Balmurli Natrajan
I hope to focus here on a crucial aspect of Ajay that is somewhat less-known to most people who may discuss the case.
Ajay’s research-oriented mind which demands intellectually sound arguments rather than politically expedient solutions, and his simultaneous commitment to truth and fairness – all of which make him, in my opinion, wary and distrustful of both the far right and the far left. As I know Ajay, he would find them both to be sweeping in their generalizations, simplistic in their recommendations for solutions to complex problems, and also cavalier towards individual rights and liberties. Please treat this letter as a testimonial for Ajay’s innocence in the case for which he is imprisoned.
I have known Ajay since I met him on a rainy day in June/July 1994 when I came from the University of Iowa as a doctoral student in anthropology to study issues of caste and craft in the Bhilai-Durg area. At that time, Ajay was already working as the research assistant to Prof. Jonathan Parry, a world-renowned social anthropologist specializing on matters of caste, Hinduism and the anthropology of industry and work. I quickly realized that Ajay was a veritable treasure trove for any researcher. Later, I also realized that Ajay is not simply a very good fieldworker who could assist researchers like me in the field, but was in his own right also an independent minded thinker who could raise questions, frame problems and not simply rush to conclusions. In other words, Ajay is someone who could see more than one side to any issue – a crucial quality for any researcher. I will argue that this is also a quality that is not easily amenable to authoritarian hierarchies of command.
Wherever we went, Ajay would aid me in conducting interviews, asking the questions himself at times, engaging in casual conversations as anthropologists do for participant-observation and most importantly, not given to prejudging people – a quality that again makes him not a big fan of social engineering visions and projects. In this sense Ajay is a quintessential anthropologist-in-the-making, learning quickly, not in a hurry to reach conclusions, curious about the ways in which people live, not condemning those beliefs that people hold that may be at odds with one’s own, and so on. After every visit to a basti, Ajay would engage with me in full-fledged discussions about the nature of my project, my lines of analytical thinking about the issues at hand and in this process I gradually grew to trust his theoretical acumen too. Ajay is also a natural genius for the most specialized of anthropological techniques – genealogical kinship chart making. He has a memory for details that could with very little effort know who is related to who and in what way – abstruse details for most people, but critical for anthropologists. Ajay’s consistent interest in trying to learn other Indian languages and dialects and communicate in them combined with his abiding interest in people also allowed him to acquire an encyclopedic knowledge of local customs, traditions, history and linguistic variations. This, in my opinion has given Ajay the ability to see humanity in the most difficult of life situations, to understand people’s modes of living in their complexity and to never look at any human being as dispensable or as a means to an end, even if that end is something compelling to progressive-minded people, such as social justice.
This kind of thinking by Ajay also led him to appreciate the power of the Gandhian dictum of “poverty as the worst form of violence” which to him captured the existing social reality in India far better than anything else. There have been numerous occasions when Ajay and I have had discussions about Indian politics, religion, culture and society (like most Indians, I suppose, we are argumentative!) In each of these conversations, I have been amazed at how Ajay has been scathing in his critique of parties across the political spectrum in their collective failure to address basic needs of the poorest, including their basic rights as citizens – such as the right to education. But, Ajay is not just an arm-chair critic pontificating at length or given to empty sloganeering. He is surely not someone whose vote can be taken for granted and he has expressed these painful choices every time there has been an election. For Ajay, the ends do not justify any means; rather he has always struggled to “be the change that one wishes to see.” Even if this meant engaging in slow and non-dramatic forms of change.
Not surprisingly, Ajay was propelled to work very hard (sometimes at the cost of his health), since September 2005, to attempt to build a sustainable future (health, literacy, livelihood with dignity) for children in Dabrapara, an urban working-class neighborhood in Bhilai. What prompted his almost feverish involvement in this area was the experience of witnessing the “unnecessary” death of a young woman and a child in his neighborhood due to lack of resources and access to healthcare. Lachmi – the child who died of (a curable form of childhood) leukemia after she had been consistently misdiagnosed and expensively treated by private doctors in Bhilai – was the daughter of Chanda, whom Ajay and Professor Parry got to know while Chanda was working as a laborer on a building site, and Prof. Parry was conducting research on informal sector labour. Chanda’s husband had been badly injured in a truck accident, as a result of which he was unemployed. Entirely on his own initiative, Ajay took upon himself to help the family and to get Lachmi properly treated (though by now it was too late to save her life). Instead of making him despondent, these events only renewed his commitment and conviction that it was imperative and possible to bring back some dignity to the lives of children. It was in Lachmi’s memory, and out of a passionate sense that many such tragedies are entirely avoidable, that he founded Drksakshi (again entirely on his own initiative) in September 2005 with no budget at all, and all the labour given for free.
