Land of Lime

Two stories have been on my mind for a couple of weeks now. These stories aren’t unusual. Nor is the response (or lack of it) to these stories. Still, we have to ask: why there is no outrage?

I don’t need to recount the first one, for Yashica Sitaram shares her travails with a private builder in a Churumuri blog posting. The target this time isn’t a politician or a bureaucrat, but a well respected businessman (and his company), whose callousness and unprofessional attitude elicited this response from Mysoreans:

When we enquired with our neighbours, they just shrugged it off saying their houses leaked too but they had no recourse since the builder had shut them up by saying, “You got what you paid for.” This was short hand for an extraordinary form of price speculation that the whole enterprise was being run on.

We, and all those who enquired, were told that all the apartments in our block, and the other blocks under construction, had been sold. In reality, this was just fiction. The builder, it appeared, was exploiting his social and other Rotary Club contacts and connections in a masterful way, to jack up prices and make a killing.

In the course of this depressed six months, the rot set in. In a few weeks following the rains, white algae and fungi patches started to form. That was it. We vacated.

All along, I’ve wondered about the greed driving such projects. And the gluttony, unappeased and insatiable. Perpetuating such perversity is unbecoming for projects which nurture lives, kids, families who plan for lifetimes to purchase homes.

The response I received was: “Why did you live there? It’s only an investment. You pay something down, you get an apartment allotted. You wait and don’t register until you find an unsuspecting buyers and palm it off at a hefty profit. Why stay there? Everyone knows not to stay so far… so far from progress.”

Indeed. Everything is an investment, especially for Non-resident Mysoreans, who can afford to invest in Mysore real estate, which could be palmed off to an unsuspecting buyer. Do unto someone else what you wouldn’t want to happen to you. If the callousness of the businessmen is abhorrent, what is more reprehensive is the quiet acceptance and indifference displayed by all of us, Mysoreans.

Anyways, equally disturbing was another story involving a corrupt Karnataka Administrative Service (KAS) officer, Marigowda. Here is what I have reconstructed from SOM reports; I must add that I didn’t find anything in either Deccan Herald or The Hindu, a sad reflection of the priorities of the Press. So this person (who was the Land Acqusition Officer from Hoovinahadgali, Bellary district) apparently took a ten crore rupee bribe from farmers, who lost their land to the Hulikatte Irrigation project. Marigowda promised to categorize the farms owned by these farmers as irrigated land, thus ensuring higher compensation; the bribe was also to guaranty a smooth payment of compensation. Anyways, the officer was transferred to Bangalore and so he left, without delivering on his promises. When all efforts to get their money back failed, the farmers showed up at his farmhouse near Srirangapattana and threatened to commit suicide, unless their money was paid back. Some Farmers’ leaders appear to have helped them, along with the Seer of a local matha, who fed and housed these visitors from north Karnataka. While they insisted on meeting with the officer in person, and waited for several days, nothing happened. Well, not entirely. Marigowda’s son threatened the farmers, while the Mandya elite regrouped quickly to mediate and save Marigowda. G Madegowda, senior Congress leader, even blamed the farmers for committing a crime by bribing an officer and advised them to return quietly.

Many things are striking. Let us start with the amount mentioned here. A junior KAS officer commands a bribe of ten crore and that doesn’t surprise anyone! Even if he is sharing it with others, it still is a staggering amount.

Then, while most of us were indifferent to the fate of these hapless farmers, many ‘eminent’ leaders were prepared to act to save Marigowda. But no ’sons of the soil’ showed up to fight on behalf of the farmers. We know that corruption is out there and that there is no shame in soliciting and accepting bribes. Still, why isn’t there any outrage? Marigowda himself seems to think that there are no consequences to his actions. He even told the farmers that their best interest lies in not raking up this controversy; otherwise, the reclassification of their land as irrigated land would come to light and they would loose out on higher compensation.

SOM reported yesterday that Marigowda and his sons were arrested today for an unrelated case. Apparently, they had failed to reimburse a contractor for building a house in Mysore and had no intention of doing so. Marigowda himself had been arrested a few months ago and had been out on bail. Brazeness has no bounds.

With regard to both these cases, the question for me is simply this: why isn’t there any outrage? Why is it that all parties concerned here - be it the builder or the bureaucrat and mediating politician - think there are no consequences for their actions? Why a cynical acceptance of the state of affairs?

Madhva theology (and theologians), like Michael Jordan, is a good fastball hitter, but struggles always with curve balls, be it asserting Madhvacharya’s greatness or the egalitarian nature of Dvaita philosophy. More recently, the shastric injunction against Madhva gurus crossing the oceans has caused a huge furore.

