Define freedom!

You, the owner of a free will, have chosen to struggle.
You are the possessor of moral might.
You snatched away the mask of benignity that the power-holders wore.
You are reciting.
You are chanting.
You are singing.
Freedom!

Bahrain, you are marching to the light today

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Which is Bigger Evil, Corruption or Communalism?



1) Which one needs to
be addressed first?
2) Do they have
any overlaps?
3) What do you think?

Corruption affects common people on a daily basis. It affects the poor in the worse possible ways and closes the opportunities that legally may be there but practically are not available unless a bribe is paid, a favour done or there is some nepotistic connection exists. It disallows inclusive growth.  It affect's an ordinary citizen's abilities to maintain basic living standards, access public services like health and education and social benefits among several other things. It leads to misuse of the available public resources, and therefore, economic growth does not reach all sections of a society.

Communalism destroy the fabric of a society and destroys social cohesion and harmony and take destoys peace and stability which are pre-conditions for development. Communalism increases poverty by preventing movement of labour, capital and other public resources by restricting these within a particular community. It takes social trust away and creates a sense of instability for those who are not part of that community. It affects people's ability to generate more resouces using the current resources because it creates and environment in which property and other liquid resources can be acquired, owned or transacted for benefit only by a certain community based on their claim of a traditional precedence.

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Are you listening, respectable Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ji?

Don't be a Spooked Buck, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ji.

Let me start afresh as if born again; erase memory as if nothing ever existed; and grow up right as if there are no strictures. These have been occasional thoughts in the last one year. A friend called it a mid-life crisis. As for being born again, it’s scary; it took years of whip-whap before arriving somewhere close to autonomy. Would it be wise to undo what has taken almost half the life? Life experiences say no. As for memory, there are moments when the life has been full of light, positive energy and joy. Would it be worth erasing all that for a memory of the future that may not even have even a speck of light? The brain says no. And as for growing up all over again, there’s no indication of a human being ever being fully autonomous because we learn depending on where we come from, where we are, what we see and how we have been oriented to see, ie, growing up without strictures is a notion. The biological clock, too, says no because there is only decay in the future, protect all the learning and keep exercising the gray cells. An acquaintance called it a mid-life wisdom.

This is, and will continue to be, my personal dilemma. The issue of starting afresh, however is not limited to private lives. Striking a balance between the past, present and future, and issues in acknowledging the rights and wrongs are a common dilemma in the public life too.

So respectable Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ji, if you do not rise today we will fall, not just you. We will allow achievements of the last six decades to go waste because you want to negotiate afresh as if the corrupt past never existed and today is not tainted. We cannot start afresh or hope for a corruption free future when we know that we stand on a corrupt ground. Use your imagination to gain from the experiences of the past and apply them for the betterment of the future just as you use your financial acumen when you deal with the statistics of the industrial growth rate or monetary and fiscal policies. Own everything; take possession of all things, right or wrong, in the full faith that they are actually yours because the governance institutions under you created them or practice them. If you would do that we would able be to draw inspiration from the positives of the past, learn from the mistakes of the past and stand with the strength of the past to visualize a future in which we would be able to deal with corruption.

The notion of starting afresh evokes beginning, the right formation … there’s a freshness about this notion. It indicates a learning based on a particular experience, a new way that would set the future right. It smells so spring-like that the exact troubling events get obscured by the idea of ‘the new’ and the problems, abuses and misuses, humiliations, embarrassments, conflicts, and all that is wrong get buried under the layers of ‘the new’. We forget that the past is like fossil fuel, which with one match-stick, goes on fire and with that goes that artificially created ‘the new’. These are the fears of starting afresh. Right or wrong but it cannot be denied that starting afresh without recognizing and addressing the problematic issues we cannot go far. The stench of yesterday always catches up with the fragrance of tomorrow.

So respectable Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ji, no doubt you are one of the few political leaders to have achieved almost universal respect for your integrity but it’s not just about you, it is about the conduct of the institutions you deal with, and you know that what rots needs to be parted with.

I felt for you the day you had to sit with the media and say that you are not corrupt. You don’t have to do this. We know you are not. But you need to open your eyes. Please have the courage to take the responsibility of the wrongs and deal with them. Move from token actions, make amends. Reparation is a forward looking basis when the loss is reparable. When it is as it is now, indemnify, make amends, be good, restitute trust, .... and look forward, take up the past, own the present and the future, start again, start afresh!

There are many other issues on which I would like you to lend an ear, like, the naxal movement and the state violence, development induced displacement, the quota for women in the legislative bodies and public services, education and child labour, violence against women and girl children, and so on. But today, I will be content if you would show some humility to accept your mistakes and limitations related to the issue of corruption.

Are you listening, respectable Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ji?

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Women and Religious Fundamentalism

A message from Bhagawad Geeta as the Thought of the Day
in front of Baitil Aman Guesthouse, Shela Village, Lamu,
owned by Sidiki Abdulrehman

WOMEN’S support to religious fundamentalism could be explained with the help of notions of women as objects and subjects of community identity, conditioned as much by patriarchal values as men, their interests so intrinsically connected to the community that thinking of individual or collective interests may amount to blasphemy. Also, making an assumption that all women would like to oppose fundamentalism implies rallying behind universal notions of women-hood and sisterhood, and romanticizing women as universal peace-seekers.

