Of Garbage, Modernity and the Citizen's Gaze

Author(s): Dipesh Chakrabarty

Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 27, No. 10/11 (Mar. 7-14, 1992), pp. 541-547
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly
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O f Garbage, Modernity and th e Citizen's Gaze
Dipesh Ch akrabarty
Inth e language of modernityand civic consciousness th e Indianindif f erence to notions of 'private' and 'public'
in th eir use of open space contrasted with th e immaculate 'order' of th e Europeanquarters. Th is paper aims lo
contest and critique modernist readings of th e use of open spaces in India byopposing to th ese readings certain
structu al speculations basedon a preliminaryexamninationof somiie relevanth istorical anidanth ropological material.
UNTIL Rush die and h is f ollowers arrived
on th e scene and made th e intellectual f er-
mentof modernIndia more visible to th e
outsider, India remained, in th e dominant
grids of westernperceptions, a place of 'h eat
and dust' wh ere th e Europeans h ad once
f oundeda resplendentraj. To'h eatanddust'
was of ten added anoth er f amiliar list: of
crowds, dirtandaos,ases. Continuous with
all th is was a conception of an 'Indian'
nature th ath igh ligh tedth e Indian's capacity
to remain 'blind' to th e unwh olesome
appects of th eir publicplaces. A veryrecent
example of th is perennial th eme indiscus-
sions of wh at Indians migh t do in pt'lic,
is th e wayVS Naipaul begins h is India: A
Million Mutinies Now. True, th is book
represents Naipaul's second th ough ts on
India and does capture some of th e
movements th at India causes inth e souls of
h er people. Neverth eless, Naipaul's
travelogue begins by of f ering th e reader a
path th at h as beenbeateninto f amiliarity
nowf or at least a centuryand a h alf :
Bomabayis a crowd. ... Traf f ic into th e city
movedslowlybecause of th e crowd.... With
me, inth e taxi, were f umes andh eatanddin.
. . Th e sh ops, evenwh ensmall, evenwh en
dingy, h adbig, brigh tsignboards... O f ten,
in f rontof th ese sh ops, and belowth ose
signboards, was justdirt; f rom time totime
depressed-looking, dark people couldbe seen
sitting downon.th is dirtandeating, indif -
f erenttoeveryth ing butth eir f ood.'
It wouldbe unf air, h owever, to th ink of
th is perceptionas simply'western. Wh atit
speaks is th e language of modernity, of civic
consciousness andpublich ealth , of evencer-
tainideas of beautyrelatedto th e manage-
mentof publicspace andinterests, anorder
of aesth etics f rom wh ich th e ideals of public
h ealth andh ygiene cannotbe separated.2 It
is th e language of modern governments,
both colonial andpost-colonial, andf or th at
reasonit is th e language not only of im-
perialist of f icials but of modernist'na-
tionalist as well. Lord Wellesley's street
policy f or Calcutta minuted in 1803 em-
bodies th is connectionbetweenorder, public
h ealth and a particular aesth etics of th e
citvscape- He wrote:
Inth ose quarters of th e townoccupiedprin-
cipallybyth e native inh abitants, th e h ouses
h ave beenbuiltwith outorder or regularity,
andth e streets andlanes h ave beenf ormed
with outattentiontoth e h ealth , convenience
or saf ety of th e inh abitants. ... Th e ap-
pearance andbeautyof th e townare in-
separablyconnectedwith th e h ealth , saf ety
andconvenience of th e inh abitants, andevery
improvement ... will tendto ameliorate th e
climate andto promote andsecure ... a just
and salutary system of police.3
Th ese sentiments were ech oed in
Europeanwritings onIndia th rough outth e
19th century. MA Sh erring's 1868 descrip-
tion of Banaras in terms of its 'f oul wells
andtanks' with th eir 'deadly' water breeding
ch olera andf ever, th e 'loath some anddis-
gusting state' of its temples wh ere of f erings
decomposedrapidlyf rom 'th e intense h eat
of th e
sun', th e 'stagnant cesspools, ac-
cumulated ref use and dead bodies of
animals' crowding its 'narrowstreets', can
nowbe readnot simplyas realistprose but
also as evidence of a particular way of
seeing.4
Wh ile th is wayof seeing is no longer ex-
clusivelyEuropean, its mainbearers in 19th
centuryIndia were nodoubtth e Europeans
-th emselves wh ose modernistcategories of
'public' and 'private' were constantly
ch allengedby th e ways Indians usedopen
space. Th e streetpresented, as itwere, a total
conf usionof th e 'private' and th e 'public'
inth e manydif f erentuses to wh ich it was
put. People wash ed, ch anged, sleptandeven
urinatedanddef ecatedout inth e open. As
a traveller toIndia putitinth e 19th century:
As toanydelicacyabouttaking h is siesta,
or indeeddoing anyth ing inpublic, noth ing
is f arth er f rom th e Hindoomind, andit is
a perpetual source of wonder andamuse-
mentto see th e unembarrassedease with
wh ich employments of a personal nature are
carriedon inth e mostcrowdedstreets.5
Th e scene of th e bazaar addedyetanoth er
side to th is perceptionof th e 'Indian'
ch aracter: everpresentdirt and disorder.
'Filth ydrains' 'disgusting' sellers ('corpulent
toth e lastdegree'), crowdedandnoisylanes,
people, birds, 'goats, dogs and f owls', all
workedtogeth er to produce th e ef f ect of a
nigh tmare: 'th e wh ole seems at f irst more
like some strange ph antasmagoria, th e
imageryof a h ideous magic lanternor a
bewildereddream, th anlike a sober, waking
reality'.6 Toth is Indian'ch aos' was oppos-
edth e immaculate 'order' of th e European
quarters wh ere 'pleasant squares', 'wh ite
buildings with th eir pillaredverandas' and
'gracef ul f oliage' lent, to Europeaneyes, a
'f airy-like loveliness' to 'th e wh ole scene'.7
If th ese pictures seem taintedby orien-
talism, let us remember th at th eyare byno
means outdated. We onlyneedto recall th e
time wh enNaipaul still wrote-out of h is
own (h istoric) wounds, h e explains in th e
latest,book-in a tone th at made manysee
h im as a brown English man:
Indians def ecate everywh ere. Th eydef ecate,
mostly beside th e railwaytracks. But th ey
also def ecate on th e h ills; th ey def ecate on
th e river banks; th eydef ecate on th e streets;
th ey never look f or cover. Indians def ecate
everywh ere.8
Th ese accusations h ave h urt nationalists
no less th an th e sigh ts th emselves. Gandh i
h imself once commented acidly on th e
'national ch aracter' th at expressed itself on
Indianstreets. 'Everybody is self ish : h e said,
'... but we seem to b.e more self ish th an
oth ers. . .':
We do not h esitate toth rowref use out of our
courtyardon to th e street; standing on th e
balcony, we th rowout ref use or spit, with out
pausing to consider wh eth er we are not in-
conveniencing th e passer-by. . . Incities, we
keep th e tap open, andth inking th at it is not
our water th at f lows away, we allow it to run
waste... Wh ere so much self ish niess exists,
h ow can one expect self -sacrif ice?9
Nirad Ch audh uri's autobiograph y presents
th e problem, in sarcasm mixed with irony,
as a cultural puzzle. Insh arp contrast to th e
'extremely tidy' interiors of Bengali
h ouseh olds 'th e mistress or mistresses never
permitted th e sligh test displacement of any
object f rom its place'-remained th eir h abit
of rubbish ing th e outside. Somewh at
oblivious of th e classist and sexist biases of
h is statement, Ch audh uri describes th is
ph enomenon as 'th e most complete [case of ]
non-cooperation between th e domestic ser-
vants and th e municipal sweepers':
Th e streets were regularlywatered, sweptand
evenscrubbed. But wh ile th e street-cleaning
ended by about six
o'clock
in th e morning
andth ree inth e af ternoon, th e kitch en-maids
would begin to deposit th e of f -scouring ex-
actly at quarter past six and quarter past
th ree. Noth ing seemed capable of making
eith er partymodif y its h ours. 'Solittle piles
of waste f ood, ash es, and vegetable scraps
andpeelings lay inindividualisticautonomy
near th e kerb f rom one sweeping time to
anoth er... . ?
