Author: Bal Ram Singh
Publication: INDIA New England
News
Date: February 15, 2004
URL: http://www.indianewenglandnews.com/news/612327.html
My recent visit to India brought
perhaps the freshest air of my life, and it was not because compressed-natural-gas-driven
automobiles have reduced pollution in Delhi. Nor was it the company of
many non-resident Indians who can be found dwelling around the land of
their ancestors, taking or managing some of the outsourced jobs.
It was also not the relief one feels
with government regulation of bottled water to keep an acceptable level
of pesticides in them. No, it was none of these or many more such items
of modernity that can be listed.
The freshest air came from the hope
and inspiration of Indian youth and villagers, which I saw throughout my
direct interactions with them.
Although my visit was limited to
Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, my feelings seem to resonate with not only rest
of India, but with Indians living outside India.
India has always represented stability
in the face of all kinds of oddities - exploitation, poverty, misrule,
corruption, conflicts, etc. And India has been able to maintain its sane
stability through many of its eternal traditional values now mostly limited
for to practice in the villages.
Villages in Uttar Pradesh are taking
charge of their own destiny, and there was only one overt reason I could
gather from them. It was a promise of 14 hours of electricity by the new
chief minister, Mr. Mulayam Singh. This promise of a stable supply of even
14 hours of electricity has triggered a hope in the villagers who think
they can now make a stable planning of their crops, small-scale industry,
social events, and rest of their lives.
Looking for some sympathy, the headmaster
of my village school told me that government is not replacing teachers
in the primary schools, which are operating with only 20 percent teaching
staff. But, he does not realize that his school now serves only less than
20 percent of area students. There are many private schools being run by
people in the area, which provide a better education to students than government-run
primary schools. Villagers are taking charge of the education of their
children.
I met Shree Shiva Das Atreya, from
a village next to mine. He is a 60-year-old farmer, and has only a middle-school
education from a local school. But he has composed several books of poems
depicting epics and philosophies of India, including one titled "Hanuman
Charit."
"Hanuman Charit" is a 470-page book
of couplets written in Avadhi in the style of Tulsi Das' "Ram Charit Manas."
Shree Atreya does his own research on the topics he writes, and even traced
his ancestry to Rishi Atri, the son of Brahma, after being mocked about
his last name "Yadav."
Shree Atreya represents a true tradition
of India in asserting himself on the side of truth and knowledge. His new
identity (or jaati) not only represents his ancestry but also his real
qualities and actions (gunas and karmas). He couldn't care less for any
help from government or social activists to provide him with a social equity,
even though current ruler of the state is Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Shree Atreya is my idea of an ideal
Indian. He has given his hand-written "Hanuman Charit" to me so that I
could perhaps get it published, as he could not afford to do that. However,
he does not want or expect any remuneration or copyrights for his compositions.
Imagine that level of selflessness
and trust! Although we live in a society of rat race with patents and publicity,
it will do the whole world some good if at least NRIs stopped for a moment
to remember such a powerful heritage of theirs!
Much of the ancient Indian texts
remain author-less and copyright-less, a tradition borne out of public
good and humility, the true practical basis of Indian-ness.
Although down at the bottom of the
recognition list in modern India, 700,000 villages of India are well and
alive on many crucial social, environmental, philosophical and traditional
issues.
For example, villages account for
the least proportions of dowry deaths, female feticide, pollution, bribery,
murders, etc., and the highest proportions of self- sufficiency in food
and shelter.
People of the stature of Mrs. Aruna
Roy, the 2000 Magsaysay Award winner, have quit Indian Administrative Services
and are devoting their lives to the cause of Indian villages, and find
strength in villagers for living a purposeful life.
Many Indians living in the U.S.
have started working with villages of India. While the stories of people
like Virendra (Sam) Singh and Jagdish Shukla have been reported in the
media, there are many such people working on their own to help villages
(http://nri-home-coming.com) modernize their education, training, and living
standards, while still maintaining their traditional strength of simple
and peaceful living.
Bal Ram Singh, the director of the
Center for Indic Studies at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth,
may be reached at bsingh@umassd.edu.
