Community and Development - I
I’ve been reading a lot about various community histories in our state in general. A lot of the so called intellectuals in all those communities always tend to place their forefathers at the center of the universe. Right from Iyothee Thass to Maraimalai adigal, the pattern is the same. The less said about the holy ancient texts, the better. Everyone likes to think their ancestors were great and kula vilakkus of the world since the days of Neanderthal man. Perhaps it helps them feel good, like watching Jaane Tu or DDLJ. Enough of romanticism, what about present day situation? They half expect Vijayakanth to stem the rot nowadays!
From whatever little I read, it is to be noted most of the well developed Hindu communities of India have either been persecuted or been persecutors or accomplices to grave injustices at one point or the other, only the degree varies - this is my version of history. This is one of the reasons I am basically disillusioned with this whole concept of caste and community and the pride associated.
Let me start with the community I was born into. As is the norm for all communities, there is a sangam for mine too. I came to know of them when they printed daily sheet calendars and distributed it in my native. Apart from that there is a Kalyana Mantapam and beyond that there are two schools. That’s pretty much End Of Story.
I asked my mom if there is any count on the total number of families who belong to my community. My mom said a ball park estimate. I’ve been far too long in the IT industry not to know such ball park estimates are a little more accurate than a random number rounded off to nearby thousand. Bear in mind that getting a census within a small community like mine should be infinitely easier than getting it for the whole of Tamil Nadu. What’s more it’s much simpler to identify people who need real help within a community. But instead all the perusus of the community collect money to build/renovate a temple in some remote part of Tamil Nadu as if the whole world will get rid of all injustices as soon as that temple gets built.
One of my relative is clearly struggling to educate his son. I am sure there are plenty other kids worse than my relative. I know there are enough rich guys who can make sure all these good students get their education within the community, yet nothing happens. There is no clear forum to present such cases. Without such a forum, do we expect poor students to go and beg? Till date, no one has asked me to donate funds for building a college, or school from my community.
Like flies which gets into action only in garbage, the only time one gets in touch with his community is during marriage, and that too it’s more of a hindrance than help in finding a good match.
Its not as if this phenomenon is restricted only to my community. The way I see, this is prevalent in all the so called well-off communities. In essence, there is no such thing as a community in spirit, all I see is apathy.
The sons and daughters of high class families who get their education in Vidya mandirs, PSBBs and DAVs and who speak against reservation are too strategic to think about their poor brethren who spend their lives on vaidheegam in Srivilliputhur or any other B, C tier town. They conveniently hide the fact that if a PSBB guy can get to a position in 4 years without reservation. With reservation, he will get to the same position despite reservation by virtue of his awareness, network and contacts in 6 years. The loss is two years. While for the B and C tier town students, it’s a question of life. It’s a herculean task to combat both reservation and poverty sitting in places which is neither a town nor a city. Okay, lets assume the government conspired against them. So what did these people do to their poor brethren?
Not many people know that are a whole bunch of communities who come under forward castes and who do not come under reservation. The fact remains that there are poor families in all communities. Some communities like Nagarathars, I hear have openly declared themselves as forward and hence made it clear they do not want reservation.
Mr. X will study in a top school in Chennai, get into IIT, go to America, get GC - end of story. What is that he does to his community except write in his community website about his forefathers who are India’s pride? Most of the time the answer is zilch. Trouble is, there is no organised way to do even if he wants to. Some even go to the extent of donating funds for the study and promotion of Vedas for poor students. I think it’s kinda funny that they ensure IT education for themselves while actively promoting study of Vedas for the poor. If only all the educated and relatively well endowed had sponsored one poor student intra community, if only each had contributed a thousand rupees to build a college, we could’ve made India a developed country long back.
From what I can see, the Nagarathars did their bit for education, the Naidus and Gounders have made Coimbatore what it is today. But these are too few and far in between. Also, these communities are relatively politically well connected as well. I am not too comfortable with caste and politics combo, and to a lesser extent caste and business combo. This just leads to some other form of abuse of power in the long run.
Thus, while most of the so called ‘powerful’ community stories are essentially stories of riches to rags, there is at least one community whose story is clearly rags to riches in the last fifty years.
September 12th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Enakku onnum puriyalai
September 12th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
I’m surprised that despite your lack of faith in the institution of community, you look to community reform from the grassroot as the solution(if I interpret right). IMHO, community is a bane and the root cause of all evil.
I see a number of Community Perisus visiting their offspring in the US, sing the praises of their community forefathers to their offspring’s friends visiting them out of courtesy, berate the US for their feelings of isolation in a new place, then fly to India and fight hammer-and-tongs with a DIL/SIL(who they selected some months back using their awesome experience and understanding of their community!).
A community is just a microcosm of the larger society and has the all the ills and prejudices of the latter, except that the issues are swept under the carpet for fear of dishonor.
The happiest youngsters I know of are the proponents of inter-community relationships, who have educated and understanding parents, give freedom to their kids, are very career-minded and DO A LOT for NGOs and the needy, much much more than the parochial community-obsessed folks.
Ergo, Community sucks. Education and economics are da bomb
September 12th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
A very few people (I mean very few) in Nagarathars are (now) showing interest in reforming their community and have starting a forum to help students get basic (and better) education, promote no-dowry marriages, change the attitude towards divorcees and widows getting married and shattering the long held idiotic beliefs and customs. I’d say this is a great start at last and definitely a required one at this time.
September 12th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
I’m sure that there are people (mostly youngsters) in other communities as well doing (or trying to do) help their community, but the problem is how do we help them?
