SPECIAL ARTICLE

Groundwater, Gurus, and Governmentality in the Neo-liberal Development Regime in

Srirupa Bhattacharya

Temples and religious organisations undertaking mong the controversies about spiritual gurus that have community projects and welfare work have been a part come into the public view, two revolved around rivers and riverbanks. The fi rst was that the Art of Living of the history of South Asia. However, in the neo-liberal A (AOL), founded by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, was fi ned by the era, international governmental platforms, international National Green Tribunal (NGT) for destroying the Yamuna fl ood- funding agencies, multinational corporations, central plain—through heavy construction activities and dumping of and state government bodies, and international Hindu solid waste—while organising the World Cultural Festival in April 2016. Ravi Shankar publicly retorted that it was the NGT religious organisations are coming together to effect and the environment ministry who had given permission to large-scale developmental efforts. The nuances of this use the venue. He recounted the cleaning campaigns he had shift are traced by comparing the groundwater undertaken in the parts of Yamuna river that fl ow through management and conservation projects undertaken by Delhi and other river rejuvenation projects he had organised across the country, while his lawyers tried to bring down the the Swadhyay Parivar in the Saurashtra region of amount of the fi ne, claiming that the Yamuna riverbank had Gujarat in the early 1990s, and Art of Living across the not been notifi ed as wetland in any hitherto government country in the last decade. While many would argue report or recommendation (Sri Sri Ravi Shankar 2016). that non-governmental organisations and faith-based The second controversy was regarding ’s (also known as Sadhguru) bonhomie with Uttar Pradesh’s chief minis- organisations have occupied the void created by a ter, Yogi Adityanath, in September 2017 when the former was neo-liberal state disappearing from the public sector, announcing the Rally for Rivers campaign and the latter was this paper shows that the state–international fi nalising the Ken- Betwa river interlinking project. In his bodies–MNC–religion complex has regimented a large speeches during rallies across the country, Sadhguru waxed eloquent about the benefi ts of creating a 1 kilometre (km) forest population in an all-pervasive governmentality. cover along all riverbanks. However, the formal 760-page report released by his organisation, the Isha Foundation (2017: 96–103), had a section dedicated to discussing the importance of the government’s ongoing efforts to interlink rivers. Several Indian water management experts have voiced serious reser- vations about such large-scale projects since they submerge huge tracts of cultivable and forest land, destroy livelihoods of people, and multiply migration to cities. Besides aggravating water confl icts between states, changing the course of rivers also invites fl oods, droughts, and uncertainty for upstream farmers. The active and positive involvement of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in small-scale water development projects since the 1980s, particularly in the drought-prone western regions of the country, is not new or insubstantial.1 But, the 1990s also saw religious organisations like the Swadhyay Parivar and the Swaminarayanan sect build popular movements towards water conservation and use in Gujarat. Notwithstanding the fact that these organisations were successful in making the groundwater situation better for farmers and fi sherfolks, they also strengthened their existing religious sect-like communities in the region. Srirupa Bhattacharya ([email protected]) teaches sociology at Bhakti or devotion and seva or spiritual service towards Miranda House, University of Delhi, New Delhi. community development has been a common practice in

Economic & Political Weekly EPW AUGUST 10, 2019 vol lIV no 32 51 SPECIAL ARTICLE Indian religious organisations for a hundred years, particularly Swadhyay Parivar, and a river-cleaning project by a relatively in the arena of education and disaster relief. But, leadership in new religious organisation, the AOL. This section offers an the water management sector was the need of the late 1980s, understan ding about the broad relationship between water at a time of drought with water distribution disputes within management projects, state and non-state actors, international and between states, and increased water pollution. No other funding org anisations, and MNCs that have emer ged in the religious organisation known to the author was as successful context of liberalisation. The third section is a case study based in the water-management project as Swadhyay Parivar in the on the author’s ethnographic study of a river rejuvenation 1990s, but it too lost its momentum after its leader Pandurang project undertaken by AOL in a village in . This section Athavale died in 2003. elucidates the relationship between larger structures and the Since 2010–11, various gurus have resurfaced with campaigns people touted as the benefi ciaries of such projects. for rivers and riverbanks, water conservation, and pollution, albeit different from previous forms of seva. Earlier, organisa- The Genealogy of Seva tions aiming to invest in welfare works would operate at the The idea of seva as we understand it today was formulated as local level, mobilise the community, proselytise, slowly build a an indispensible part of organised religious activism by Swami religious base, and be a pyramid of governance parallel to the Vivekananda in his theory of practical Vedanta. In this novel state, neither confronting it, nor merging with it. There have interpretation of the Upanishads, voluntary social service was been cases of the state lauding the efforts of gurus in mobilis- to be undertaken as a spiritual praxis; serving god through ing the public, and of trying—successfully or unsuccessfully— serving the divine in each human being. The to replicate such local-level efforts on a wider scale. In such Mission’s efforts in famine relief, educational initiatives, and projects by religious organisations, people’s participation was nursing began in the 1890s and have continued to this day crucial in planning, offering physical labour and monetary (Beckerlegge 2000: 80–100). Relief work after disasters, setting support, and in expanding the reach of the project. Needless to up hospitals, schools, and colleges, organising medical camps, say, traditional hierarchies and privileges played a part in the blood and organ donation drives represent efforts by guru-led division of labour and fruits. sects to refashion, modernise, and partake in “secular” activities However, new religious organisations born and bred within along with proselytising. In contrast, Copeman and Ikegame the neo-liberal context undertake welfare work very differently. observe the pre-eminent status of bhakti given directly to god Many of the projects are planned together by government or to a guru in precolonial religious reform movements in bodies, religious organisations, and international funding the subcontinent (devotion to god and guru was supposed to agencies and, only after this, appeals are made to people to refl ect in one’s conduct, one’s expressions of love, and one’s join. Sometimes, multinational corporations (MNCs) commis- attempts to critique and transgress hierarchies of traditional sion religious organisations to undertake welfare work as part communities like caste, and build new (traditions) of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts, which are and systems of spiritual knowledge (Copeman and Ikegame mandated by law. 2012: 25–35). Even today, guru-bhakti is the root for offering While urban middle-class disciples of the gurus are motivated to “manav seva” in organisations like Radha Soami Satsang join the cause in the name of seva, rural communities and peo- Beas or Mata Amritanandamayi Mission. This is not to say ple from lower classes are systematically disciplined to accept that religious traditions of community service did not exist in this intervention from above, even if they do not participate in the subcontinent before colonialism. Examples can be found the process. While subject experts do the planning, light and in Sikh traditions in the northern part of the subcontinent heavy machinery aid the implementation, thus rendering the from the 15th century onwards; the practices of the Lingayats need for a close-knit sect or community irrelevant. Religious in the South in the 12th century point towards notions similar organisations today contribute to the creation of a society of to seva. self-disciplined, self-governing, obedient individuals, and In the case of modern, organised Hinduism, the infl uences work to obfuscate the power of the state. Where the welfare of Christian missionary work in the Third World colonies and state appeared apathetic, unapproachable, or corrupt, govern- the discourse of human rights in the West is notable. Hindu mentality in the neo-liberal era is all pervasive, yet diffused, reform movements like the Swaminarayanan movement and and is distributed in several non-governmental modes, similar the Brahmo Samaj in the 1830s further bolstered the case for to what Foucault (1994: 326–48) described as the 20th century seva as an important spiritual and political mission. Beckerlegge redistribution of pastoral power in Europe. The genealogy of (2003) argues that ’s strategy was to mod- governmentality of the state–religion–market complex in this ernise Hinduism while traditionalising it. While his tradition- subcontinent is what this paper tries to trace. alism was refl ected in his patriarchal notions of femininity The paper is divided into three sections. The fi rst section and motherhood and his anxiety to maintain caste hierarchy traces the genealogy of the idea of seva in Hindu organisations— (Vivekananda 1989), his modernism was refl ected in his from the 20th century to today—to show how its modus operandi anti-ritualistic stance, emphasis on voluntary action for the has changed after liberalisation. The second section contains a daridranarayana, which worked to endear him to his Western more focused comparison between a water conservation disciples and Indian elite patrons of the project led by a pre-liberalisation religious organisation, the (Beckerlegge 2000: 52–60; 100–03).

