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Beyond the meaning of 'Political Culture': Notes from India
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 EDITORIAL

SEEING WITH
NEW EYES
S
ALE!' has almost become the marker of the new market
world and every possible space is rather invaded with its
recurring presence. As a consumer, I would look out for
the 'flat 50%' or the “upto 50%' sale tags indicating how much I
would be able to save on each purchase. These sales however
speak more than mere tactics to attract consumers; it marks the
beginning of a new season. Stores ridding itself of its old wear
and stocking up new ones creates new excitement as summer
gives way to winter. Each season has its own package of niceties
like weddings in the early winter months of October and
VOLUME 3 | ISSUE 8 | AUGUST 2008

November. Not to mention the blooming flower gardens, so

typical of the cold season.

Every intricate bit of nature speaks of change and inspires all to

look at the brighter side of the whole process. Change can be
difficult; that fact cannot be denied or overlooked. But the
other side, the brighter side can be inspiring and appealing. It
all depends on how one looks at life. Dalai Lama once said, “I
find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest….”
An amazing insight indeed! I am reminded of an age old story of
how two people looked at a glass half filled with water. One said
it was half empty while the other said it was half full! Well, both
were right but they sure differed in their perspectives and the
way they looked at that particular situation!

With MT August we bid adieu to the summer season and

thus symbolically welcome newness in the coming phase. Hope
this month's MindTEXT places before you new and interesting
thoughts and discussions. And don't miss our two favourite
columns, Random Thoughts and The Nigerian Diary as they come
each month with very practical yet apt conversations for today.
Well, read for yourself and see!

And, a hearty thank you to all our contributors. We have enjoyed

reading each one of your articles and hope our readers feel the
same.

Enjoy your reading!

Kalpana Sudheer
Editor
 FROM THE BOARD

BEYOND THE MEANING OF Aneish P. Rajan

‘POLITICAL CULTURE’
:NOTES FROM INDIA

M
any preconceived notions have to be taken into account, while
writing about the political culture of a post-colonial state, which is
conceived as the object of invention and was historically
instituted by the imagination of the 19th century.1 More precisely, the
process of state building and the subsequent emergence of political
culture must have gone through the showcases of the West, to enunciate
the democratic and secular visions and practices of the multidimensional,
multicultural country called India. There are many voices, which
skeptically looked at India's independence as a transfer of political power
VOLUME 3 | ISSUE 8 | AUGUST 2008

and the gain of political freedom.2 It is also seen as the “cultural void”
that was created by the loss of the old order without the creation of a new
order. It is the evaluation by the scholars of the full implications of the
transformation of traditional agriculture into a modern society that
points to the accentuation of this 'void'.3

Why does the notion of culture become significant in state-related

discourses? Does it suggest the idea of the state, as Mathew Arnold put it?4
This paper is not directed at addressing these questions; instead it tries to
locate the reconciliation ground of culture and the state. Thus, it would
analyze the political culture by probing into the conventional literature,
largely origination from the Western scholarship. It tries to re-
conceptualize the democracy related discourses in India, in the backdrop
of political culture. It also intends to grapple with the shifts in the
orientations and cultural artifacts and its intended and unintended
versions.

The term 'culture' emerged during the 18th century as different from its
root meanings in agriculture and the cultivation of nature, to become a
'concept metaphor' for the relations of human subjects to natural
phenomenon and human artifacts.5 Both culture and the state are given
the role of furnishing sites of reconciliation for a civil and political society
that is seen to be ridden by conflict and contradiction. Both are seen as
the sites in which the highest expressions of human being and human
freedom are realized. The state supposes a principle of organization in
which the people and their institutions are expressed in and through the
state.6 The normative descriptions continue to suggest that the state is no
longer conceived of as being in an arbitrary relation to its population but
as the fully developed and unifying representative of the national people.
It is at once an institution that derives from the people and one which
expresses at a higher level the still developing essence and experiences of
that people.

1. Sudipta Kaviraj, 'The Imaginary Institution of India' in Subaltern Studies, Vol.VII, p.1-39.
2. The Marxist critique of the Indian national bourgeoisie pertains to this view.
3. P.C.Joshi, 'Role of Agriculture in Social Transformation and National Integration', EPW, Vol21, No.28,
July,1986.
4. As quoted in R.H.Super and Ann Arher(ed), Culture and Anarchy with Friendship's Garland and some
literary essays,Michigan Univesity Press, 1965, p.135.
5. David Lloyd and Paul Thomas(eds), Culture and the State, Routledge,1998, p.3.
6. The notion of the state as the site of human freedom is heavily drawn from Hegel and thus the trajectory of the discourse on
political orientation and the nature of the state valorizes the human freedom as accentuated in the state. See Hegel,
Phenomenology of Spirit.
 Thus, there is hardly the possibility of disjunction between the state and its political culture. This is because the
latter is also being defined as the 'product of both the collective history of a system and the life histories of the members of
that system, and thus it is rooted equally in public events and private experiences'7 and also as the particular distribution of
patterns of orientation towards political objects among members of the nation.8 But the impossibility of disjunction between
the state and the political culture is a normatively nuanced perspective. Political culture, as some scholars put it, is not
always what it appears to be. There may be important differences in the ways in which people go about demonstrating their
performances towards specific political personalities and institutions and their true feelings and sentiments towards the
broader domain of politics.9 It is possible to distinguish various kinds of tensions and instabilities in political cultures
according to the types of contradictions and inconsistencies in the socialization processes and the requirements of the
political system. The most dramatic examples, as Lucian Pye opines, are to be found in revolutionary systems in which the
elite political culture is either shaped by a highly explicit ideology or is the product of an exogenous historical experience
such as colonialism.10