So here is the latest dispute.

Udupi has eight mathas, whose seers take turn every two years of managing the Udupi Krishna temple and performing worship. This ancient Paryaya (alternate) arrangement changes hands every other year, on January 18th. This year, seven seers, led by the Pejawara seer, opposed the ascension of Puttige seer Sri Sugunendra Theertha, on the grounds that the latter visited America. I suspect more Madhvas are in California than in Mangalore/Bangalore, but rules of Dharmashastras are divine injunctions, if you ask the faithful.

So we have seen the entire spectrum of public protestation and private negotiation deployed: fasts, public demonstrations, law suits, eminent public figures including politicians negotiating behind the scenes. It has been fascinating to watch the different solutions proposed. Madhva scholars of Dharmasastra contended that Dharmashastras are superior to Judiciary and urged the Puttige seer not to ascend the Peetha (seat). Some others were prepared to cede the administrative responsibilities, if the Puttige seer agreed not to ascend the Peetha formally, perform worship and touch the Krishna image. Others pointed out to a precedent when the Admaru seer Vibhudeshatheertha Swami had renounced his Paryaya rights and had designated his junior to perform worship.

I usually don’t to use the word feudal but in this instance, I am forced to break my own rule. Even as they have modernized some aspects of their functioning (especially, by becoming social entrepreneurs on behalf of their community), the mathas of Karnataka hold on to feudal rituals and practices such as wearing a crown, riding in a palanquin or chariot. Even those who profess an egalitarian outlook are not immune to it. This unseemly public sparring aside, if the Udupi seers and Dharamshastrins choose to be literal in interpreting tradition and scripture, then we will continue to be medieval in our outlook. The Udupi temple itself hasn’t become an egalitarian setting and continues to discriminate against women and lower castes. Nothing will change regardless of who assumes Paryaya responsibilities.  Udupi will continue to be the same.

I don’t mean to be snarky but
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Each time a foreign correspondent moves to Jorbagh and begins her South Asia Bureau chiefdom, the West rediscovers the essence(s) of India. If caste and Hinduism were the old Orientalist inventions, as time has gone included into that list are some new ones: Bollywood, Cricket, Taj Mahal, IT, Chaotic traffic, elections and a functioning democracy. Hegel would have been proud.

WAPO’s Emily Wax returns to caste and untouchability today, in two companion stories. The first story ‘Iron Castes‘ focuses on caste discrimination, educational opportunities and upward mobility for lower castes. The second story is on Kancha Ilaiah’s new illustrated story book on caste discrimination. While there are no obvious factual inaccuracies, look at her narrative and the sloppiness in the narration.

So let us look at the human interest hook in the first story:

A lower caste boy wants to study but has to wash dishes at a restaurant, where his boss would tie him to a radiator at night. Of course, the boy couldn’t escape his destiny, until a foreigner rescued and turned him into “a star pupil with a voracious and ever-changing appetite for activities including yoga, photography and film directing.”

His (Ramu’s) school, Ramana’s Garden, is just one of many progressive, mostly private institutions that have begun trying to dismantle the barriers of India’s caste system, a centuries-old pecking order under which higher castes have access to quality schools and jobs and lower castes remain largely poor and illiterate.

Now, I am not sure how to understand this sentence. How is time understood in the present continuous tense usage ‘trying’? Has this been happening in the last year or decade or century? Has caste too remained the same? Is there class based discrimination, in addition to caste discrimination? Moreover, have only been progressive private schools (largely funded by the WAPO reading westerners) been at the forefront of social change? How about government schools, colleges and universities? How is this story representative of what has happened and is happening allover India?

Questions that rarely get answered. Not doing nuances is a new national pastime.

Anyway, the story has a happy ending. Ramu now even begun his own business: selling postcards of photographs he has taken!

Sloppiness continues in the second story too.

It has been called essential reading for every Indian child, a lively illustrated storybook aimed at raising youthful awareness of the injustices of the country’s caste system, much as “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” exposed the indignities of slavery to white America.

Kancha Ilaiah hopes his book, “Turning the Pot, Tilling the Land: Dignity of Labour in Our Times,” will change the way young people see farmhands, barbers, leather workers and others whose jobs are viewed with disgust by upper castes. The social activists who have lauded the book hope so, too.

I tried to figure out how these two sentences are related to each other but couldn’t. Wax’s misleading comparison to Uncle Tom’s Cabin is undermined by Ilaiah’s hope, which is to uphold the dignity of labor, as opposed to indignities suffered by lower caste artisans. Also, who has called it essential reading? who are the social activists? Why not name them?