52 AUGUST 10, 2019 vol lIV no 32 EPW Economic & Political Weekly SPECIAL ARTICLE The idea of seva found more of a revivalist force from the with right; rather they took up quasi-governmental 1890s onwards when it was combined with the idea of roles in local communities with funding from the United Nations (reconversion) by . While Vivekananda restricted (UN) or the United States Agency for International Development. himself to critiquing Hindu ritualism and practices of untouch- The “war on terror” discourse after 9/11 has caused several ability, Arya Samaj took the step of popularising a ritual of Muslim organisations to be blacklisted by intergovernmental shuddhi or reconversion to Hinduism for those who had organisations and international NGOs worldwide (see, for accepted Christianity or Islam. In numerous instances shuddhi example, Balchin 2007). campaigns fostered suspicion and hatred and culminated in Christian missionary institutions and Islamic organisations coercion or open violence (Fishcer-Tine 2003; Jones 1968; in India lack political clout and state support. Based on their Gupta 1998). Other trajectories of the ideology of seva can be study in Maharashtra, Jodhka and Bora (2009: 22) note that traced to show how it was later interpreted and extended by Hindu FBOs were the “most globally active” and most likely to gurus and organisations. One such trajectory can be traced have several branches across the country. Among the 133 from Vivekananda’s and Swami Akhandananda’s notion of organisations studied, the three wealthiest and largest were seva and nationalism to M S Golwalkar, K B Hedgewar, and Hindu organisations. It is important to note that while Muslim the ideology of the RSS in the 1940s (Beckerlegge 2003). The and Christian organisations in India have mainly worked in entry of the monks of the Yogi order into right- the fi eld of providing education and health services in the fi eld wing politics a few decades after that with war-cries for of seva, Hindu organisations have diversifi ed into making gau-raksha and ghar-wapsi may be another. self-help groups, agricultural cooperatives, partnering with Apart from the dangers of right-wing interpretations, seva corporate companies, forest and water conservation. also fortifi es traditional paternalistic attitudes and power relations between benefactor and benefi ciaries. It binds A Shift of Course: Two Movements around Water the latter in an unsaid oath of receiving what is given. For To explain the differences in seva efforts led by older and newer example, even while the Swadhyay Parivar’s welfare work in organisations, that is, those that came up before liberalisation rural Gujarat and Maharashtra is laudable, the organisation and those that came after, let us take an example each from endorsed the idea of gratitude and harmony between the rich water-related projects done by FBOs in these two periods. and poor, and ensured Brahminical roles and rituals on an Sheth (2000) studied the contributions of the Swadhyay Parivar everyday basis in the villages where it worked in the 1950s as a religious reform movement. According to him the Swadhyay (Sheth 2000). “Mainstreaming” of tribals and Dalits was Parivar leaders appealed to people with the idiom of bhakti undertaken with the justifi cation that they are bhavalakshi or encased in kruti (action) and shram (labour), and emphasised storehouses of emotions (Giri 2008: 23, 50, 114–120) and by that people should work for the community and human frater- implication non-rational. nity at large, rather than their own selves, their immediate In the new millennium, social scientists have used the con- families, or even their caste and kin groups. Athavale, who cept of faith-based organisations (FBOs) to explore the devel- founded the Swadhyay Parivar in the 1950s, initially tried to opment efforts of such organisations and study the politics of orient the imagination of his urban followers towards the suf- new religious organisations in the Third World; how they are fering of rural India. On his famous bhaktipheris (devotional heavily guided by their donors and receive funding from the trips), urban followers would spend a couple of days in villages, First World. Clarke (2006) elucidates the trajectory of FBOs, observe Ekadashi fasts, sing devotional songs and recite which began in the 1980s in the United States (US) under Ronald Sanskrit verses, thanking god at the beginning and end of the Reagan when the support of the Christian right and Christian day and at mealtimes. Once the community started taking religious organisations was sought in policy matters. According interest, formal centres were opened, which trained people in to Clarke, as the US and European countries pushed liberalisa- the Swadhyay Parivar beliefs and norms, its rituals, and the tion policies worldwide, especially in the developing coun- world view of seva. tries, government spending on welfare started to fall, which According to Sheth, in the 1970s, Athavale started paying necessitated FBOs. This alliance between foreign donors and attention to the farming communities in the drought-prone FBOs in developing countries was made keeping in mind the Saurashtra region of Gujarat. He began by convincing people to fact that spiritual actors occupy positions of respect and trust contribute voluntary labour to the lord’s farm (an earmarked in their communities, as compared to political leaders or state plot of land) in the village, and the vriksha mandir (tree-temple) actors. One set of FBOs in India overtly rely on networks just outside the village. Slowly, he would involve the labour of established on the foundation of Hindutva, or Hindu cultural as many as 20 villages to maintain one large plot and a temple nationalism, among the Indian diaspora in the West. They where man-and-wife couples of any caste could offi ciate. In acquire funds and support from the , 1989, he began to focus on recharging wells in the Junagadh Self-Employed Women’s Association international and other area. He made sure that his followers were trained in simple organisations like the US-based India Development and Relief and cost-effective methods and that they offered their own Fund (see, for example, Basu 2015: 164–70). Another set that shram (labour) in digging and clearing soil with bhakti and has proliferated since the 1990s are Hindu organisations that not in lieu of material gains. Sheth notes that by 1994, 23,000 do not have a direct link or apparent ideological similarities wells had been recharged in Junagadh alone and this was