Viewing in this background, a probe into the post-colonial, independent India would open up several judgments of her
political culture, which is to a great extent related to, and is seen in terms of democracy and its subsequent discourses.11
Since the hostility against colonialism was the result of the invention of the 'collective self' and its political consciousness,
Anti-colonialism has been defined more as a cultural critique.12 From being a negative reaction to colonial power, it turns
positively into the consciousness of a new identity that had its strong theoretical foundations in rational political institutions.
Thus, as Kaviraj holds, the nation in India is radically modern and this modernity pertains largely to democracy that continued
to behold the civil society with it.13 Scholarly inquiry looking for the bases of democratic politics often proposes the
importance of this accompanying civil society. Theories of democracy have asserted that democracy requires a distinctive set
of political values and orientations from its citizens; moderation, civility, tolerance, efficacy, knowledge, participation,
beliefs and perceptions of regime legitimacy have long been recognized as critical factors in regime change, bearing
particularly on the persistence or breakdown of democracy.14

However, the historical emergence of democracy was radically different in India. In the West, it was a result of elite
and popular experimentation with common life in the state. Bringing the society under the state's sovereign control was in
fact prior to the democratization of this concentrated power. In India, initially it was a matter of pure intellectual initiative
and conviction.15 But this does not mean that the political culture of Indian democracy was hardly operated by the elite.
VOLUME 3 | ISSUE 8 | AUGUST 2008

Incorporation of the political culture variable into analyses of the emergence of democracy has heavily focused on the
political elite.16 During the national movement, Richard Sisson observes, elites reached out to mass society, raising them to
new levels of political consciousness, building a wide array of organizations and stimulating democratic awareness and
participation. Political leadership ideology and choice were crucial to all these processes.17 He holds that there was , as a
result of this initiation, the considerable diffusion of democratic culture from elite to mass constituencies. During the
transformative period, there are only a few givens, few norms over which people can unanimously agree for a reasonable
period of time.18 This may not, in absolute terms, be true for India in the early years of her Independence, but, despite all the
contradictions within the system, there was more or less a tentative consensus over the path of the country's economic
development and over making an all encompassing constitution.

Political culture appears to serve as a crucial link between economic development and democracy, especially where
the society is trying to cast away feudal values.19 The projected constitutional debates and reforms were meant to destroy
caste and feudal privileges. Thus, the lengthy, heavily loaded deliberations of the Indian Constitution could enunciate the
political culture of India(despite the fact that its normative orientations found nothing other than its documentation, over a
period of time). Economic factors are of course a necessary part of the equation for a sustainable democracy, sharing cultural
factors with an influence over citizens' life satisfaction and deep rooted political contentment. As Martin G. Weinbaum puts
it, favourable economic conditions together with cultural values help create people with a stake in the status quo or at least a
willingness to take their chances on the future.20 Thus the much valorized Nehruvian economic development had conjoined
the nation's political aspirations with policies through accommodative politics and radical social change. But, as the term
'Nehruvian legacy' suggests, it was more or less based on 'Nehru's judgment'.21

However, as Kaviraj opines, there was a section of reformers and elite who saw a wonderful opportunity of combining
material and moral advantage at the same time. It was clear from the constitutional reforms which often showed a sharply
contrasting gentleness towards class and capitalist inequalities, which resembles the fact that in all societies there are
inevitably some differences between the political orientations of those who have the responsibility for decision and those
who are only observers or participating citizens.22 A national political culture thus consists of both an elite and a mass culture
and the relationship between the two is a critical factor determining the performance of the political system.23