Here, I would like to explore women’s identities, interests and values as complex interactive elements in the multitude of intersections and over-lapping themes of fundamentalism. I will attempt to analyze a few key intersections of religion, nationalism, caste, class, gender and community identity in India with a special focus on current trends in Hinduism to understand the layers of women’s support to religious fundamentalism. I will also attempt to link the growth of religious fundamentalism with increasing attempts to control women.

While approaching religio-spirituality, we should make a distinction between the values of the religio-spiritual realm and their practice. The growth of values is associated more with metaphysical aspects of the religion and is seen as the preserve of enlightened and unattached spiritual persons who could devote themselves fully to emancipate the soul. The practice of these values is considered to be closer to ordinary mortals. The intricate world of attachments in which women live makes them ‘incompatible’ to the demands of a spiritual world which is highly valued, powerful, and a typically male domain. Some women may strategize an escape from attachments and create a religio-spiritual space for themselves by renouncing their sexuality and sex roles through sanyas (renunciation of attachments) (Babb 1988, p. 280-285) and affiliations with religious movements and organizations looking for women in their fold to gain broader legitimacy.

To use Gaitskell’s analysis of South African women’s conversion to Christianity through the Christian Mission Stations (Gaitskell 1990, p. 253), these organizations provide women an alternative set of protectors and economic base which makes escape from the drudgery of life as a daughter, sister, wife or widow possible (Basu 1999, p. 200). In India, right wing organizations like the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and others, which frequently invoke the goddesses and female spiritual gurus of the past and use women in liturgy have attracted many Hindu sanyasins (female religious mendicants/proponents/ascetics) like Ritambhara or Uma Bharati. The invocations are not only a bait for women but also a reminder to the women affiliates to see the scope for their philosophy and activity in supporting everything that these organizations are doing, including promoting hostility towards faiths and people perceived to be damaging Hinduism.

Talking of the Sangh Parivar, Arundhati Roy says, ‘its utter genius lies in its apparent ability to be all things to all people at all times’ (Roy 1999, p. 181). A broad understanding of ‘violence’ beyond the direct physical and mental abuse and as produced in people’s perceptions may help us in seeing the image of the Sangh Parivar as it exists in the minds of middle class, poor and home-bound women. This perception of violence is linked to the notions of religious domination and subordination, which subvert the chances of survival of another value system. For example, beef eating, spread of non-Hindu values, unemployment, religious conversion, inter-religious marriages, adoption of a Hindu child, etc. may be taken as attempts to denigrate the status and spoil the purity of Hindu religion. Therefore, these may be perceived as socio-economic and cultural violence against the ‘Hindu’.

The Sangh Parivar has articulated a feminist politics that reflects upon such perceptions and created ‘a space for personal accomplishment to which unskilled working class women and frustrated middle class women [across caste, particular religious community and region] might be attracted’ (Sahgal and Davis 1992, p. 9, text in brackets mine). While taking on the persona of a religious saviour, the Sangh seeks to mobilize women against the ‘perceived perpetrators of the violence’. The counter violence or support to fundamentalist organizations is seen by these women as an issue of religio-political identity and collective empowerment to oppose ‘occupation of minds and cultures’.

Kandiyoti in her paper ‘Islam and Patriarchy’, talks about women resisting the old normative order slipping away without any empowering alternatives and women pressurize men to live up to their obligations to provide protection in exchange of submissiveness and propriety as part of patriarchal bargain (Kandiyoti 1992, p. 36). The exchange of submissiveness and propriety for protection brings forth the issue of women’s bodies being treated as sites of community identity in a patriarchal society (Kannabiran 1996, p. 32-33). Submissiveness and propriety by these bodies is essential for patriarchal honour.

In India, for example, Ritambhara’s speeches, marked by incitements to reclaim male honour, remind men to live up to their part of the bargain. Similarly, when Uma Bharati asks women to play a political role without compromising their ‘basic nature’ (Llewellyn 2001), she is reminding that impropriety by female bodies would damage the Hindu honour which corresponds to male honour. The Sangh Parivar seeks to secure women’s support by playing on the tensions between ‘deeply ingrained images and expectations of male-female roles and changing realities of everyday life’ (Kandiyoti 1992, p. 36), which put a demand on women to step in the public space. By using the lack of alternatives before women, it attempts to consensualize women’s investment in patriarchal values and simultaneously puts conditions on her public engagement.

The offer of male protection comes with (i) the condition that women will have to become consenting custodians of patriarchal values, and (ii) an implicit guarantee that they will get the residual power and benefits that would accrue from their support to the Hindu male communal coercion (Sangari 1999, p. 398-408). The perceived notions of danger and security and the chance to exercise residual power through patriarchal bargains may make this offer lucrative for many women (Jeffery 1998, p. 223).

According to Moghissi, fundamentalism is ‘an attitude towards time’. It proposes ‘an ideal past, initial conditions’ or ‘golden age’ which contrasts to the present and can be retrieved…’ (Moghissi 1999, p. 69). All may not view the fundamentalist form of return to the golden age as conservative or retrogressive. For example, by linking fundamentalist space with religion and women’s welfare, the Sangh Parivar makes it possible for a woman to occupy public space and for her family to explain their daughter’s feminism as a form of sewa (Sahgal 2000, p. 198). This may appear as liberal to many.

Similarly, in the context of Muslims, ‘attempts by disadvantaged groups to rise in ritual status by strict adherence to "tradition" or the Shariat are not seen by them as a return to medievalism but in fact as symbols of achievement’ (Pandey in Chhachhi 1988, p. 23). So, acceptance in a social group closed so far or the move upwards in the social ladder may appear progressive and create an incentive for both poor men and women to support fundamentalism.

