The Power of One: Anna Hazare

The person is Anna Hazare- the 74 year old Indian, clad in white with a cap to match who launched a campaign tagged ‘’Indian Movement’’ against corruption in Indian.  According to Wikipedia, Anna Hazare commenced “fasting unto death” on 5 April 2011 to exert pressure on the government of India to enact a strong anti-corruption […]

The person is Anna Hazare- the 74 year old Indian, clad in white with a cap to match who launched a campaign tagged ‘’Indian Movement’’ against corruption in Indian.  According to Wikipedia, Anna Hazare commenced “fasting unto death” on 5 April 2011 to exert pressure on the government of India to enact a strong anti-corruption act. The fast led to nationwide protest in support of Hazare and ended on 9 April 2011, the day after all his demands were agreed to by the Indian government.

Born on 15th June 1937 Anna Hazare has built a career as a social activist based on the teachings of Mahatma Ghandi’s non-violence. He contributed to the development and structuring of Ralegan Sithi, a village in Parner Taluka of Ahmednagger district in India. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan—the third highest civilian award—by the government of India for his effort in establishing Ralegan Sithi as model village.

Suddenly matters got to a head when Anna Hazare noticed that rather than expedite action on the anti corruption act, the India parliament was pussyfooting and delaying the enactment on the act. He promptly resumed his fast, which in turn caused the government to throw him into jail and swore that he will not come out unless he renounces his fast.  But Hazare has demurred insisting the parliament should enact the act or he would die fasting. As expected the jail where he is being kept is now packed full of the ever growing multitude whose consciousness he has awakened. Meanwhile, the Congress Party government now thoroughly embarrassed because it is seen to have thrown into jail a person seeking to purge the state of the cankerworm of corruption is now searching desperately to talk the old man out of his resolve by agreeing to force the act through parliament if Hazare would stop his fast. He has agreed to fast for only 15 days to see whether the government would do his bidding.

Now what is the moral of Anna Hazare’s exploit? The first thing to say is that he is a thorough student of Mahatma Ghandi, except for the slight difference of sartorial preference: he wears his own white cloth in jumper and the trousers, while the sage preferred to draped his across his chest and loins. Like Ghandi, he is steeped in Hindu mystical injunctions of austerities and penance through fasting and its use to correct the ills of society. Before India’s independence in 1948, Ghandi resorted to long fasts to force Pandit Nehru and Ali Jinna to prevail on their followers to stop the mindless violence that preceded the birth of India. Indeed the deep seated hostilities eventually caused the breakup of the sub-continent and the creation of Pakistan.

Anna Hazare’s fast to force the Indian government to address the issue of corruption seriously and getting thrown into jail for his labours, is much like Mahatma Ghandi’s long march to the sea to make salt, necessitated by the anti colonial boycott of the English salt and the savage pummelling he and his marchers received in the hands of the British. Not a few people may want to scoff at the idea of someone fasting to death in order to root out corruption from his society. Indeed in Nigeria many people would rather say that why starve yourself to death when in fact you could jolly well join in the game, after all, if you cannot beat them, why not join them.

Well, this raises a number of moral and ethical issues but suffice it say however that Anna Hazare has been so sufficiently disgusted with his India as it becomes a cesspit of scurrilous larceny even as it hurtles at breakneck speed to be a real developed country. The India economy has consistently grown by about 10% for more than a decade and half now, making it the envy of Pakistan and other impoverished Asian countries. With the population of about 1 billion people it has continued to modernise its infrastructure; for instance, it boasts of first rate universities that can rival the best anywhere. Its hospitals perform procedures considered as medical feats elsewhere, as a matter of routine. For instance, it is a choice destination for Nigerians in search of better health; its computer savvy engineers, accountants etc, rake in multimillion dollars for outsourced jobs from the United States.

But all this pales into insignificance when it is considered that much more would have been achieved if corruption were not so rife and become a huge impediment to all round development. This is the reason why Anna Hazare and his groundswell multitude from all over India are up in arms, as it were, that India can develop without the debilitating accompaniment of corrupting tendencies. And they are waging this moral equivalent of war, not with bombs, AK 45s, Russian Kalashnikovs or Molotov cocktails but with the most potent weapon capable of striking at the inner core of any society:- the quest for change through self immolation and if need be annihilation.

It is a moral force that any government ignores at its peril. There is every indication therefore that the Congress Party government will force a bill hastily thorough parliament to, at least curb corruption.  But how far would putting in place anti- corruption laws and agencies go in curbing the social ill? If Nigeria is any guide, not much. It has a whole complement of anti-corruption bodies and a battery of laws enough to catch anyone engaged in it, but so far the social ill still festers.

Anna Hazare and the multitude he has awakened have shown that a time comes when individuals would be so assaulted by the cupidity and other ills of society that they would be ready even at a risk to their wellbeing to say enough is enough.