7. Lucian W.Pye, 'Political Culture' in the International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences, p.218-224.
8. Almond and Verba, The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations, Princeton University Press, 1963.
9. Mehran Kamrava, 'Political Culture and a new definition of the Third World', Third World Quarterly, Vol.16, No. 4, 1995, p.691-701. See also Kamrava, Politics and Society in the Third World, Routledge,1993,
p.144-157.
10. Lucian W.Pye, Political Culture and Political Development, Princeton University Press, 1965, p.218-224.For a discussion, see Larry Diamond(ed) Political Culture and Democracy in Developing Countries, Lynne
Rienner Publishers, London,1993, p.51
11. Kaviraj, 'The Imaginary Institution', p.12.
12. Ibid, p.13.
13. Robert A.Dahl, Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition, New Haven, Yale University Press, p.129-140.
14. Also see Marvin G.Weinbaum, 'Civic Culture and Democracy in Pakistan', Asian Survey,Vol.36, No.7, July 1996, p.639-654.
15. Sudipta Kaviraj, 'The Culture of Representative Democracy' in Partha Chatterjee(ed) Wages of Freedom, OUP, 1998,p.158.
16. Larry Diamond,(ed) Political Culture and Democracy in Developing Countries, Lynne Rienner Publishers, London, 1993, p.2.
17. Sisson, 'Culture and Democratization in India' in Larry Diamond(ed) Political Culture and Democracy in Developing Countries, Lynne Rienner Publishers, London, 1993, p.51.
18. Mehran Kamrava, 'Political Culture and a new definition of the Third World', Third World Quarterly, Vol.16, No. 4, 1995, p.694.
19. Ronald Inglehart, Cultural Shift in Advanced Industrial Countries , Princeton University Press, 1990, p.40.
20. Weinbaum, 'Civic Culture and Democracy in Pakistan', Asian Survey, Vol.36, No.7, July 1996, p.653.
21. Sunil Khilnani referred to this phrase in his talk on 'Nehru's Judgment' at JNU in November 2004.
22. Kaviraj in 'The Culture of Representative Democracy' in Partha Chatterjee(ed)Wages of freedom, OUP, 1998.
23.Lucian W.Pye, 'Political Culture' in the International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences, p.218-224.
 Domination and subordination of political cultures thus mark the
collisions in the political system. Scholars who are highly critical of the
Nehruvian elite claim that they acted on a script of history, through two
improvising counter-strategies against the dangers of a democratic wave
sweeping away their privileges. The first was the creation of two different
layers of Indianness and turning English into a symbol of a true Indian, as
opposed to a mere Tamil, Bengali or even Hindustani. The second was a
massive deception in the name of education, fobbing off the poor by an
inferior substitute for education.24 This could be seen as a going back to the
old fuzzy communities or as the deconstruction of the 'we-ness' that was being
constructed in the anti-colonial movement.25 Ashis Nandy opines that the
Indian nation-state has been constantly trying to promote the classical, elite
culture as the core of its identity and to establish a political understanding
with that culture.26 This tilt towards high culture, however, had faced political
as well as social challenges, because of the growing impatience with the
political system in the form of social movements and the formation of regional
identities, which waged a struggle against the Indian modernity.27

The elite-mass culture divide is also being viewed from the

perspective that the entire ideology of the Indian state is so formatted and
customized that it is bound to make more sense and gives political advantages
to those better acquainted with the urban industrial world and modern
economic and political institutions. The rest are supposed to either
painstakingly train themselves to enter that world or cope with the ideology
from outside as best as they can. But in a plebiscitary democracy, even the
cause of rural India has now to be processed through the urban middle class
consciousness. Some of the most powerful public figures with vote banks,
have not exercised real power or controlled the course of political events
because they have undervalued the middle class culture of public life, as Ashis
VOLUME 3 | ISSUE 8 | AUGUST 2008

Nandy opines.28 This class now gives a sustainable base to the emerging mass
culture of politics in the country and to do so, it has redrawn the map of the
popular culture mainly created by itself.

Thus the culture of the state has in recent years depended

increasingly on expanding a pan-Indian, urban, middle class structure, serving
as an emerging mass culture.29 The Indian upper middle class has not tired to
distance itself from the lower middle class, since the former has to carry the
latter with it for political influence. The lower middle class at the same time
lives with the same ambitions of the middle class. It cherishes its political
links with the upper middle class.

The liberalization of the Indian economy has actually accentuated

this link, by liberating the desires. This would envisage a 'civic culture', which
will wholeheartedly underline the conspicuous economic system that is free
of any political derivativeness. It is more or less developmental as well as
apolitical. The shift that has occurred in the orientation of political culture
during the post-globalization period is the paradigmatic change of values and
norms about the shift and development. It is evident from the currently
projected mass cultures. Earlier, Indian popular cinema served this purpose
by addressing the masses30, showing slums and officially discarded 'obsolete'
citizens who provide the energy i.e. cheap labour, that propels both the
engine of civic life in the third world societies and ambitions of the
modernizing elite.31

The current scenario also lacks the simple and effective medium of
representations of the tensions and dilemmas of development and
democracy. For instance, Patricia Oberoi's study reveals the significance of
Calendar Art in representing the socio-economic agonies till the 70's, which
could easily find space cutting across classes.32 However, the change in
technology has subsumed other arenas of representation by revolutionizing
the mass media culture through daily sponsored programmes.

