards used. In all the projects analyzed here, the main goals are
selected by the outside organizers, along with the paths to reach those
goals. Participation is understood as cooperating with this, and
perhaps speaking up supportively in meetings.
A final point has to do with the organization of the development
projects themselves. Many of these organizations are tied to a
particular strong, perhaps charismatic personality. The organizers are
committed men who have devoted a great part of their lives to
advancing rural and human development according to their o w n
lights. They have considered the alternatives and reached their
conclusions, and they deserve respect for this. In this sense they are
n o t always open to suggestions by others, including those by
beneficiaries, though there are some examples (SWRC) where the
organizers admit to having changed course. Over the years, the
organizations have professionalized themselves, and development
has become less a vocation and more a career. This pattern means that
there are sometimes conflicts between organizations operating in the
same geographical area with different philosophies. It also means that
organizations tend to take on a life of their own, since people depend
on them for a living.
Whether these projects started with an idea of a Gandhian
model or something related, they are being driven towards something
different. The frustration of dealing with real and somewhat contrary
people wears on them, and they change their tactics: an acceptance of
conflict tempers the commitment to nonviolence. The availability of
funding is tempting, and creates a need which must be filled.
Divisions of labor emerge. Nonetheless the basic orientation remains
and is renewed by the birth of new organizations. The verbalizations
of these organizations, those of the commentators on them, and their
actual practice, reflect to some degree the influence of Gandhi or
perhaps the influence of deeper patterns of Indian culture which gelled
in his philosophy.
The ideas of Gandhi are echoed in the present, both in writing
and in acts, though sometimes respected more in the breach than in
the observance. Thus M.N.Srinivas, the leading Indian anthropologist,
expresses both the hopes for social progress and the apprehensions of
the role of conflict and violence, and provides a concluding frame for
the five cases. It is easier to see the path from Gandhis prescriptive
faith in persuasion to Srinivass descriptive recognition of conflict.
The positions are linked by a common goal: establishing social justice
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NOTES
1 Research in India in 1990-1991 was made possible by a sabbatical
grant from the American University in Cairo and a grant from the
American Institute of Indian Studies. My guide to India was
Professor B.S.Baviskar of the Department of Sociology, University
of Delhi. Dr. Milind Bokil of Pune escorted me to the village of
Ralegan; M r. Sanjit Bunker Roy offered me hospitality and
conversation at Tilonia; Father Jose Kananaikal oriented me to his
projects and to Indian development. My heartfelt thanks to all
these and many more.
2 The enduring quality of some of these ideas is shown by the
interview that the Indian prime minister Inder Kumar Gujral gave
to Ibrahim Nafie, the editor of Al-Ahram, and published in
Al-Ahram Weekly on August 21, 1997, p. 1. After noting that our
goal is growth with equity, Gujral went on to characterize
independent India asan incomparable experiment.
3 By Third World standards India is relatively rural; in the 1991
census, 72% of the population was rural, compared to 57% in the
1996 Egyptian census.
4 Gandhis anti-urban rhetoric is exemplified by this quote, given by
Mishra (19912128): The growth of cities [is] an evil thing... the
blood of villages is the cement with which the edifice of the cities
is built.
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Works Cited
Bal, Prakash. Rising Tide of Resentment. Economic and Political
Weekly 31 (#49, Dec. 7, 1996). 3159-3160.
Bhatt, Anil. Development and Social Justice: Micro-action by Weaker
Sections. New Delhi: Sage, 1989.
1991.
Dantwala, M. L. The Trusteeship Formula. Gandhi and Economic
Development. Pandey, B.P., ed. New Delhi: Radiant, 1991.
141-151.
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