Indian Activism Vs. Sri Lankan Fear
This Godavari river is mad dirty, but people are still playing in it. It’s a metaphor, not a recommendation.
I met a chap who said he worked at Google from 9 to 5, but that his full-time job was environmental activism. I don’t really get it but that’s cool. His organization was holding an environmental workshop at a bookstore owned by the Deccan Chronicle, which ran a misquoted and mangled story on it the next day. But still, that was fast. More impressively, the workshop was full of kids ranging from like 12 to, uh, I guess me at 27, all active and smart. I was quite impressed.
In Sri Lanka one tries to put their hands around any kind of spark, but India seems like it’s on fire. That is also a function of number. They also have way bigger problems than Sri Lanka, and the scope of activism may not actually be enough. But I think it is. This is one tiny event in a very big country, but India seems, like, active.
Journalism
For one thing, the media is (relative to Sri Lanka) free and profitable. As I mentioned in my last Leader column, when you say journalist people are actually impressed. They don’t ask you when you’re going to die. Which is refreshing. Random chaps are like ‘power of the pen’ and I’m like ‘What? You mean the power to end up in the pen?’ But that concept is entirely alien here. Not that journalist don’t get thwacked, but it’s not the norm.
Plus these guys have money. The Deccan Chronicle is, IMHO, one of the shoddier papers but they own other businesses and a cricket team. The newspaper business, unlike in the west, is booming and respected. It’s not always the best work, but some of it is damn excellent.
NGOs
Furthermore, NGO isn’t a bad word either. It doesn’t mean Norwegian Government Overthrow. I admit that a lot of NGO stuff is bullshit, but I think Sri Lanka has thrown out a nascent civil society with the bathwater. In India NGO type work can go on without being branded as treason. I guess some people are driving Pajeros and writing useless grant proposals, but a lot are working with the poor, dispossessed, women (a serious issue in India), etc.
I mean, the environmental group that organized this workshop would technically be an NGO, or something like it. And they can operate without fear. This means that civil society groups can spring up so people can make changes in their environment and population within the funding and functioning apparatus of NGOs. Not that this is the best, but it is an existing structure within which to ‘do good’ and still put food on the table.
In Sri Lanka it’s been demonized to the point where I’m reluctant to work with any NGO as you’ll get thrashed for it. Not that there are NGOs lining up to work with me or anything, but I’ve been perversely proud of not dealing with NGOs, which I realize now is somewhat dumb. I mean, there are good NGOs, there is good work that people can do in the non-government, and Indians are doing it without shame.
Fear
Of course, I’m talking about India based on one experience in one city, so feel free to lambast me in the comments. But things seem freer up here. Their problems are way bigger, but they at least have their hands out to work with them. Sri Lanka has smaller problems, but our hands are tied, by which I mean our hobbled and terrorized civil society.
Even I have internalized the anti-media and anti-NGO campaign to the point that I’ve seen those forces as weaklings, but then where does that leave the country? I mean, am I so trusting of the politicians? Perhaps a weak civil society is not their weakness and loss but ours as a nation.
I was watching that Arun Krishnamurthy of Tree Rocks and Shoots India going on about turtles getting their flippers cut off and stuff and I was like, ‘what the fuck happened to me?’ He was so passionate and uncompromising and all I could think was how unpragmatic it all was, and how he should maybe tone it down for the status quo. But why? If we all keep toning it down then how’s anything really going to change? I’m all about the middle, but without an extreme to push the debate, how does the line ever move? I’ve been pragmatic ostensibly because that’s the way to get things done, but I’m also just afraid. I think that’s got to change.
isnt the deccan chronucle owned by vijay malllya? Anyway, interesting analysis. Far as i know india’s problems ARE huge. Compared to ours that is. So maybe our civil society activism quantitatively is proportionally equal?
Deccan chronicle is the paper I read when I am in chennai, i always feel its like the daily mirror here or something. My parents read the hindu..
Nice posts on india..
I really enjoyed reading this series of posts. Excellent observations and commentary.
On paper, all NGOs are good guys.
I stumbled on this quite by accident and it was nice reading it… about Indian activism, civil society and media by a Sri Lankan! I lived in Sri Lanka for a few years and just moved back to India and I reckon you’re right. Yes, we have HUGE problems but we can talk about and debate (most of) them in the media, our politicians can’t get away with murder anymore, and NGOs do do some good work, though like you said there is the whole aspect of the ‘apparatus’, funding, etc. And most of all, there is activism in a way I saw very little of in Sri Lanka… It’s not about it being proportional to problems but more about a system that provides the space for it – perhaps you could call it democracy?
Right on the head !
Yo jcnars,
Aren’t you glad that Indi is confirming your favourite biases… It only shows how much you both know about Sri Lanka that doesn’t live on the Internet.
Our Colombo chattering class are suckers for melodrama, and more juicier and convoluted the better it is.
You can believe these stories, which many people do, but then you really miss out on the plot, like during the recent elections.
Indi is honestly confused and this is his blog.
touche. I just love how the microcosm of the Colombo upper/upper middle class are oblivious to objective reality as well as what the rest of believes in. The concepts of a civil society & civic duty have no value unless these supposed good samaritans who engage in “civic duty” understand how their actions impact society as a whole. Concepts such as media freedom are not divine edicts or absolutes that can exists in a vaccume, this country will never get media freedom unless these damn journalists understand the concept of journalistic integrity.
I don’t really trust any argument that depends on dividing people. It’s not right to say lower class people are stupid and it’s not right to say ‘upper’ class people are ill-intentioned.
Freedom does exist in a vacuum, it is self-evident. Just because most people don’t seem to believe in it doesn’t make it any less of a value. Blaming it on the ‘damn journalists’ is a bit like saying a girl would stop getting molested if she dressed differently.
The real elite is the political elite and the freedoms they are taking away affect all classes.
“The real elite is the political elite and the freedoms they are taking away affect all classes.”
That is the self serving myth that drives the anger against MR.
The whole point of having a democracy is to get a ‘political elite’ to rule over the country, instead of a self appointed bunch of NGOs and partisan media who are answerable to no one.
@indi: The rape analogy is completely non sequitur. Journalistic integrity doesn’t mean you close shop and prostrate in front of the politicians. It’s means you engage responsible journalism and hold yourself accountable. Here’s a question, how many journalists have been successfully sued in this country for slander and defamation? And how many of these journalists have sincerely apologized and owned up to their mistakes?
“Freedom exists in a vacuum” What nonsense is this! There is nothing that exists in a vacuum, everything exists within a human society with competing interests. The varying degrees of Freedom we enjoy are privileges that we can afford because of mutual trust, cooperation and interdependence between all elements of society.
Also their is a lot of talk about media suppression, and violence against the media, but how many journalists have actually been assaulted/killed/kidnapped?
i’ve always felt lik india has something goin on in terms of bond with their country and ppl than Sri Lankans.
but, as you noticed, the numbers make it a little more visible in one town, than say a similar move in a sri lankan context. but, i think it is actually more to do with Sri Lankans always wailing their hands are tied rather than actually havin it so. after all, it’s not like the political and civil culture of india is less ruthless than here.