Both Gandh i's -and Ch audh uri's are no-
tionalist comments deploring -th e absence of
a citizen-culture on th e part of th e people.
Th ey are also at th e same time attempts,
(employing very dif f e'ent rh etorical devices)
to inculcate in th eir h ypoth etical Indian
reader a sense of civic lif e and 'public isa-
terest' Yet Indian h istory, as we all know,
bears a constant testimony to a gap th at per-
sists well into th e present day between th e
modernist desires inh erent in imperialist/
nationalist projects of social ref orm-and
I sh all later argue th e complicity of sociaL
Economicand Political Weekly March 7-14, 1992
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sciences as well inth is-and popular prac-
tices. Th e complaintabout popular 'blind-
ness' inIndia towards 'dirtanddiseases' h as
not lost anyof its f orce (th ough it does not
anylonger circulate much as a slander on
some eternally condem-ned 'Indian'
ch aracter). Nita Kumar's sensitive eth no-
sociologyof th e artisans of Banaras reports
th is 'blindness':
Th ese same galis [lanes] are notorious among
visitors f or being dark, narrow, tortuous,
f ilth yandevendangerous... . None of th e
Banarasis th emselves ever describedth eir
galis as any of th ese th ings... . Queries
aboutth eir rath er "unsanitaryconditions"
couldelicitnoresponse because th ese ideas
seeminglyf ell outside Banarasis' conceptions
of th eir city... Most ignore th e matter
altogeth er, as th eydomostgovernment of -
f icers... Menof tentoldme th atone aspect
of th e overall f riendliness andconvenience
of th e city was th at th ey could urinate
wh erever th eyliked. Th is, I realisedaf ter
month s of unwilling observation, was notan
exaggeration.
Wh ile Kumar is caref ul enough todistance
h er prose f rom th atof th e public-h ealth in-
spector byputting quotationmarks around
'unsanitary conditions' and wh ile sh e
reports, with good h umour andperception,
a mismatch between, say, th e modernistview
of th e cityandth e urbanism of th e Banarasi,
h er descriptionof th e galis, of th e suppos-
edincapacityof th e Banarasitorespondto
questions of sanitationand h ealth , invests
th e modernist complaint (about popular
'blindness' toth ese questions) with a certain
degree of objectivity. Th is is preciselyth e ob-
jectivityof th e outsider, wh ich is th e only
positionf rom wh ich a modernist-it mat-
ters little f or our argumentwh eth er th e par-
ticular speaker is of wh ite or brownskin-
can speak on th is subject. As Th ompson
says of th e passage f rom Naipaul quoted
earlier: 'O nlyth e outsider can see th at all
of India is th e Indian's latrine. It is all too
easyas anoutsider tospotth e Indians' con-
spiracyof blindness'.12 I sh all returnlater to
th is questionof th e relationsh ip h ere bei-
Weenmodrnism andeth nosociology.
j ,j
jV4.P,- . .h .,s Viper is to contest and
critique tty.: nsoejaulst readings of uses of
p*t ipSgipW
India, byopposing to th ese
readings certainstructuralistspeculations
based, ona preliminary, andbynomeans ex-
h austive, study of some of th e relevant
h istorical andanth ropological material. I am
aware of th e limitations of structuralist
meth ods andalso of th ose th at arise f rom
th e somewh atah istorical ch aracter of my
argument. Th is paper is inth e nature of a
beginning with all th e tentativeness th at
beginnings entail. A deeper andmore con-
vincing analysis would no doubt needto
locate th e argumentina more h istorically
groundedcontext.
I sh ouldalsoclarif yth ata major aim of
th is exercise is meth odo-ph ilosoph ical. Itis
to.sh ow, th rough a critical reading of some
aspects of Kumar's oth erwise excellent
eth nosociology, th atwh enit comes toques-
tions relating to 'h ealth : th atis tolif e rath er
th andeath , th e pre-modernis af ways already
condemnedin our social science, h owever
sympath eticth e stance of our eth nograph y.
As social scientists, we alignourselves with
th ose wh o'wanttobuildcitizen-cultures. Th e
moral corrsequences of wanting todooth er-
wise, as . some of Kumar's most h onest
remarks betray, can be excruciatingly
painf ul.
II
Since I h ave allowedmyself th e speculative
f reedoms of a structuralist, I sh all beginby
taking a leaf out of Mary Douglas'
celebratedbook on 'dirt' andstartwith th e
propositionth atth e problem of 'dirt' poses
in turnth e problem of th e 'outside'." For
wh eth er we are talking about radioactive
waste f rom th e industrialisedcountries or
of th e 'waste' of a h ouseh oldor village in
India, th e 'dirt' canonlygo toa place th at
is designatedas th e 'outside'. It is th is pro-
blem of th e 'outside' th at I wanttoexplore
inth is sectionof th e paper. Letus beginwith
th e problem of h ouseh oldrubbish .
Th e dirtth atgoes outof th e h ouse marks
a boundarybetweenth e inside andth e out-
side. Th is boundary does not simply
delineate a h ygienicspace wh ere cleanliness
is practised. Housekeeping is alsomeantto
express th e auspicious qualities of th e
mistress of th e h ouseh old, h er Laksh mi-like
nature th at protects th e lineage intowh ich
sh e h as married.'4 As 'outsiders' wh oh ave
to be received into th e bosom of th e
patrilineal and patriarch al f amily, women
are particularlysubject to th e rituals of
auspiciousness. For, th e outside, inth is con-
ception, always carries 'substances' th at
th reatenone's well-beipg. Th e 'negative
qualities andsubstances th atmayaf f lictper-
sons, f amilies, h ouses andvillages: as Gloria
Goodwin Rah eja h as recentlynoted, are
seldom 'one's own': th eyach ieve th eir 'entry'
th rough lapses in th e perf ormance of
auspicious actions. "All f orms of in-
auspiciousness are saidto originate inen-
tities andevents th atare 'dif f erent' and'dis-
tant' f rom th e personor oth er af f licteden-
tity" writes Rah eja, "th ey are alien". '5
Auspicious acts protectth e h abitat, th e in-
side, f rom undue exposure to th e male-
volence of th e outside. Th eyare th e cultural
perf ormance th rough wh ich th is everyday
'inside' is both producedandenclosed. Th e
ev'eryday practice of classif ying certainth ings
as h ouseh oldrubbish marks th e boundary
of th is enclosure.