Fundamentalism also has a unique feature of constructing its own version of the ‘true identity’. In India, this is evident from the Sangh’s move to homogenize identity by disregarding the variety of ‘Hindu religions’, which have existed within the concept of Hinduism (Romila Thapar 1989). An interrogation of gender, class and caste in India reveal that the Sangh is promoting a uniformly brahminized, class-based, transregional modernity and a principle of formal gender equality located in a dichotomous upper caste practice.

The impact is visible in the spread of practices like dowry in states like Tamil Nadu (Kapadia 2002), wearing of sindur and mangalsutra and practice of karwa chauth by Hindu women irrespective of the region and culture. In the homogenization process, women’s space as well as capacity to bargain is being curtailed further by emphasizing brahminized feminine constructs and collective identity (Basu 1998, p. 175-76). Traits like self-sacrificing motherhood and devoted wife are now also being channelized towards building and nurturing a Hinduised social cohesion. In this brahminized, class-based, trans-regional modernization process, women may not have the space to think of separating their identities from the image of the ‘homogenized community’.

The Indian national movement, beginning in the 19th century, was imbued with simultaneous processes of socio-religious reform, specifically attempts to improve women’s condition within Hinduism. These attempts could be attributed to (i) initially, a desire to emulate what the reformers considered modern, i.e., the models of womanhood and conjugality of the colonizers, and (ii) later, the need to engage the wider masses in protesting against the colonizers. It would not have been possible to engage women in the protest without raising the issues which restrict their participation. During this period activists like Pandita Ramabai, Anandibai Joshi, Kailashbashini Debi, Tarabai Shinde, Haimavati Sen, Saraladevi, among others, challenged the patriarchal system by identifying the power dynamics which make man-woman relationships unequal (Chakravarti 1998, Sen 2000, Sarkar 1997, Omvedt 1980). Though dalit leaders started talking about caste, cultural, regional and class differences, but on the whole women were treated as a homogeneous entity.

The national movement identified the humiliated and colonized land with the image of a subjugated Hindu woman’s body – her body, sari and adornment encompassing present India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and parts of Afghanistan and Myanmar. The image stays even after 56 years of Partition. It also plays an important role in the projects of Hindu nationalism. The image of the motherland has been used to exhort proliferation of female deity or Shakti cult among women who find the concept of shakti empowering. The Sangh Parivar sees partition as a mutilation of the sacred body of the mother and holds Muslims responsible for this act of ‘desecration’ (Sarkar, p. 163-190 and 268-288). By laying claim to Hindu nationalist feminine icons and linking them to female power, patriotism, partition and a dream of Akhand Bharat the Sangh has successfully managed to mobilize Hindu women to support the cause of avenging partition.

Women’s support to the communalized politics of the Sangh Parivar also needs to be looked at from vantage point of individual women’s politics to benefit from the 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution as well as BJP attempts to enlarge its vote constituencies. The BJP has much to gain by keeping women’s collective political empowerment within the bounds of socio-historically gendered subjectivities. However, any such analysis must also keep in purview the socio-historical factors.

Women in India have long been active in various types of social and political movements – at national, regional and local levels. They were engaged in grassroots caste-based politics during the Nehruvian period when political power was mainly with the upper castes.

The emergence of ‘backward castes’ and farmers’ parties brought in many other groups of women in politics. Throughout, mainstream politics neither allowed an orientation towards gender issues, nor allowed women to use their agency in collaboration with women’s activists to actively raise and interrogate issues of gender inequalities. If anything the incorporation of gender issues has been considered divisive in the mass nationalist/caste/community building processes and movements. The controlled participation did help some individual women to ameliorate their own situation but systemic gender inequalities have remained unaddressed (Jeffery 1998, p. 222) and women’s orientation towards collaborative agency has been constrained.

Women’s support to religious fundamentalism reflects a situation where women are caught between emancipatory aspirations and inherited notions of ideal womanhood. Notwithstanding multiple factors influencing women’s support to fundamentalism and the impossibility of talking about a common protest against religious fundamentalism, it is possible to turn this ‘situation of being caught’ into a ‘situation of struggle’. Not by ascription to the universal notions of womenhood and sisterhood but by recognizing women’s multiple realities of and exploring questions such as, ‘is there a dissatisfaction with the nation building processes because they have not addressed the issues of gender, ideology, power and identity’, ‘are the modernization processes being seen by women as socio-cultural and economic devaluation of women’, and so on. The contested relationships between women, religion, society, state, culture, nationalism need to be theorized afresh in the public space and ‘discursive and related historical frameworks alike need to be (re)addressed’ (Rouse 1998, p. 69).

Article originally published in Seminar #537, May 2004, India Shining at http://www.india-seminar.com/2004/537/537%20comment.htm

References:

Babb, Lawrence A. (1988), ‘Indigenous Feminism in a Modern Hindu Sect’, in Rehana Ghadially, (ed) Women in Indian Society, New Delhi/Newbury Park/London: Sage Publications.

Basu, Amrita (1998), p. 175-176, ‘Hindu Women’s Activism in India and the Questions it Raises’, in Patricia Jeffery and Amrita Basu, (eds) Appropriating Gender: Women’s Activism and Politicized Religion in South Asia, New York and London: Routledge.

Chakravarti, Uma (1998), Rewriting History: The Life and Times of Pandita Ramabai, New Delhi: Kali for Women.

