popularly known as Anna Hazare (born 15 January 1940), is an Indian
social activist who is especially recognized for his contribution to
the development of Ralegan Siddhi, a village in Ahmednagar district,
Maharashtra, India and his efforts for establishing it as a model
village, for which he was awarded the Padma Bhushan by Government of
India, in 1992. On April 5, 2011, he has started a fast unto death to
exert pressure on the union government to enact Lokpal Bill a law on
Lokpal (ombudsman) that deals with corruption in public offices.
Vivekananda's thoughts gave meaning to his life and he decided to
devote the rest of his life working for the society. He read many more
books by Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi and Acharya Vinoba Bhave. His
thoughts started developing and in 1970 he firmly told his parents
about his decision not to get married. He urged his parents to go
ahead and arrange the marriage of his younger brothers. The new found
desire to live beyond his narrow self interest later drove him to seek
voluntary retirement from the Army and come back to serve his own
village.
Anna Hazare was born on 15th January 1940 in a small village, Bhingar,
near Ahmednagar. Anna's father Shri Baburao Hazare worked as an
unskilled labourer in Ayurveda Ashram Pharmacy. Anna's grandfather was
in the army and was posted at Bhingar when Anna was born. He died in
1945 but Anna's father continued to stay at Bhingar. In 1952 Anna's
father resigned from his job and returned to his own village i.e.
Ralegan Siddhi. At that time Anna had completed his education upto 4th
standard and had six younger siblings. It was with great difficulty
that Anna's father could make two ends meet. Anna's aunt (father's
sister) took Anna to Bombay. She was childless and she offered to look
after him and his education.
Anna studied upto the 7th standard in Bombay. He took up a job after
the 7th standard in consideration of the economic situation back home.
Anna's father at Ralegan had to work as a daily wage labourer and
found it difficult to sustain his family. He was slipping deeper and
deeper into debt. He had to sell off one part of his land and mortgage
the other. Anna started selling flowers at Dadar (Bombay) in order to
make his living. But Anna's working at somebody's shop for Rs. 40 a
month was not enough. After gaining some experience, he started his
own shop and even brought two of his brothers to Bombay. Gradually
Anna's income went up to Rs. 700 to Rs. 800 per month.
In a couple of years Anna fell into bad company and started wasting
his time and money on vices. He also started getting involved in
brawls and fights, especially when he found some simple person being
harassed by goondas. He became irregular in sending money to his
family. The word went around in Ralegan that he had become a bad
character himself. In one such fight, Anna bashed up a person rather
badly. Fearing arrest, he avoided coming to his regular work and
residence for some time. During this period (in April 1960) he
appeared in Army recruitment interviews and was selected to join the
Indian Army.
For his initial training he was sent to Aurangabad. After training he
was posted in Punjab as a truck driver. Being far away from home and
separated from all his friends, Anna felt lonely. He also had bouts of
depression and the feeling of aimlessness in life. He had once
resolved to end his life and even wrote a suicide note. On second
thought, he however realised that his suicide may affect the marriage
prospects of his younger sister. Therefore, he decided to postpone
implementation of his resolution till his sister got married.
In the meantime, some events gave a new direction to his life. During
the Indo-Pak war of 1965, he was driving a military vehicle somewhere
on the western front when he saw a Pakistani plane flying low
overhead. He and his colleagues jumped out and took shelter in the
nearby bushes, Iying flat on the ground. The truck was blown off, all
his colleagues were killed but Anna miraculously escaped unhurt.
Once again he had a miraculous escape when he was posted in Nagaland.
One night, underground Nagas attacked the military post and killed all
the inmates. By providence Anna had gone out to answer nature's call
at that time and hence he was the lone survivor. These two events had
a deep impact on Anna's mind. He realised that his life was not to be
wasted. God had considered his life to be precious, otherwise he could
have been killed along with his colleagues.
When these thoughts were churning in his mind, he came across a small
booklet titled "Call to the youth for nation building" by Swami
Vivekananda in a book-stall at the New Delhi station.
Vivekananda's thoughts gave meaning to his life and he decided to
devote the rest of his life working for the society. He read many more
books by Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi and Acharya Vinoba Bhave. His
thoughts started developing and in 1970 he firmly told his parents
about his decision not to get married. He urged his parents to go
ahead and arrange the marriage of his younger brothers. The new found
desire to live beyond his narrow self interest later drove him to seek
voluntary retirement from the Army and come back to serve his own
village.
