India

Kajori Biswas

Cry, cry, cry for life,
For the Indian Dalits,¹ outcasts in their own land
From day to day, burying hundreds who die
For the refugees, exiled in diaspora...
Cry, cry, cry for life
For the peasants who produce our food
But go to bed with empty stomach
For workers who keep the wheel turning
But carry heavy burdens on their backs
Cry, cry, cry for life
For the courage, for the hope...
In our struggle, we burst in songs
As a new day dawns, we will shout in joy.²

The shimmering Tungabhadra meanders narrowly between grey rocks in the northern part of Karnataka. Pentamma, a little girl of eleven, sits cross-legged on the river bank inside a small quadrangle. Four small brass pots adorn the four corners of the square. These contain water, shredded coconut, cashew nut and some yellow turmeric powder. With the chanting of sing-song prayers and the burning of incense, the turmeric-stained yellow water is poured on Pentamma.

That was in May 1978. "It was just a month after I attained puberty," recalls Pentamma, who is 28 now. Inside the temple, an old devadasi³ tied a yellow, turmeric-stained string having a few coloured beads around her neck. After the chanting of prayers, some instructions followed. The most important instruction that Pentamma had to follow strictly and that changed the course of her life was: "Appease the goddess by sleeping with any male devotee of hers; but marry no man, for you are eternally married to the goddess." Today all young girls of the poor caste must sacrifice their bodies to lifelong sexual slavery at the temple. They believe that if they don't, then the goddess might punish the family with the dreaded chicken-pox or small-pox.

My second story is related to Rajan, a chirpy 14-year-old boy. When it is 9.30 am, "It is time to go to work," he tells himself; and off he goes, from the wheat fields where he was harvesting along with his family. Rajan brings his torn and dirty working kit with him when he comes to the field every morning, so that he can dash off to the factory two kilometres away from the field. While his friends go for a swim in the pool, or fly a kite or even go to school, Rajan toils hard in Shivakashi's firework factory to earn a humble salary and a square meal for his family. There are numerous cases in India where young boys like Rajan give up their dreams for an adverse lifestyle. Rajan has developed an aversion to his job. But what can he do? He was born in a caste-ridden society, in the family of a harijan (social outcast) from where there is no escape.

Such is the prevailing condition in India, where children are denied a childhood, where young girls misplace their gossamer dreams in the shackles of social structures.

Backdrop

The subcontinent of India consists of 900 million people belonging to various sociocultural, religious and linguistic backgrounds. The population of Asian cities is doubling every 10 to 15 years and the situation is getting worse. Although it has one of the lowest growth rates in South Asia, the population of India will be 1.4 billion (1,400 million) by the year 2025, and youth will form the majority of the population.

The contemporary development scenario

Today there is militancy in various parts of the subcontinent and everywhere it is the young generation who suffers most. The hopes and aspirations of the young are nipped in the bud since sixty per cent of the total population of Indians are illiterate, fifty per cent live below the poverty line, thirty per cent of the child population are not enrolled in schools, and child labour, exploitation and child abuse are rampant. Children clean ashpits, work in cement factories, coal mines, printing presses, chemical and fireworks factories, although any work hazardous for the child is banned by the government.

Globalization, which has become a new catch-word in economics, promotes consumerism and free trade and has brought enormous changes in India and other developing countries. The advent of many multinational and transnational corporations (MNCs and TNCs) offering lucrative jobs and high salaries are luring young people to join the rat-race, while on the other hand numerous qualified youth remain unemployed.

India is experiencing an invasion of its culture. Multinational products find a ready response among youth, who are the most vulnerable of all groups. Individualism is encouraged in the name of modernization, which in turn results in the abandoning of traditional values.

Indian society is multilingual, multireligious, and multiethnic. Tied up by the one and the same cultural ethos, the political concepts of democracy, secularism, equality, freedom and fraternity are entering the minds of the Indian masses, especially Indian youth.

The Asian context

The peoples of Asia have been dehumanized for centuries. This dehumanization is manifested in the forms of hunger, malnutrition, oppression of women and children, cultural minorities and indigenous peoples, landless peasants, industrial workers, fisherfolk, and stateless citizens, as well as victims of political repression. Traditionally the sufferings of these people have been attributed to their karma,⁴ god's will, or laziness. But social research has shown that forced poverty in Asia has been caused by the domination of the global and national powers. The exploitation of the human and material resources of Asia by these powers has kept the majority of Asian youth in perpetual enslavement. Throughout Asia young people, God's people, are oppressed, exploited and crushed under the massive strain of such sociopolitical structures. Most of the Asian countries have been under colonial rule. Even after "independence" they are far from socioeconomic independence. Presently, under the impact of market economy, these countries are once more trapped in neo-colonialism. Youth throughout Asia are striving for a better living.