Gaitskell, Deborah (1990), p. 253, ‘Devout Domesticity? A Century of African Women’s Christianity in South Africa’, in Cherryl Walker, (ed) Women and Gender in Southern Africa, Cape Town: David Philip.

Jeffery, Patricia (1998), p. 222, ‘Agency, Activism and Agendas’, in Patricia Jeffery and Amrita Basu, (eds) Appropriating Gender: Women’s Activism and Politicized Religion in South Asia, New York and London: Routledge.

Kandiyoti, Deniz (1992), p. 36, ‘Islam and Patriarchy: A Comparative Perspective’, in N. Keddie and B. Baron, (eds) Women in Middle Eastern History, New Haven: Yale.

Kannabiran, Kalpana (1996), p. 32-33, in K. Jayawardena and M. D’Alwis, (eds) Embodied Violence: Communalizing Women’s Sexuality in South Asia, London: Zed Books.

Kapadia, Karin (2002), (ed) The Violence of Development: The Politics of Identity, Gender and Social Inequalities in India, London: Zed Books.

Llewellyn, J.E. (2001), ‘Uma Bharati at the 4th Akhil Bharatiya Sadhwi Shakti Sammelan at the Santoshi Mata Ashram’, in Kankhal, 10 April 1998, http://courses.smsu.edu/jel807f/sadhwi.html

Moghissi, Haideh (1999), p. 69, Feminism and Islamic Fundamentalism, New York: Zed Books.

Omvedt, Gail (1980), We Will Smash This Prison!: Indian Women in Struggle, London: Zed Press.

Pandey, Gyan in Amrita Chhachhi (1988), p. 23, ‘The State, Religious Fundamentalism and Women – Trends in South Asia’, in WLUML Dossier 4, August/September 1988, London: Women Living Under Muslim Laws.

Rouse, Shahnaz (1998), p. 69, ‘The Outsider(s) Within: Sovereignty and Citizenship in Pakistan’, in Patricia Jeffery and Amrita Basu, (eds) Appropriating Gender: Women’s Activism and Politicized Religion in South Asia, New York and London: Routledge.

Roy, Arundhati (1999), p. 181, ‘Fascism’s Firm Footprints in India’, in C.W. Howland, (ed) Religious Fundamentalism and the Human Rights of Women, New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Sahgal, Gita (2000), p. 198, ‘Secular Spaces; The Experience of Asian Women Organizing’, in Gita Sahgal and Nira Yuval-Davis, (eds) Refusing Holy Orders: Women and Fundamentalism in Britain, London: Women Living Under Muslim Laws.

Sahgal, Gita and Nira Yuval-Davis (1992), p. 9, (eds) ‘Introduction: Fundamentalism, Multiculturalism and Women in Britain’, in Refusing Holy Orders: Women and Fundamentalism in Britain, London: Virago.

Sangari, Kumkum (1999), p. 398-408, Politics of the Possible, New Delhi: Tulika.

Sarkar, Tanika (1997), ‘Women in South Asia: The Raj and After’, History Today, September 1997.

Sarkar, Tanika (2001), p. 163-190 and 268-288, Hindu Wife, Hindu Nation: Community, Religion and Cultural Nationalism, London: Hurst & Company.

Sen, Samita (2000), ‘Toward a Feminist Politics? The Indian Women’s Movement in Historical Perspective’, Policy Research Report on Gender and Development, Working Paper Series No 9.

Thapar, Romila (1989), p. 209-231, ‘Imagined Religious Communities? Ancient History and the Modern Search for a Hindu Identity’, Modern Asian Studies, 23(2).

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Not a Grain in His Stomach

Photo: Homeless International

“Why did you open the door?” “Why didn’t you just move on, being nearest doesn’t make you any more responsible than the other ...”. “It’s not your responsibility to get this man transferred to another hospital”. “This man can put you in trouble, you are asking for trouble.” “Why did you not let the hospital just discharge him and leave?” “You have received enough security tips, trainings and updates to know that you do not do this.” "If it means anything, I am proud of you."

These are some of the questions, advices and comments that I came across between Thursday and Friday, the last week. All those who questioned my action stand vindicated. The incident runs like this: on Thursday 22 July 2010, I left home in the morning to office. I usually leave earlier to avoid traffic but that day I was delayed and so had to fall in the long queue of cars that begin from Westlands going all the way from there to Peponi Road, Thigiri Ridge, Red Hill Road and finally connecting to the Limuru Road. Nairobi roads are long, mostly two-lane and this route is no different. During peak traffic, if you are in a lane, there is no way you would jump the lane; unless, you are a matatu driver who would get into ditches, drive on road barriers, etc to complete so many rounds everyday to get the payment and so is willing to risk own and passengers’ lives. So on this day, the row of traffic moved like a snail ... may be like a caterpillar ... yes, like a caterpillar, if somebody were to look at the two rows of traffic moving in opposite direction from the sky, the rows would have looked like two caterpillars.

