Kadmanivasi. My Blog. Geeta Ramani

With civil activism at its height, how could I not devote a few moments to it? In India, we have been generally respectful of authority and this has its pluses and minuses. Activism has not been a transforming element of the social fabric, as it has been in many other parts of the world. We have looked upon dharnas, bandhs, chakka jams, rail rokos as forms of protests and more often than not, it is always ‘their’ battle, the doctors, government employees, the truckers or the Jats, who from time to time have had their grievances addressed in such fashion.  Our activism has never been channelized, as in campus reforms in Japan or opposition to the Vietnam war in America. Reforms in Education and Health, badly needed in India, have not yet been taken up by activists and voices are never raised for changes in curriculum, working conditions for teachers, youth issues and of course, affordable health care for all. We even don’t protest against unsuitable and imported changes in wor...