NiradCh audh uri's cultural puzzle th us
contains th emes th at, I suggest, are quite
pervasive in Indian popular culture. Th e
f igure of th e outsider as th e troublemaker
was stronglyconveyedby th e Santal term
'diku' soprominentlyusedinth eir rebellion
of 1855.16 Inth e Munda country, jealousy,
wh ich is seen as corrosive of communal
bonds, is attributedto misch ievous out-
siders.'7 Hatredof people conceivedof as
'outsiders' is a universal f eature of so-called
eth nic conf licts in India and elsewh ere.'8
Correspondinglygeneral is th e practice of
enclosing a place as a gesture of protection.
Th e more enduring boundaries-such as th e
wall of a f ort-city or a"'moh alla' of course
also signif y ownersh ip and auth ority but
th at is not a point we pursue h ere.'9 Th e
general connection, h owever, between th e
moh alla and th e insider/outsider divisions
of identity is widely ac'cepted in th e
literature."'
O ur pre-modernways of h andling diseases
are replete with th ese th emes of th e enclos-
ed inside and th e exposed outside. I only give
a f ew examples to make th e point.
Wh iteh ead's well-known study of th e village
gods of south India makes several connec-
tions between 'boundaries' and th eir 'pro-
tective power'. Th e boundary-stone of th e
village lands is very commonly regarded as
a h abitation of a local deity, and migh t be
called a sh rine or symbol with equal pioprie-
ty', writes Wh iteh ead.21 Th e propitiation of
th e ch olera goddess at Iralangur
(Trich inopoly district) or of Peddamma, an
epidemic goddess of th e Telugu country, in-
volved, in both cases, symbolic enactments
of th e village boundary. Inth e f ormer case,
it was th e duty of a wash erman, at th e end
of th e propitiation ceremony, to place th e
of f erings (to th e deity) 'at th e point wh ere
h is village border[ed] on th e adjoining
village':
Th e deity is th us propitiated and carried
beyondth e village limits. Th e villagers of th e
adjacent village in th eir turn carry th e
karagain
[th e of f erings]
to th e border of th e
next village, and in th is way th e balef ul in-
f luence of th e goddess is transf erredtoa saf e
distance.
Th e worsh ip of Peddamma in th e Telugu
country also included activities th at ritual-
ly inscribed village boundaries.22
Catanach h as written recently of Punjab
villages wh ere, during th e plague scare of
1896-98, 'th e village site [was I
surrounded
with a circle of stakes, with demons' h eads
rough ly carved on top to serve as super-
natural guardians'.23 More contemporary
evidence comes f rom Ralph Nich olas's study
of th e smallpox goddess Sitala in south -
westernBengal wh ere worsh ip rituals include
th e taking out of processions th at circumam-
bulate th e village 'planting f lags wh ere path
cross th e village borders, or oth erwise boun-
ding th e village bef ore h er [Sitala's] pujaqis
begun'.24 Diane Coccari h as studied similar
processes in urban Banaras-th e Bir babas
wh o act as boundary gods of neigh bour-
h oods in th e city.
Th e deity is describedas "th e god" or "th e
protector of th e neigh bourh ood" . . Th ere
are h undreds of Bir... sh rines in th e city
... Like th e village deities, th e urbanBir con-
trol th e boundaries of th eir domaidis,
especially with regardto th e exit and entry
of th e intangible agents of illness, misf ortune
and disease.25
If th e h ouse, th us, is only an instance of
a th eme general to south Asia-an inside
produced bysymbolic enclosure f or th e pur-
pose of protection-wh at is th enth e. sym-
bolic meaning of th e outside wh ich canin-
542 Economic and Political Weekly March 7-14, 1992
This content downloaded from 128.135.12.127 on Sat, 8 Feb 2014 15:42:31 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
deedbe rubbish ed?
Toanswer th is questionI sh all take th e
bazaar as th e paradigmaticf orm of th is 'out-
side. Th e bazaar, th e street, and th e f air
('mela'), itseems tome, h ave f or long f ormed
a 'spatial complex' inIndia. Streets, f or good
or bad, all too of ten become 'bazaars' in
India, andmelas combine th e dif f erentpur-
poses of pilgrimage, recreation and
economicexch anges.26 1 take th e bazaar as
a space th atserves th e needs of transporta-
tionas well as th ose of entertainmentand
th e buying andtselling of goods andservices.
I am aware th at th ere h ave beendif f erent
kinds of bazaars inIndia, going byth eir dif -
f erentnames of 'h ats 'mandis' 'ganjes' etc,
andvarying in th eir f unctional specialisa-
tions27 I alsoignore th e interesting problem
of connections betweenth e bazaar andth e
structures andreL.z-ionsh ips of power inits
vicinity. Th e bazaai - ak of is obviously
an abstraction of certain structural
ch aracteristics th at, tomymind, def ine th e
experience of th e bazaar as a place., Every-
daylinguisticpractices involve andpermit
such anabstraction-in Bengalilanguage,
f or instance, th e word'bajar' (bazaar) is
of tenusedina metaph orical wayto repre-
sentan'outside' to'gh ar-sh angsh ar' (th e way
of th e h ouseh older, i e, domesticity); th us
prostitutes are called'bajarer meye' (women
of th e bazaar) as.opposed to th e implicit
conceptionof 'gh arer meye: h ousewives or
womenof th e h ouseh old. Th e bazaar, inth is
analysis, is th e name I give toth atunenclos-
ed, exposedandinterstitial 'outside' wh ich
acts as th e meeting point of several com-
munitwez. it sh ouldalsobe clear bynowth at
th e inside/outside division involves a
metaplh .rical use of space f or'th e purpose
of mak'ig boundaries, h owever, transient
th ese boundaries maybe. Actual spatial ar-
rangements mayembodyth is divisionbut
th e cultural practices productive of 'boun-
daries markers' cannot be reducedto th e
questionof h ow ph ysical space is usedin
particular circumstances.
Structurallyspeaking, inmyterms th en,
th e bazaar or th e 'outside' is a place wh ere
one comes across anddeals with strangers.
And if 'strangers', as we h ave argued, are
always suspectandpotentiallydangerous, it
is onlylogical th atth e th emes of f amiliarity/
unf amiliarityandtrust/mistrustsh ouldplay
th emselves out inmanydif f erentaspects of
th e bazaar. All 'economic' transactions
h ere-bargaining, lending and borrowing,
buying and selling-are marked. by th ese
th emes. Th e cultural material uncoveredin
Jennif er Alexander's study of th e bazaar
('pasar') inrural Java, will not surprise th ose
usedtoth e marketplaces of south Asia (f or
th e bazaar is obviouslyaninstitutionbelong-
ing toa much larger culture zone th anth e
sub-continent alone). Protestations of
h onesty, f or example, are a recursive f eature
of bargaining talk. Th e copperware seller in
Alexander's extendedrecording of a par-
ticular case of h aggling, rep,eats several
times:
I'm not lying
If you can4iscover a repair th ere's no rLced
to pay!
