Apprehending Gandhi…

Some of our events have led us to thinking about Gandhi in many different ways. We’re planning to study his impact in his times and his relevance in our times through our activities in the future. So this is an warming-up article that invokes curiosity by sharing a personal experience about reading Gandhi. Lets know him better like Mukta here is aspiring to. :)

Graphic Design by Mukta Ansikar

Few years ago, I was a ‘Gandhi-detractor’. .. It would be baffling to read such a line right at the beginning. But thats where my acquaintance with the skinny man began. And thats how I was exposed to the ‘Mahatma’! In school-days , we used to spoof over his appearance, used to fire our aversion by listening to the stories of the mistakes he made as a national leader.
Of course we did not form such opinions all by ourselves. They were some of our teachers, elders and people whom we considered ‘authority’, who sowed many of these views in me and my friends then. I used to thought of practice of Ahimsaa as an exhibition of powerlessness, inability to fight back. And I did not believe in Satya as potent and applicable value.
For the first two years of college, my attitude towards Mr. Gandhi remained quite the same. But as I stepped in FY class..Thanks to Philosophy. It made me realize how narrow my world-view was. It coached me to draw the lines between opinions, assumptions and biases. And it bestowed me the ‘Courage’ to say “Yes, I was wrong. I will start to grasp it all over again .” So, I decided to do the same with this person. I admitted that my understanding of Gandhi was based on someone else’s vague arguments and now I should explore him by myself.
An year has passed to that, I’ve started with his autobiography: ‘My experiments with truth’.
‘Gandhi’ is a journey. And he did not ‘happen’.He was ‘made’. The rational, critical.. the ‘questioner’ was always awake within him. From very small age. That is why he could retrospect. Was he adept in doing so? -No. He had many mis-beliefs, biases carried on by the people around or imposed by customs. But he at times took kind of a charge of his life, his beliefs, his decisions to shape his character the way ‘he’ wanted. So he did not flow with any of the emotional, philosophical, religious, practical impulses blindly.
He is a good story-teller but telling one’s own story by oneself with the element of ‘truth’ ..I think it takes astronomic audacity . But the audacity which seems ‘enormous’ to me ,had simply became a part of his personality. After years of sincere practice. He could not bear the discomfort brought by ‘untruth’ even for a moment. And he did not suppress it too as we do ..at every step. I remember him saying something like this to a missionary : “I do not want to get rid of the consequences of my sins, i want to be freed from the sinful nature, sinful acts.” That is why he could ‘mend’ his mistakes.
There are many things I have started admiring him for. There are many things I have decided to follow. This is my journey to understand the flourish of Gandhi’s philosophy and its significance, practicality.
I always ask myself – what i would be ending up in? In this case, Will I finally acknowledge him as a ‘Mahatma’ and start adoring him? -No, I will not. I believe in gravity of his ideology, influence of his work and the transformations it led to. I definitely appreciate his contribution in India’s Movement for Freedom.
But once you start ‘worshiping’ any ‘person’ for his/her magnanimity, majesty.. anything, you insult his/her ‘being human’. You forget his limits as a mortal, finite though extraordinary being. And moreover, you stop accepting his mistakes, misbehavior trying to justify it. You do not analyze but keep ‘advocating’ the person. And you give up rationalizing. Gandhiji was himself against this.
Well, I am reading Gandhi, grasping his morals and I’ll do it as far as I it interests me. And I say, It is a pleasant, peaceful experience.
– Mukta Asnikar.

Going back ‘to School’: The Doorstep Experience.

I first heard about Door Step School in one of our meetings of the Sociology Club. Doorstep School is a centre of non-formal education for the children of construction site workers and slum children. I first visited Door Step around 6 months ago. I remember I was very reluctant to go as I had a bad mood that day. Finally, out of a moral obligation, I decided to go. I went there along with a friend of mine. That one day, changed me, it moved me. I’d never imagined this would be so great. Since it was my first time, I hadn’t really planned anything. So, all we did was sing songs, rhymes and play games. It was a transforming experience. The kids, they were bubbling with enthusiasm. They had so much energy in them, if channelized appropriately; we could really light up so many homes, literally and figuratively. There was something contagious about that energy, the eagerness, the inquisitiveness. In our classes, we try to break the social constructs, but how big the difference between theory and practical really is, was experienced by me at Door Step. The kids at Door Step School come from very vulnerable backgrounds and so there were many apprehensions. There were some notions which dissolved when I went there and interacted with them. I ‘knew’ that such and such constructs exist and we need to deconstruct them to analyze but there I could ‘feel’ it. And I think the ‘feeling’ part is always very important.