Economic & Political Weekly EPW AUGUST 10, 2019 vol lIV no 32 53 SPECIAL ARTICLE done in cooperation with the owners of private wells. In the through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) same year, with the help of Swadhyay Parivar’s followers, vil- to India. This aid was in the form of a loan with “lower-than- lagers also built a simple check dam to impound the water ordinary-interest rates for environmental projects” (JICA nd). fl owing in a small rivulet. Another study records one lakh re- However, newspapers complained that not much was achieved charged wells in the state by 1998, which brought to farmers in terms of cleaning the river or preventing further pollution.2 other benefi ts such as an increase in income after a nominal In the midst of accusations of government ineptness, the sec- investment in water conservation, and gaining the confi dence ond phase was fl oated in 2004 (YAP–II), against a fresh loan to raise long-duration rabi and kharif crops. Farmers also de- from the same Japanese bank. That was also the year when veloped methods to construct soak pits so that water used in the demolition of the Yamuna Pushta slums—which evicted bathing, washing, as well as irrigation was not wasted but per- 1.2 lakh people, on the pretext of riverbed encro achment— colated down to raise the water table (Shah 2000). drew criticism from rights-based organisations.3 The organisa- Both Sheth (2000) and Shah (2000) emphasise that such a tions alleged that the eviction was effected to free land for large-scale and motivated movement could not have been profi table projects like the Commonwealth Games (CWG) village built by just any NGO. The Swadhyay Parivar’s tight-knit struc- and the Akshardham. ture enabled volunteers who were convinced of its vision to It was not until 2009 that the project received further atten- take the message of success by devotion from one village to tion, when the government requested a year’s extension to be another and build communities of religious followers who able to clean the river before the CWG in October 2010. The would take up and supervise water conservation in the entire event was to be held in Delhi and given the international par- region based on moral and unselfi sh conduct. Both authors ticipants and audience the city would have to host, ensuring are also of the view that at least till the mid-1990s, the move- accountability with regard to river cleaning became diffi cult. ment was self-sustaining and did not require the help of The Delhi Jal Board roped in NGOs for the project as they could government agencies. mobilise the public as well as positive media attention. A date Shah (2000) is of the opinion that the government’s lacka- was earmarked for completion, 22 March, which is also recog- daisical attitude in the beginning, followed by the declaration nised as World Water Day by the UN. Notably, the theme of the of subsidies to private well owners for recharging their own 2010 celebration of World Water Day had globally been wells, caused a contradiction between the principles of com- planned on the theme “Clean Water for a Healthy World.” On munity development and the idea of furthering private gain. 5 February 2010, Ravi Shankar declared that he and his follow- Shah feels that this brought about the end of a booming move- ers would clean the sacred waters of the Yamuna and joined ment in Gujarat, while Ramaswamy Shaktivadivel (2007) hands with UNESCO, World Bank, Microsoft and other private writes that the easy availability of bank credit for sinking players, giving a call to volunteers to get ready for the “8 Days wells and the government’s electricity subsidy encouraged 8 Ghats” clean up drive titled “Meri Dilli, Meri Yamuna” (My people to overuse whatever water was conserved by the re- Delhi, My Yamuna). charge of wells. Rapid urbanisa- Figure 1: Campaign Plan of ‘Meri Dilli, Meri Yamuna.’ tion and industrialisation meant Narela Wazirabad incre ased demands for water, more Supplementary Drain Coronation Barrage 18 March Wazirabad industrial effl uents in rivers, and Pillar Rohini Rithala Yamuna Vihar the necessity of expensive methods Timarpur to treat the polluted water to meet 21 March Kudesia Ghat the needs of drinking or agricul- ture. In several states, government Nilothi Delhi Gate initiatives in drafting and imple- Keshopur I P Barrage Hindon cut 23 March Yamuna Bazar Yamuna River Kondli Najafgarh Drain Sen Nursing menting groundwater recharge Najafgarh Home 17 March ITO Shahdara Outfall Drain policies increased, as did the prob- Barapullah lems of neo-liberal development. 19 March Nizamuddin Papan Kalan Maharani Bagh The AOL’s role in the Yamuna Okhala 22 March Okhla Bird Sanctuary Action Plan (YAP) in 2010 in Delhi Sarita vihar Bridge Drain was radically different. Although the Mehrauli 24 March Okhla Dhobi Ghat Vasant Kunj Tughlakabad Drain Okhla Barrage Ghitorni short 22 km stretch of the Yamuna Existing STP Most polluting drains 20 March Kalindi Kunj that fl ows through Delhi is the Treated effluent most polluted, the fi rst phase of the Source: Art of Living website. programme (YAP-I: 1993–2003) did very little to enforce the treatment of effl uents by industries in The inaugural programme in Purana Qila in Delhi included the area. Neither was the sewage system in residential areas hymns and a play personifying Yamuna as a river deity. In the developed to ensure that waste would not fl ow into the river. play, Yamuna is fed up with pollution and returns to her The plan was a bilateral project between the governments of father’s (Surya, the Sun God) abode. Only after she is implored India and Japan, the latter having provided aid of `705 crore by the residents of the city, who tell her that they would die if

