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Prophets of New India
Most of us go through life without realising that we have choices. Conforming to the unspoken norm, we try to acquire a good education, a comfortable well-paying job, settled married life, security for our children and so on. Yet there are a few rare individuals who not satisfied with achieving only personal comfort have worked towards bettering the lot of the society’s shunned. The Week, a well-known news magazine, has for the past 21 years been publishing a Man of the Year feature that celebrates the lives and accomplishments of individuals who in their own quiet way have impacted, for the better, the lives of people among whom they work. Prophets of New India is a heart-warming and inspiring collection of 20 of these articles. The book honours the work of social workers like Baba Amte, whose Anandwan is not just a treatment and rehabilitation centre for leprosy patients, the deaf, dumb and the blind, but also an alternative model for better rural life. With agriculture and irrigation being the mainstay of the Indian economy, what Baba Amte offers is "integrated rural development through intense and scientifically pursued agriculture". Reclaiming arid land, building dams and in the process building confidence and self-sufficiency is what this gentle and humane person has achieved. Bhagat Puran Singh, the 1986 Man of the Year, was a vigorous environmentalist; guardian angel to the aged, the sick and the suffering; a playful grandfather to the mentally challenged children under his care and a deeply religious man all rolled into one. A convert to Sikhism, he dedicated his life to helping the rejects of society. To the hundreds of men, women and children who have felt his loving presence in their lives, his Pingalwara ashram is not merely a shelter, but a place where they get love and affection. Dr B.V. Prameswara Rao declined the offer of an associate professorship in Pennsylvania State University and instead set up the Bhagavatula Charitable Trust that has transformed the rocky slopes of the Panchadharia hills into lush green farmlands. Dr Kshama Metre works in the remote villages around Sidhbari in Himachal Pradesh and has taken up the task of providing medical aid in these inaccessible villages. She has also introduced various health schemes and women’s self-help groups. Whether it is Dr Anil Joshi and his water-wheel and bio-conservation of forests, or Kantisen Shroff who has made life bloom in an arid expanse of Kutch, A.R. Palanisamy who is educating the children of "life-termers" in prisons or Sonam Wangchuk who has transformed education in Ladakh from a punishing regime to being among the best educational models in the country, they all have one thing in common — compassion and the courage to take on tasks that seem impossible to others. Another common thread that runs through the works of all these personalities is the realisation that to achieve any degree of change, the involvement of women is necessary. Change has to begin at the grassroots level with people’s involvement. Also, traditional knowledge, when adapted to the present, works as well, if not better, than modern technology. The book makes us realise that the world is a better place than most of us think it is and forces "armchair reformers" to rethink their excuses for not actually doing anything. |