Since that first Saturday I have been more than eager to go to Door Step School. And now, there is a comfort level that has been established between me and the kids. It is very important to have a one to one relation with them and it feels great to know that I have been able to achieve that with most of them. It’s a beautiful feeling when you go there and some of them are standing in the balcony and as soon as they see you, they come running to greet you. Also, when you leave, some of them come to you and tell you about their day or what they did in their other classes. It’s overwhelming.

The first thing that anybody would notice about those kids when they go there is their enthusiasm. They are all so energetic and waiting in anticipation, to be involved. Eagerness and will comes out very profoundly. And I believe that has made it easier for me to work with those kids. You get a feeling that they like this place and are willing to spend time here.

There are a few things that I know from my own experience at school. And I tried to keep all those things in mind when I went to Door Step. One of those things was: the attention span. The kids’ attention span varies according to the activity being conducted and the individual interests. So, there always have to be things to distract them from the monotony of the activity. I started thinking of the teachers that we liked when we were in school and why we liked them and tried to apply it with the kids. There are a few kids who won’t open up initially but they do eventually when the mood has been set.
I try that whatever activity I take has to have more inputs from them and less from me. So, sometimes, I go talk to them about things which are happening around them. Whenever, we watch a short (10-12mins) animated story, we have a discussion after that on the same.

There is a minimum ‘order’ of the way things are done. Like, for example, we once had this activity where, I would say a word out loud and they had to either write down or draw or express in any form they want, the first thing that comes to their mind after hearing that word. So, here the medium of expression could be anything, writing, drawing or even talking about it.

Another thing I noticed was the language. When you ask the children their names, a few of them, usually the elder kids, fold their hands, stand straight and proudly say, in English, in full sentence “My name is so and so”. When I ask them to write their names, they ask me whether it’s supposed to be in English and I tell them they may write in whatever language they are comfortable with. And some of them call me near them and timidly tell me that they don’t know English. And it is the shame in their voice and the feeling of inferiority in their expressions that makes me feel sad. Not all the children there are Marathi speakers, even if they are Maharashtrians; they have very different dialects of the language.

When we talk about kids, we can’t leave out fights or bullies. The elder children bully the younger ones. There have been quite a few fights but the younger ones don’t resist or hit back. When I would try to call the kids’ attention to me, one or two of the elder kids would take the lead and start hitting the other children and forcing them to sit down and listen to me. At such times, it becomes very difficult because I don’t want to yell at anyone. And I don’t think yelling or silencing helps at all.

There is also the ambitious, attention–seeking, ‘ideal’ student kind. They would never disobey you and would voluntarily ‘monitor’ the other kids. I learnt and am still learning a lot about kids’ behavior. Whenever they are working, I always observe them, very intently. Each one of them has her or his own style of doing things and it’s so beautiful to see it being synchronized in movement; like noises turning into a rhythm.

There is a minimum ‘order’ of the way things are done. Like, for example, we once had this activity where, I would say a word out loud and they had to either write down or draw or express in any form they want, the first thing that comes to their mind after hearing that word. So, here the medium of expression could be anything, writing, drawing or even talking about it.

I personally never liked the seating arrangement we had in schools; it makes the teacher seem very unapproachable. And the whole thing about “Don’t talk amongst yourselves”, doesn’t appeal to me. I think, if the students sit in a few circles or semi circles equidistant from the teacher, it will encourage the necessary interaction among
the kids as well as the teacher’s approachability.

When I go to Door Step School on Saturdays, I don’t know what age group of kids am I going to get to interact with. I might have prepared something according to the kids aged 7-8 and I might get kids aged 4-5. Or the kids might just get bored of the activity. Hence, there always needs to be a ‘Plan B’.