54 AUGUST 10, 2019 vol lIV no 32 EPW Economic & Political Weekly SPECIAL ARTICLE she does not come back, Yamuna agrees to return. In the according to them, creates space for “guru governmentality,” programme Ravi Shankar talked about the importance of a concept inspired by Foucault. The guru is able to draw out seva and good deeds for attaining spiritual goals and peace of the devotional side of their followers and ensure obedience. mind. The AOL claimed that about 5,000 volunteers manually While admitting that the authority of the guru—coupled with cleaned the ghats and many other parts of the bank. Over six their sheer wealth and connections—puts them in a rather weeks, various pranayama courses were offered to residents of powerful position in these times, I would argue that govern- nearby urban villages and industrial areas, saplings were ance in general has changed since economic liberalisation, planted, children were taught how to nurture the river, and rather than gurus and religious organisations assuming an walks were organised in the city (AOL 2010). Note here that importance similar to that of the state. Global capitalism unlike Swadhyay Parivar’s sustained effort to build a sect fosters disgust towards the state’s inability to deliver goods around a water-conservation project, AOL had a fi xed task for and services to citizens, and instead promises a better future less than a month and its proselytisation was non-ritualistic through privatisation and competition; by encouraging citi- and did not require the prior existence of a motivated local zens to repose faith in private players and govern their religious community. The collaboration of state and non-state own selves. The nation state often negotiates and divides actors, and volunteers from outside the slums effected the power with these sectors, for example, by inviting gurus to cleaning drive. resolve humanitarian confl icts, plan land and water resource Let us now analyse the key features of the seva efforts of this management, etc. From time to time, the AOL bags short-term millennium. In comparison with earlier religious organisa- projects with active endorsement from the state, like organis- tions, gurus now project more and more of what Ikegame and ing awareness programmes against HIV, mainstreaming ter- Copeman (2012: 1–3) call “uncontainability,” where their roles rorists and naxals, and making model villages. The AOL are myriad and multiplying and are not bound by national also invites corporations to collaborate with it to undertake boundaries, jurisdiction, or by what their predecessors had CSR projects.4 taken up. In that they are not contained even by just the nu- In this section, the attempt was to delineate the organisa- merical or ideological strength of their own organisation or tional links established by religious gurus while undertaking teachings in a certain locale as shown above. Some authors water management projects. But what about the people or identify the new middle-class resident and non- resident communities who are directly affected or earmarked as the Indian clientele of the gurus as a key distinguishing feature in benefi ciaries of such projects? What form does the “govern- the way movements have changed (Warrier 2005; Srinivas ment of the self” take at the plane of implementation, that is, 2008). And, in fact, the participation of urban middle-class in the relationship between the religious organisation, urban volunteers in seva efforts of AOL is conspicuous. However the volunteers and community participation? The following sec- primary participation of the elites in seva has been a feature tion attempts to answer this question through refl ections from of developmental work done by Hindu organisations since my fi eldwork in Karnataka. Ramakrishna Paramahansa’s times. The state may not have opposed the proliferation of such organisations or their work. Kumudvathi River Rejuvenation Individual secular leaders and political parties may have My fi eldwork in a water management project started by inaugurated temples and puja pandals. Benefi ciaries among Ravi Shankar in 2013 in the Nelamangala taluka in the rural the lower classes and castes have been a characteristic of district of Bengaluru in Karnataka will form the basis for this seva. But, in the case of new organisations, welfare work is section. The project, titled “Volunteer for a Better India,” was done in coll aboration directly with the state and international launched as an initiative of AOL by Ravi Shankar in February political and fi nancial organisations. What lies beneath the 2013 in Delhi to meet the Millennium Development Goals of “uncontainability” of the guru witnessed by Ikegame and the UN. The platform was not restricted to AOL members and Copeman is this unprecedented structural cooperation. Of Shankar invited the support of all “citizens.” The UN dele- course, the importance of the guru in this network needs to gates, from UNICEF, UNODC, ECOSOC, UNFPA and UNDP inun- be highlighted. The guru is omniscient and acceptable to all. dated the panel of speakers during its inauguration in Delhi On the one hand, gurus travel far and wide, spread their mes- and pledged material and personnel aid, thereby driving pub- sage and establish their organisation across the world. On the lic opinion at a global level. The years 2012 and 2013 were other hand, they walk through the walls of the bureaucracy those of drought in India, with the states of Maharashtra, and speed up institutional mechanisms and converse in the Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh experiencing their worst language of international humanitarian policymakers. At the droughts since 1972. The AOL project started in Maharashtra, same time, they woo capitalists and media houses to collabo- and was then taken to Karnataka and . rate in seva projects. Imploring the people of Bengaluru city to join, fl iers partially written in English were distributed in streets, calling for Faith in Private Players “Water for Bangalore.” An extract:

Ikegame and Copeman (2012) argue that in the context of Water-scarcity in Bangalore city is growing. Tippagondanhalli res- economic liberalisation, the state no longer retains an authori- ervoir which was once supplying water to most part of Bangalore tarian and sacrosanct image, which the guru still does. This, city has dried up because of its major feeder rivers Kumudvathi and