24. Kaviraj, 'The Culture of Representative Democracy',p.164.

25. Interestingly, it is Kaviraj who propounds both these views. This shows that there is a gradual decay in the notion of the constructed 'we'. But what creates confusion is that the construction of the 'we' in
the colonial age was a temporary consensus for permanent political gains.
26. Ashis Nandy, 'The Political Culture of the Indian State', Daedalus, Fall 1989, Vol.18, No.4, p.8.
27. See T.K Oommen, Nation, Civil Society and Social Movements, Sage, 2004, p.18-19. Also see Gail Omvedt, Re-inventing Revolution : New Social Movements and Socialist Traditions in India, Sharp
Publishers,1993, p.15.
28. Nandy (ed) The Secret Politics of our Desires: Innocence, culpability and Indian Popular Cinema, OUP, 1998, Introduction, p.4-5.
29. Nandy, 'The Political Culture of the Indian State', Daedalus, Fall 1989, Vol.18, No.4, p.9.
30. Madhava Prasad , 'The State in/of Cinema' in Partha Chatterjee(ed) Wages of freedom, OUP, 1998, p.141.
31. Nandy, 1998, p.2.
32. Patricia Oberoi, 'Chicks, Kids and Couples: Nation in Calendar Art' in Geeti Sen(ed) India: A National Culture, Sage, 2003,p.197-210.
 It is interesting to note that while the gods and goddesses in calendars lost their
place and found it again on the small screen, it led to a subsequent articulation of
politics through stars, who became 'decisively' famous through their roles.33 The
presence of a large number of film stars in Parliament and the increasingly important
roles being played in public life by sports icons and media-conscious artists all go into the
making of a mass culture of politics and into the growing liability of public opinion in
India.34

What I would argue is that this opinion making and construction of political
culture attributes only to the middle class to a large extent. Political culture of the state
is now largely being influenced by the neo-spiritual leaders, who successfully blend
modern mega-science and technology with the spiritual heritage of the country. Thus,
every state activity could be better substituted by 'Ashrams'.35 Here the values, norms
and orientations are not directly influenced or constricted by religious ideologies ;
rather they take on much more sophisticated forms of large public ceremonies. It is in
this milieu that the strata of the middle class cherishes the common ambition. Over-
emphasis on such ceremonies by the media and sharing of their fora by the political elite
facilitate the nuanced yet unseen political agenda behind them.

Each person's dissatisfaction continues to grow with the everyday attainment of

the fruits of modernity and the technological revolution, which in turn facilitates the
pervasive spiritual and religious institutions. These are not mere institutions; they are
controlled an excessively funded by exclusive groups who are able to influence even the
highest levels of decision and opinion making in the country. This also shows the
paradigmatic shift in the cultural milieu from early socio-religious reforms to the latest
masters of 'the Art of Living'. We could easily read the distinction between the politics of
the period of Swami Vivekananda, who was brave enough to negate temples, and of the
last two or three decades where temples are being projected and valorized by the so-
called apolitical, all encompassing neo-spiritual leaders, who can successfully market
VOLUME 3 | ISSUE 8 | AUGUST 2008

the Indian heritage in the global market.36 Why should we analyze these phenomena
extra critically? This is because there is an emerging reconciliation between the
escalation of the above cited trends and the development policies adopted by the state,
especially after the 1980s. it is evident even in qualitatively developed prototype states
like Kerala, where the political culture began to go back for attaining incentives of social
status by giving away the historically constructed political conceptions and paradigms
that once appeared like a sort of Gramscian framework of cultural hegemony.37

The media plays a big role in projecting these symbols and rituals and gives
subsequent readings of political culture. The changes in the democratic, cultural and
political practices are linked to the problem of the shift in the location of the political
arena i.e. the extent to which the media has become the main political theatre
brokering the most important events and staging the most important exchanges.38
Playing the political and brokering part, media thus constructs idols and competes to
capture millions of audience. Reports of famine, village suicides and so on acquire
special status and become a part of investigative journalism, as they are generously
applauded by the political elite. What I intend to suggest is that even the media has
changed its primary preferences in the changed economic scenario. So the 'BPL stories'
are being valorized by the officials of the media as a 'specialized column'. But there are
over 40 percent of Indians who are still poor and who are without the shining knowledge
of modernity and high class political culture. They are being marginalized in the
discourses of development that have evolved over time. This happened because of the
overwhelming consideration for the combined middle class, who were sought to
represent the mass culture. Thus, the development discourse, which nowadays sounds
like a sort of apolitical consensual culture, needs to be reconceptualized in order to take
the large masses into account. Only then can the norms, values and orientations of
decision makers and institutions be able to understand and include the day to day
struggles of people in the Narmada Valley, the multiple voices of the Adivasis and the
plethora of grievances of the slum dwellers in the largest democratic country in the
world.39 Until then, the term 'civic culture will continue to be exist in incompleteness.
to be continued...