September 13th, 2008 at 4:23 am
gopi
Adhai dhaan solren.. there is no forum even if you want to!
September 13th, 2008 at 4:44 am
TTM
>>you look to community reform from the grassroot as the solution
I am not proposing community as a solution. Community as a concept is something I still am not comfortable with. But given that it is there for sure, most of the time, the resources are wasted on activities not at all constructive.
http://newstodaynet.com/printer.php?id=10607
indha madhiri matters ku dhaan ubayogapadudhu
not to mention, our samooga needhi kavalargal idhai pathi vaayaye thirakka maataanga. yenna vanniyargal enna brahmins a? adutha election la vanniyar vote kedaikadhe!
At the same time, there are some good examples of community based development happening in the not so industrially advanced portions of TN. I think it’s only appropriate we see some good examples.
September 13th, 2008 at 7:48 am
good one. communities have a place as a social cluster of people who share some commonality in beliefs, lifestyle, customs and sometimes they transcend religion. But they all have a place in one’s life and when they start intruding on other places, that’s when problem starts.
September 14th, 2008 at 1:55 am
nee sollaraa madhiri avvalo simple illai appa..
even if a few people give 1000$ a pop, school college ellam kattida mudiyaadhu..
schools and colleges are big business controlled by the government!
free schools and colleges probably happen in movies like Sivaji…
unless our current politicians wake up one fine day on the wrong side of their bed and in a zombie like state decide to do some good to the people who elected them, it will be very difficult to get affordable education to the segment of society you mention.
don’t even get me started on “no child left behind”. Look where that is now!
September 14th, 2008 at 9:46 am
WA
ungaluku thaniya tuition edukaren:P
September 14th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Karthik
My site is partially ‘under construction’ mode
will write more on this…
September 15th, 2008 at 12:20 am
machi,
all community based organisations have started mainly by people who have vested interest in their own improvements and welfare…and mostly they all start with hatred towards other communities and talk about how their community has been not treated or cared by the govt and society…and it keeps going on and on…from religious organisations to community organisations…they keep promoting the hatred because thats way the guy who is heading can gain easy support and popularity among the masses….as long as this is continueing there will be very less constructive growth….i have been to the forward block …brahmins …DK all are the same nonsense….everybody talk ill about others…every have there own set of plight …and everybody does nothing…except for the people who head those …as they cash in the other peoples stupidity…forget these people helping others…i personally feel if every one are really selfish and think about their personal growth …thigs are for the better….as its now really detoriating stuff thats happening…
karthik sankaran
September 15th, 2008 at 8:06 am
I was surprised to hear that there is an association for one of the communities and people are ready to pay even 1.5l to get membership to the association. Also VVIPs try for this. But in vain. During the last elections, parties were trying to join hands with this association.
September 16th, 2008 at 4:40 am
SM
Interesting! Where is this?
September 16th, 2008 at 4:44 am
karthik
Nee solradhu to some extent unmai da…but there are some good ways to leverage even community.
Selfish a irukaradhu I agree but we are assuming everyone is the same and we are assuming all things are constant.
For e.g How do we define the behavior of our freedom fighters or the sepoy mutinee martyrs? We cannot say they were totally unselfish because nobody is, at the same time we cannot say they were just doping their job because they could’ve very well carried on peacefully accepting the British like most of the people of India. So its not always as simple as it sounds.
September 16th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
What about poor brahmins who live in rural areas and do not attend PSBB, DAV et al? What will happen to them? Do poor brahmins don’t mean anything, just because they are electorally insignificant?
September 16th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
And what about the kid of the SC/ST IAS officer? He gets reservation?
September 16th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
pradeep
I’d written abt archagars and purohits sons in areas like srivilliputhur. precisely those who you ask about. This post is not about reservation as a main topic.
This post is about how community does not help in an individuals development even in areas where it can(part 1) and how one community has shown the way (part 2).
September 16th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
In general, its not as black and white it seems.
Everybody knows that without mentoring and guidance and the best teachers, even 100% caste based reservation is not going to help.
I’m sure had Ambedkar been alive today, he would’ve said the same.
But no one wants mentoring, better facilities to learn etc.. they maybe good but not convenient. I am sure the vast majority would deride that idea. Because it is uncomfortable for both the parties - for and against reservation.
We can build more schools so that this reservation can be nullified.
Again that is not comfortable for the govt and politicians.
This does not mean we are not against the concept of good, fair in the long run. Of course we will do good and be good when it is convenient.
For e.g In cities, it is essential that you have to mingle with other sections of the society on a daily basis, so here we do not see caste for the most part.
If you go to foreign countries you get to mingle with other races so we do not see a lot of things we would be bothered about in India.
In both the cases, being broadminded is convenient and practical, so we are fine with it.
September 16th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
It’s a sign of the times that you can’t even say caste openly. The western concept of community does not directly correspond to caste in all it’s aspects. Caste is like the elephant in the room. Lots of English educated folks try to pretend it doesn’t exist and try to be politically correct, while taking decisions based on caste considerations either consciously or unconsciously.
ttm:
Your recipe for success sounds like the one followed by some of friends who went to the Rajasthan desert college to study and then went to the US. There is no universal recipe for happiness. I see construction workers living on daily wages being supremely happy while executives driving around in Mercs seem to be perpetually grumpy.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:30 am
BNB
Actually, the reason i used community was i wanted to touch this topic from an urban perspective as well.. where community may roughly mean neighborhood… aprom enakku avlova matter theriyalai.. nu vittuten
September 17th, 2008 at 6:34 am
// SM
Interesting! Where is this? //
No other place than singara chennai