Economic & Political Weekly EPW AUGUST 10, 2019 vol lIV no 32 55 SPECIAL ARTICLE

Arkavathi drying up ... Deforestation, quarrying, industrialisation on taluka in June–July 2013. The volunteers were happy with the catchment area, sand mining, massive eucalyptus plantations, silta- AOL playing a paternal role towards the village community. tion of irrigation tanks have caused depletion of water levels and it would be eroded completely in just a few years. Fearing further con- Every member of the group shared a deep sense of disaffection sequences people are moving away from farming and migrating to towards the state—for having failed to educate or employ Bengaluru in search of jobs. people from the village—and towards populist politics, which Students (for example, from the Vagdevi School and Acharya kept demanding rights for deprived communities. According Institute of Technology) and corporate employee groups (for to them, safeguards such as reservation and tax exemption for example from Bosch, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited [HAL], low-income farmers were unfair and affected growth, and the and Oracle) started fl ocking from the city to villages in the quality of education, products and services in the country. Nelamangala taluka every Sunday. Participants of the Youth Notions about rural people being poor because they do not Leadership and Training Program around Bengaluru also offered know how to use their resources were predominant in the seva in the area.5 The participation of locals was limited, even by Bengaluru of the AOL and the team visiting the village. the admission of the report published by the orga nisation. These The leader of the team wasa 59-year-old urban middle-class volunteers began to desilt irrigation tanks and wells, constructing male Brahmin, who is a retired government engineer and the boulder checks and percolation pits and planting trees (Inter- AOL teacher in the city. He candidly asked us: IAHV national Association for Human Values or 2014). Why should villages look to the state for support? Why should those Since Kumudvathi was one of the main tributaries of Arka- below poverty line ask for one-rupee rice? Ambedkar said Stand on vathi which was Bengaluru city’s source of water, this water- your own two feet, but our state has created a lazy and beggar-like shed development was crucial for many. According to the plan- village community which has forgotten Basavanna’s edict of work is worship. ners of AOL’s project, rainfall in the Arkavathi catchment area had not fl uctuated much in the last 100 years (above 800 mm Here, going beyond Foucault’s idea of all-pervasiveness of annual rainfall), and yet rivers, ponds, and wells had dried up. governmentality, one must also keep in mind the claims of As can be seen from the fl ier cited above, the right reasons were citizenship of different classes. Urban middle-class India assert identifi ed (like mining, quarrying, and eucalyptus orchards), their citizenship by engaging in individual “rational” action, but AOL did not attempt to correct any of these problems, rather which included lending a helping hand to villages, while concentrating on desilting and conservation. Its report did not branding village communities as an irrational population state the quantity of water that was expected from this project who are standing in the path of their own development and (IAHV 2014). that of the nation. It is because of rationality and industrious- ness, the urban volunteers reasoned, that the new Indian Political Participation and Policy middle class is prosperous. According to John Harriss (2007) The Karnataka government and the Indian Administrative middle-class activism in post-liberalisation India forms the Service offi cers were involved in the planning of the pro- chunk of civil society organisation, and has progressively gramme, including the main planner of the project who was a disempowered the landless and informal sector workers in retired government geologist. The government was eschewing terms of political parti cipation. Global attention and funding part of its role and yet overseeing the project. If the govern- reinforces this inequality. ment had embarked on this project on its own, it may have Also, questions of governance cannot be separated from had to do so under a rural employment scheme, rather than economic policies. The New Agricultural Policy in Karnataka, demand voluntary labour. The joint effort would also keep in directed by the World Bank, negated the basic principles of check the rabble-rousers who demanded controlled mining, land reform and promoted “corporate landlordism,” that is, quarrying and industrialisation in the area. Among the com- heavy private investment in agriculture in seeds, marketing, panies who had joined hands with AOL as part of their CSR processing, horticulture, aquaculture, dairy, poultry, cold stor- were Bosch and Phillips, both with plants near Bengaluru, try- age, and leasing of land (Assadi 1995). Even irrigation and ing to make good their claims of development of the region water distribution were planned to be handed over to private against acquired land. Bosch’s new plant, which was inaugu- players. Land reforms invited “predatory capitalism” whose rated in 2015, has a built-up area of 38,000 sq km. Another “principle benefi ciaries are the speculators in land ... housing partner was HAL, which consumes 16–18 million kl per annum companies, leisure and luxury industry, the education industry,” itself, of which more than 5 million kl was sourced from companies building highways, etc, requiring acquisition of Bengaluru (HAL 2014). It also consumes enormous amounts of tens of thousands of acres (Nair 1996). While land ceilings energy, 80% of which comes from Bengaluru. In addition, were implemented, plantations were kept out of the ambit of HAL is linked to bauxite mining, which has displaced thousands the legislation. On the one hand, tribals were displaced from of people from other parts of India. Other studies have found the Nagerhole forest in the name of eco-development, and on that through their CSR responsibilities and notions, most heads the other, the government was knee-deep in the illegal export of corporations mainly targeted legiti macy with the state and of sandalwood from the same forest (Assadi 1996). Adding to not the needs of the people (see, for example, Sharma 2011). the conundrum are the mining and quarrying industries, I joined a team (comprising six urban middle-class volun- which displace innumerable people, destroy livelihoods and teers) that was visiting one particular village in Nelamangala biodiversity, and absorb huge amounts of water. Both Nair and