33. It is the Sita image Deepika Sharma contested to Parliament in one of the 90's elections.
34. Nandy, 1989,p.23.
35. A look at the contributions given by the spiritual leaders and their Ashrams shows that it is, in many cases, more than what a state can issue within a short span of time.
36. For instance, in a statement made by him in 2000 Sri Sri Ravishankar asserts, “Ayodhya is the passion of the nation”. See Paul Zakariah, Religion, Culture and Religious Fundamentalism, Current Books,
2002, p.134-136.
37. I would read the Kerala model of development as a consequence of the inception of this. Right from the outset, the Left governments, especially under the leadership of E.M.S had constructed such a
social milieu which was reflected in the land reforms, social movements, literary programmes and a great deal of intervention in the literary and intellectual arena by the Left movement. The 'civic
culture' could strike a balance between the traditional feudal relations and the modern capitalist modes of production. See E.M.S Namboodiripad , Kerala: The Motherland of Metaphor, Chinta Publishers,
1975 and Language, Literature and Aesthetics, Chinta Publishers, 1988.
38. Iean Seaton, Politics and Media, The Political Quarterly Publisher, 1998, Introduction, p.1.
39. The state's responses to these sections of people was legitimized by the institutions and high class political elites, claiming that it represents the common developmental aspirations. Recall the Supreme
Court judgment on the Sardar Sarovar Dam in which it ruled in favour of the Gujarat government.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Almond,G and Sidney Verba, The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations, Princeton University Press, 1963.
Kaviraj, Sudipta, 'The Imaginary Institution of India' in Subaltern Studies, Vol.VII.
Joshi, P.C, 'Role of Agriculture in Social Transformation and National Integration', EPW, Vol21, No.28,July,1986.
R.H.Super and Ann Arher(ed), Culture and Anarchy with Friendship's Garland and some literary essays, Michigan Univesity Press, 1965.
David Lloyd and Paul Thomas(eds), Culture and the State, Routledge,1998.
Pye, Lucian W. 'Political Culture' in the International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences. Political Culture and Political Development, Princeton University
Press,1965.
Kamrava, Mehran, Politics and Society in the Third World, Routledge,1993. 'Political Culture and a new definition of the Third World', Third World Quarterly,
Vol.16, No. 4, 1995, p.691-701.
Diamond, Larry(ed) Political Culture and Democracy in Developing Countries, Lynne Rienner Publishers, London,1993
Dahl, Robert A, Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition, New Haven, Yale University Press.
Weinbaum, Marvin G. 'Civic Culture and Democracy in Pakistan', Asian Survey,Vol.36, No.7, July 1996, p.639-654.
Kaviraj, Sudipta, 'The Culture of Representative Democracy' in Partha Chatterjee(ed) Wages of Freedom, OUP, 1998.
Inglehart, Ronald, Cultural Shift in Advanced Industrial Countries , Princeton University Press, 1990.
Nandy, Ashis, 'The Political Culture of the Indian State', Daedalus, Fall 1989, Vol.18, No.4.
Nandy,(ed) The Secret Politics of our Desires: Innocence, culpability and Indian Popular Cinema, OUP, 1998.
Oommen, T.K , Nation, Civil Society and Social Movements, Sage, 2004.
Omvedt, Gail, Re-inventing Revolution : New Social Movements and Socialist Traditions in India, Sharp Publishers,1993
Prasad , Madhava 'The State in/of Cinema' in Partha Chatterjee(ed) Wages of freedom, OUP, 1998.
Oberoi, Patricia ,'Chicks, Kids and Couples: Nation in Calendar Art' in Geeti Sen(ed) India: A National Culture, Sage, 2003.
Zakariah, Paul, Religion, Culture and Religious Fundamentalism, Current Books, 2002
Namboodiripad , E.M.S, Kerala: The Motherland of Metaphor, Chinta Publishers, 1975. Language, Literature and Aesthetics, Chinta Publishers, 1988.
Seaton, Iean, Politics and Media, The Political Quarterly Publisher, 1998

HR CHALLENGES
VOLUME 3 | ISSUE 8 | AUGUST 2008

A VIEW Elisha Arora

W
ith the national economy growing rapidly and with growth in industries such as IT and Business
Process Outsourcing more than doubling, HR challenges are coming fast and furious.

While the HR challenges faced by many Indian companies are both daunting and crucial to the
continued success of their businesses, the number of enlightened HR leaders helping to tackle those
challenges in a strategic fashion is small.

HR still has not reached the strategic level that it should be at, even in the larger companies,
they talk about being strategic, but in the main they’re paying less attention towards it. In the last five
years, the way growth has taken place, no one has thought about the real issues, attraction and retention
are all they can focus upon. They are important, but one of the major flaws is that, such companies do
not focus at the bigger picture, i.e workplace planning.

But the managers are not to be blamed here, finding a worker with the right skills is a problem
rather. Even hot industries that can attract college graduates from the top-tier business schools are being
forced by market conditions to inflate salaries and lower job expectations.

Another factor driving up salaries is that, skilled Indian workers know that there is always
another job opportunity and therefore tend to give long notices, four to six weeks prior to survey
prospects and receive counteroffers from current employers. A few newly hired never even make it to
the first day of the job, after finding a better offer elsewhere in the short time between the offer and the
start date.

A dearth of middle managers also is a pressing problem. India has plenty of technocrats and
engineers; but competent general managers are short in supply, who can pull it all together. The Culture
of the organization is the no.1 selling point i.e. moving from patriarchic, hierarchical management to a
more team-based, informal organizational culture. Although most of these challenges are being taken
into consideration some more emphasis and better tactics can result in the success of HR in india.

