Data journalism

Asking the right question.

Over the past one year, the one question that has constantly come up during every field trip I have taken, across the country is -why does there exist such a big gap between what is envisaged through a scheme and its implementation  at the local level? Everywhere I have gone, be it a women empowerment scheme or a scheme to strengthen the Panchayat institutions, locally the schemes are manipulated in such a perverse manner that one is forced to question the effectiveness of the scheme. From mid-level government employees to the top bosses, how could neither of them predict these perversions? Questions like doesn't the district collector know? surely the commissioner knows? were met by blatant 'No's. Either the buck was passed on to the hierarchical  nature of  the government machinery or I usually got  sniggered at for even asking such a question. " Where does the collector have the time madam? the trouble is that there is a lack of communication between us and the man on top," said some of them or in certain cases it was the more fatalistic, " they know everything madam but they don't want the system to change."

I would be lieing if I said that in the initial few occasions I did not agree with these replies. While on field, when one spends most of the time with a mid-level government employee (who is usually over 55-years-old) one is bound to develop biases. I too felt dearly for the poor man stuck on field and like most middle class cribs blamed the lack of understanding of sociological factors to a lack of will on the part of our civil servants. 

 Now here I would like to break certain major misconceptions about our civil servants. They are by far the most hardworking individuals in a state machinery. Each one of them easily puts in 12-14 hours of work and is giving absolutely no credit for it. In fact most of them remain unidentifiable pawns of the state machinery only brought to light when they have erred or their morality is questioned ( thanks to the media). They  without doubt are picked from among the cream of Indian citizenry and at a commissioner or principal secretary level, when they have put in that many years of service, it goes without saying - they sure as hell know what the ground realities are. Then why do the policies or schemes falter at the grass root level.

As I mused over this question for months, a chance mention of a book in a history course I was taking online finally threw some light on this question. James.C.Scott's - Seeing like the State is the best introductory guide to statecraft that I have come across.

To answer this question, first we need to understand, what the motive of a state is? Does the state have a motive? Isn't it all about the welfare of the citizens? If it is welfare, where does the state get the funds?

So the first step towards solving this puzzle is identifying the motive of the state.

Decadence

What is a government machinery, if not a place where decadence is cultivated and nurtured? Across the paan stained corridors of the 'Mahiti Khata', there exists a room which is different from all the others, while  the others have the purpose of their creation etched on the door, this one has an empty slot as an introduction. The inmates- an owl, an orangutan and a weepy donkey- sit idly in their respective spaces, staring at computer screens. " So what is today's issue for the day- riots in Tamil Nadu over the movie Vishwaroopam or the sad issue of communalism ?" asks the weepy donkey, wiping a tear from its right eye.
Discussions don't necessarily need an announcement in this room, the orangutan and the donkey have enough insights on every conceivable issue to keep themselves engaged in mournful discussions, while the owl, the wise one that it is, moderates a few of these discussions or in certain cases ignores them to blatantly fall asleep. On the forehead of each inmate sticks the word 'institutionalised' - they have been co-opted by the system that has more hands than needed. 'Mahiti Khata' is no different from  government machinery all over the country.
"Hierarchy  is the word to remember here", says the orangutan adjusting the glasses drooping of its nose. " Don't be surprised by what you see here, apart from the grizzly bear at the top, all of us here are usually idle why you ask? well, that is because we are chained to our chairs, throughout this machinery are doors, we cannot see the insides of as the chains don't go that far," adds the orangutan.
The grizzly bear has bigger chains, though it knows more, it acts also less. He is so entangled in the system and has become part of the paan stained walls. The rats scurry around him, three chairs outside his room are occupied by three rats, on the run as soon as the bell rings 'trring trring'. On other times they ferociously read the news paper.
 The orangutan starts flailing its arms and begins to make loud noises of aggression, the weepy donkey goes back into its shell, it is crying for yet another cause, the owl lights a cigarette and falls asleep halfway through it. The bear rings the bell, the rats go scurrying in, another day ends.

Understanding Communalism - Part 2

For the previous post - I was asked if communalism is always religion based?
After discussions and a lot more probing I have come to the realisation that the definition of communalism is also largely based on the part of the world you come from. For people from the west, communalism is a kind of utopian socialism where the society goes back to a farm-centered lifestyle. However, In South-East Asia communalism is largely based on religious, caste and ethnic identities.
Now after understanding the definition of communalism, we move to the reasons for its inception in India.
All of us have multiple identities, now what are these identities? They are the labels society gives us to identify us and our role in the society. As a fun exercise I have decided to list out  my identities and classify them, that way all of you will get a better understanding of how the society perceives us. It is important to note that these are not mere perceptions but each of these identities has a certain framework within which an individual needs to find space. Concessions are allowed but only up to an extent.
I Kruthika Rao am
1. Woman-( gender identity)
2. Kannadiga( language based identity)
3. City-bred-urban
4. Middle class (class based identity)
5. Brahmin - this gets furthur divided to the sub-caste - Smartha Brahmin- Ulchakamme (caste based identity)
6. Hindu (religion based identity)
7. Bangalore-Karnataka- South Indian-Indian (region based identity)
8. India (National identity)

