Anna hazare the phenomena

Sociological, psychological, anthropological, political and economic Explanations on why Anna Hazare’s Crusade will succeed? Presentation by Dr.K.Prabhakar

Context
Hazare, a Gandhian by conviction, practice, and simplicity has become the face of India's fight against corruption.
Hazare, a former Army man, began his social activism from Ralegan Siddhi, a village in Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra, where he successfully led a movement against alcoholism and made Ralegan Siddhi a "model village".
A Ramon Magsaysay award winner, Anna Hazare, like his idol, Mahatma Gandhi, has triggered a debate over the use of fast as a means of protest in India. By sheer commitment and simplicity, he has demonstrated that Gandhian principles are more relevant than ever.

What is his methodology to reach people?
They are similar to what Gandhiji has used to invoke people against British Raj.
Simplicity
Conviction
Un assailed belief in his cause
Selflessness
Discipline
Living with nature
Proving by results
Powerful gestures
Self introspection
Love towards peple and humanity
Communication through most powerful body language,Bhajans and group chanting which are the most ancient and power tools to catch imagination of people.
You will see all these aspects in the next slides of this presentation.

Ralegan Siddhi

Trigger at Ralegan Siddhi
The construction of water shed with the help of all villagers putting forth their labour free. Anna Hazare led this movement.
This lead to prosperity of saving ever drop of water indicating his love towards nature.
This was followed by anti tobacco and alcohol movement. This lead the final abandonment of poverty in the village.

Ralegan Siddhi- Conviction by Practice
Ralegan Siddhi is a village in Parner taluka of Ahmednagar Maharashra a state in India .
It is located at a distance of 87 km from Pune . The village has an area of 982.31 ha (1991).
In 1975 the village was afflicted by drought , poverty prevailed, and illicit liquor trade was widespread. The village tank could not hold water as the embankment dam wall leaked. Work began with the percolation tank construction.
Hazare encouraged the villagers to donate their labour to repair the embankment. Once this was fixed, the seven wells below filled with water in the summer for the first time in memory.
Now the village has water year round, as well as a grain bank, a milk bank, and a school. There is no longer any poverty.
( http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Hazare )

His Philosophy
The dream of India as a strong nation will not be realised without self-reliant, self-sufficient villages, this can be achieved only through social commitment & involvement of the common man." - Anna Hazare

The Facts
In the year 1965, Pakistan attacked India and at that time, Hazare was posted at the Khemkaran border. On November 12, 1965, Pakistan launched air attacks on Indian base and all of Hazare’s comrades became martyrs, It was a close shave for Hazare as one bullet had passed by his head. Hazare believes this was the turning point of his life as it meant he had a purpose to life. Anna was greatly influenced by Swami Vivekananda’s teachings. He decided to be practice bramhacharya (celibacy) to serve society. This ensured selflessness and practice of yoga made him stronger physically and mentally.
At the age of 26. He decided not not to let go of a life time by being involved merely in earning the daily bread for the family. By then he had completed only three years and he continued to be in the army for 12 more years to serve his village.
Government propaganda says that he is an army deserter. It is not.

Reasons for the success of this experiment
Values and Ethics
Work for common good as against the western philosophy of market mechanism.
Integrating social and economic activities with that of education.
Importance of religion. This is one point we need to observe. Religion though an opium for masses it does help to overcome some of the issues of greed and jealously that is likely occur and align people.
Fatalism is good sometimes!

5 August 2010
Anna Hazare started a hunger strike on 5 April 2011 to exert pressure on the Indian government to enact a strict anti-corruption law The fast led to nation-wide protests in support of Hazare. The government was filled with scam after scam starting with 2G, CWC, ISRO.
The fast ended on 9 April 2011, the day after the government accepted Hazare's demands.
The government issued a gazette notification on the formation of a joint committee, constituted of government and civil society representatives, to draft the legislation.
Anna has been featured as the most influential person in Mumbai by a national daily newspaper.

31 May 2011-Fraud on Civil Society
During the meeting of the joint drafting committee on 30 May 2011, the Union government members opposed the inclusion of the prime minister, higher judiciary and the acts of the MPs under the purview of the Lokpal in the draft bill. On 31 May 2011.
Pranab Mukherjee, chairman of the joint drafting committee sent a letter to the chief ministers of all states and the leaders of the political parties seeking their opinion on six contentious issues in the proposed Lokpal Bill, including whether to bring the prime minister and judges of Supreme Court and High Courts under the purview of the proposed law.
But the civil society members of the drafting committee considered that keeping the prime minister and judges of Supreme Court and High Courts out of the purview of the Lokpal. It keeps all the corrupt people away from the Lokpal bill. Anna and his team termed it as fraud on nation.

28 July 2011
On July 28, 2011 the union cabinet on approved a draft of the Lokpal Bill, which keeps the Prime Minister, judiciary and lower bureaucracy out of the ambit of the proposed corruption ombudsman Lokpal.Hazare rejected the government version by describing it as “cruel joke’’ and wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh , and told him his decision to go on an indefinite fast from August 16, 2011 at Jantar Mantar if the government introduced its own version of the bill in Parliament without taking suggestions from civil society members.

Why are you (government) sending the wrong draft? We have faith in Parliament. But first send the right draft, our agitation is against government, not Parliament. The government has overlooked many points. How will it fight corruption by excluding government employees, CBI and prime minister from the Lokpal's purview?

What Anna Felt about Government Deceit?
We were told that both the drafts would be sent to the Cabinet. But only the government's draft was sent. This is a deceitful government. They are lying. How will they run the country? Now I have no trust in this government. If it is really serious about fighting corruption, why is it not bringing government employees and CBI under Lokpal?- Anna Hazare

The most undemocratic act of the Government
Arrest and aftermath
On August 16 2011, Hazare was arrested four hours before the planned indefinite hunger strike under section 144 for causing public nuisance. The conditions police included restricting the length of the fast to three days and the number of protesters at the site to 5,000.Anna refused, Later Anna was sent to Tihar jail under judicial custody for 7 days and relased after two hours pleading that he is not a threat to society. A person is a threat to society before two hours and Government changed its stand in two hours. Democracy in India is virtually misused and angered entire country and the Indians in the World.

Events on 16 August 2011
Along with Hazare, other key members of the India Against Corruption movement including Arvind Kejriwal , Shanti Bhushan , Kiran Bedi and Manish Sisodia were also detained from different locations. It was reported that about 1,300 supporters were detained in Delhi. Media also reported that the arrest sparked off protests with people courting arrests in different parts of the country. The opposition parties in the country came out against the arrest, likening the government action to the emergency imposed in the country in 1975. Both the houses of Parliament were adjourned over the issue.
Eventually, after being kept in judicial detention for 24 hours, he was released by police, but Hazare and his supporters refused to sign bail bond and he was sent to Tihar Jail . They demanded permission to observe a fast in support of the Janlokpal bill, without any conditions. Hazare continued his fast inside the jail.

Will the second revolution Continue?
The answer is YES.
It happened in the case of Independence to our country.
Any movement lead by a simple person with bare minimum needs , spiritual and truthful will be adored by people.
We will see these sociological, anthropological, political and economic reasons for this kind of behaviour in Indians.
Until then Jai Hind.

Anna hazare the phenomena

by Prabhakar Krishnamurthy

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Anna hazare the phenomena Presentation Transcript