I reached Thigiri Ridge and Red Hill Road T junction and was waiting for the traffic on the Red Hills road to stop so I and the cars in front of me coming through Thigiri Ridge could take the right turn. All of us had the indicator on the right of the cars, blinking like जुगनू (fire-flies) in the night. There was a long queue behind me too. I was looking around as I waited for the queue to move. I am afraid of driving but the not-so-bad orderliness of Nairobi city traffic encouraged me to drive. People are polite, honking is rare. Nairobians do not think so. According to them, the traffic on the roads is unruly and matatus are a nightmare and those rare honks, are noise pollution. If only they knew traffic in South Asia, in particular, my homeland, Bharat Varsham! When my gaze moved to the left side, I saw a man staggering up the road, he was some 5-6 feet away from my car. He was looking at me too, straight, unblinking. I saw he was holding a little packet of groundnuts in his left hand. His unblinking gaze, unnerved me a bit and I looked away. But suddenly I saw him near my car’s left passenger window looking sideways inside the car and within a few seconds, I saw his body slowly move backward and forward as if he is one with the wind, his left part of the body rubbing against my car door, and finally and going face down forward.

It took me a few seconds to react. I put the car lever to parking and leaned to open the left door and see what happened. This man lay parallel to my car, his left hand up stretching beyond the back left wheel of my car and the right sprawled in the 4-5 feet space between the left side of my car and the edge of the road. He had blood on his lips. I moved to the left passenger seat with half my body out of the car and shouted to the people in the cars ahead and behind me to come and help me take the man to a hospital. Some from the front and back looked towards me and soon looked away. I heard a shout, “Lady, don’t be foolish, get in and move”. Before I could think or react to this advice, there was a young man, holding my open door and asking me to come out. Soon there was a crowd of workers who generally use the mud footpath along the edge of the road and those who get off the matatus at the junction on the Red Hill Road. Some were telling me that I should pay and settle the case then and there, some asking me to take the man to the hospital, some to call the police . I asked the young man holding the door to leave the door and bring the man inside the car so that I could take him to the hospital but he wouldn’t let go the door. The crowd was swelling. Soon a short middle aged man joined the young man. They seemed to know each other as well as the man on the ground. I told the young man that if he doesn’t let go of the door I will call the police first. The short man reacted and told me not to talk of the police and take the man to the hospital. The young man listened and left the door. I closed the door while the two helped the man get on his feet and get inside the car.

Moving back to my seat, I noticed that the traffic on the Red Hill Road had stopped and the cars in the front had begun moving. The cars at the back also had begun looking for opportunity to pass my car. I opened the door on my side and asked the one immediately behind me to come forward but he and the other one behind him didn’t and moved away. In fact, the second one was visibly upset and raised both his hands in irritation before driving out of the lane and taking off. I looked at the third car and asked the person driving to please come forward. He asked me if I am all right and came forward. The fact that he responded while the others drove away, made me feel immediately grateful to him. I told him to call my office security and inform them that I will be at Aga Khan Hospital. By now, the man was seated at the back seat of the car with the young man and the short man who assisted him. The short man was accusing me of having hit him. The T junction where the Red Hill Road meets Limuru Road, I saw the traffic police person. I have been seeing him there regularly for a year and half now. I shouted asking him to come near. The short man was objecting and telling me that I am causing delay and that this is not a police job. The traffic police person came and as soon as he looked at the back seat he got into the front passenger seat. The short man at the back continued his tirade and at one point before the Muthaiga Mini market roundabout told me that the man has died. I almost panicked and sped fast but the traffic police person asked me to calm down, slow down and that the man is all right. I asked him to either get the short man out of the car or tell him to shut up. The short man didn’t need to be told, he was quiet now.

We reached the hospital and the man was assisted to walk into the emergency while I took the car to the parking. When I came back, a doctor and nurse were examining him and the traffic police person told me that the man has a catheter/needle unit that is used for administering intravenous fluids attached to his left arm. We heard the doctor and nurse ask for his name, age, and when he ate last. A few minutes later, the nurse came out and gave me his name and age asked me to go to the reception and register him. I did so and came back. Two security staff members of the organization where I work, joined the short man, the young man, the police person and me. We learnt one-another’s names – though I could never capture the name of the short man because of the way he spoke – and some more details about our lives while waiting for the doctor to finish and tell us what is wrong with the man.

A good while later the doctor came out and told us that the man says he was hit by a car but actually he is completely dehydrated, hasn’t eaten for the last two days and suffers from ulcers in his abdomen. After examining him, the doctor informed the man that he does have some tenderness on his left side whether it is from hitting the ground or the car, it cannot be said conclusively but he doesn’t have any bruise or anything else. The doctor said that she cannnot explain the blood coming from his mouth wihout putting him under some more check-up, which the man resisted. The man vomited a lot of blood while he was being examined. When further check-up was completed, the doctor and the nurse realized that he has a long pending illness, abdominal ulcer. They treated him for dehydration and gave him a painkiller to ease his stomach pain. About the ulcer, the man finally informed the doctor that he has been vomiting blood for a long time and was hospitalized in a place called Radiant Hospital in Eastleigh where his ulcer was being treated. Since he didn’t have the money to pay the hospital bills, he removed the IV fluids on his own and ran away from the hospital.

The man wanted to be paid some money and discharged. The doctor told him they cannot treat him there any further as a road accident case and that he needs longer term treatment for which they will transfer him back to the hospital where he was being treated till about a week back. The man was petrified. He pleaded to be discharged because if he goes to that hospital, they will ask him to pay up. He informed that his house-owner has thrown him out of the house because he hasn’t paid the rent for a few months now. He said he did not eat because he has no money to buy food. The doctors said that after discovering severity of his abdominal ulcer they cannot just discharge him unless he wants to be discharged against medical advice. The man wanted to be discharged.