56 AUGUST 10, 2019 vol lIV no 32 EPW Economic & Political Weekly SPECIAL ARTICLE Assadi note that parliamentary left parties exhibited weak Gurantee Act had once been operative in the area—although it resistance to these policies. was not very benefi cial—but now even that had been done Rather than demanding policy-level changes in agriculture away with. They had taken to other means of livelihood as and industry, civil society was shifting the entire attention on rainfall and forest cover in the area had gone down and agri- water conservation at a village or household level. My fi eld- culture had become unsustainable due to the rising prices of work took me to a village about 30 km from Bengaluru city, seeds and manure. Ragi, they said, grew well in the area but touching the Shivagange hills where Kumudvathi’s source lies. was out of fashion and was not fetching money in the market, The AOL had found an enthusiastic local participant: a very fi t whereas cash crops needed a larger investment. Some also sexagenarian Vokkaliga male, Somesh (name changed), who said that land acquisition was taking place in the vicinity and headed one of the few local families that took interest in the thus it would not matter even if they were successful in mak- project. The team visiting the village from the city had very ing the water situation better. few regular members, even though hundreds of people would Somesh, however, was optimistic that the villagers would turn up for marches in the city for the same cause. realise the benefi ts of the project if it was successful. At the The village was populated by the Vokkaliga caste, which is time of the fi eldwork, fi ve kalyanis, one recharge well, and one an agricultural community, and is identifi ed as a dominant large pond were rejuvenated in his village alone, apart from caste in Karnataka. In this particular village they were not several boulder checks and soak pits. In all the villages com- particularly wealthy; the maximum amount of land held by bined, 14–18 kalyanis, fi ve recharge wells, 74–78 boulder one family was 25 acres. Tenancy was not predominant and checks in the riverbed, two large ponds, and several soak pits most families owned four to fi ve acres of land. They tradition- were rejuvenated. ally practised dry farming, mostly of ragi (fi nger millet) along In the Maharashtra chapter, the same project was criticised with pulses, limited wet farming of rice and animal husband- for having widened and dredged the rivers too much with the ry. The population of the village, according to Somesh, was about help of heavy machinery, resulting in water stagnating or a thousand people, but many had migrated to cities for jobs. evaporating faster (Chari and Sharma 2016). However that did Villagers reported that rejuvenation work was underway in not seem to be the case in Karnataka, where most work was the neighbouring Dalit village as well, where villagers’ partici- done manually using simple tools. In a year’s time, the AOL pation was better because they still depended on income from claimed the following achievements: the land, unlike the Vokkaliga village. 108 boulder checks constructed; More than 20 traditional step wells Somesh’s family owned about 16 acres of land, which they have been de-silted; More than 50 recharge wells have been construct- cultivated without additional paid labour. In about six acres, ed in more than 20 villages; More than 10,000 saplings have been he had grown eucalyptus in the preceding few years as the planted and are being maintained; Positive impact of the rejuvenating revenue from it was quick and lucrative and the investment activities is already visible in a few villages, with 10 to 15 ft of water standing in open wells and step wells even in summer. (IAHV 2014) and effort was low. But, through his involvement with the AOL, he had come to know about the harmful effects eucalyptus has But, considering the economy of the area, which involves on the water content of the soil and was thinking about switching heavy industrialisation, quarrying, and mining, these minor to the organic farming techniques that AOL was advocating. achievements may not be long-lived. The forest department Other farmers of the village could not afford to switch or were and the NGT have notifi ed several companies to move their not interested, according to Somesh. He was employed in the factories, although very late in the day (Madhusudhan 2013; Central Reserve Police Force when his parents were alive but Kumar 2013). So far, no action has been taken and the compa- left his job to take care of the land once they died. His was not a nies are standing their ground. The pressure created by civil very poor family. His brother, who was in the police force, could society is also not enough. afford to send his children to English-medium schools in the city. To assess the importance of watershed projects, Sangames- Their involvement with the AOL was four to fi ve years old and waran (2006) studied the Adarsh Gav Yojana of the state was refl ected in some of their practices, like chanting Sanskrit government in a village in western Maharashtra. She found mantras before meals and before starting to dig the silt in the that NGOs had helped generate income in the village, provided kalyanis (step wells), calling medicinal plants by their Sanskrit health and education facilities, that more water was available names, claiming ayurveda as “our own,” and so on. They also in total, and people were able to get loans from the government, said they were trying to introduce some weekly congregations and that alcohol-related violence had reduced. But, she in the village where hymns and worship could be regularised. cautioned that since land and water sources were mostly privately owned, the landless continued to live in precarious Who Benefits? conditions. Handpumps were few and spread across the Volunteers from the city blamed the inertia of the villagers for region. Without these basic resources, they were unable to not participating. But, according to the villagers to whom I avail education. Reddy (2006) shows that in Andhra Pradesh, managed to talk, they did not participate because they did not NGOs may have performed better than the government in own too much land, nor relied on it for income, so the benefi ts developing watershed programmes, but taking into account of the river rejuvenation would go to the city rather than them. the condition of forests and distribution of agricultural land Some claimed that National Rural Employment was essential for providing real and long-term benefi ts to the

Economic & Political Weekly EPW AUGUST 10, 2019 vol lIV no 32 57 SPECIAL ARTICLE people. She writes that ins tead of developing such strategies, capitalist system. The civil society, especially organisations the rural elite were building strong nexuses with NGOs, corrupt like the AOL contribute to the seamlessness of this governmen- politicians, and contractors to further economic inequalities tality by bridging of the gaps between state, corporations, corrupt and money-based politics. contractors and the rural rich. Often the justifi cation of this order of things is the need for Conclusions unity in the community. One young volunteer I met during What we can see from the above description is this: on the one the fi eldwork said that he did not go to the AOL ashram hand policies that are wrecking havoc on the ecology and live- because he did not want to take part in ritual worship, but lihoods are progressing unhindered, and on the other the volunteered in the river rejuvenation project in the village state–corporate–AOL nexus trying to allay people’s grievances because he was distressed by the disparateness of his and fears in the aftermath of the drought of 2012–13 in Karna- “community.” “Look at Muslim countries, look at Christian taka by assuring them that groundwater conservation led by countries, if you say a word against one of them, all of them urban middle-class activists was a permanent solution. The will answer back in unison. And look at Hindus, we cannot civil society is participating in a process to control “the masses” even call our country Hindu.” He said that Indian villages are and render them governable and obedient, notwithstanding in distress and they will rebel against whatever unity that the initial success of river rejuvenation. For the AOL, “dharna” remains, if not checked, and that is why participated in the (political demonstration), whereby people demanded their AOL’S rural development programmes. The subservience of rights, was “negative.” The AOL rather preferred to take social inequality to religious-national unity is a slogan that is forward an idea of development and welfare that was held by becoming shrill across the world. With this newer ways of the global urban elite. The platform was least bothered even about control and management of people’s voices against inequality convincing the community about the benefi ts it envisaged, or are also emerging. about their participation. For Foucault (1994: 307), the welfare mode of governance, Labour is differently conceptualised for different classes in followed by the neo-liberal form, were “numerous reappearances this governmentality: for the poor, labour is imagined to be of the tricky adjustment between political power wielded over habitual, irrational, and for sheer survival, while for the middle legal subjects and pastoral power wielded over live individuals.” classes, labour was conscientious “activism,” a labour of love Biebricher (2011) takes a Foucaultian approach to study FBOs in their spare time, negotiating with the demands of the global and argues that FBOs are one of these reappearances which