MBA student (Bhartiya Vidhypeeth)

 REALITY CHECK
I
will never forget that face. She was looking at me with intent eyes, unsure of whether she should approach me or not. I
HE INVISIBLE FAC took my eyes off her to rummage for my keys from my purse and when I turned back she was gone. All in the fraction of a
second. I restlessly looked around thinking she would be somewhere in the compound; in the garden perhaps. Just a
second ago she was staring at me from the doorway of the house in front of which I had parked my car. Now all I saw was the
dark brown shiny door, a sheer contrast to the small pale face that was there a minute ago. I had half a mind to go, ring the
bell and ask for the little girl. But the other half of me told me to buzz off; that girl was none of my business. Her clothes
were clearly hand-me-downs; the dull brown colour indicated that it had been white sometime in the very distant past.

With the keys in the ignition, I sat quietly in my car, undecided about what to do. Her eyes haunted me. I knew she
had something to tell me. Why didn't I smile at her? Did she interpret my actions as lack of interest? Questions bombarded
my mind. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of her again. Anger replaced the regret, an unconscious partial attempt to cover
up for my cowardice. Why, on earth, do people employ children as domestic help, I thought miserably. The justification elf
in me sprung up. It said, “Well, you would not employ a child to work for you; but you need not bother about your neighbor.
What if he is a big guy and will harm you or shout at you to mind your own business? Better to save children from the slums
than to visit these posh homes. Wouldn't more children be rescued that way?” And I obeyed the little wicked elf in me and
drove off, a decision that haunts me even today.

Well, I'm sure my story doesn't sound alien. How often we turn a deaf eye to violations happening within our circle
and then claim to stand up for child rights at the far end of the street. The employment of children as domestic help is a
violation of child rights and was added to the list of hazardous occupations and processes in October 2006 by the Ministry of
Labour and Employment under the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986. The ILO report on World Day Against
Child Labour (Friday June 11, 2004) defines child domestic labourers as all children in domestic service who are under the
legal minimum working age, as well as those above the legal minimum age but under the age of 18 who are in an
exploitative situation. "They are in a workplace - even if that workplace is someone else's home - hidden from public view
and labour inspection. The children are consequently at risk not only of exploitation but also of abuse and violence", says
Dr. June Kane, the author of the report. "It is vital that child domestic labour, so often neglected because the exploitation
and abuse take place behind closed doors, receives
VOLUME 3 | ISSUE 8 | AUGUST 2008

attention."

Children in domestic labour are usually

"invisible" in their communities, toiling for long DOMESTIC LABOUR:
hours with little or no pay, frequently abused, and
regularly deprived of the chance to play or go to THE INVISIBLE FACE OF
school. It traps children, mostly girls, in hidden
forms of exploitation, often involving abuse, health
risks and violence, according to the International
Labour Organisation.
CHILD LABOUR Kalpana K. Sudheer

Child domestic labour though at times seems invisible when compared to other forms of child labour can actually be very
overwhelming in the vastness of its exploitation of children. Why should an 8-year-old child be looking after your 9-year old
and also doing the work of an adult as well? Often the argument circles around the view that the child employed at least has
a place to stay, rather than live on the streets. What mockery! We exploit children in our homes in the name of service while
trying to protect them from exploitation in the streets! A roof to stay in exchange of service. The seriousness of such a
situation lies primarily in how the act dulls our sense of responsibility towards society. Secondly we actually begin to
negotiate the non-negotiable, that is, we violate the child's right to education. The education of the child cannot be
compromised with as it violates other interrelated rights. The child employed as a domestic helps is entitled to the right to
be educated and enjoy schooling and friends. The tender age of a child is exploited when s/he is made to work when s/he
should actually be enjoying in school.

A child serving as a domestic help is exposed to the joys of childhood without being able to enjoy it; a mere visual
presentation. The pleasures of childhood are but secondhand for a child domestic help; s/he experiences it through the
eyes and words of the children s/he looks after. Someone else's dreams become one's own. The truthful irony is that those
secondhand dreams will always be secondhand dreams, nothing more.

I quote M. De Boer Burquicchio, Deputy Secretary Council of Europe, who said, “Children are not mini-persons with
mini-rights, mini-feelings and mini-human dignity. They are vulnerable human beings with full rights which require more,
not less protection.”

