My involvement with a series of social projects in the Bodhgaya area of Bihar, India's most backward and impoverished state, is no secret. For nearly a decade and a half now, my friend Kailash Prasad has been running an extremely successful educational network in a 30-odd Dalit community villages in the district. Kailash having run short of funds and thus finding trouble to sustain this network, in February 2003 Jerry Meuris and a group of my co-travellers have set up a charity fund called Anand (see the website http://users.pandora.be/anand) , primarily in order to collect the necessary fees and salaries for Jeevan Deep's teachers, but with the secundary aim of securing a cash flow enabling further development of the untouchable's basic health care.
Early November 2004, Jerry accompanied me all the way to Bodhgaya for my yearly visit to the Jeevan Deep projects. For about ten consecutive days we stayed at the Burmese Vihar, from where we bicycled every day to two or three villages for a school visit and a medical care tour. Once more we witnessed what a marvellous job Kailash, Janardan, Kuleshvar and the whole team are doing on the field. Maybe it all remains but a drop of water on a hot plate, but be sure that every single Anand Euro is spent in the best way, and we want to take this opportunity to send to all the Anand donators our warmest feelings of gratitude, in the name of the 800 children and the 13 staff of the Jeevan Deep/Anand (Light of Life/Enjoyment) schools in the Bodhgaya District.
Two sides of a story (Headlines from 2004)
On January 22nd 2004, the Anand Workgroup, coordinated by Luc De Leeuw, Jef Deforche and Jerry Meuris, invited some 200 sponsors, friends, and acquaintances for what promises to become the yearly Anand Fund Raising Event. The sponsored location for the event was the Antwerp headquarters of Dexia Bank, the exquisite Osterrieth Huis. The program announced an extended reception, followed by a brief speech on the whats and what nots of the Anand and Jeevan Deep projects, to be concluded by my own abbreviated storytelling version of the ancient Indian epic Ramayana (The Glorious Deeds of Prince Ram) by the legendary author Valmiki. - For a review and pictures, click http://www.flaleman.atnaharnet.com/photo5.html.
Merely 40 hours after the Anand Project Group's fundraising event, on January 24th 2004 in Gaya, Bihar State, Sarita and Mahesh Kant, two social workers of the Dalit Community, colleagues of Kailash Prasad's, who for many years had worked as land rights activists in the spirit of Bhimrao Ambedkar and Vinoba Bhave, were brutally killed in what obviously was a politically inspired ambush. For a complete report, drawn by the Asian Human Rights Commission, see the 2004/03/17 entry on the "News" page of this website (http://www.flaleman.atnaharnet.com/whats_new.html). The incident amply illustrates the suggestion that the continuing growth of the ultra-fundamentalist BJP regime is bringing India on the verge of a return to an almost mediaeval, feudal and caste-based society, in which the Sikh community is hardly tolerated, the so-called "untouchables" are sent back to a standard of unconditional slavery, the tribal commuties are enclosed within the borders of "reserves" and/or "restricted areas", the Muslims and Christians are given the choice between reconversion into the Hindu fold or leaving the country once and for all, and the Parsis and Jews are extradited without further ado.
All the more pregnant of meaning becomes the central message of Khushwant Singh's latest book "The End of India" (Penguin Books, New Delhi 2003). I quote Mr Singh's editor: Analysing the communal violence in Gujarat in 2002, the burning of Graham Staines and his children, the anti-Sikh riots of 1984, and targeted killings by Hindu extremists and terrorists in different parts of the country, Khushwant Singh forces us to confront the extreme corruption of religion that has made us [Indians] among the most brutal people on earth. We [Indians] have always been too easily tolerant of extremist ideologies, but the rise of religious fundamentalism among the Hindus threatens our democracy and everything else that we take for granted. With sections of the ruling coalition openly supporting the divisive and retrograde agenda of the fundamentalists, it is the very idea of India that is at stake. 'Unless a miracle saves us,' Khushwant Singh writes, 'the country will break up. It will not be Pakistan or any other foreign power that will destroy us; we will commit hara-kiri.'
But nevertheless..., meaningful projects remain to flourish on the scarred face of Bharat Mata, Mother India. And wouldn't you agree that these deserve our continued support?
Latest News
This year (2007), I have visited the Anand/Jeevan Deep projects during the June/July monsoon season. The members of the Anand committee will be briefed as per a meeting at Bayt al-Andalus (Antwerp). Anyone feeling enticed to join us? Please send me a mail.
