Demography of an Indian mass movement:Anna Hazare and the divisions in Indian society

Well ...he is the most talked about person in India,today.The ruling party is having nightmares due to his movement.At this ripe old age he is the "Icon" for Indian youth.Bollywood superstars and "young faces" of political parties are way behind in terms of popularity.He is the man who has created "mass histeria" among Indian population.Apparently people from all sections of the society are joining his crusade against corruption.But if we carefully follow the demographic profile of the people who are attending his movement we observe few interesting facts.You have seen this movement covered by visual media extensively.Did you notice the people who were interviewed by media persons were all well dressed,english speaking,upper class people.Please do not think that I am trying to undermine this movement anyway!As a matter of fact I am a great fan of Anna and wholeheartedly supports enactment of Janlokpal.But probably my obsevation is correct.isnt it?Now we have to analyze why today's english speaking upper class youth is shouting so voilently for an act which will keep vigil on its lagislature.
The reason is today's young population is disillusioned with the democratic framework of the country.The lagislature is primarily current ,executive is inept and judiciary is not accountable. The political class has failed to fulfiill the aspiration of India youth.Did you also notice the uncanny similarities between this movement and the anti reservation protests in recent past?The same english speaking upper class indian youths was also in the streets protesting against reservation.Though  their presence is felt every media we follow today,be it internet,tv or newspapers but as a matter of fact they are a "minority".There are millions of people who elect people who belong to their caste or promise to favour them.The are millions who  vote as a religious community not  merely as citizens.The polical parties have never bothered to eradicate corruption among its members simply because "corruption" may be a social issue but not a political issue.A corrupt people can get elccted repeatedly if he creates an image that he or she champions the cause of a particular caste or creed.Look at Lalu prasad or Mayavati or Jayalalitha.Probably it is the insecurity among dalits and other social groups which vote on the basis of caste or creed.These are the reasons why today's Upper caste Indian youth is disillusioned with the democratic institutions of the country.They are raising voice againt corruptions in the corridors of power but unknowingly they are also undermining the democratic frame work of the country which is formed considering the opinion of all sections of  the society.

Book review: My pick "The Tipping Point"

Sometimes we come across a book which introduces new ways to analyze things.It encourages you to think beyond the obvious and not to go with the crowd."The Tipping Point" is a book of that genre.The book discusses about how new trends come in society, how small changes causes a big revolutionary change to occur,
how new fashions become and spreads like "social epidemic".Certain examples have been shown by the author in forms of case studies to come to conclusions.One such example I would like to share with my readers.The decrease in the crime rate in the city of New York is a question of great debate.Till late eighties and early nineties the crime rate was quite high in the city of New York.But starting from early nineties crime rate plunged in a great way.People show different reasons behind this.Some people says that better policing did the miracle.Other says aging of population decreased the number of wrongdoers.Economists say improvement in the economy provided alternative jobs for the people who could have been engaged in criminal activities.But author of this book says that the person who was responsible for ebbing of crime rate was the woman who fought for Legality of Abortion two decades ago.Because of that woman abortion was legalized in the the states.Children who born despite their parent's wish are most likely to grow in an environment which will not enable them to become good human being.As a matter of fact a majority of them resorts to criminal activities when they grow up.So the author argues that as abortion was legalized so a majority of potential criminals were not even born.That caused a decrease in the number of criminals after two
 decade and hence crime rate decreased.You may not buy this argument of the author but  surely you  can not deny his power of imagination and ability to think out of the box.

Battle of "jantar Mantar" was won on the playground of Mumbai

All of you must have heard the old saying "The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton".
It means the discipline and tactical skills  The Duke of Wellington learned in playing fields of  Eton school helped
 him to became a successful general  he was against Napoleon.Now today when we analyze the secret behind the  success of  Anna Hazare's movement for Lokpal enactment we should remember this old saying.During last two months Indians were praying for their team's success in the cricket world cup.Over the years cricket has become a part of Indian nationalism.Every Indian imagines the success of his cricket team as his personal success.Today India is a "young nation".It has a young population more than any country in the world.This Young Population is the most vocal supporters of Indian cricket team.Today's Indian youth is disappointed
at the performances of politicians.Politicians have failed to keep pace with people's aspiration in a country which is seeing unprecedented growth in economy.With growing  economy and rising education aspirations are also growing so is the awareness about citizen's rights.So we see more and more Civil society movement beyond the boundaries of political movements.This time the timing of the movement was quite perfect.It is interesting that just after India's spectacular win in the World cup this movement gained momentum.Through the last two month's journey to the world cup patriotic sentiments were at all time high.It reached its pinnacle at the grand finale.After the the world cup win every Indian identified this win as their own.Now they are on the top of the world they can do anything they want.They can uproot corruption,defeat Pakisthan, fight communalism,dethrone China.....they can do anything.So at this juncture when Anna Hazare called for a mass movement for enactment of Lokpal Bill everybody joined him.It is a rare phenomena when  sporting success  translates into movements against corruption.