Economic Growth and its Distribution in India Edited by PULAPRE BALAKRISHNAN

After a boom in the early 21st century, India witnessed a macroeconomic reversal marked by a slowdown in growth that has lasted a little longer than the boom. A fresh criterion of governance, namely inclusion, has emerged and become a priority for the state. Written against the backdrop of these developments, the essays in this volume represent a range of perspectives and methods pertaining to the study of growth and its distribution in India; from a long view of growth in the country, to a macro view of the recent history of the economy, to a study of the economy at the next level down, covering its agriculture, industry and services, and, finally, to an assessment of the extent to which recent growth has been inclusive.

Pp xvi + 497 | Rs 745 Assembling authoritative voices on the economy of contemporary India, this volume will be indispensable for ISBN 978-81-250-5901-1 students of economics, management, development studies and public policy. It will also prove useful to policymakers 2015 and journalists. Authors: Deepak Nayyar • Atul Kohli • Neeraj Hatekar • Ambrish Dongre • Maitreesh Ghatak • Parikshit Ghosh • Ashok Kotwal • R Nagaraj • Pulapre Balakrishnan • Hans P Binswanger-Mkhize • Bhupat M Desai • Errol D’Souza • John W Mellor • Vijay Paul Sharma • Prabhakar Tamboli • Ramesh Chand • Shinoj Parappurathu • Sudip Chaudhuri • Archana Aggarwal • Aditya Mohan Jadhav • V Nagi Reddy • C Veeramani • R H Patil • Indira Hirway • Kirit S Parikh • Probal P Ghosh • Mukesh Eswaran • Bharat Ramaswami • Wilima Wadhwa • Sukhadeo Thorat • Amaresh Dubey • Sandip Sarkar • Balwant Singh Mehta • Santosh Mehrotra • Jajati Parida • Sharmistha Sinha • Ankita Gandhi • Sripad Motiram • Ashish Singh Orient Blackswan Pvt Ltd www.orientblackswan.com • Chennai • New Delhi • Kolkata • Bengaluru • Bhubaneshwar • Ernakulam • Guwahati • Jaipur • Lucknow • Patna • Chandigarh • Hyderabad Contact: [email protected]

58 AUGUST 10, 2019 vol lIV no 32 EPW Economic & Political Weekly SPECIAL ARTICLE have been able to guide individuals to submit themselves will- help the needy but also require that they meet certain behav- ingly to very centralised structures of the state. Further, the ioural requirements, which the programs enforce through discourse of service is integral to the functioning of FBOs as it close supervision” (Biebricher 2011: 402). The charisma of binds people to the “one who directs their conscience.” He gurus and organisational emphasis on seva, thus, must be seen cites Lawrence Mead—who led the deliberations in the US in this broader framework of global political and economic leading up to the reforms of 1996—categorically stating “policies currents, rather than as a phenomenon of its own.