Many people in Taiwan are struggling for true democracy and independence. The people in Taiwan do not want to be governed by the communist government of China. They want to live in justice, peace and freedom. Many people in India are fighting against water pollution, air pollution and nuclearization. They are struggling for a better ecological environment and a better quality of life. In the Philippines 70 per cent of youth are struggling for a just and fair living. Human rights are under severe threat, and the right to work is inhibited.

Generally in Asian cultures women are subordinate to men. Social institutions - family, community, country or even church - are dominated by men. In the churches there is still a lot to be done in acknowledging and practising equal rights for women.

Social malaise

In a setting where the basic rights of people are stifled, youth seem to be drifting in the whirlpool of despair. This, subsequently, has engendered conflict. Today's powerful media are frequently broadcasting that the only means to a better life is subjection to the market economy. Education is supposed to be the means of liberation. After 48 years of independence the Indian government has not yet been able to universalize education.

We, as Indians, see injustice in the hunger of millions of our people, in the ample promises and pseudo-development programmes of those in power. We see it in the present system of education, in the forced labour of millions of our children. We see it in the systematic suppression of the human and civil rights of the tribals, and in the subtle forms of discrimination against women and against people of the lower stratum of society. We see it in the denuding of our forests and in the uprooting of our tribal people. Such injustice committed against the people dehumanizes humanity, and negates the fullness of life.

Youth versus the Indian church

The church has talked much about the contribution of youth and has made many resolutions concerning youth and future leadership. But in reality, very little has been done. The Indian church lives in the remote villages. The urban, city-based churches encounter problems such as division in the congregation, broken fellowship, and leadership crises. The hierarchical system which operates from within the ministries has led to the stunted growth of the Indian church. Malpractices like mishandling of church finances, misuse of church properties and misuse of the various ministries for personal gains are also difficult hurdles that the Indian church is facing. Such conditions also prevail in my church, the Church of North India (CNI). The stereotyped service order and the monotonous sermons that have been overused for decades seem to have brought the enthusiasm of the youth to a dead-finish. This has consequently led to a dearth of leadership in the church. There is no endeavour on the part of the church to revitalize, reactivate the youth. We have failed to reach to the grassroots level where our basic community dwells, where there is the need to nurture youth. It is the very hub of action, it is from that core of society that the youth movement originates to break the chains of injustice.

The role of the church is to be a worshipping, sharing and serving community, and to be in solidarity with the peoples' struggle. The body of Christ has to respond to the brokenness of the world. The church in India, as elsewhere in Asia, is in danger of division, which threatens the unified body of Christ. In order to spread God's mission effectively, the church has to suffer with struggling people and identify with the poor, the oppressed, the exploited, the degraded - to be the church of the people. It is the duty of the church to conscientize youth to their political and social responsibility.

Violence as a form of injustice

The dictionary meaning of violence is excessive, unrestrained or unjustifiable force. It includes outrage, confrontation, injury, rape, etc. In whatever manner one defines violence, it is basically a negative concept. All the positive feelings like love, compassion, justice, etc., counteract the feeling of violence. Violence - "the law of the brute", as Mahatma Gandhi said - ignores the socioethical relations with other fellow beings.

As a crisis violence results in dehumanization in two ways. First, whether open or masked, violence is socially disruptive. Secondly, violence is the focal point of alienation. It is an aspect of the present system that prevents the full realization of humanness. Today we are compelled to live with violence. Communal violence, gender discrimination, caste wars and class distinctions are some of the deadly forces we live with. Violence is not just the taking up of arms or resorting to physical force. Violence is any deliberate attempt, any injustice to seek to defeat God's purpose for his creation or to disturb the cosmic harmony. Statistics say that in India the rate of violence and injustice among women takes a disastrous form compared with the women of other communities.

The victims

1. Women and Children

It is a great tragedy that for most abused women injustice begins at home with husbands, fathers, brothers and uncles. In a developing country like India, physical, sexual and psychological abuse within the family affect an astounding number of women, driving them into having a low self-esteem. The canvas of violation has become much broader now - molestation, rape of minors, sexual harassment. Rape today seems to have become a marginal issue, relegated to the sidelines as population takes over in priority. A serious fallout in the absence of a national moral outcry is that the judgements of the courts seem to legitimize male notions that rape is not a "serious" crime. According to the National Crime Bureau, rape cases have increased by 26 per cent since 1987. In numbers, at the all-India level, reported cases have escalated from 7,952 to 10,460. Barely 5 per cent of the cases result in conviction.