I asked the doctor if it is possible that they refer him for further treatment elsewhere to a relatively cheaper place than a private hospital. The doctor suggested Kenyatta National Hospital which is subsidized. The man was not ready to go anywhere. I was told by the traffic the police that my responsibility ends here as the illness of the man has nothing to do with the incident but because the man says he was hit by my car, I will have to bring the car for inspection and we need to go back to the site for investigation. I couldn’t understand why the man would do this but his condition prevented me from thinking anything nasty about him. Rather it made me feel responsible to help him. The short man and young man were also now pleading with me to help the man and that if I leave him, he would die.

Together and with the doctor we argued with the man to come to Kenyatta Hospital. He was not ready. He only wanted the money and kept asking me to give him what I would spend on his treatment. I refused to give him money but told him that I will take him to the Kenyatta Hospital and help him with his treatment. His two friends – the young man and the short man – also told him to prioritize his health. They had heard the doctor telling him that if he doesn’t allow treatment, he can vomit himself to death and that if he falls again tomorrow he may not find somebody to bring him to a hospital. I asked the police person to come with me to the Kenyatta Hospital before we go for the inspection of the car and investigation at the site. The two security staff members from my organization left because they said they have official duties to attend to. The police person agreed and also informed that the Kenyatta Hospital is on the way. I took the transfer form from the doctor and we went to the Kenyatta Hospital.

At the registration desk in the Kenyatta Hospital, the man again insisted he was hit. He was registered as such and as he waited for a doctor to examine him, I went with the police person to get the car inspected. When we came back the man was already examined by the doctor and prescribed medicines for ulcer and advised about the kind of food he should eat. He was told that the medicines are strong so he has to follow the advice closely. I wondered why the doctor didn’t give a written advice and only prescribed the names of the medicines in writing. But looking around at a few hundred people waiting to be examined, I understood that writing is a luxury that the doctors working in this hospital cannot afford unless unavoidable. The man was looked better but tired. I bought his medicines on the ways and we got back to the site for investigation. The man accurately described the condition of his health, where he fell, that there was a jam, and where my car was at the time he collapsed but he again mentioned that he was hit. The police person asked him how could he be hit by the side of window and what was he doing near the car so far away from the edge of the road. The man informed that he came to the car window to sell his groundnuts to me and that he doesn’t mean any ill except that he wants some money. He was still hungry though the saline water given at the Aga Khan hospital made him look a bit better. We agreed that the statement recording will take place tomorrow. The short man wanted some money too saying he has spent his time helping this man instead of selling the newspapers. I felt torn. Indeed, the man needs money to buy some food and the friends are too poor to get him anything but I also felt that I would be doing something wrong by giving money. In the end, I gave the short man some money to buy food.

Next day, when we met at the police station the young man didn’t come. The statements were recorded with the man saying he was hit and then describing the rest of situation accurately and the short man saying he didn’t see what happened but he came near my car when he saw a crowd. He described the situation accurately too. The police person said that based on the man’s complaint, they have to give me a note about careless driving and the intention to initiate court proceedings. He explained that this is not to accuse me but to let me know that an accusation has been made and that further investigation will take place. He explained the process. I was frustrated but I signed and accepted the note.

If I looked frustrated, the man looked worried. He didn’t want an investigation. He had come with the notice that his house-owner had sent before throwing him out. I asked him that if he wants my help why he didn’t ask for help directly rather than using a false claim. He informed that nobody helps otherwise. I understood his insistence on the false claim; he is a hungry man with three dependents in the village and needs money, he doesn’t want to rely on goodness. The police person told him that nobody will help him in the future. When he realized that I would not give him any money, he said that he would withdraw his complaint because he doesn’t mean to put me in trouble but only wanted some money. He gave a statement to withdraw the complaint. He promised to take his medicines regularly with a reminder that he has no money to buy food and that he can keep his promise if he has something to eat. Again, I gave some money. It wouldn’t help him pay his overdue rent but may help him buy food for a month or so and he has full dose of medicines.

I am still not clear if I did the right thing or by helping him I played into his game of using his misery to extract money. But I feel all right about the fact that the money will help a person who is forced to sell eatables but cannot afford to put a grain in his stomach. At the same time, I cannot take away the annoyance I feel towards the man for getting me a note from the police.

On the first day of the incident, when I got back to office, a colleague told me that poor people sometimes play this trick on the road to get some money. She informed me about an incident when an impoverished person threw himself in front of a car. I was not surprised. I have seen the worst kind of abject poverty in India but the combination of poverty and segregation of the rich and the poor that I have seen in Nairobi, I hadn’t seen anywhere else before. Kenya is the most unequal country in Eastern Africa compared to neighbouring Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi. In the Kenya, the richest 20% take 61% of rural and 51% of urban incomes. 60% of Nairobians live in slums. The bottom 20% of the country’s rural population get only 3.5% of rural income. The bottom 20% in the country’s urban areas get 5.4% of urban income. These disparities have widened since 1982 and the implementation of IMF structural adjustment programmes in the 1980s. More than 50% of Kenya's poor live on less than 1 dollar a day. The child mortality is high with 1 in 10 children dying before the age of 5 years. It is said that the AIDS patients occupy 50% of all hospital beds. More than 25% population is illiterate. Check the links at the bottom for more details on poverty and inequality in Kenya.