It is high time we re-look into our roles as guardians of society and think about whether we have actually been good
caretakers or not. It should not be “someone else's responsibility” the next time you see a friend employing a child as
domestic help. Let us be prepared to face the little elves that threaten to dilute our sense of responsibility and be pro-
active to ensure that children are ensured their rights to be children.
References
www.unicef.org
http://www.union-network.org
Www.indiatogether.org
Kalpana K. Sudheer is a member of CPPR
 RANDOM
THOUGHTS D.Dhanuraj

W
e heard lot about Sports Diplomacy. Unlike in political arena, Sports Personalities across Indian
Sub continent play a major role in economic and cultural exchange among the citizenry.
Whether it is Indian Premier League (IPL) or Professional Hockey League (PHL), Indian and
Pakistani players play for local cities with true sports man spirit aspiring for the glory of success. There is
no divide and hatred when they play. We should not forget other nationalities also featuring in this
tournament. Sometimes, it proves how good this world is if these politically vitiated Governments are
played a minimalistic role. Remember these Sports leagues are not run by Government. They are
privately organised tournaments. Now the famous National Basket Ball Association (NBA) is planning to
enter India. Hope this will not only improve the game of basket ball in India but will create a larger
bonhomie with Uncle Sam quite contrary to Indo US nuclear deal.

I wonder what is the role of Government in Sports and Development in this country. I tried to
hook the now in/famous Sports Authority of India (SAI) website. If we are going by Board of Control for
Cricket in India (BCCI) standards, we cannot complain about a website. But we have won at least a few
VOLUME 3 | ISSUE 8 | AUGUST 2008

major tournaments in Cricket while I am not sure how many SAI can show case since its inception in
1984. In 10th plan, Sports Ministry has spent Rs 1925 crores1 for the development of Sports in this
country. This leads to a very parochial question of how many medals we have won in Olympics and Asian
Games since 1947 at what cost of state exchequer. The premier institute in this country Netaji Subhas
National Institute of Sports (NSNIS), Patiala website says there is no sports scholarship available because
of some administrative reasons.2 If Abhinva Bindra has won a Gold medal in Beijing Olympics, it is not
because of SAI or Sports Ministry' support. Like in many other sectors, emergence of a vibrant economy
has a direct bearing on this account. More and more private donations to improve the sporting culture of
this country will definitely fathom more gold medals to this nation. India Today reports3; Sports
Authority of India: Set up in 1984, it has an annual budget of over Rs 170 crore, a staff strength of close to
4,000 and consumes two-thirds of the sports budget in salaries. Does it have a core competence? No.
Indian sport doesn't need a link between the sports ministry and federations. Indeed, it doesn't need a
sports ministry.

What corporate India is planning for the development of Indian Sports is interesting. In 2005,
London-based steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal set up the Mittal Champions Trust with a $10 million
endowment4 to find and train promising Indian athletes. Its flock of 32 produced over a dozen that
qualified for Beijing this year. Another group, Olympic Gold Quest, with less funding but more sports
experience, supported just two athletes: shooter Gagan Narang and runner Tintu Luka. Gold Quest is the
brainchild of Geet Sethi, the billiards champion, and Prakash Padukone, India's best-ever badminton
player. Hope more companies would get into such initiatives in the times to come.

Everyone complains about the lack of sports infrastructure and sports culture in this country.
But the Olympics medals show that if facilities and provisions are there, we can be a champion team. If
the Government spending ends with sponsoring the officials to go for a world tour, why don't they scrap
the existing system and invite open bids to the sports arena also. My random thoughts revolve around the
larger concern of institutional investments by the private bodies in Sports.

In the 1984 Parliamentary elections, BJP won just two seats. By 1996, they managed to be the
ruling party in the centre by winning the most number of seats. I see a parallel history to China's
emergence in the History of Olympics Games. In 1988 they won 5 Gold medals and in 2008 they have won
50 gold medals. If they are good at improving the system in 20 years time, my country is logged in
Political chauvinism and bureaucratic red tapism as I mentioned in the above paragraphs.

1. http://yas.nic.in/yasroot/budget/x_plan/xth_plan.htm
2. http://www.nsnis.org/ as on August 25, 2008.
3. India Today, August 13, 2008
4. http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/aug2008/gb20080818_493590_page_2.htm
 the nigerian diary By Manali Shah

Street Trading: The “Unofficial” Lifeline of Lagos

“Eighty per cent of the people who live in Lagos work in the informal economy,
which accounts for more than two-thirds of Nigeria's gross domestic product. This
gives informal workers unusual economic power: about US$125 billion worth. The
unemployment and the massive social upheaval and misery that would exist if the
thousands of people who immigrate to Lagos every day weren't able to find work
could quickly lead to social and political anarchy. The informal sector is what holds
the country together and what determines its shape.”1

One thing that mirrors Nigeria to India is the booming informal sector. In housing
(the sprawling slums), transport (the completely unregulated bush taxis, okadas-
bikes, the “business” run by the National Union of Road Transport Workers), trade
(stationery and mobile vendors selling any thing and everything from fruits and
vegetables, cooked food, mobile accessories, clothes, newspapers, alcohol, spices,
pure water” sachets, cold drinks). Walking on any Nigerian street makes me feel as
I am back home in Delhi! The long traffic jams and busy lifestyles further fuel the
street trade with many Nigerians buying what they need on the way to and from
office.