Drksakshi (eye-witness for social change, www.drksakshi.org) was started with the resolve that no child would simply die on his watch due to poor healthcare facilities, malnutrition or fatalism. Since January 2006 when it was registered (and continuing into the present) Drksakshi Balangan has become a safe haven for girl children (currently 25 girls) who have either dropped out of school or have never been sent to one. All children are from the most impoverished and stigmatized families. Balangan provides a nutritious mid-day meal (rice, vegetables, oil, daal and milk), a place where children from ages 6 through 14 come and learn with pleasure and dignity, and where the entire community of approximately 150 households has come together in support of such a place for their children. When Ajay started the Balangan, children suffered from severe malnutrition – with lesions on their head and bodies, and some suffering from night-blindness. Working with like-minded doctors and nutritionists in the region, Ajay and his small team of volunteers have changed the face of this community and brought back health to these children who now appear quite normal. Children who could not read or write nor had much motivation to do so, now come to Balangan regularly and on time, have learnt to read local newspapers, learnt to speak and write in Hindi and English, learn with pride about Chhattisgarhi and the wisdom contained in its folklore.
Instead of attempting to build a parallel educational system as many NGOs do, Ajay wanted to work in conjunction with the government education programs. For him, the government programs, especially in health literacy (mitanin) were exemplary success stories and he was convinced that the much-condemned government schools needed to be revived. So, Ajay worked hard to have Drksakshi Balangan act as a “bridge school” and has thus far “bridged” about 10 children to the government school in the same neighborhood. The staff of Drksakshi are all local residents who have realized that Drksakshi is their own. Where it was once difficult to get parents to think of sending their daughters to school in any serious manner, girls now come and spend the entire day on their own volition. This is surely a minor miracle given the depressing statistics recently released about malnourishment among India’s children, and the even more fragile situation of the girl child.
Building upon another of his talents – an eye to detail and a heart bent on capturing the dynamics of lived life – Ajay has also started Drksakshi Janani, an effort to train some of the older students the skills for a livelihood through learning the power and possibility of photography and videography. Ajay’s goal is to help those older children (14 and above) to set up a photographic studio and tap into the stable market for documenting life events such as marriages, birthdays, etc. This is a challenging idea since it is still very tough for young women to break into this market. Most recently, two girls being trained by Ajay, made a 2-minute film on gender inequality titled “Aisa Kyon?” Finally, Ajay has also initiated a women’s microcredit cooperative and self-help group, Drksakshi’s Laxmi, which has provided local residents a way to come together and envision their own development.
Ajay’s commitment to seeing Chhattisgarh and his local neighborhood develop for all is evidenced in such sites as Drksakshi. Needless to say, such an effort which is still fledgling, has already begun to suffer due to Ajay’s imprisonment. Drksakshi has since fallen into very tough times. The entire community of Dabrapara is struck with disbelief at Ajay bhaiyya or Ajay uncle’s arrest. Most children have taken a break due to the festive season and gone to their native villages for a few days. Ajay’s wife, Shobha, also associated with Drksakshi since its inception (and also a film-maker) is slowly gathering her spirits and strength to not let Ajay’s dreams get dashed. But she faces a Herculean task and has woefully low resources (financial and human) to motivate the teachers (who have been working at Drksakshi for either no salary at all or an irregular Diwali bonus or two whenever possible) to continue to be witness to change. The children too who remain behind during the summer have begun to notice Ajay’s absence and seek him out whenever anyone visits Dabrapara. And yet, the work needs to continue until Ajay comes back, which is the fervent hope of all the residents in this community and especially the children who know that they were enroute to making their own histories.
Balmurli Natrajan
Assistant Professor
William Paterson University of New Jersey
USA