The incident that I described earlier and the figures given above point out that Kenya cannot be necessarily described as a poverty ridden country. Rather it is an inequality ridden country. This inequality renders majority of its population poor and prevents them from being able to afford basic service needed for a living. The man I encountered, has completed education up to ‘O’ level, is very well aware about the issues in the country and the world but his inequality induced poverty makes it impossible for him to access higher education, health, and housing. In fact, it is pushing him towards what would be termed as a criminal behavior. The short man, as a result of being an ‘inequality refugee’, does not even have political and citizenship rights because he doesn’t have the national identity card. He, therefore, would not be able to vote on the 4th of August 2010, when the country votes in a referendum on the proposed constitution.

Given that the current constitution of Kenya does not even grant equal civil and political rights to women citizens, one can only imagine the plight of poor women in this country. The political growth of the country has not only favoured the rich but has further marginalized the poor in particular women from the political gains. Public policy remains highly influenced by the churches and traditional power structures which were strengthened during the period of colonization. The public policy and practice of patrimonial inheritance of property has also made the entire state machinery patrimonial. It allows progeny of those who made their money historically and established themselves further when Kenya was a colony to inherit the patriarchal booty. Women were never given inheritance rights by the Kenyan society. Women have not been a part of the scheme in which one could gain economic rewards by showing political loyalty so they remain excluded from the economic right, representation and decision-making. Since politics of the country has encouraged loyalty based economic rewards, which in the current times, are not easy to obtain from the public exchequer directly, it is given under-the-table in the form of corrupt payments or the tolerance for money-making at the cost of public good and social services. This detouring of the funds to people who have not earned it also contributes to inequality. It creates and sustains a system in which only those who can make the under-the-table payments can receive benefits or grow further. Those who are already victims of inequality, like, men from marginalized communities and women who are denied equal economic rights, do not have the ability to pay for their way into the system. They have no choice but be victims twice, ie, once a victim of inequality induced poverty, and second, victim of corruption.

Loyalty based politics has been promoting also a system of patronage in which those who are already powerful get favoured over the weak because of their ability to serve the rulers' interests better. Illicit profit-making is another pillar on which the system of patronage rests, ie, in addition to loyalty, patrons also like to receive value for money from the persons they patronize. Poor definitely are not in a position to optimize the profits for a patron even if they were to be patronized. The system of patronage ensures that the weak, including women, are not able to access the opportunities. This is a serious impediment to the exercise of equal opportunities and to the capability to benefit from an apparently well laid out system of governance.

The second pillar of patronage, ie, illicit profit-making, also has negative consequences for the regional development within Kenya. Inequality caused by the system of patrimonial inheritance is more severe in areas which are resource rich because resources like forest and fertile land are concentrated in a few hands. The patrimonial state prefers to invest in regions which are likely to bring greater returns over the regions where investment may benefit the people in terms of their survival but would not contribute to a much faster growth rate. As a result, increasing the inequality among the citizens on the basis of their location. The situation further deteriorated in 1980s when structural adjustment was pushed by the IMF. The country has not given a thought to developing diverse opportunities to address economic inequality rather continues to focus on comparable opportunities. Creation of comparable opportunities in a country with geographical diversity like Kenya is only going to leave the regions which do not have comparable resource base and geo-conditions further behind. This sort of regional disparity cannot be blamed on to nature or geography because it is possible to resolve it with good economic development policy and investment in citizens across the country.

Kenya, like many other countries, which have undergone structural adjustment, needs to revert the trend of inequality by recognizing that basic needs such as education, health, food and nutrition, representation and participation have to be assured to all who live within its geo-political boundary, irrespective of their sex, gender, religion, region, origin, ethnicity, etc. It has to recognize that certain groups of people, based on one or the other ground, have been disadvantaged for centuries. If they are not supported through affirmative action they would not be able to participate effectively in the development processes because generations of disadvantage cannot be wiped off by creating equal opportunities on paper. They would need supportive systems to make them stand for their development.

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Check the following links for further details on poverty and inequality in Kenya: http://allafrica.com/stories/201004210994.html; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10540379; http://www.crise.ox.ac.uk/copy/Kenya%20note%20for%20discussion.pdf;  http://www.tegemeo.org/documents/work/Tegemeo-WP30-Rural-incomes-inequality-poverty-dynamics-Kenya.pdf; http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/52279; http://www.unrisd.org/unrisd/website/projects.nsf/(httpAuxPages)/74EFE206D5C7E1FDC12573D3004D9D2E?OpenDocument&category=Case+Studies.

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Elections & Votes … Are These All to Democracy?

Elections are commonly viewed as the key element of democracy. In deed, they are but they are one of the key elements. When democracy is understood in terms of democratic representation, it is easier to understand that it entails a far more complex process that extends well beyond elections. Citizens participate in governance through a multiplicity of activities - among them interaction with their chosen representative, and getting their chosen representatives and others influenced through participation in voluntary associations, social movements, interest groups, and nongovernmental organizations-all of which enable citizens to voice common concerns and influence public policy between elections. Through these they are able to have a voice in decisions that govern them. Representative democracy is therefore not just about the elected representatives but it is the broad framework of ‘mediated politics’. How the elected representatives will be influenced by mediated politics is not determined by their skills to read and write (it is good if they have these skills) but by their intellect, ability to analyse, ability to see the interlinkages and impact of their actions, ability to express in any medium that is understood by the key group whose interests they are representing and so on.