One time, a group of girls came to me after the session when we were leaving and one of them started telling me what songs she wants me to get to class next Saturday so that she could dance on them. She candidly asked me to prepare and rehearse one of the songs because she wants me to sing it to them. It feels wonderful.

Going back to the first day, I remember when we were returning from Door Step, the journey back home was probably the longest silent journeys with a smile fixed to my face.

Ayushi Rawat.

Human Rights Week: Being Ecologically Literate

(Sociology club, Fergusson College, had observed 3rd-10th December 2010 as Human Rights Week. This is an account of the entire ‘making’ process……. from scratch to the final day)

Conceptualizing the theme: Human Rights and Environment.

From the very beginning human beings have been bringing about changes in the environment. Environment, dynamic as it is, could essentially cope up with these changes. However, with the advent of industrial societies, the resilience of environment on the face of stress has been severely dismantled. The present mode of production which focuses on harnessing /exploiting the environment to its maximum limit has further aggravated the problem.

Sociology Club, in many of its formal and informal gatherings had discussed how human beings are increasingly getting disconnected with nature. This ‘divorce’, which is a result of many structural processes, has raised serious environmental concerns. Chief Seattle’s reply to Washington, 1854, considered as one of the best documents ever written on the inter-connectedness of all life on earth, inspired the club. The theme, Human Rights and Environment, was precisely the result of all these thought initiations. In many discussions that followed we comprehended that human rights are intrinsically linked to environment and the realization of basic human rights is possible only in a healthy and clean environment. Supreme Court of India in 1983 interpreted Right to life (Article 21) as Right to wholesome environment.

To further contextualize this ‘linkage’ (in the background of the 26th anniversary of Bhopal Gas Tragedy), we decided to view Bhopal Gas Tragedy primarily as an ‘Environmental Disaster’, pointing at the ‘environmental cost’ of the present model of hegemonic development. Through our posters, street plays and other activities we wanted to address the structural problems related to economic integration and its environmental consequences. We wanted to unravel the complexity/ies of the issue/s. When we further investigated the theme we realized that how the livelihood of certain groups/communities are threatened with increasing environmental degradation. Bhopal Gas tragedy as a disaster is not part of our recent memory. As a group, we realized that the issues that the tragedy has been revealing since the past 26 years are extremely relevant. Bhopal gas tragedy points out at the laxity of the government to protect its citizens, essentially because of the state-corporate collusion among many other reasons.

Prior to ‘Human Rights Week’ Sociology Club had organized a group discussion on the Bhopal Gas Tragedy (with a focus on the judgment given by the special court on the tragedy). Sociology Club had earlier engaged itself with similar topics through its diverse activities.

Thus in short the conceptualization of the theme ‘Human Rights and Environment’ was a result of many interactions which were possible through various activities of Sociology Club.

Process more enjoyable than Product!

Once clear on the certain key ideas of the theme, we started off with the process of implementing them. It was decided that Human Rights Week would be observed from the 3rd of December 2010(marking the 26th anniversary of Bhopal Gas Tragedy) to 10th December 2010 (World Human Rights Day).

We planned out a scheme of activities, for the week. The activities were poster exhibition, street play, film screening and ‘thought- provoking’ games. We also decided to take our posters and street play to other colleges in Pune as well.

Poster Exhibition: Though we started working on the posters from the 25th of November 2010, we had several meetings prior to 25th, where in we finalized many ideas. The most interesting part during these informal meetings and while working was that certain aspects of the theme were becoming clearer while certain other aspects were becoming even more complex! After many brainstorming sessions we decided the broad categories in our poster exhibition. They were- ‘Industries and Environment’,’ Daily Life and Environment’ and ‘Livelihood and Environment’. We were mindful of the fact, that these categories are not ‘air tight’ and that they are intricately over lapping and linked. In ‘Industries and Environment’ we focused on different Industrial-environmental disasters (Bhopal Gas Tragedy, BP oil spill etc). We had informative and critical posters on the same. We had a number of introductory posters on simple but relevant questions such as ‘what are human rights?’, ‘How are Human rights linked to Environment?’Etc. Livelihood and Environment was a section where we tried to unravel several issues such as global inequality, privatization of water and other commonly owned resources and the consequences.