How could I lie to you and your daugh ter!
I'm not lying to you!
[seller's moth er says] Yes, sh e's not lying to
you. I swear it!
If I am lying to you, don't buyanoth er one.
I'dbe extremelyash amed if I was lying to
you, truly!28
Inth ese ta-ansactions, of tenconductedin
terms of weigh ts andmeasures th atare only
approximate, th e 'economic' cannot be
separatedf rom th e 'social' f or prices ref lect
th e concernwith trustand f amiliarity. As
O stor observes in h is study of a Bengali
bazaar: 'Regular customers do not needto
h aggle, butth ose wh oare mainlystrangers
or out-of -towners.
2
Inoth er matters, too,
th e social remains a prominentpartof th e
economic. In a group of rural markets in
Gujaratstudiedinth e late 1950s, th e owners
of h at(market)-lands, it was reported,
'generallylevied f ixed ch arges' once 'th e
traders... (became] accustomedtoth e place
andth e people'.30 Eventh e bonds of credit
f orged in th ese (predominantly 'tribal')
markets f ollowedth e lines of f amiliarityand
acquaintance:
[rh e cloth merch ants]
... maintainedclose
andintimate ties with th e inf luential sections
of tribal society [th eir customers and
debtors]. . . Th eymade ita pointtoattend
social occasions like marriage, death , illness,
etc, inth ese tribal h ouseh olds. Interesting-
ly, wh enth ese h ouseh olds purch asedcloth
f or wedding occasions f rom th eir sh ops,
th ese traders invariablygave th em (a tribal
wedding party) one meter cloth anda cash
amountof Rs 1.25. Th eysaidth atth is gif t
is f rom th eir side... Th is is a time-h onoured
practice among cloth merch ants in th e
h ats.3'
Th at 'f amiliarity' reduces 'risks' in
economic transactions, is obvious. Wh at I
want to h igh ligh t is th e way kinsh ip
categories are used in th e bazaar in th is
making-f amiliar of th e strange, inth is pro-
cess of taming, as it were, th e potentially
malevotent'outsider' 'Mostcommonlymen
of th e bazaar, are 'dada' and'bh ai' toeach
oth er', writes O stor. 'In th e bazaar bh ai
(literallybroth er,dada
=
older broth er] ex-'
presses a continuing relationsh ip andenjoins
a code of conduct'32 Alexander reports a
similar practice f rom h er pasar inJava: 'Kin-
sh ip terms are th e most commonmode of
address and usage is governed by age.
'Bakul'
[seller]
addresses most male adults
as 'pak' (lit f ath er) andf emales as 'bu' (lit
moth er), young womenas 'mbak' or 'yu' (lit
older sister) and young men as 'mas' or
'kang' (lit older
broth er)y.33
Not surprisingly, th en, th e bazaar (i e, th e
'outside'), unlike th e mbdernmarketplace,
is gearedto th e productionof social lif e.34
Unlike its moderncounterpart, it privileges
speech . Th e ph ysical organisationof sh ops
inih e bazaar, as Anth onyKing h as observ-
ed, encourages 'visual' and'verbal' enquiry
andh elps toconvertth e f ormer intoth e lat-
ter."' Th e centralityosf speech andlinguistic
competence to th e economictransactions of
-h e bazaar is also underlined in th e study
of Gujarat market. 'Th e cloth merch ants',
reports Punalekar, '..knew and spoke
f luently in tribal dialects', f or th ey f eared
th at with out th is skill th ey '[wouldj be inth e
dark about wh at th ey
[th e
tribals]
[werel
commenting among th emselves: about price,
quality or about myself [tf le merch ant]'.36
Th e street or th e bazaar th us serves th e
'multiple purposes' of 'recreation, social in-
teraction, transport and economic activi-
ty'." 7Many observers h ave noted th is. O stor
writes:
Drinking tea, ch ewing 'pan' (betel leaf ) and
smoking, th e men discuss everyth ing f rom
business, to th eatre and rituals...
Newspapers are readand exch anged, radio
news broadcasts are h eardand interpreted.38
Incontrast to th e ritually enclosed inside,
th en, th e outside, f or wh ich we h ave used
th e bazaar as a paradigm, h as a deeply am-
biguous ch aracter. It is -exposed and
th eref ore malevolent. It is not subject to a
single set of (enclosing) rules and. ritual
def ining a community. It is wh ere mis-
cegenation occurs. All th at do not belong
to th e 'inside' (f amily/kinsh ip/community)
lie th ere, ch eek by jowl, in unassorted col-
lection, violating rules of mixing: f rom
f aeces to prostitutes. It is, in oth er words,
a place against wh ich one needs protection.
Some of th ese devices f or protection are
bodily and personal, ranging Trom th e mark
of 'kaajal' (collyrium) th at little ch ildrenare
given to protect th em f rom th e evil eye to
'subh naam' (auspicious name) th at all up-
per caste Hindus use in dealing with 'out-
siders' and f ormal situations. O f ten, th e
community-f orming rituals of enclosure are
th emselves replicated in th e bazaar.
Sh opkeepers will use th eir own rituals f or
marking th e area of th e sh op as enclosed
space. Some of th ese strongly resemble
h ousekeeping activities: worsh ipping of a
deity (Ganesh rath er th an Laksh mi since
Ganesh is th e lord.wh o removes obstacles),
sweeping with a broomstick th e area of th e
stteet immediately adjacent to th e f ront of
th e sh op.39 Th e more peqmanent traders in
a particular bazaar could even develop a
sense of th eir own community and patronise
a single bazaar temple.0 Speech and f ace-
to-f ace interactions, as we h ave seen, h ave
to do with overcoming th e nlistrust of th e
outsider in a space wh ere transactions are
contingent on trust. Th e inside/outside
dich otomy, th eref ore, is a matter of constant
perf ormance in th e,xch anges of th e bazaar.
Th e duality of 4h is space is inescapable.
It h arbours qualities th at th reatenones well-
being. Strangers embody. th ese qualities. Yet
it provides a venue f or linkage across com-
mumities, with 'strangers. Speech and direct
interaction are productive of such soli-
darities. Th e bazaar or th e 'ch owk', as
Frietag h as noted, was of ten th e most
'public' of arenas-'publice in th e sense of
'publicity' in Indiancities and h as, f or th at
reason, h osted traditionally colourf ul
religious/political spectacles involving large
numbers.4F Th e connection between th e
EconomicandPolitical Weekly March 7-14, 1992
This content downloaded from 128.135.12.127 on Sat, 8 Feb 2014 15:42:31 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
ch owk, bazaar, andth e'spectacle of 'public'
events is alsodrawnbyKumar inh er study
of Banaras.42 Guh a h as recentlydrawnour
attentiontoth e importance of rumours, i e,
speech par excellence, in political mobilisa-
tion of peasants.43 Spaces like th e bazaar
are, as Guh a sh ows, central to th e dis-
seminationof rumours, wh ich goes some
waytowards explaining wh yriots or rebellion
of ten startin th e bazaar.
