Fasting in the face of corruption

This is an interim post as I'm completing the (large) post for the recent India work.
Indians recently have been supercharged by the protest, arrest, and fasting of a famous activist named Anna Hazare. (Anna's a man's name here). He's an older fellow associating himself with Gandhian tradition. He advocates the passage of a far-reaching anti-corruption bill in Parliament. The photo above shows the gateway of the remote rural school I was staying at in Orissa state's far-afield Parlekhemundi. When Anna was arrested, the students at the school spelled out 'No More Corruption' in candles, pictured above. Later they marched en masse around the town.
I first heard of this man in business school during a class in social entrepreneurship describing how back in the 1980's he got a village in Maharashtra state to close its abused alcohol shops, ultimately leading to much greater prosperity in the village. (I found it interesting, I am still as big a fan as the next guy of spirits ;) ) He's since set his sites on eradicating Indian corruption now, which is sort of like living in California and trying to eradicate the sunshine. So his influence and capturing of the Indian spirit is really impressive. Also, the body he demands to pass his bill is the same containing the members he accuses of corruption - people who would risk being detained and punished for corrupt practices after the bill's passage. Talk about an uphill battle. And so the progress of his movement's success is all the more impressive - Parliament agreed in principle to his demands, and after twelve days his fast was to close just this morning. Can you imagine, in the US, someone fasting to protest campaign finance? Then can you imagine that within two weeks, both houses of Congress debating the issue ad nauseam due to his fast? I think our system would let the man starve without so much as paying lip service to his cause inside the Capitol.

Well as I write I'm in Delhi during a two day layover. I overcame a bout of Delhi-belly (don't eat from the roadside nut vendors!) that unfortunately emptied itself all over the center of Connaught Place, and promptly headed to the city's Ramlila Maidan grounds to see Hazare's protest.

I tried on a hat of the same style that Mr. Hazare wears - see the photo below of an example of one - these hats were very popular at his rally, and a local handed me one :) .  Yet I debated how much direct support I wanted to show - I generally try to steer clear of showing my opinions in the middle of another country's political rally especially when I have limited visibility into the issues. Academics can rightly critique that his rally is motivating the passage of a bill forming a top-level organization above parliament and answerable to no one. I decided that anti-corruption in general was a worthwhile theme to get around, and moreover that marshaling the public energy towards achieving a shared public good is much more needed in the short term than early intellectual dithering resulting in inaction. I see and experience the far reaching effects of corruption every day while in India, including my day's Delhi-belly (think public works, sanitation, promoting food-prep practices). See my later posts from 2008 showing some effects of corruption.


How often does your grandfather (e.g. above) care enough about an issue that he'll *sit* and perhaps even *sleep* in the middle of the protest grounds?

I came across just one other foreigner on the grounds; I guess I was a little disappointed in the backpacker set. A note for travelers staying in Delhi: If you're going to stay in a moderately priced guesthouse, I highly recommend staying in Delhi's suburb called Gurgaon. The chaos level is *much* less than the Delhi itself, tends to be much cleaner, and often still with good access to the metro subway. I'll recommend where I stayed with excellent ambience and super friendly staff, the Royal Park Plaza in DLF Phase-1. You can search it on Google.