Daily Life and environment primarily focused on the issue of consumerism. Consumerism is a matter of vital importance as we are moving away from our role of ‘producers’ and increasingly becoming ‘only consumers’ there by straining the limited resources. We earnestly worked on posters, aiming at solutions. The solutions depicted in the posters were centered on what one do on an individual level. On one hand we exposed the magnitude of the environmental issues and on the other hand we underlined the fact that individual forms of resistance do make a difference.

Street Play: Our street play ‘paniless Panipur’ precisely discussed the relevance of individual choices and the difference it could bring about. (……boond boond se hi to samandar bharta hain). In the street play we dealt with the issue of privatization of water. It creatively portrayed the nexus between the State and Corporate and how the state is ready to disrupt the livelihood and survival of the rural poor to safeguard corporate interests. The street play exposes how privatization of commonly owned resources violates basic human rights. Finally we urge the audience to make an ‘environment friendly’ and ‘humane’ decision to quit bottled water.

Thus, explaining the implication of individual choices on the larger process of privatization of water. We also tried to link the lives of ‘rural poor’ and ‘urban dwellers’, pointing at the issue of livelihood.

Thought – provoking games: Games were also a result of our engagement with the theme. We had two games, namely ‘power walk’ and ‘snake and ladder’. Power walk was a game which aimed at transcending ones identity, for example- an urban middle class boy would be given an identity of a Dalit rural woman be briefed on the given identity. Once this was done the participants were asked questions to check their ‘ecological footprints’. According to the answers given they were asked to either move a step ahead or stay where they are. By the end of the game we get a pattern of ‘different identities’ placed at ‘different (unequal) levels’ of consumption.

This game was quite interesting because on one hand it unleashed our inability to transcend our own identity, proving our unawareness and on the other hand it was insightful as it displayed the wide disparity in the consumption of resources. ‘Snake and Ladder’ was a fun game which aimed at spreading environment friendly choices.

Throughout the process we got an opportunity to dwell upon a particular theme for a considerable time period. This helped us in developing a holistic perspective on issues of environmental concerns.

The week: visiting different colleges……

The first and the last day of the week i.e., 3rd December and 10th December, were observed in our college campus. On the 3rd, we thematically displayed posters, staged the street play and organized the above mentioned games. On the 10th we displayed our posters in D.E.S Law College and thereafter observed the final day with poetry and music. The poetry and music session was organized in collaboration with ‘Students for Free Tibet’ and ‘Open Space’. Participants recited poems which dealt with an array of human rights issues such as communalism, hunger, systemic inequality, domestic violence to mention a few. The final day concluded with a group song, popularly known as the RTI anthem.

During the week we visited St. Mira’s College, Camp on the 4th of December with our poster exhibition and street play. On the 7th, 8th & 9th we visited Modern College, B.M.C.C and S.P. College respectively. In all our college visits we were welcome with great hospitality, though the level of curiosity among the students startlingly differed. The entire experience helped us in initiating discussions regarding human rights and environmental concerns (at different levels) among students belonging to varied backgrounds.

On the 6th we organized a screening of a BBC documentary ‘One Night in Bhopal’, based on the Bhopal Gas tragedy. The documentary was a ‘first person’ account of the survivors of the tragedy. The audience was shocked to know the gravity of injustice done to the victims and survivors. After the screening it was unanimously decided to observe two minutes of silence for the victims who were killed and to cherish the courage exhibited by the survivors.

Thus if I were to sum up the entire experience…. I would say it was an ‘engaging’ process which convinced us to appreciate the difference between ‘being literate’ and ‘being ecologically literate’!