Ambiguityand risk are th us inh erentto
th e excitementof th e bazaar. Punalekar's
surveyof tribal markets inth e Surat-Valsad
area gives a striking example of th is. Here,
people wh ospecialise inproviding entertain-
mentatth e bazaar are of tenth e people wh o
are trustedth e least. 'Acrobats, rope walkers,
snake ch armers, singers andmimics owners
of perf orming monkeys andbears, gamblers
andoth ers wh operf ormedinth ese bazaars,
Punalekar notes, were of ten 'strangers' to
particular markets. Belonging toth e poorest
sections of th e bazaar populace, th ese enter-
tainmentworkers 'movedf rom one h at to
anoth er' with out 'a regular sch edule', th us
violating th e codes of f amiliarityandtrust
but also deriving f rom th is violationitself
th e mysterious attractions of th eir presence
as
'strangers'.
We see wh y 'roaming th e streets' of th e
neigh bourh oodis a pleasurable activityf or
most Indianmen. (I say'men' advisedlyf or
th e pleasure is gendef edevenwh enit is not
class-specif ic.YAs Kumar says of h er
Banarasirespondents:
Inth eir f ree time, th eylike to indulge in
'gh umna-ph irna': tostroll inth e galis, wander
inth e bazaars, h ang aroundth e gh ats, visit
temples, take inth e ambience, of th e even-
ing ligh ts, crowds, bustle, andactivity. But
if you ask th em wh atth eylike todobest in
th eir f ree time, it is, togo outside.45
O r, as Ch andavarkar says of th e textile
workers of Bombay:
Streetlif e impartedits momentum toleisure
and politics as well; ... Th us, street enter-
tainers or th e more 'organised' tamash a
players constituted th e working man's
th eatrr. Th e streetcorner of f ereda meeting
place...
.46
T,e bazaar or th e streetexpresses th rough
its ownth eatre th e juxtapositionof pleasure
andidanger th atconstitutes th e 'outside' or
th e open, unenclosedspace. Th e street is
wh ere one h as interesting, and sometimes
marvellous, encounters. Th eydonotalways
eventuate butth e place is pregnantwith th e
possibility. Andsuch pleasures are bynature
transgressive because'th eyare pleasures of
th e inh erentlyrisky'outside'.
IlI
Th is analysis is admittedlypartial andin-
complete. Toref ine it, I wouldneedto ac-
commodate with inmyargum ntth e subtle
andcritical distinctions th ath ave beenmade
indif f erentregions of India between, say,
th e roadandth vebazaar. I h ave alsoignored
dif f erences between dif f erent kinds of
bazaars or between dif f erent kinds of
path ways. Nor h ave I paidattentionto th e
verydistinctive constructions of communal
space th at th e caste system, with its varied
rules of purityandpollution, couldcreate.
Studying th e roles assignedinIndianvillages
tocastes associatedwith 'dirt' wouldbe of
particular-relevance inth is regard. Also, th e
kindof ch anges inth e experience of public
space th at British rule createdneedto be
takenintoaccount. Besides, as movements
such as 'temple entry' or 'breastcloth ' agita-
tions insouth India inth e late 19th andearly
20th centuries wouldsuggest, th e decline of
private landlord-control over roads must
h ave brough t to many a new sense of
f reedom. Ina f ascinating analysis of Muslim
reactions to British rule innorth India, f or
instance, Faisal Devjih as recentlydrawnour
attentionto a newemergentsense of th e
'public' as expressedina coupletbyGh alib:
Neith er temple nor mosque, neith er door nor
th resh old
It is th e publicroadwe are sitting on,
wh ysh ouldanyrival dislodge us?47
Butth e questionof garbage h as raisedf or
me th e questionof th e 'outside' andI h ave
arguedth atth e space th atcollects garbage
is th e one th at is not subjecttoa single set
of communal rules. Itis th e space th atprQ-
duces both malevolence andexch ange bet-
weencommunities and h ence needs to be
tamedth rough th e continual, andcontex-
t'ual, deploymentof a certaindich otomyof
th e 'inside' and th e 'outside'. Th is needto
be tamedis wh at makes th e 'outside' ex-
citing, albeitinunpredictable anddangerous
ways.
Both th e colonialists andth e nationalists
were repelledby wh atth eysawas th e two
predominant aspects of openspace inIndia:
dirt and disorder. 'Th e
marketplace, an
English mansaidinth e colonial Ph ilippines,
'is always dirty and disorderly'.45 Th is
colonial perceptionwas guidedbytwokinds
of f ear, political andmedical. Politically, th e
bazaar was seen as a den of 'lies' and
rumours, 'bazaar gup', th rough wh ich th e
ignorant, superstitious andcredulous Indian
masses communicatedth eir dark f eelings
aboutth e doings of analien'sarkar' (govern-
ment).49 Th e bazaar or th e inela was th e
place wh ere conspiratorial rebellions were
plottedaundcarriedout. It was wh ere riots
beganandspectacles of bloodandgore were
playedout to large numbers of interested
eyes. Medically, as DavidArnold, Veena
Talwar O ldenberg andoth er sch olars h ave
sh own, places wh ere Indians collectedinbig
numbers were seenas th reats to European
h ealth in India.5" A major aim of public
h ealth measures incolonial India was tocon-
trol th e spread of epidemics f rom f airs,
bazaars andpilgrimage centres. Th e th eme
of public order is, of course, commonto
both th e political andmedical sides of th is
perception. As Foucaultremarkedin Th e
Birth of th e Clinic, 'a medicine of epidemics
could exist only if supplementedby a
police'.''
Th e nationalists' ideology was not th e
same as th at of th e raj. Th eir projectwas
to convert th e colonial state into a f ull-
f ledgedmodernstate f or India (ignoring f or
th e momentth e anarch iststraininGandh i).
Ch audh uriis acutelyaware th at British rule
only 'conf erred' subjecth ood on us but
with h eldcitizensh ip'.52 His bourgeois sen-
sibilityis h urtat th e absence of civic con-
sciousness inCalcutta. Gandh i's, similarly,
is a call f or more citizen-like beh aviour:
keeping th e roads clean, turning taps of f in
'public' interest.
Notwith standing th ese important dif -
f erences, both th e imperialist
jand
nationalist
reactions h ave one element in common.
Th ey both seek to make th e bazaar, th e
street, th e mela-th e arenas f or collective ac-
tioninpre-British India-benign, regulated
places, cleanandh ealth y, incapable of pro-
ducing eith er disease or disorder. Th eyboth
presenta newdef initionof th e publicth at
h as of tenbeenat odds with th e oth er f orms
of communities th ath ave h istoricallycome
into being inth ese communal spaces. Th e
British wanted to control th ese spaces
because th ey were concerned about th e
h ealth of th e Europeans, especiallyof th ose
in th e British Indian army.53 For th e
modern state, and h ence f or th e
nationalists-at least in terms of th eir
ideals ,public h ealth ' is a basic condition
of existence, f or th ere is novigorouslypro-
ductive andef f icient capitalism with outa
h ealth yworkf orce andincreasedlongevity.