Moreover, the injustice which women face includes state-sponsored violence such as wife bashing, dowry, rape in police lockup, sexual violence at the time of communal clashes, etc.

The abuse and exploitation of children in Asia takes such forms as child labour, sexual slavery, child pornography, the sale and trafficking of children, prostitution and sale of organs, the use of children in drug trafficking, child marriage, selective abortion of female foetuses, and many more.

2. The student community

Students in India have a history of being at the forefront of struggles for democratization and social justice. Because of their militant commitment to social transformation, they have often suffered state violence and repression. The education system in India is increasingly being modified to fit the requirements of industrialization and private profit. The education system is being made more elitist and exclusive in order to justify and ensure class stratification, discrimination against women, minorities, the working class and the peasantry, forcing the majority of youth into wage labour or the hopelessness of unemployment.

3. The indigenous people

Indigenous peoples have been marginalized throughout India, often enduring extreme deprivation and oppression. Presently they are suffering a wave of dispossession as the natural resources of their domains are plundered; they are also caught in the crossfire of internal wars. The Indian government has commercialized indigenous cultures as tourist spectacles, thereby degrading them, and the government is also attempting to hasten their demise by genocidal policies, by displacement, suppression of their languages and cultures, economic marginalization and by taking their land.

4. The peasants and fisherfolk

The peasants and fisherfolk constitute a large part of India's population. There are 20 lakh fishermen in the country and an additional 60 lakh family members who are dependent on the seas for their living. Of these, more than 70 per cent live below the poverty line. But instead of paying heed to their needs and equipping them to improve their catch in the deep seas, the government is handing over their resources to joint ventures. The government's policy is to allow foreign trawlers to enter the territorial waters reserved for the traditional fisherfolk. The sea is an unbroken ecological entity and foreign trawlers, keen to seek out the high priced varieties of fish, will discard a lot of their by-catch into the sea. This will spell ruination for the fish stocks and disturb the entire marine life in the coastal belt.

The response

Such stories are told time and again, for decades and for centuries. What people gulp down as reality is a bitter pill with a thin sugar coating. When the sugar coating dissolves, the bitterness comes to the surface, and its lingering taste incites the young generation to revolt. We see a new pattern emerging of courageous youth, of strong youth, youth of stamina, faith and compassion.

The struggle

1. The Fisher Peoples' Movement

Two years ago, when the government announced its decision to renew licences to foreign and joint venture trawlers allowing them to fish in India's waters, the National Fishworkers' Forum (NFF), a federation of State-level fishermen's unions, decided to launch a movement against the government's policy. The principle of natural justice, on moral grounds, demands that those who have traditionally made a living from the seas be encouraged to go into the deeper water rather than use the economic fringe.

2. Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save Narmada Movement)

The Narmada River is the lifeline of central India. The movement in the Narmada Valley against the controversial Sardar Sarovar Project is part of the nationwide struggle for a new model of development. The Narmada Bachao Andolan has been challenging the dam because of unprecedented displacement, violation of rights to life, the degradation of land, water, forest resources, etc.

3. The Seed Satyagraha

The Seed Satyagraha (struggle for truth) is a watershed in the history of the peasants' movement against the much discussed Dunkel Draft issue and the entry of MNCs in agriculture. The movement is a turning point in the struggle against colonization of the seed and the destruction of ecological stability.

4. Sexual harassment policy

The sexual harassment policy developed by the World Council of Churches has been adopted by some NGOs in the country. The policy condemns violence against women and strives to restore human dignity. Its aim is to bring together a community of solidarity and mutual concern which challenges all forms of violence against women.

5. The NGOs and the ecumenical movement

A large number of NGOs are working to incorporate youth into the development process. They undertake various projects, including leadership training and skills programmes. It is often said that youth are the church of tomorrow, but the ecumenical movement has always emphasized that "youth are the church of today".

The victory

As youth strive ahead with renewed vigour and vision, there is a glimmer of hope amidst the darkness of hopelessness, there is a longing for a millennium. And I am sure that together we can make a difference to many, many young lives. Together, we can do something beautiful.

Where the mind is without fear
and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up
into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action -
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

- Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali

Kajori Biswas of the Church of North India is studying English at Presidency College, University of Calcutta. She is a member of the Asia/Pacific women's committee of the World Student Christian Federation.

Notes