-N. Shobhana

A Visit to Hiware Bazaar

We had heard a lot about Hiware Bazaar. And the small political, sociological and “what is development?” discussions we used to have with our friends somehow led us into visiting this model village situated very close to the ‘far from model’ Pune city. Hiware Bazaar is a small village situated in Ahmadnagar district. Our term-end semester exams had just finished then. Off we went, on our own, not knowing the exact route to the place. Asking here and there for the exact location. It took us close to three and a half hours and 4 different means of transport to actually get to Hiware Bazaar. So, Hiware Bazaar it was.
Now, we had done some research about this place before leaving. So, firstly we would like to share what we read about Hiware Bazaar on the website of India Environment Portal(which is managed by the Centre for Science and Environment and promoted by the National Knowledge Commission) and also from blogs written by people who had visited the village. Hiware Bazaar is situated in the rain shadow region of Maharashtra and faced acute water crisis in the 70’s which led to a crippling agrarian crisis throughout the 80’s. The village had an annual rainfall of about 400-450mm which is nearly half of the district average. There was also a failed dam project close to the village. Agriculture, the primary occupation, was suffering in Hiware Bazaar. This led to villagers migrating to the cities for work. People began to engage themselves in liquor-related activities which led to a socio-moral crisis along with the already deep economic crisis. However, one man had different ideas. Shri Popatrao Pawar, a young MCom graduate then, was elected as Sarpanch of the village in the early 90’s. There were changes. And they were for the better. We would like to list out some of the reforms undertaken by Shri Pawar – (1) Addressing the need of water for irrigation through several means they constructed small bunds using finance from government schemes, passing a resolution to not cultivate water-intensive crops like sugarcane, planting more trees on the hills to let water soak into the ground and hence raising the groundwater levels and also increasing the rainfall amount to some extent. Trees were planted on a large scale. Water conservation structures like contour trenches were built around hills to conserve rainwater. (2) A resolution was passed to avoid green lands being spoiled due to excessive grazing by animals. The resolution also had a clause which allowed people to take in one head load of feed for their animals everyday by paying a nominal fee(the fee, maybe to dispel the notion that everything comes for free). (3) Every villager was made to put in manual labour for bund and pond construction and savings of money hence produced was used to build temples and a mosque (that too for just one Muslim family in the village). This helped in passing on the message that the efforts of people were going in for a noble cause i.e. development. (4) No one was allowed to sell the land to anyone from outside the village. (5) All houses in the villages would have the same façade design to show equality. (6) HIV test was made compulsory before marriage. (7) Ban on liquor and tobacco-related activities in the village. (8) Ban on cutting trees and grazing. Such reforms obviously needed support from the state. The Employment Guarantee Scheme and funds from the Adarsh Gaon Yojana helped in the cause.
This was some research done prior to the visit. We reached the village and were surprised to see concrete roads greeting us. All roads in concrete! There was green cover on the small hills surrounding the village. We got into the Gram Panchayat building and met Mr. Habib Syed who worked at an administrative level in the village under Mr. Pawar. Sadly, and paradoxically, Mr.Popatrao Pawar was in Pune city! Habib’s cousin brother Swaleen, who we met before entering the village was also around. They told us about the work done and also gave some tips to get around the village quickly enough(we were short on time, sadly). So, we were on our own now. Moving around. Observing. All houses actually had nearly similar facade designs. All houses had an attached toilet and a bathroom. There was a primary and secondary school. Solar street lights!! One kirana shop had a notice asking people to bring only cloth bags of their own and avoiding plastic bags. All houses had the names of both the man and the woman of the house. We were moving around and managed to get talking to a few women in the village. It was a Sunday afternoon and the women were threshing grains at the entry points of their houses. Their husbands were away working on the farms. We were talking to one such lady about the development story of the village. She seemed so very happy and satisfied about everything done by the Gram Panchayat. Her kids seemingly were doing well in school. She also stressed about the fact that Shri Pawar had given education a very important position in the village. Students were encouraged to study well. Also, villagers were told to work hard with their lives. She said “Te je boltat, barobar boltat…ani je kahi kelay te changlyasathich kelay” (Whatever the Sarpanch says is correct and whatever is done is for good). Questions were ringing in our mind about the social changes in the village. Is there gender inequality? Caste inequality? “Kaahi nahi”. All was well, she said. Girls have all the opportunities which boys get. Everyone is respected in the village. No one is treated badly. No tobacco. No liquor. Everyone is sane. This seemed ideal. After a short chat about village politics (which she said, did not exist) we took her leave only to end up talking with another woman who was doing a similar chore. From her, we got to know that the backward caste people were actually staying in houses which were away from the main village houses. We also managed to reach to a point from where we could conclude that there is a deeper thread of development running here.
People seemed very happy. They were satisfied. However, the bright conclusions which could be drawn are mostly economic in nature. There are social ones too, but they seem to originate from economic success. One fact we read was – there are 54 millionaires in Hiware Bazaar!! A village of barely a thousand people. But as human beings we try to find faults even in very good things. Same was the case here. This village has done a lot more than most villages in India and it is way ahead on most parameters of development. Still, the buck never stops at something. You have to keep on improving. One thing we felt which was missing here, is the presence of competition and the presence of a formidable political opposition. Too much of satisfaction can be harmful. One tends to get complacent about oneself and one’s decisions. The need for reasoned debate and arguments is something which has existed in the history of India(as pointed out beautifully in an Amartya Sen book – ‘The Argumentative Indian’). There is a need to challenge monotony(and even monarchy). That constant chirping about issues is needed. The constant endeavour to improve the standard of living is crucial. Another fact we observed was the possible neglect to social inequalities and freedom of expression. The reason for this could be the tremendous economic development. The ideal situation would be one where both economic and social development go hand in hand. Here too, socially the village is definitely not backward when compared to the rest of India. But we guess for us, social stability and freedom would exist in a better way in a situation where there are open discussions about social and cultural issues with an open and unbiased mind. The previous sentence would apply to all of India!
Kudos to Shri Popat Pawar for doing such a great job! He along with his villagers have actually set an example in front of all of us about the importance of political will in the development of a region. We enjoyed our short visit to the village. The analysis which we offered is something which we have just attempted. I am sure the analysis is not complete in any way!! After all, how can a few hours spent in a village give a good analysis of the situation in the village? There must be people who can offer insights to us on the issue. But I guess the best way to analyze better would be to spend more time in the village and talk to more people. There were certain things we could not observe during our visit, the absence of which you must have noted till now. The idea was to highlight a situation of developmental success happening right in our neighbouring district and the importance of political will in achieving that level of development, which again I hope you must have noted!!
THANK YOU
• Atul Kotagal & Sudarshan Shinde,
S.Y.B.Sc.