Andth e latter inturn, require disciplined,
regulated'public places'.54
People in India, on th e wh ole, h ave not
h eeded th e nationalist call to discipline,
publich ealth andpublicorder. Canone read
th is as a ref usal tobecome citizens? If th at
questionis guiltyof reading intentions into
popular culture, letme putth e problem th is
way. Th e cultural polilics of transf orming
openspaces' into'publicplaces' requires a
certaindegree of divestmentof pleasure on
th e partof th e people. Th e 'th rills' of th e
bazaar are tradedinf or th e 'conveniences'
of th e sterile supermarket. O ldpleasures are
now exch angedf or th e new pleasures of
capitalism: creature comf orts, aninsatiable
obsessionwith th e bodyand th e self (th e
pleasures of privacy), and th e myth ical
f reedoms of citizensh ip.
Wh encapitalism h as not deliveredth ese
cultural goods insuf f icientquantities-and
Indiancapitalism h as not-t h e exch ange of
'old' pleasures f or 'new' remains an
understandably limitedexercise. Inth is situa-
tion, state-action
4in
th e arena of opein
space) directedat rh e preservationof 'public'
h ealth or interest, will of ten take th e f orm
of a violent, intrusive, external f orce inth e
lives of th e people. Itis notcoincidental th at
th e statementof Wellesley's with wh ich I
beganth e paper, movedeasilybetweenth e
ideas of urbanbeauty, publich ealth andef -
f icientpolicing indef ining a streetpolicyf or-
colonial Calcutta. 'Halla', a colonial
practice-continued by th e national
government-of sudden, violent police ac-
tion aimed at clearing streets of 'illegal'
h awkers andvendors, h as, f or years inour
Economic and Political Weekly March 7-14, 1992
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
livirIg memory, served to illustrate th is
ph enomenon.
It is, of course, nationalist desires f or a
strong nation-state th at make certain
'European' practices th e 'universal' rituals
of 'public lif e' inaiF countries. However, f or
people wh o, f or diverse h istorical reasons,
are yet to participate inth is collective desire,
th is 'universality' h ardly ever h as th e status
of a self -evident f act. Th e battle between
th eir sensibility and ours is a battle.between
th e non-moderns and th e moderns and, in
th is war, analysis is not neutral.
At th e end of h er book, in an impressive
spirit of self -criticism th at indicts th e restof
th e work, Nita Kumar of f ers us a very tel-
ling story. Sh e calls it, 'Th e Limits of
Eth nosociology'. I want to consider th is
story in bringing th is essay to an end. 'As
my research proceeded', writes Kumar,
I f oundmyself understanding myinf ormants
andth eir worldwith progressive sensitivity,
and paradoxically, also understanding h ow
th is worldsh ouldbe sh unnedandcondemn-
edas "lower-class" and 'backward". . . Th e
dilemma became partlyclear to me on th e
death of one of my f avourite inf ormants,
Tara Prasad, . . . h e passed away of
mysterious ailments,;regarding wh ich , in-
cluding th e exact symptoms, and even th e
location, wh eth er inth e ch estor th e stomach
or th e legs, h is f amilywas f rustratinglyvague.
Th is was of course th e same "vagueness"
glorif iedbymyinf ormants inoth er contexts,
and byme insubsequent reporting of th ese
coh texts. It was h owever clear th at h e h ad
f allenvictim to... povertyandignorance. . .
He h ad been killed by th e f ilth y galis and
moh allas of Banaras; th e very same wh ich
are extolled by indigenous Banarasis as
beyond,anyconsiderations of stench andgar-
bage... I clearly reach th e limits of
eth nosociologyh ere, f or death matters toh im
andh is f amilyina dif f erentwayth anit does
to me, andI h ave nosympath yf or th eir way.
Th is is a rare moment of h onesty wh en th e
eth nosociologist, committed, by h er train-
ing, to understanding th e 'natives' on th eir
own terms and with out prejudice, f ronts up
to th e political responsibility of th at com-
mitment. Sh ould th e 'non-moderns' h ave th e
f reedom to die inth eir 'ignorance' or sh ould
we intervene with our 'knowledge' and th e
police? Let us f ollow Kumar to th e veryend
of h er journey:
I do not care f or myinf ormants' lif estyle in
th e wayth eydo. I want th em to live longer,
enjoy better h ealth , earnmore, beget f ewer
ch ildren, and, out of place as it sounds, learn
of modernscience. I do not know h ow best
th eir culture can be encouraged to coexist
with such development, but, h owever itdoes
h appen, a precondition'will be a knowledge
of th is culture in itself ."
Inth is battle of th e moderns versus th e non-
moderns, th e violence of Kumar's dilemma
reveals to us th e purpose of our knowledge.
It is not to adjudicate but to write epitaph s
f or th e gravestones of dying anddef eated
cultures, toh elp preserve th em as objectif ied
knowledge beyondth eir death s. Th is objec-
tif ied knowledge is wh at Kumar calls 'a
knowledge of th is culture in itself . Todo
anyth ing else wouldbe untrue to our own
concerns f or prolouiging lif e, th e inh erent
morbidityof th e modern, th e f ear of death
onwh ich modernityis f ounded. Th is is wh y,
as ReyIletoh as remarkedin th e contextof
th e Ph ilippines th at 'nationalistwriters ..
f ind it impossible to interrogate th e
establish ednotionth atamong th e blessings
of Americancolonial rule was a sanitary
regime wh ich saved countless Filipino
lives'.
6
Can modern knowledge transcendth is
morbidity? I suggestnot, butwe canat least
recognise it as th e (h istorical) condition
with inwh ich we speak andask of Kumar's
dilemma: h ow is th e subjectof th is quan-
dary produced? Th rough wh at h istorical
process of subject-f ormationdid'long lif e:
'goodh ealth ', 'more money 'small f amilies
and 'modernscience' come to appear so
natural andgod-given?
Kumar's dilemma is tooreal tobe trivialis-
ed. And I h ave no easy answers. In my
younger andmore citizensh ip-mindeddays,
I once told a nine- or ten-year old boy in
Calcutta not to th row rubbish on to th e
street. 'Wh ynot?', h e asked, as h e proceed-
edtoth rowth e rubbish anyway. 'I suppose
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Economic and Political Weekly March 7-14, 199254
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you like toth ink th atwe live inEngland, do
you?'
Th is paper is a troubled and overly
delayedresponse to th at def iant question.
Notes
[An
earlier versionof th is
paper
will be
publish -
edinth e Australianjosrnal South Asia. I h ave
gained f rom criticisms f rom many including
Douglas Haynes, Pamela Price, Sandria Freitag,
Gyanendra Pandey, Parth a Ch atterjet, David
Arnold, RanajitGuh a, Anth ony Reid, Donald
Denoon and Craig Reynolds.]
1iV
S Naipaul (1990), India: A Million
Mutinies Now, Calcutta, pp 1-2.
