<div><font color="Navy">September 3, 2011
Opinion
A New Commons
People of different hues found a common cause in the fight against corruption. Despite the limitations of the campaign, it reaffirms that the Indian people can be non-violently mobilised in large numbers for a genuine reason that strikes a chord within them.
Neeta Deshpande
While the Lokpal campaign led to one of the largest mass mobilisations in recent memory, some commentators have questioned its credibility given its supposedly middle-class support base. Implicit in this critique is the view that the middle-class supporters of the campaign are the direct beneficiaries of the growth in the Indian economy over the last two decades, as well as the very corruption that they are fighting against. Bangalore, the city which has become synonymous with the software industry and its nouveau riche, is perhaps a good test case to examine the nature of Anna Hazare's support base. At Freedom Park, the Bangalore venue of the campaign, though the middle-class element was prominent, one encountered people from all walks of life. These people view corruption through different vantage points in accordance with their own predicaments when faced with this all-pervasive evil. However, they came together to voice their anger and frustration, in a rare show of mass protest of the kind India has not seen in a long time.
At Freedom Park, 86 year old Bindu Madhava Rao was stunned when I asked him why he was present there on the tenth day of Hazare
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Opinion
A New Commons
People of different hues found a common cause in the fight against corruption. Despite the limitations of the campaign, it reaffirms that the Indian people can be non-violently mobilised in large numbers for a genuine reason that strikes a chord within them.
Neeta Deshpande
While the Lokpal campaign led to one of the largest mass mobilisations in recent memory, some commentators have questioned its credibility given its supposedly middle-class support base. Implicit in this critique is the view that the middle-class supporters of the campaign are the direct beneficiaries of the growth in the Indian economy over the last two decades, as well as the very corruption that they are fighting against. Bangalore, the city which has become synonymous with the software industry and its nouveau riche, is perhaps a good test case to examine the nature of Anna Hazare's support base. At Freedom Park, the Bangalore venue of the campaign, though the middle-class element was prominent, one encountered people from all walks of life. These people view corruption through different vantage points in accordance with their own predicaments when faced with this all-pervasive evil. However, they came together to voice their anger and frustration, in a rare show of mass protest of the kind India has not seen in a long time.
At Freedom Park, 86 year old Bindu Madhava Rao was stunned when I asked him why he was present there on the tenth day of Hazare
More...