SAMEEKSHA 2010

A watchdog? A mirror? Or a pair of spectacles? What exactly defines Media, the national asset touted as the fourth pillar of democracy in Indian society? These were the questions we unraveled during Sameeksha 2010, the daylong fest organized by the Sociology Dept of Fergusson College.

The lexicon meaning of the word ‘Sameeksha’ is critical analysis, and that’s what we effectuated to the theme of ‘Media and Society’. How the media gets enriched with the differences in opinions, tastes, ideologies and attitudes; how the plurality of our society is reflected by the diversity of our media; how the media designs public perspective with sensitivity, or the lack of it; were the intricate layers of the issue we had undertaken.

As soon as we soaked in the theme into our minds, our creative beings swung into action. Ideas, insights, imagination were exchanged and we imbibed the noble virtue of 3Rs : Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. The vastness, variety and vibrance of media as a theme provided a wide continuum of ideas for poster making and street play. We creatively displayed the interplay between the stimulating aspects of media such as sensationalism, lamentable lack of social responsibility, commodification of women, globalization and consumerism through our posters and street play.

The posters were co-created by trained fine artists and diligent amateurs, ensuring the least amount of wastage, minimum material inputs and maximum aesthetic and significant final product. The street play team brainstormed on the script and direction and tried to capture the intriguing relationship between ‘Breaking News’ and its audiences.

After one month of efforts and application of creativity on war footing, the event was one day away. The panic was palpable, trips of tension took over and we were apprehension gripped. But we managed to shed our fears and look forward for one day filled with sociological understanding enrobed with fun and frolic.

27th February arrived. Posters were put up for display, and not only it gained appreciation but also provided a few moments of thought churning to the visitor. Street play, titled ‘Sansani’ was performed near the main circle and the actors, professionals or not, were gifted with heartwarming applause. Activities and games like ‘Remote Control’, ‘Bhaago’, ’10 seconds’ and ‘Treasure Hunt’ kept the young ones engrossed and they participated with pumped up adrenalin and enthusiasm.

The day had achieved its aim. We had lived in the air of the theme of media for one whole month and were successful in imparting what we learned to others on the main day. We learnt from our flaws, our fights and our discussions. We celebrated the spirit of having a sociological perspective and having a healthy interplay with it. The event gifted us a pair of spectacles to view media and society and the fascinating relationship between the two.

Rajashree Gandhi (SYBA)