2 See Paul Rabinow(1989), French Modern:
Norms and Forms of th e Social Environ-
ment, Cambridge, Mass, pp 30-34. Also
Peter Stallybrass and Allon Wh ite (1986),
Th e Politics and Poetics of Transgression,
London.
3 Wellesley quoted in S W Goode (1916),
Municipal Calcutta: Its Institutions in Th eir
Growth and O rigin, Edinburgh , p 237.
4 Sh erring quoted inNita Ku mar (1988), Th e
Artisans of Banaras Popular Culture and
Identity, Princeton, New Jersey, p 78.
5 AU (1874), O verland, Inland and Upland
A Lady's Notes of Personal O bservations
and Adventure, London, pp 55-56.
6 Ibid, pp 47-50.
7 Ibid, pp 51-53.
8 VS Naipaul (1966), An Area of Darkness,
ch 3, quoted inMich ael Th ompson (1979),
Rubbish Th eory: Th e Creation and
Destruction of Value, O xf ord, p 3. For
Naipaul's later th ough ts on h is early
writings on India, see h is India, pp 6-9 in
particular.
9 QuotedinBh ikh u Parekh (1989), Gandh i's
Political Ph ilosoph y: A Critical Examina-
tion, Notre Dame, Indiana, pp 49-50.
10 Nirad C Ch audh uri (1968), Th e
Autobiograph y of an Unknown Indian,
Calcutta, pp 269, 376.
11 Kumar, Th e Artisans of Banaras, op cit,
pp 78-79.
12 Th ompson, Rubbish Th eory, op cit, p 4.
13 MaryDouglas, PurityandDanger, London,
1984.
14 1 h ave elaboratedon (h is th em'e inth e con-
textof 19th centuryBengal ina paper f orth -
coming in Subaltern Studies, vol 8.
15 Gloria Goodwin Rah eja (1988), Th e Poison
in th e Gif t: Ritual, Prestation and th e
Dominant Caste ina North Indian Village,
Ch icago, pp 43, 47.
16 Th e implications of th is h ave beendiscussed
in some detail in Ranajit Guh a (1983),
ElementaryAspects of Peasant Insurgency
in Colonial India, Delh i, pp 281-82.
17 HilaryStatiding's unpublish edSO AS Ph D
th esis on th e Mundas makes th is point.
18 See Gyanendra Pandey (1990), Th e Con-
struction of Colonialism in North India,
Delh i, pp 108-200; alsoSudh ir Kakar (1990),
'Some Unconscious Aspects of Eth nic
Violence in India' and Amrit Srinivasan
(1990), 'Th e Survivor in th e Study of
Violence' .in Veena Das (ed), Mirnors of
Violence: Communities, Riots and Sur-
vivors in South Asia, Delh i.
19 O nth is,
se
Veena Talwar O ldenberg (1984),
Th e Making of Colonial Lucknow,
Princeton, New Jersey, p 14; Sandria Freitag
(1989), Collective Actionand Community:
Public Arenas in th e Emergenceof Com-
munalism in North India, Berkeley, p 118;
Jim Masselos (1976), 'Power inth e Bombay
"Moh alla", 1904-1915: An Initial Explora-
tion into th e Worldof th e Indian Urban
Muslim' South Asia, 6, pp 75-95.
20 Kumar, Th e Artisans of Banaras, op cit,
pp 71-72.
21 HenryWh iteh ead(1921), Th e Village Gods
of South India, Calcutta, p 35.
22 Ibid,. pp 3-8-39, 48-54.
23 I J Catanach (1986), 'Plague andth e Indian
Village, 1896-1914' inPLter Robb (ed), Rural
India: Land, Power and Society Under
British Rule, Delh i, p 228.
24 Ralph W Nich olas (1981), 'Th e Goddess
Sitala and Epidemic Smallpox in Bengal:
Journal of Asian Studies, November, p 37.
25 Diane MCoccari (1989), 'Protection and
Identity: Banaras's Bir Babas as Neigh bour-
h oodGuardianDeities' inSandria BFreitag
(ed), Culture andPower in Banaras: Com-
munity, Perf ormance andth e Environment,
Berkeley, p 141. Also, Diane MCoccari
(1989), 'Th e. Bir B11as or Banaras andth e
Deif ied Dead' n Af f Hiltebeitel (ed),
Criminal Gods and Dernon Devotees.
Essays on th e Guardians of Popular
HIirduism, New York, pp 251-70.
26 For a recentdiscussion see Anand A Yang
(1989), Th e LimitedRaj: AgrarianRelations
inColonial India, SaranDisirict, 1793-1920,
Berkeley, pp L3-30.
27 See Rajat Kanta Ray(1986), 'Th e Bazaar:
Ch anging Structural Ch aracteristics of th e
Indigenous Sectionof th e IndianEconomy
Bef ore and Af ter th e Great Depression:
Indian Economic and Social History
Review, July-September, pp 263-318;
O ldenberg, Colonial Lucknow, op cit,
pp 13-14; Steph enP Blake (1986), 'Cityscape
of an Imperial Capital: Sh ah jah anabadin
1739' in R E Frykenberg (ed), Delh i
Th rough th e Ages Essays inUrbanHistory,
Culture and Society, Delh i, pp 158-60.
Anand Yang is currently f inish ing a
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1992
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28 Jennif er Alexander (1987), Trade, Traders
and Trading in Rural Java, Singapore,
pp 165-67. 1 am gratef ul lo Ch arles Cop-
pel f or directing me to th is interesting
eth nograph y.
29 Akos O stor (1984), Culture and Power:
Legend, Ritual, Bazaar and Rebellionina
Bengali Society, Delh i, p 106.
30 S P Punalekar (1957), WeeklyMarkets in
th e Tribal Talukas of Surat ValsadRegion,
Surat, p 37.
31 Ibid, pp 93-94.
32 O stor, Culture, op cit, p 135.
33 Alexander, k?ural Java, op cit, p 181.
34 Th is statement, of course, in no waydenies
th e validity of Meagh an Morris's percep-
tive andstimulating analysis of h owmodern
sh opping centres can become f ocal points
f or social lif e even in 'post-industrial'
cultures. But th is could h appen inspite of
th eir designs. See Meagh anMorris (1988),
'Th ings To Do With Sh opping Centres' in
Susan' Sh eridan (ed), Graf ts: Femninist
Cultural-Criticism, London.
35 Anth ony D King (1976), Colonial Urban
Development, London, pp 52-53.
36 Punalekar, WeeklyMarkets, op cit, pp 89
and 105.
37 King, Colonial UrbanDevelopinent, op cit,
p 56.
38 O stor, Culture, op cit, pp 95-96.
39 O n th e myth ology of Ganesh , see Paul B
Courtrigh t (1985), Ganesa: Lord of
O bstacles, Lordof Beginnings, New York
40 O stor, Culture, op cit, pp 100-01.
41 Freitag, Collective Action, op cit, pp 1941.
42 Kumar, Th e Artisans of Banaras, op cit,
*p 79.
43 Guh a, Elementarv Aspects, op cit,
pp 258-59.
44 Punalekar, WeeklyMarkets, op cit, pp 48-49
Part 11.
