Sermon:
So there I was in this small town in the state of Maharashtra about three hours drive over terrible roads to the north of Mumbai, formerly Bombay. I'm sitting on a mat under this huge colorful tent, and I'm surrounded by about 5,000 Indian people, filling every space under the tent and around it.
I'm sitting next to the stage with Kathy Sreedhar, the director of the Holdeen India Program of the Unitarian Universalist Association and Vivek Pandit, an amazing organizer and leader. One after another, people come forward to testify as to how the government is failing to adequately distribute food to villagers. Then the organizers come to the stage to preach hope to the people, letting them know if they work together they have the power to force the corrupt government to help them. The people clap and join in chanting in the language of Maharashtri, "We do not have to be poor," and "We are not cattle."
Then, they vote. As the organizers ask for approval of the demands to the government to feed the people, time after time 5,000 hands shoot into the air with a cheer each time. What a stirring sight to see real democracy at work with people who are outcasts in their own nation, people who have almost nothing, except the power of linking their lives together.
This was one of many inspiring moments I had when I spent the month of January in India. I traveled with my good friend, Kathy Sreedhar, who invited me to experience the other India, the India that few people see or even know about, the India that has eight hundred million people who live in poverty, that has a government that is corrupt and unresponsive to the needs of the poor, and the India that has so much promise.
As a new board member for the Holdeen India Program, I was eager to see how effectively the half-a-million dollars a year from the Holdeen endowment was being used. And I was impressed beyond words! Every one of the dozen or so projects I saw was incredibly effective in helping the poorest of the poor to organize so that they could have a chance to survive and thrive.
My first week with Kathy was spent visiting several projects in the state of Gujarat, which is about half way down the length of the country on the west coast. The first site we visited was a place called Navsarjan, which means New Beginnings. And that's exactly what it is, a place where those who are the castaways of Indian society can start over again with hope.
Martin Macwan is the founder and director, and he is one of several inspiring leaders I met while in India. In his past Martin worked for a traditional aid agency, but when he saw that the Dalits and women were left out of their efforts, he left and began training and organizing those excluded people to struggle for their political and economic rights. His strategy became "Educate, Organize, Agitate."
One day several months after Martin began his organizing efforts he returned to his office to find four of his fellow organizers murdered, and no charges were ever filed. He realized that he was up against those from the upper castes who would do anything to keep the Dalits from gaining their rights.
Dalits are what used to be called untouchables and what Mahatma Gandhi called "children of God," but they prefer the name "Dalit" because it means oppressed or broken people, which sadly is all too accurate. They are the lowest caste in a strict and oppressive caste system that still dominates India's society, especially in rural areas, long after it was outlawed by the Indian constitution.
Dalits are outcastes in their own country, prevented from entering many villages, schools, health centers, temples, or even to draw water from the village well. They're also confined to certain occupations, if they can find jobs at all. It's thought by many that even the shadow of a Dalit will contaminate those of upper castes.
Let me give you an example that Kathy told me about. There's a sub-caste of Dalit women who are called manual scavengers because they're forced to clean excrement from latrines, sometimes with their bare hands, for 1 rupee per collection. Martin convinced them that they had the right to use their collective power to go on strike.
And when they did, the upper castes had no idea what to do. They certainly were not willing to clean their own toilets since they had never done that. But the villages soon stank to high heaven. So they eventually gave in, and the government provided more pay, better working conditions, and education for their daughters so the cycle could be broken.
Now Navsarjan works in 3000 villages, and Martin has helped organize the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights. In the year 2000 he received the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, resulting in his being featured on 60 Minutes and National Geographic and speaking at our Unitarian Universalist General Assembly.
In spite of this notoriety, Martin is a mild-mannered man whose face lights up when he speaks of the young people in his school. Navsarjan runs a school for Dalit young men and women so they'll have a chance to break the cycle of poverty. We went from classroom to classroom to meet these eager students and see them learning how to use computers, do photography (with only one camera), fix cell phones, repair cars, and build furniture.
When we finished our tour, I shook the hand of one of the boys, and suddenly was overwhelmed by about 15 young men and women who wanted to shake my hand. It dawned on me after a few moments that these were "untouchables" who were not allowed to touch anyone outside of their own caste, and suddenly there was someone who actually wanted to shake their hand. It was the first of many "meltdown moments" when tears filled my eyes.
Another meltdown moment occurred when we visited a project run by a group called SEWA, which stands for Self-Employed Women's Association, and focuses on the needs of poor women. We drove to a village and walked through the streets to a house with a big porch. On the porch were about 80 women of all ages sitting on the floor. Facing them was a woman standing in front of a small chalkboard with the Gujarati alphabet and some simple words on it - or so I was told. We watched as, one at a time, women would make their way to the front and with a small stick in hand would recite the alphabet as best they could and then read the simple words.
These women were learning to read. When Kathy asked if any had gone to school, all of them shook their heads. When asked if their brothers had gone to school, they all nodded. One woman said that her husband refused to let her out of the house for anything other than shopping, but when she saw all the other women going to school, for the first time she told her husband that he could not stop her. Now he is pleased that she reads well enough not to get cheated at the shops.
You have to understand that these people in Gujarat are not only struggling against poverty and the caste system, but a series of tragedies that are beyond our imagination. In the year 2000, they suffered a terrible earthquake that killed thousands of people. Then in 2002 a typhoon hit the coastal area causing widespread flooding and death. Also, in 2002 many Hindus were killed in a train fire, and Muslims were blamed, setting off three months of rioting that killed over 3,000 Muslims.