Anna Hazare:the new age Ghandhi

In recent past we have seen in Egypt what mass agitation can do.Now in our own backyard we are seeing
same type of mass agitation led by Gandhian Anna Hazare demanding Lokpal bill enactment.It was the political class that believed in the idea of Indian state.They fought against British Raj and made India Independent.No
one in the world believed that Indian state can function as a Democracy with majority of its electorate being illiterate.Still the political class believed the people of the country and engaged themselves in the democratic process.But after a decade or two the majority of population became sceptic about the intentions of the politicians in general.May be in a country with so much illiteracy where votes can be got in the name of cast,creed and religion the politicians had no honest intention for the development of the country.so the politicians took their countrymen for a ride.With time the "aspirant class" in India has grown rapidly.This "aspirant class" is the face of New India.They are young liberal middle class educated population in post economic reform
India.They can not be fooled by politicians so easily.They are most vocal about a political class which is full of ageing power hungry corrupt people.In the "justice for Jessica" agitation also  we have seen these young people in the frontline.Today in Jantar Mantar the "Tehrir Square" of India you will see these young turks forming majority of the crowd.What is interesting that  after India's world cup win people of the country had a
self belief that now they can achieve what they want.So they came in suuport of Anna Hazare in the same number as they came in celebration of India's victory.In last few months people have seen major scams like
commonwelth scam,2G scam,Adarsh housing.So now people feel "enough is enough".This demand for enactment of Lokpal bill is one occasion when people shows their anger against politicians.And their new found icon is Anna Hazare a gandhian social worker.

Confessions of an e-book reader..........

Friends here comes the confessions of a self proclaimed green crusader(or brand  ambassador of e-books).....
Its back to square one!I am going where I belong!!For all these months I was advocating for e-books and e-book reader devices,but now I really miss my good old books.These new age ebooks just cant replace
the tradiotional books.It says that old habits die hard.The book you love most is one which you can hold with two hands,can recognise by its smell and possess in its physical form.Even today I must say an ebook is easy to carry,more environment friendly etc etc.But personally I am more comfortable reading a printed book.The "selfish reader" in me will not  bother  if  few trees are to be cut  to produce my book! May be lack of proper e-book reader device(like Kindle) is the reason behind my apathy towards e-books.I planned to buy one kindle but that got delayed.Now it is the "temporay end" of my "flirting" with e-books.Come next week end I will buy some books to renew my ties with printed books.....

Books in their new Avatar

Yesterday I was reading an article on The New York Times.It discusses about how technological evolutions are changing the habits of reading books.The author was in a flight.When the flight was going to land an announcement  was heard requesting the the passengers to put down their books.Few years ago everyone would have been confused by this announcement.But not today.Everybody obediently switched off their kindles and ipads.This shows how widespread is the use of ebook reading devices nowadays.Gradually these are becoming part of our day to day life.May be in few years from now everybody will own a 6" library at his disposal!In recent past widespread use of mobile electronic gadgets are promoting this new trends of reading.There are different categories of devices.Some are dedicated ebook reader like Amazon kindle,Sony ebook reader.These devices are for reading books only in black letters on white background like conventional books.they dont support coloured text .Amazon and Sony argues that the book reader are not concerned about colour.Dedicated ebook reader have e-ink technology which makes the  text as good as text in a conventional book.Reading book on an Amazon kindle will not strain your eyes unlike reading book on a palmtop or on a laptop or smartphone.Some people argues that as habit of reading colour text with photos and videos is growing via internet,there are people who would like to read color text with photos on their mobile devices.The next two types of devices I will discuss are this type. Nook color by Burns and Noble  is having color text with some auxiliary features.These additional features let you do things beyond reading.The third type of devices are the iconic ipad and its "cheap" imitations like samsung Galaxy.Ipad is more than an ebook reader.It is a full fledged computer.So if you have ipad with you you dont need to carry ur ebook reader additionally.Though it does not have the advantages of e-ink technology as mentioned above.Competition is fierce among these three type of devices but ultimately people will decide in which form they will read book in future.

The question I asked Thomas L Friedman

"What is your view on the ban on outsourcing in the state of Ohio?Dont you think this will deny countries like india a level playing field in today's "Flat World"?Well...this was the question I asked Thomas L Friedman.If you cant recognize him then I must tell you he is the famous New York Times columnist who came up with the idea of the "Flat World".In his book "The World is Flat" he suggested that in today's world technology has enabled third world countries like India to compete with developed countries in a level playing field.Now as the competition becomes more intense the developed countries (especially the USA) resort to protectionist steps like ban on outsourcing.
Today it seems that Obama administration will go ahead with this anti outsourcing stance.I was quite eager to know what Friedman himself was thinking about this.So I asked him this question
through twitter.Will his "Flat World" cease to exist in near future?He has not replied as yet....