45 Kumar, Th e Artisans Qf Banaras, op cit,
p 89.
46 Raj Ch andavarkar, 'Workers' Politics and
th e Mill Districts in Bombay Betweenth e
Wars', Modern Asian Studies, 15, 3, pp
606-07.
47 Quotedin Faisal Devji (1990), 'Th e Move-
mentf or Women's Ref orm inMuslim India,
1857-1900'. Paper presented at th e Asian
Studies Conf erence, Ch icago, April.
48 Joh n Foremanquoted in Carlos Quirino
(1979), Th e First Filipino: A Biograph v of
Jose Rizal, Manila, p 25. 1 am gratef ul to
Joseph Sales f or ref erring me to th is book.
See also th e veryilluminating discussionin
Timoth yMitch ell (1989), Colonising Egypt,
Cambridge.
49 See Joh n' Campbell O man (1908), Ctults,
Customs and Superstitions of India,
London, Part 2, pp 218-28.
50 David Arnold (1986), 'Ch olera and
Colonialism in British India', Pust anid
Present, no 113, November, p 127;
O ldenberg, Colonial Lucknow, op cit. pp
99-144.
51 Mich el Foucault (1975), Th e Birih of th e
Clinic: An Arch eologyof Medical Percep-
-ion, New York, p 25.
52 Ch audh uri, Autobiog'raph v, op cit,
dedication.
S3 Arnold, 'Ch olera' op cit.
54 All th is, of course, is true only of th e ideals.
Th e Indianrealitycontinues to be marked
byth e rath er ironic combination of longer
lif e f or most, made possible byth e manage-
ment of epidemics and 'natural' disasters,
andpersistentm-alnutritionf or th e majority.
O ne couldbe f orgivenf or th inking th atour
publich ealth programmes.were aimedat en-
suFing th at th e elite enjoyed both good
h ealth and long lif e by removing th e con-
ditions f or epidemics-wh ich af ter all do
not respect class divisions-f rom th e lives
of th e poor (and malnourish ed).
55 Kumar, Th e Arlisans of Banaras, op cit.
p 243.
56 Reylleto (I989), 'Ch olera and th e O rigins
of th e American Sanitary O rder in th e
Ph ilippines' inDavidArnold(ed), inperial
Medicine andIndigenous Societies, Delh i,
p 125.
DISCUSSIO N
Agrarian Ref orm and Economic
Development in Nicaragua
Gail O mvedt
WHETHERit is th e f ault of th e original
or not, Madh ura Swaminath an's review
(February 1, 1992) of Harvesting Ch ange:
Labour and Agrarian Ref orm in Nicaragua
gives oversimplif iedpraise of th e Nicaraguan
ef f orts atagrarianref orm wh ich neglects th e
Sandinistas' own self -criticisms of th eir
developmental policies. In th e process, it
leaves revolutio,nary movements andmasses
h elpless bef ore th eir enemies, both th eir
external enemy, US imperialism, andth eir
internal enemy, th e bureaucraticstatism
wh ich h as turnedrevolutions up tonowinto
rubble.
InanAugust1990 worksh op at Bangalore,
attendedbya representative of th e Sandinista
LiberationFront, th ere was extensive discus-
sionof th e Nicaraguanrevolutioninth e con-
text of events in easternEurope and th e
ch allenge posed by newsocial movements
inIndia. Itwas inth e periodjust f ollowing
th e sh ocking electoral def eat of th e
Sandinistas-a def eatwh ich was, f or many
of us, evenmore of a blowth anth e f all of
th e statist regimes of easternEurope. Th e
letter we h ad always seen as f lawed; but
Nicaragua was th e h eroicrevolutioninth e
very backyardof US imperialism, under
h eavysiege, but f unctioning f rom th e begin-
ning, we h adbelieved, with more democracy
andf lexibility, less dogmatism, a loyaltyto
th e indigenous traditions of th e people. Th is
was, it seems,, an unrealistic assessment
wh ich lef t sympath isers as well as much of
th e Sandinista cadre unpreparedf or th eir
def eat. I promised Maria, th e FSLN
representative, to write an article on th e
Nicaraguanexperience bef ore th eir party
congress; butwork pressures, th e lack of f ur-
th er communicationand congress docu-
ments, anda f eeling of dif f idence at being
toodistantf rom th e scene of struggle letth is
f all beh ind.
Nowitseems necessarytosaysometh ing.
Th ese comments are basedon a f ewrecent
articles, th e Sandinistas' ownself -criticisms
and our worksh op discussions,' and th ey
sh ouldbe takennot as anef f ort togive th e
'f inal word' buttoopenup discussion. Th e
issues are applicable to India as well.
Agrarian ref orm-giving land to th e
landless-is onlyth e beginning of th e story
f or anyrevolution; th e major issue comes
over wh atis to be done with th e land, over
h owa largelyrural economyis tobe treated
inanoverall process of economic develop-
ment. Inspite of th eir democraticopenness
anddevotiontoindigenous tradition, inspite
of th e invocation of Sandino's 'worker-
peasant' th emes, th e Sandinistas f ollowed
th e Soviet model ("Cuban, Russian
socialism-th is is wh atwe knew; socialism
means nationalisation, socialisationof th e
means of production"), i e, one th at pro-
moted bureaucratic management of a
burgeoning state sector with in a mixed
economy, wh ich treatedth e 'petty.bourgeois'
peasantry.and urbanartisanal sectors 'as
backwardwh ile making alliances with a
'national bourgeoisie', andwh ich oriented
developmentto give priorityto large-scale
ecologicallydestructive andbureaucratically
dominatedagro-industrial projects.
Th e revolutiongave manypeasants land,
but th ose wh o were givenland were given
lowprices f or th eir produce andpush edand
coercedintoco-operatives controlledf rom
th e top down. As Maria describedth e pro-
cess, th e nationalised property of th e
Somoza f amily-wh ich constituteda wh op-
ping 30 per centof total land-was f irstput
intobig state f arms; th is was resentedbyth e
peasantryandledtoresistance andrebellion.
Af ter th at policy was ch anged. But 'co-
operatives' were also f lawed by bureau-
craticisation. Peasants were not givencredit
or tractors if th eydidn'tjoin; andso th ere
was a lot of 'ch eating' to get th ese andas
a resultmanyco-operatives existedonpaper
only. Peasants resented. both th e compulsion
th atwas push ing th em tocollectivise andth e
f orcedprocurementof f ood at low prices.
Th e co-operativisatpn/collectivisationpro-
cess was alsodamaging to th e ecologyand
encouraged th e gulping up of energy
resources: f or instance, co-operatives were
giventrucks andtractors, providedch eaply
by th e USSR. Th ere were problems with
th ese both f or parts supplyandbecause of
sh oddymanuf acture; andth eyencouraged
an unsustainable use of energyresources.
Wh enth eir use became literallyimpossible,
peasants couldonlysee th e use of th eir own
oxen, donkeys andmules as a 'retreat'; th ey
h adbeentaugh ttoth ink of tractors as a sign
of progress.
Economic and Political Weekly March 7-14, 1992 547
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