The riots were supported by the fundamentalists fascists Hindu state government that has instituted policies to drive Muslims out of the area by any means necessary. But the projects supported by Holdeen worked to stop the violence and to unite Muslims and Hindus.
During those three months of rioting, Martin Macwan walked to 475 villages trying to convince Hindus to stop killing Muslims. And SEWA encouraged and supported Hindu villagers to protect Muslims at risk to their own lives.
Because Navsarjan and SEWA still support Muslims and struggle actively for the interests of the poor, the Hindu government has stopped all funding for their work from outside sources so that Holdeen and other agencies are no longer allowed to give money to their efforts. They are now barely hanging on with many of their organizers working for nothing or almost nothing.
From Gujarat, Kathy and I flew to Mumbai, and then drove north about two hours to a beautiful place nestled in the foothills called Usgaon Hill. Usgaon is a cooperative with the mission of helping to organize the poorest of the poor, and it's run by an incredible man named Vivek Pandit with the help of Dalits, Tribals, and ex-bonded laborers.
Vivek grew up in a Brahman home and was expected to become a Hindu priest, but he rebelled against this high caste expectation and dedicated his life to helping the lower castes. He and his wife Vidyullata are credited with freeing more than 1,500 bonded laborers, who are lower caste people, who become virtual slaves simply because they cannot pay off a loan or their parents or even grandparents loan.
The practice is illegal, as are many of the oppressive acts commonly practiced, but thousands of lower caste children and adults are trapped as bonded laborers. For their work, Vivek and Vidyllata received the 1999 International Anti-Slavery Award.
Vivek gained more notoriety when he read about a Dalit man who was stoned to death for seeking shelter in a rainstorm in a Hindu temple. Vivek organized demonstrations and wrote articles for the newspapers that helped send nine upper caste men to jail for murder.
Vivek also organized parents and students to help obtain adequate funding for public schools by having hundreds of children march to the government offices with begging bowls. When the government refused to respond he took up a collection from the children and parents and offered it to the government. This shamed them so badly that they gave in and increased funding.
Vivek has helped organize just about everyone from the lower castes, including farmers, taxi drivers, teachers, and hotel workers. After many years of pressure, he has convinced the state government to give his farmers union a significant amount of arid, almost unusable land, and he's now organizing the farmers to plant bio-diesel vegetation that can be used to make fuel. His hope is that this project will eventually enable the farmers to make a decent living for their families.
Another project of Vivek's is the creation of Bhonga Shala schools. These are schools that are merely huts built in many brickyards that are spread throughout the area. In the past, the brickyards have used children as virtual slaves to make and carry the bricks, but by demanding that these children receive an education in these hut schools, they are taken out of the brickyards and are able to have a chance to live decent lives.
At the Usgaon cooperative and throughout the area people greet each other not with the traditional "Namaste," and folded hands, but with "Zindabad!" and a raised fist, which means "Long live the struggle." Vivek and his followers are in a long and difficult struggle. His life has been threatened so many times that he travels with his own bodyguard.
One of the Vivek's greatest joys is the school he's built at Usgaon. Forty Tribal girls aged six to twelve reside at the school. The Tribal people are native Indians who are outside the caste system but like the Dalits, deprived of their political and economic rights. Most public schools will not allow them in the door, and the literacy rate for Tribal women is about 1/2 percent. But at this school the girls thrive.
Another melting moment was when I visited the girl's morning prayers. They assemble every morning and chant prayers for about ten minutes. These prayers have been written by Vivek, and they are humanist and I dare say Unitarian. Vivek believes that traditional Hinduism, Islam, and the Tribal animistic religion make their followers too dependent and prevent them from taking control of their own lives. So he has developed prayers that encourage a belief in their own inherent worth and dignity. Following the prayers, the girls exercised, meditated, and then they stood and held hands in a circle and sang "We Shall Overcome." I melted.
My hope is that we can partner with Vivek and Usgaon Hill so that we can help them in their heroic struggles. I can't think of any more effective and empowering group to bring about personal and social change.
Martin and Vivek, and the other inspiring leaders I met while in India, are Gandhians, dedicated to following the teachings, spirit and strategy of Mahatma Gandhi. While in Gujarat I visited the Gandhi museum and the ashram where he lived and worked. Gandhi is one of my heroes, and I was deeply moved to be reacquainted with his life.
While visiting the museum I read these words by Gandhi: "Nature can provide for the needs of people but not for the greed of people." If all of us could provide for the needs of people and not for the greed, I'm convinced that most of the problems of the world, including an unjust war in Iraq, would dissolve.
My eyes were opened by the people I visited in India, and then my heart opened as well, not only to their suffering but to their struggle, their courage, and their hope. They gave me faith that we can do so much if we are united in community. And I hope your's will be as well.
So may it be.
Prayer & Meditation:This is the dream of my life
May it come true
May the children of human beings
Live with human dignity
May no one sell their bodies
To quell the pangs of hunger,
And may my inner urge ever be
To destroy oppression
May the flowers yet to bloom
Not be trampled underfoot
May every breath I take
Help new flowers to bloom
May I never be weak, vulnerable
And powerless
May I find within myself
The strength to contain storms
The night that has just passed
Was the long & darkest
Let the emerging rays
Live forever in the huts of the poor
May those who have no food
And no dignity, be my inspiration
May every step I take today
Be in the service of that God
This is my prayer
May it come true
May the children of human beings
Live with human dignity--Vivek Pandit