He wanted his native village Ralegan Siddhi to improve, but did not
know how and where to start. He used to come to his village on
vacation and spend endless days sitting on the rocks at the outskirts
of the village. Having spent most of his life in Bombay and in the
Army, he did not have many friends in the village. Moreover the people
of Ralegan who had known him as an angry young man from the days when
he used to sell flowers outside Dadar station, were unaware of the
transformation that had taken place in the personality of Anna Hazare.
In 1971 Anna was transferred to Bombay. From Bombay he started
visiting the village regularly. From 1971 to 1974 his interaction with
the village people increased. He also spent about Rs. 3000 for giving
a face-lift to the Padmavati temple with a coat of oil paint. He also
developed good relations with the village youth.
In 1974 he was transferred to Jammu. In 1975 he completed 15 years of
service in Army, a statutory requirement for being entitled to a
pension. He sought retirement and finally in August 1975, he got
relieved from the Army and came back to Ralegan Siddhi for good.
From then on Anna began living a life of a sort of renunciate,
devoting himself to working in his own village. His work in Ralegan
Siddhi has been described in other chapters of this book. He started
staying in the Yadav Baba temple and eating with the hostel boys. On
19th November 1986 he received Indira Priyadarshini Vrikshamitra award
from the hands of Prime Minister Mr. Rajiv Gandhi. On 15th January
1987, he was felicitated by Ahmednagar Municipal Corporation and later
on, also by the Pune Municipal Corporation. In 1989 the Maharashtra
Government honoured him with Krishi Bhushana award and in 1990 he was
honoured by the nation with the award of Padmashree.
Anna has been a deeply religious person. His philosophy is a mix of
Hindu spiritualism and thoughts of modern Hindu thinkers like
Vivekananda, Gandhi and Vinoba. Some sayings which he often quotes in
his lectures are listed below. These quotations give an idea of Anna's
mode of thought, which has made a direct impact on the development in
Ralegan Siddhi.
Over every huge tree that we see overground, there always is a seed
that had submerged itself into the darkness of the soil.
Ban on consumption and sale of alcohol lays the foundation of rural
development.
It is impossible to change the village without transforming the
individual. Similarly it is impossible to transform the country
without changing its villages.
If villages are to develop, politics have to be kept out.
Education without spirituality cannot help development.
Money alone does not bring development, but it certainly corrupts.
In the process of rural development, social and economic development
should go hand in hand.
The work of social transformation is neither easy nor impossible.
The ultimate goal of all politics and social work should be the
upliftment of society and of the nation.
Books alone cannot prepare future citizens, it requires cultural
inputs to do so.
Educational institutions are not enough to make good citizens, every
home should become an educational centre.
Indulgence causes disease whereas sacrifice leads to accomplishment.
One should not accept anything free; accepting charity makes one lazy
and dependent.
When the person learns to see beyond his self-interest, he begins to
get mental peace.
One who performs all worldly functions and still remains detac from
worldly things is a true saint.
Salvation of the self is a part of salvation of the people.
It is experience that gives the direction but it is youth that gives
the drive to every plan.
Anna utilised individual centred Gandhian methods for bringing about
moral pressure on the people. When the high school was started in
Ralegan Siddhi, and the state government was not ready to sanction
grant to the school, Anna quietly started his fast outside the Zilla
Parishad's office. When the village people came to know of it they
also joined him in hundreds. The state government had to yield to
their demand. In another instance, when a couple of families continued
to leave their cattle free for grazing in spite of explaining to them
the importance of stopping open grazing and of taking up massive tree
plantation programme, Anna and some youth members went on fast for two
days to make the people understand the seriousness of the ban on open
grazing.
Today Anna has almost acquired the stature of a saint. He donated his
land for the hostel building. He gives his pension money to the
village fund. A confirmed bachelor, he lives in the village temple
with a bare minimum of personal belongings. He eats simple food
normally cooked for the hostel boys. Both his parents and brothers
stay in the village but they are no different to him than any other
family in the village. This moral authority growing out of his
selfless life has made him an unquestioned leader of the village.
Anna's moral code of conduct is also quite strict. Anna believes that
punishment is an essential component of the process to bring about
conformity to social morality. When a child stole a fruit from a tree
on the common lands, he was tied to a pole and the fruits were kept
before him to teach him a moral lesson. The fruit bearing trees are
not protected by any watchman. Not a single fruit is stolen and ripe
fruits are distributed to balwadi children and the school children.
Public beating was used not to create terror but to bring public shame
on the defaulter so that he/she exercises more self-control. People
are proud of Ralegan's achievements and they have a share and a stake
in its glory. Therefore they would not do anything which will hurt
Anna or bring a bad name to the village.
source :http://www.worldproutassembly.org/archives/2006/06/anna_hazare_the.html
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Hazare
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