Bigger Than Protest: Anna Hazare's Transformative Plan for India

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http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/12/bigger-than-protest-anna-hazares-transformative-plan-for-india/249572/

RALEGAN SIDDHI, India -- On the afternoon we visited the home town of Indian activist Anna Hazare, about 100 supporters and students sat on the ground beneath a peepal tree in the courtyard of the gated Padmavati temple compound, where he has lived since returning from his August hunger strike in New Delhi.

Hazare sat on a raised platform, just to the left of a sculpture of Mohandas Gandhi, the inspiration behind Hazare's work in this small town. The 74-year-old Hazare has a Gandhian look himself, dressed in white homespun cotton and a white topi cap, though whereas Gandhi's smile often had a certain mischievous quality, Hazare is usually earnest and often stern. He was seated at a table filled with microphones, on two bright-red vinyl chairs that have been stacked together to add height.

He talked for half an hour, on subjects from high politics -- his defiant pledge to continue the anti-corruption campaign until it succeeds, even if it takes 12 years -- to a warning about students who waste time smoking and drinking. "Have you ever heard that someone was a drinker and became a powerful person?" he asked. "We should think about what we are doing. What should I be doing? Think about it!"

After the public talk we followed him into the temple compound room that has become his new home. (Before becoming famous, he had lived for 35 years in a plainly furnished 10-by-12 room at the back of another temple down the road.) Barefoot, Hazare sat cross-legged on a bed with a blue-and-white striped mattress, answering questions in between reading or signing a steady stream of papers his aides would bring in.