Tehelka, 24 Nov 2007
Skewed economic and cultural growth has undone the state’s connect with its humanist roots, writes GN DEVY
NO ESSENTIALISED picture of Gujarat can convey the reality of the state. In its west, Kutch and Saurashtra have been thirsty for drinking water and irrigation; in the east, the tribal districts crave development; and meanwhile, the central belt has transformed itself into a capitalist heaven.
In terms of education and culture, the distribution of centres of repute has been geographically uneven. Ahmedabad has some of India’s very best institutions and museums; recently Gandhinagar has also been attracting major institution builders. The rest of Gujarat draws a blank. Perhaps the only other location that has managed to create quality institutions is Anand where the National Dairy Development Board and the Charotar Vidya Mandal have shown remarkable results over the last four decades. But over the same period, other universities in the state have witnessed a steady decline in standards. At one time, Vadodara’s MS University was a hub of visionary teachers, scholars, artists and writers. Over the last 20 years, it has moved from bad to worse in every possible way.
At one time, Gujarat was a world-renowned textile production centre. Today, most of its mills are a forgotten story. During the 70s and 80s, the great spirit of Gujarati enterprise had found powerful expression in the small industries sector. Today, mere survival is a nightmare for them. The farm sector is doing even worse. Over the last 20 years, there has been a continuous and massive migration of farm labourers and marginal land holders, clearly indicating that agriculture is no longer a viable livelihood option. This has given rise to massive rural unemployment, endemic indebtedness and food insecurity.
If this is the situation, from where do reports of Gujarat’s phenomenal progress emerge? To understand this, one must look closely at the state’s demographic distribution. Ahmedabad’s population is almost the same as that of the entire tribal belt. In terms of access to education, decision-making and media control, Ahmedabad alone far outshines the rest of Gujarat. Opinions are generated here and disseminated across the state as a version of truth that should hold for the rest of Gujarat. But Ahmedabad is not Bangalore. Its recent history is marked by unmatched violence. In the textile industry’s demise lies the explanation of the VHP’s ability to recruit from Ahmedabad’s lumpen when they do not have more than a two-digit following in some rural districts.
The Gujarati migration to other countries is an unparalleled story. Gujarat’s self-image over the last quarter century has been deeply influenced by its diasporic success. That cheerful image gets transmitted to non-urban Gujarat through discourse entirely structured in the mega cities. One remarkable aspect of Gujarat’s social life is that the image of a ‘typical’ Gujarati has been urban, or semi-urban, rather than rural. GUJARAT HAS had a remarkable humanist tradition spanning several centuries, from Narsi Mehta to Gandhi. Non-violence as a way of life has flourished here mainly through the Jain philosophical traditions and Vaishnav lifestyles. The state’s legendary sense of hospitality springs from these philosophical ancestries.
However, Gujarat’s post-industrial sociology, its demographic balance and the features of the capitalism it nurtured have changed so much that humanist philosophies are no more today than lonely shadows amid the aspirations crowding Gujarat’s unconscious. In contradiction to the state’s entire humanist history, the horrific manifestation of violence in Gujarat has as yet not been atoned for through even a minimum sense of remorse. The degree of intolerance and its spread are quite unsettling. In 2006, after violence in Vadodara following the demolition of a memorial to a Sufi saint, Sankarshan Thakur of TEHELKA had a conversation with me, a report on which appeared in the paper. In response, numerous Gujarati writers wrote charging me with falsifying the image of Gujarat in saying that there has been a growing intolerance in Gujarati society. Quite ironically, their wrath proved my argument. Similar, and in some cases far more violent, wrath had to be faced by a dramatic performance, two Hindi movies and a painting by a young artist.
One often wonders what could be the root of so much intolerance. Is it that the gap between Gujarat’s self-image and its reality has widened so far that the act of posing as a great progressive state has started exerting too much pressure on its unconscious? It would have helped all of us in Gujarat to have an answer to that question. Meantime, the Narmada and the Sabarmati continue to flow.
|