Now to complicate matters a little further  let us examine my identities in the medieval ages in India. In the medieval ages though these identities affected my personal freedoms up to a large extent they did not find a place in the politics of the nation. A monarch held power by virtue of his conquests, family lineage and caste. I as a citizen had no say in governance, my role was fixed to priestly activities (since I am a Brahmin) and as a woman I perhaps had even lesser say in anything of significance let alone governance ( there were exceptions of course but we are talking mainly in terms of generalisations here). Now with the advent of modern politics and ideas like democracy, the number of people influencing governance also increased. From governance, on the basis of hereditary, people had to be politically motivated to elect their leader. This required mass mobilization. On one hand while the people were being motivated on the basis of ideas of nationalism there were certain areas in the country where the politicization of the masses was slower due to low education and backwardness, caste and religious identities were used in order to fulfill selfish interests.
This transition in the political system is one of the reasons for communalism and can be considered the sociological reason for its growth and continuance in Indian polity.

Understanding communalism

I have always been the one, who always got communalism and communism wrong. In my protected middle class life stripped of any ideology, both seemed like extremly alien concepts. It was not until a 10 month stint at the Asian College of Journalism that I finally figured out the difference between ' left and right' wing political views . As I finally began accepting idealistic notions of the world, I found a job in what can be easily called the ' Hindu Heartland'  - Gujarat. So in a span two years I have got a glimpse of  two diametrically opposite view points.
Today I intend to just focus on communalism which has resulted in more than one heated argument over the past couple of months. Bipin Chandra is the man, who has made it all easy for me as fas as understaning communalism..
Now the important question to ask is what is communalism? Now for a long time I thought communalism was just one religion thinking it is better than the other. Though this defenition explains conflict it is more like a broad generalisation and confused me as then I looked at communal conflict only in terms of conversions.
However in reality, the 'threat of conversion' is largely used by the Hindu communalist to mobilize public opinion. It is a means for propagating communalist ideology and not the ideology itself. This is an important aspect to note, as over the course of my reading I have found out that a lot of things are misinterpreted this way.
Communalism can be understood, if we undertstand the notion of aspirations -
If you live within the realms of a society then as a human being you are bound to have aspirations. Now what are these aspirations? These aspirations are a host of things: from preserving social status, to understanding lineage and most importantly in a democracy  to be part of it ( either as a voter or by being part of governance). The first seeds of communalism are sown into the social fabric when the idea that the people belonging to a particular religion ( by virtue of that fact) have common aspirations. As soon as the aspirations of an individual are misread as the aspirations of the entire community (in this case religion) the problem of communalism begins. Now many of you might argue that what is wrong with that? In the outset, this idea seems all the more welcoming as people belonging to a certain community learn to work together in order to meet these aspirations. This should reduce inequality right?
However, at this point it becomes important to realise that in a society where only one religion exists this idea can definately aid in the development of that community but what actually happens in a multireligious society is that it creates adverseries in followers of other faith. As people of one religion begin ot believe that their interets are different from that of the other.
The Number Game
By stating that the number of people belonging to one religion are the majority in a nation, the communalists tend to feed on this difference. From difference it transforms into insecurity and the strong belief that the other religion/religions is/are a hindrance to the common interests of the minority community.
Now just because the majority community has numbers it is not that it feels secure either. An idea of 'cleansing' the country out of the minorities to enhance their interests is propagated by the majority communalists  thus furthur adding fuel to the insecurity.
Once this cycle begins, it is like a vicious circle that in most cases leads to violence.

So as citizens of India, it is essential to understand these three distinct stages and curb communalism in the earlier stages by emphasising on the other identities that perhaps have more relevance in meeting our aspirations.

Cartoon courtesy: Indian Express
Content courtesy: India's struggle for Independence - Bipin Chandra

A return to this medium

 Well, it has been a while since I have updated my blog. There have been quite a few changes at the career front too and this entry is an effort to inform people that from being a Journalist I have switched sides and decided to be part of governance. I like the other 4.5 million youngsters in this country have decided to become an IAS aspirant. So this blog will talk about the journey I am going to undertake to enter the bureacratic system. It will remain people centric like the blog was initially envisioned to be, but I on my part will also talk  extensively about history and sociology. I will dabble with the complex concepts that I come across while preparing for what can be rightfully called the toughest examination in the country.

Of Illustrators and Doctors-Part 2

My Previous post spoke of doctors but got too long to speak of illustrators.

so here is the continuation of that post.

After my chit chat with the Chicago doctor , the next person to catch my eye was a bearded man at the corner table who was flailing his arms in animated discussion. I walked towards him and in the course of our discussion realized he was also the creator of graphic novels.

'Moonward' was his latest creation and he spoke of independent comics, a genre most people in India are probably unaware of. Independent comics are embraced by people who grew up on superhero comics but got sick of them at some point of time and hence started looking for something new.

"Unfortunately in India most people never had any access to comics for them to switch to Independent comics. Landmark is probably one of the few places in Bangalore where you get comics. I was in Paris a couple of months back and was walking down the river side and saw small boxes all through the length of the walk way. After a little late in the morning, these boxes opened up. They were all book stores and had every conceivable comic book, all written in french!"

In India it will take a while for this to probably happen. However George Mathan (probably the only independent comics illustrator in Bangalore) alias appupen thinks that at least by the time he reaches a humble 68 years of age, things should improve.

All of you can see his work at www.georgemathan.com