Who is Anna Hazare?

Anna Hazare

In India during the anti corruption movement in the year 2011 the whole nation's attention was on Mr. Anna Hazare. There was huge coverage in the news, in all medias like electronic media, and print media. Now, who is this Anna Hazare and why he was so much in the news? 

Mr. Kisan Bapat Baburao Hazare now popularly known as Anna Hazare was born on 15 June 1937 in Bhingar, a small village in Ahmednagar district of Maharastra State in India. His mother, Laxmi Bai and father, Baburao Hazare, were unskilled labourers and were very poor. Anna Hazare had six younger siblings. Due to poverty the family faced significant hardships. So one of his childless aunts at Mumbai offered to look after him and his education, and took him to Mumbai.

Anna Hazare studied up to seventh standard. But due to poverty and lack of money he has to discontinue his studies. He started selling flowers at Dadar [in Mumbai] to support his family. He soon started his own shop and brought two of his brothers also to Mumbai.

In 1962 the 25-year old Anna Hazare joined Indian Army, through an emergency recruitment that was taking place in the Army. After the initial training he started his career in the Army as a driver in 1963.

During the 1965 Indo-Pak war Hazare was posted in the Khem Karan sector. On 12 November 1965 when Anna Hazare was driving a truck they were targeted by a Pakistani Air strike. All his companions died. But Anna Hazare was survived in spite of a bullet that passed by his head. In the Army he was honoured several times by awarding: 'Sainya Seva Medal', 'Nine Years Long Service Medal', 'Sangram Medal', '25th Independent Anniversary Medal', and 'Pashimi Star award'.

Anna Hazare came across a small booklet titled "Call to the youth for nation building" by Swami Vivekananda. He was influenced by the saints who sacrificed their own happiness for that of others. And he strongly felt that he should work towards eliminating the sufferings of the poor. Further he also read the works of Mahatma Gandhi and Vinoba Bhave. He took oath to dedicate his life to the service of humanity. He took voluntary retirement from the army, after 12 years of service in 1978.

After the voluntary retirement from the army, Anna Hazare went to the village Ralegan Sidhi, the native place of his father. This village was located in the acute drought-prone and rain-shadow zone of Maharastra. Hence agriculture was not possible and there was no other occupation for the villagers. The whole village was then gripped by acute poverty, crimes, alcoholism, deprivation, a fragile ecosystem, neglect and hopelessness. 

Anna Hazare persuaded villagers to construct a watershed embarkment to stop rain water and allow it to percolate and increase the ground water level in the area. He used his savings for development work of the village and motivated the villagers into voluntary labour to build canals, small-scale check-dams, and percolation tanks in the nearby hills for watershed development.

These efforts solved the problem of water scarcity in the village and made irrigation possible. In order to conserve soil and water by checking runoff, contour trenches and gully plugs were constructed along the hill slopes. Grass, shrubs and about 3,00,000 trees were planted along the hillside and the village. This process was supplemented by afforestation, nullah bunds, underground check dams, and cemented small diversion weirs at strategic locations.

Ralegan has also experimented with drip and bi-valve irrigation. Papaya, lemon and chillies have been planted on a plot of 80 acres entirely irrigated by the drip irrigation system. Crops such as pulses, oil-seeds and certain cash crops with low water requirements were grown. The farmers started growing high-yield varieties of crop and the cropping pattern of the village was dramatically changed. Since 1975 Hazare has helped farmers of more than 70 villages in drought-prone regions in the state of Maharastra. Around 1975 in Ralegan only 70 acres of land was irrigated, Hazare converted it into about 2,500 acres in few years. This way Anna Hazare made remarkable economic, social and comminity regeneration in Ralegan Siddhi. 

He reinforced the normative principles of human development - equity, efficiency, sustainability and people's participation and made Ralegan Siddhi an oasis of human-made regeneration in a desert without any inputs of industrialization, technology-oriented agriculture, funds from Government or collecting tax. Anna Hazare's Ralegan Siddhi became the first role model of an ideal village from the worst village.

Anna Hazare, along with the youth of Ralegan Siddhi, worked to improve literacy rates and education levels. In 1976 they started a pre-school and a high school in 1979. Anna Hazare motivated the villagers to provide voluntary labour to build class rooms. The villagers formed a charitable trust, the Sant Yadavbaba Shikshan Prasarak Mandal. After the opening of the school, a girl from Ralegan Siddhi became the first female in the village to complete her Secondary School Certificate in 1982. Since then the school has been instrumental in bringing in many of changes to the village. Traditional farming practices are taught in this school in addition to the government prescribed formal curriculum.

All these achievements won him many awards like: 'Indira Priyadarshini Vrikshamitra award', 'Krishi Bushan award', 'Padma Shree', 'Padma Bhushan' and 'Ramon Magsaysay award'. He was also felicitated by Care International of USA and Transparency International, South Korea.

Anna Hazare strongly felt that the development was marred by corruption. So in 1991 he started a new movement against corruption. The movement led by Anna Hazare in Maharastra state forced the state government to pass a stronger Maharashtra Right to Information Act. This Act was later considered as the base document for the Right to Information Act 2005 [RTI], enacted by the Union Government. It also ensured that the President of India assented to this new Act. Law professor Alasdair Scott Robert said: The state of Maharashtra - home to one of the world's largest cities, Mumbai, adopted a Right to Information Act in 2003, prodded by the hunger strike of prominent activist, Anna Hazare. ["All corruption can end only if there is freedom of information," said Hazare, who resumed his strike in February 2004 to push for better enforcement of the Act]. On 20 July 2006 the Union Cabinet amended the Right to Information Act 2005 to exclude the file noting by the government officials from its purview. Hazare began his fast unto death on 9 August 2006 in Alandi against the proposed amendment. He ended his fast on 19 August 2006, after the government agreed to change its earlier decision. 

And in 2011 the whole nation's focus was on Anna Hazare because he has started a fresh movement to persuade the Indian Government to bring an effective legislation and take appropriate steps to curb corruption in India. In protest of Government's apathy he has started fast un to death from the 16th August 2011. This movement has gained great momentum and common people from all walks of life including many prominent leaders and celebrities in the whole country started demonstrating their solidarity in this fight against corruption. Even people of Indian origin in other parts of the world like: United Kingdom, USA, Australia, etc. have demonstrated their solidarity and pledged their support for this cause. Anna Hazare is requesting everyone again and again not to indulge in violence and carryout the demonstration in a peaceful manner until the government and elected members of parliament act on this.

Inspired by Anna Hazare's move, Mr. Raja Jehangeer Akhtar, an elderly businessman and social activist in Islamabad declared 'Jihad' on the endemic corruption in his country, Pakistan. He is protesting against the rampant Government corruption and military spending, and he went on hunger strike in Islamabad from 12 September 2011. It is reported that activist Jehangeer wants the Pakistani parliament to pass an anticorruption law-like what India is planning to introduce now, and also cut the military spending and use that money for development and help the poor. Expressing his admiration for Anna Hazare, Jehangeer Akhtar complained that corruption is a far more serious disease in Pakistan. Mr. Jehangeer, who was closely following the anti-corruption war in India said, the Pakistani bill should be on the lines of that in India the activists like Anna Hazare are proposing.