Notes Bharucha, Ruzbeh (2006): Yamuna Gently Weeps, Kumar, Vasanth P (2013): “Green Tribunal Asks In- 1 The contributions of NGOs like Professional New Delhi: Sainathan Communications. dustries in T G Halli Zone to Pack Up,” Times of Assistance for Development Action and Tarun Biebricher, Thomas (2011): “Faith-based and Pasto- India, 26 December. Bharat Sangh in Rajasthan and Viksat, Mahiti- ral Power,” Economy and Society, Vol 40, No 3, Madhusudan, N R (2013): “Industries Told to Shut Utthan, Pravah, the Aga Khan Rural Support pp 400–20. Down in Arkavathy Catchment Area,” New Programme, and the Development Support Chari, Mridula and Supriya Sharma (2016): “Can Indian Express, 17 June. Centre in Gujarat are notable. Organisations Maharashtra Prevent Drought by Digging Riv- Nair, Janaki (1996): “Predatory Capitalism and like the Watershed Organisation Trust and the ers?,” https://scroll.in/article/812718/, Scroll, Legalised Landgrab: Karnataka Land Reforms,” Advanced Centre for Water Resources Develop- 9 August. Economic & Political Weekly, No 31, Vol 5, ment and Management began their work in Clarke, Gerard (2006): “Faith Matters: Faith-based pp 251–52. Maharashtra in the 1990s. Most of these organ- Organisations, Civil Society and International Sakthivadivel, Ramaswamy (2007): “The Ground- isations did not take a confrontationist position Development,” Journal of International Devel- water Recharge Movement in India,” The Agri- with regards to the state’s industrial policies opment, Vol 18, No 6, pp 835–48. cultural Groundwater Revolution: Opportuni- and large-scale water projects. They worked Copeman, Jacob and Aya Ikegame (2012): Intro- ties and Threats to Development, M Giordano despite the state, with the participation of the duction, The Guru in South Asia: New Interdis- and K Vilholth (eds), Wallingford: Centre for community and sometimes in alliance with the ciplinary Perspectives, by Copeman and Ikeg- Agriculture and Bioscience International. local government. ame (eds), New York: Routledge, pp 1–45. Reddy, V Ratna (2006): “‘Getting the Implementa- 2 A collection of articles on the issue can be ac- tion Right’: Can the Proposed Watershed cessed at http://admin.indiaenvironmentpor- Fishcer-Tine, Harald (2003): “Kindly Elders of the Guidelines Help?,” Economic & Political Weekly, tal.org.in/category/thesaurus/yamuna-action- Hindu Biradri: The Arya Samaj’s Struggle for plan?page=5. Infl uence and Its Effect on Hindu-Muslim Re- Vol 41, No 40, pp 4292–95. 3 See, for example, reports by the People’s Union lations,” Gurus and Their Followers: Religious Sangameswaran, Priya (2006): “Equity in Water- for Democratic Rights and the Human Rights Reform Movements in Colonial India, Antony shed Development: A Case Study in Maharash- Law Network, both published in 2004, avail- Copley (ed), New Delhi: Oxford University tra,” Economic & Political Weekly, Vol 41, No 21, able online. Ruzbeh Bharucha (2006) released Press. pp 2157–65. a documentary and a book on the topic. Foucault, Michel (1994): Power: Essential Works of Shah, Tushaar (2000): “Mobilising Social Energy 4 See http://projects.artofl iving.org/partner-with- Foucault 1954–84, Vol 3, J Faubion (ed), New against Environmental Challenge: Understand- us/and http://projects.artofl iving.org/partner- York: The New Press. ing the Groundwater Recharge Movement in with-us/#existing-partner. Capgemini’s part- Giri, Ananta Kumar (2008): Self-development and Western India,” Natural Resources Forum, nerships with AOL are detailed in http://ssrvm. Social Transformations: The Vision and Practice Vol 24, No 3, pp 197–209. org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Capgemini- of the Self-study Mobilisation of Swadhyaya, Sharma, Seema (2011): “Corporate Social Respon- SSRVM-Project-Akshara.pdf. New Delhi: Rawat Publications. sibility in India,” Indian Journal of Industrial 5 The Youth Leadership Training Programme Gupta, Charu (1998): “Articulating Masculinity Relations, Vol 46, No 4, pp 637–49. (YLTP) is an Art of Living course designed for and Femininity: ‘Shuddhi’ and ‘Sangathan’ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (2016): “Yamuna and the rural youth, which claims to train them to Movements in the United Provinces in the World Culture Festival,” 6 March, https:// become agents of change in their own localities 1920s,” Economic & Political Weekly, Vol 33, www.srisriravishankar.org/yamuna-and-the- or regions. No 13, pp 727–35. world-culture-festival/. Harriss, John (2007): “Antinomies of Empower- Sheth, N R (2000): “Common Property as God’s References ment: Observations on Civil Society, Politics Resource,” paper presented at the Eighth Bien- and Urban Governance in India,” Paper pre- nial Conference of the International Associa- AOL (2010): “Meri Dilli Meri Yamuna: A Massive sented in the CSAS Conference on Local Gov- tion for the Study of Common Property on Con- River Cleaning Drive,” Art of Living, https:// ernance and Empowerment, Berkeley. stituting the Commons: Crafting Sustainable www.artofl iving.org/in-en/meri-dilli-meri- HAL (2014): “Sustainability Report 2012–13,” Hin- Commons in the New Millennium, Indiana, yamuna. dustan Aeronautics Limited, http://webcache. 31 May–4 June. Assadi, Muzaffar (1995): “Karnataka’s New Agri- googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Ss Srinivas, Smriti (2008): In the Presence of Sai Baba: cultural Policy: Making Way for Corporate JWrurvfdcJ:hal-india.com/Common/Uploads Body, City and Memory in a Global Religious Landlordism,” Economic & Political Weekly, /ContentTemplate/6_Down_Sustainability_ Movement, Hyderabad: Orient Longman. Vol 30, No 52, pp 3340–42. june2014.pd. Vivekananda, Swami (1989): “The Future of India,” — (1996): “Tribals on Warpath: Confronting Eco- IAHV (2014): “Proposal Kumudvathi River Rejuve- The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, terrorism,” Economic & Political Weekly, Vol 31, nation Project,” International Association for Vol 3, pp 243–47, Calcutta: Advaita Ashram. No 40, pp 2711–24. Human Values, Bangalore. Warrier, Maya (2005): Hindu Selves in a Modern Balchin, Cassandra (2007): “The F-Word and the Isha Foundation (2017): “Revitalisation of Rivers in World: Guru Faith in Mata Amritanandamayi S-Word: Too Much of One and Not Enough of India: Draft Policy Recommendation,” https:// Mission, London: Routledge. the Other,” Development in Practice¸ Vol 17, isha.sadhguru.org/rally-for-rivers/draft-policy/. Nos 4–5, pp 532–38. JICA (nd): https://www.jica.go.jp/india/english/ Basu, Amrita (2015): “The Long March from Ayodhya: activities/ activity13.html. Democracy and Violence in India,” Pluralism and Democracy in India: Debating the Hindu Jodhka, Surinder and Pradyumna Bora (2009): Right, Wendy Doniger and Martha Nussbaum “Mapping Faith-based Development Activities (eds), New York: Oxford University Press. in Contemporary Maharashtra, India,” work- available at Beckerlegge, Gwilym (2000): The Ramakrishna ing Paper, Religion and Development Research Mission: Making of a Modern Hindu Movement, Programme, https://www.research gate.net/ New Delhi: Oxford University Press. publication/266064477_Mapping_Faith-based People’s Book House — (2003): “Saffron and Seva: The Rashtriya _Development_Activities_in_Contemporary_ Mehar House, 15 Cawasji Patel Road Swayam Sevak Sangh’s Appropriation of Swa- Maharashtra_India. Fort, Mumbai 400 001 mi Vivekananda,” Hinduism and Public and Pri- Jones, Kenneth W (1968): “Communalism in the vate, Anthony Copley (ed), New Delhi: Oxford Punjab: The Arya Samaj Contribution,” Journal Ph: 022-22873768 University Press. of Asian Studies, Vol 28, No 1, pp 39–54.

Economic & Political Weekly EPW AUGUST 10, 2019 vol lIV no 32 59