Unfortunately what is also similar to India is the government and elitist

VOLUME 3 | ISSUE 8 | AUGUST 2008

responsedisgust and abomination! The government is more than eager to convert

Nigeria's cities into “mega towns” modeled after the global cities which are clean,
modernized and not an “eyesore”! Informal sector policies in Nigeria in the 1980s
were very repressive, while the response to the sector in the 1990s was much more
pragmatic and promotional. The military administration of General Buhari initiated
an aggressive campaign for environmental awareness and sanitation as the focus of
the fifth phase of the so-called 'War Against Environmental Indiscipline-WAI” (now
called Kick Against Indiscipline). A large number of environmental task forces were
set up to organize public enlightenment campaigns, and to enforce environmental
discipline through mobile sanitation courts. Special days of the month were set
aside for general clean-up by everybody to unblock drains, clean residential and
work places, and remove heaps of rubbish. The cleanest cities were promised a
prize of one million nairas, and a definite improvement in the environment
appeared to have been achieved, at least temporarily.

Unfortunately, the potential merit of the program was marred by overzealous

officials and the military drive for quick results. The campaign soon became
associated with misguided efforts to contain urban growth, and to restrain the
informal sector, as the sector was blamed for all sorts of evil social influences
littering the streets, obstructing traffic, creating various forms of pollution and
nuisance, crime, piracy, prostitution, foreign exchange malpractices, etc.
Informal sector enterprises such as hawking and other forms of street business were
incessantly harassed and compelled to relocate to remote and inaccessible
outskirts of the cities and towns. Kiosks, illegal structures, and shanty towns in
Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt, and other state capitals were raided and ruthlessly
demolished.2
Today, beautification of the environment, curb on crime and reduced traffic are all
justifications to the “zero tolerance” towards street trading in Lagos. According to
the notice issued by the Lagos State's Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Information
and Strategy in June 2008, “if you buy goods, wares, articles, or anything capable of
being bought or buy any services whatsoever on roads, highways, expressways, or
bridges in and around Lagos, or within or around any public building in Lagos State
from anyone offering such goods or services for sale, you shall be liable to a fine of
N5,000 or six months imprisonment as a first offender and a stiffer punishment for
subsequent offences.”

1. Lagos Go Slow by ROBERT NEUWIRTH, accessed at http://www.brightsightgroup.com/WordDocs/RobertNeuwirthLagos.pdf

2. THE URBAN INFORMAL SECTOR IN NIGERIA: TOWARDS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH, AND SOCIAL HARMONY Geoffrey I. Nwaka accessed at
http://www.globalurban.org/Issue1PIMag05/NWAKA%20article.htm
 The warning, according to the notice, applied to all streets in all local
government areas of Lagos State. Street traders are also not left out in the
punishment list as the notice also warned that anyone found selling any good or
services on streets or roads shall be liable to six months imprisonment or an
option of fine. It says, “if you hawk, display or sell any goods, wares, articles or
anything capable of being sold or offer any services whatsoever on roads,
highways, expressway and bridges in and around Lagos State, you shall be liable
to a fine of N5,000 or six months imprisonment as a first offender.” Traders on
overhead bridges, owners of shops extended to highways and indiscriminate
poster pasted are also liable to same punishment. In 2007, the State
Government banned offices, organizations and residential homes from allowing
street trading or illegal selling activities in their frontages or compound.

According to estimates by The Social and Economic Rights Action

Centre, a local community organization, more than 12,000 residents have been
evicted in Lagos since 2005. Nationwide, more than 1.2 million people have
been forcibly displaced since 2001, often without warning or compensation.3 I
have also witnessed this inhumanity by the officials burning and breaking the
broken remains of the wailing traders. Concurrent with the ban and illegality,
huge amounts of “dash” (bribe) are collected from the traders by the task forces
of the local government officials. The amount for the hawkers varies between
400-2000 Naira (1 Indian Rupee = 3 Naira) in a month and frequency is erratic and
unpredictable.

I was hoping to find sympathy from the consumers of the street trading,
but there are mixed responses. I found many online articles and forums which
show a clear divide between the affluent Nigerian communitythose who are
vehemently against the ban as a threat to livelihoods of innocent people, but
there are many who also believe that those who engage in street trade on the
VOLUME 3 | ISSUE 8 | AUGUST 2008

roads and highways not only endanger their own lives but also the lives of others.

There is urgent need for an informed and participatory dialogue on this

issue for a solution that appeases the disgruntled but at the same time does not
uproot the livelihoods of millions of Lagosians.

3. Lagos Go Slow by ROBERT NEUWIRTH, accessed at http://www.brightsightgroup.com/WordDocs/RobertNeuwirthLagos.pdf

References
http://www.globalurban.org/Issue1PIMag05/NWAKA%20article.htm
Http://thepmnews.com/2008/06/14/govt-goes-tough-on-street-traders
Http://www.brightsightgroup.com/WordDocs/RobertNeuwirthLagos.pdf

Manali Shah is the Programme and Resource Development Manager, Center for Public Policy Research, currently serving as an international volunteer,
assigned to work as an Organization Development Advisor with an organization called Give (Greater Involvement in Volunteering Efforts) in Lagos, Nigeria

DEAD END