Dear Gandhi
Today we visited an Adivasi community in a village called Phala amidst the mountains of Udaipur. The idea was to understand the lifestyle of the villagers by interacting with them. The village had 13 mohallas, the one we visited was Godphala. A small mohalla – 3 km in length and 2 km in breadth, it had around 100 families. It appeared like a May time Telangana village with plowed fields waiting for the monsoon, the cattle here didn’t look as strong as the ones down south. The village had a primary school as lifeless as the ones in any other village of this country.
We went to a local grocery store owner’s house to have a chat. Lal Chand worked in the mines for 30 years before retiring. He had three sons and all of them separated from him after their marriages. Now they practice agriculture on the plots that came down to them as ancestral property after the division. After lunch, the village community gathered at the school to discuss about their village with the visitors from far away cities. The confused visitors and the shy village women sat there staring at each other’s blank faces. After some uncomfortable moments, a fellow broke the silence and started by introducing us to the villagers and explained the purpose of the visit. The villagers seemed to be more interested in complaining about their problems to strangers from an NGO than having a casual chat with a group of curious students. Isn’t it an issue of self-respect? Why should Lal Chand, a self-sufficient farmer-who lived in the village for all of his life-complain about the problems of his village to a bunch of strangers who couldn’t even tell a cow from a buffalo?
Is this what you mean by “Indians will build their own India”? Isn’t India a mere geographical entity? How much more Indian is a Hyderabadi to a Rajasthani farmer than any other foreigner? Is this Swaraj?
one of the failures in India’s democracy is to involve local people and empower them. The Bharath is ruled from state capitals and national capital.
The locals have finally ended up, just to complain. Now, it is very difficult to change but the only way, you can way to change is to involve locals, empower them……..
one of the failures in India’s democracy is to involve local people and empower them. The Bharath is ruled from state capitals and national capital.
The locals have finally ended up, just to complain. Now, it is very difficult to change but the only way, you can way to change is to involve locals, empower them……..
One of the biggest failurse of Indian democracy is to rule Bharath ( rural India) from state capitals and national capital without empowering and involving locals.
So local people end up only in complaining. It is very difficult to change this attitude but the only way is to change their mindset, make them actively participate in the change….instead of waiting for some body to come and change, the authors seems to be from Andhra by references to Telagana, Hyderabadi…. if you are from Andhra, you remember NTR song,
“Evado vastadani, emo chestadani, Eduru choose mosa pakaro”
One of the biggest failurse of Indian democracy is to rule Bharath ( rural India) from state capitals and national capital without empowering and involving locals.
So local people end up only in complaining. It is very difficult to change this attitude but the only way is to change their mindset, make them actively participate in the change….instead of waiting for some body to come and change, the authors seems to be from Andhra by references to Telagana, Hyderabadi…. if you are from Andhra, you remember NTR song,
“Evado vastadani, emo chestadani, Eduru choose mosa pakaro”
I’m glad you wrote this. It is indeed frustrating a sight to watch helpless as a tool being wielded for the sake of being noticed. And it is the unfortunate story of NGO’s that work for too long in a particular place. Gandhi is missed most here, where in his self sustaining village people start believing that the only good thing that can happen to them is if outsiders intervene.
I’m glad you wrote this. It is indeed frustrating a sight to watch helpless as a tool being wielded for the sake of being noticed. And it is the unfortunate story of NGO’s that work for too long in a particular place. Gandhi is missed most here, where in his self sustaining village people start believing that the only good thing that can happen to them is if outsiders intervene.