Since representative democracy can remain representative only by being in an environment of integrated multiple channels of interaction, what is needed is also that the chosen representatives are people who are part of multiplicity of activities or initiatives in which their electorate are engaged. That means they need to be people who are rooted (even by the process of transplantation/naturalisation/adoption/immigration) in their constituencies and so that they link the constituencies with the political system. The repercussion of a lack of this rootedness and all the other abilities that are mentioned in the first paragraph is the representatives cannot see the various interest groups in their constituency, do not hear different voices that would enable them to represent all interests.

If criteria like minimum education qualification becomes a minimum eligibility condition for contesting election, it runs the risk of pushing those out who have all the abilities to be a representatives but lack the reading and writing skills. It also runs the risk of further marginalizing the those who are educationally marginalized because they may prefer their interests to be represented by one of them. Usually the educationally marginalized are also socially, economically, and/or politically marginalized. Therefore, the imposition of the minimum education qualification as is sought, say in an employee in a public or private sector, runs the risk of not giving representation to, for example, women because in a country like India, majority of them are illiterate. This does not foretell well in a country where women’s interests and numbers both remain largely unrepresented. Such a requirement pushes back the representation of the disabled, dalits, and many other such interest groups.

Also there is a need to break the perception that only those citizens who take part in election and are interested in party politics are active citizens and keeping democracy alive. Citizens who identify with certain political parties do mediate the politics through their participation and opinions and therefore through the political parties play a role in the political process. But lack of engagement with on decline in engagement with in party politics does not signal the absence from mediated politics. Similarly non-exercise of the right to vote does not mean disengagement or social disinterest in politics. These citizens usually still influence politics through their engagement in media (including internet and traditional media), social and interest groups and many other forms of organized or informal interactions. Often, those who are ‘disgusted’ or ‘disappointed’ with the current day politicians or those contesting elections, they resort to other outlets, platforms, and means of engagement that influence or are a part of political mediations. Rise of protest and social movements and social accountability measures like gender audits and social audits, emergence and mushrooming of interest groups, creative ways to institutionalize participation like participatory development and budgeting, community policing, etc, are an example of ‘non-party political engagement’. This kind of situation does not symbolise decline in citizen’s political participation rather it means a decline in party and vote based politics and growth in 'personalised politics'. It is also a sign that the strength of political parties is going to decline gradually, particularly, in terms of their ability to mobilise electorate. This is already evidenced by the proliferation of the smaller political parties, regional parties, independents, and weakening of the major political parties in India. This also keeps democracy alive as these citizens may have chosen not to exercise their right to vote but by their 'personalised politics', they are still being effective citizens in the sense that they are still mediating politics of the place/region/nation.

Read a similar post: http://j-k.in/blog/2009/12/make-voting-mandatory/

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Unity in Diversity: Notion or Reality

Unity in Diversity is a reality that we must acknowledge and live with. Unity will not come by making everybody alike rather by agreeing on certain common values and principles and leaving the rest to the people. The first principle being equality and equity to enable people to achieve equality. Do we have unity in diversity? Not entirely, the Indian government and a large number of fellow Indians refuse to acknowledge caste discrimination because caste is different from race but they expect dalits to have the sense of unity. Same with women's rights; the state apparatus, society and families continue to kill female foetus, burn women, rape and molest women and girls and deny them basic rights in the name of religion, custom, traditions and so on but when women cry and make noise they are told that they have sold out to foreign ideologies as if only these inhuman practices are the foundation of the 'Indian ideology'.

The issue of unity cannot be left to nurture itself and remain a reality on its own unless the problematic of caste practice, the practices of abuse, discrimination, and violence against women and girls, and the inequality at large are consciously addressed. Do these practices threaten the concept of Unity in Diversity? Yes, if diversity is taken to mean and allow casteism, sexism, and so on even when these are to be ended says the Indian constitution. Citizens need to revisit the role of diversity that India holds in the national identity politics and construction of a national identity. The political ideology of a cohesive nation and national integration will not go far unless diversity based on the principles of equality and equity is given true meaning by the practice of it.

Diversity is a complex reality in India as a deconstruction of this reality will reveal innumerable sects, social groups and socio-economic segmentation by end number of castes, sub-castes, religious, regional and linguistic groups apart from further division and of these by sex. With this layered and amazingly complex reality of diversity within the nation-state, the concept of ‘one nation’ was and continues to be thrown away every time an effort is made to silence certain voices against discrimination, state led violence, caste and religion led violence and gender based violence. Or, the concept is thrown off by the unethical and unscrupulous political actors who use the issues raised by the voices to serve their vested ends. Demands for separate states and autonomous districts, mosques for women and so on are the symptoms of one or the other form of rejection of the notion of ‘one nation’.

The architects of the Indian Constitution were far-sighted enough to recognize this and sought to bring about a sense of an overarching Indian identity by ending the discrimination, inequality and violence and by recognizing the reality of diversity through inclusion of the fundamental rights and protection of dalits and religious, cultural and ‘habitation’ minorities (the last terms means certain forest habitats and those citizens who inhabit those habitats). The overarching national or unified identity has to bear the imprint of myriad political, social, religious, gender, and culture based lives in the country. It cannot be the other way round that these give way to accept national unity at whatever cost.

The notion and reality of an identity coming from Diversity is necessary not just from a patriotic sense of belonging to one geo-entity but also from the point of view of a mass of people being protected from the exploitative globalized forces, for the sake of economic advancement of a considerable chunk of humanity consisting of both women and men, for ensuring that identities of some do not swallow the identities of all, and for recognizing that diversity exists at all levels and in every social strata and segment.

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