Paul de bendern biography of mahatma gandhi

  • The septuagenarian Hazare, clad in white, began his fast on a stage at the memorial site of independence movement leader Mahatma Gandhi.
  • His mother, Indira Gandhi, was also prime minister when she was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984.
  • And yet for millions of Indians, he is a 21st-century Mahatma Gandhi, inspiring a rare wave of protests against the spiralling corruption that has tarnished the.

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    By Paul dem Bendern

    NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Mahesh Kundu paid $45 for a driving license, Rupam Bhatia $110 to be admitted to hospital and Vishrant Chandra $130 for a marriage certificate. These are the commonplace bribery stories experienced bygd middle-class Indians who have poured into the streets to säga "enough fryst vatten enough."

    Corruption in India fryst vatten as old as the Ramayana, when the evil giant Ravana bribed a guardian of hell to avoid punishment in the ancient Indian epic. What is unprecedented is the spontaneous middle-class anti-graft movement coalescing around hunger-fasting activist Anna Hazare, a former army soldier- turned-social activist, who has created an Indian "spring" of rebellion against politics as usual.

    Tens of thousands of people have joined peaceful protests across the country, forcing a weak and fumbling government and an equally hapless motstånd to try to placate growing frustration and anger at the political class.

    "Anna Hazare has raised our inner consc

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    India protests swell as anti-corruption activist fasts

    An uncompromising Singh, 78, who is widely criticized as out of touch, dismissed the fast by Anna Hazare demanding tougher laws as “totally misconceived,” sparking outrage as lawmakers cried “shame.”
    “It is a wake-up call for all of us unless we put our house in order. The people of this country are becoming restless,” said Arun Jaitley, a leader of the opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
    The squat and slight 74-year-old Hazare fasted on Wednesday as thousands of his followers gathered outside the jail, the latest development in a crisis that saw him arrested on Tuesday and then refuse to leave jail after the government ordered his release.
    Hazare, who has struck a nerve with millions of Indians by demanding tougher laws against rampant corruption in India, insists he wants the right to return to a city park where he had originally planned to publicly fast, before he leaves jail.
    The arrest and sudden about-tur

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    NEW DELHI - Police arrested India's leading anti-corruption campaigner on Tuesday, just hours before he was due to begin a fast to the death, as the beleaguered government cracked down on a self-styled Gandhian activist agitating for a new "freedom" struggle.

    At least 1,200 followers of the 74-year-old Anna Hazare were also detained, signaling a hard-line stance from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh against anti-government protests, a gamble that risks a wider backlash against the ruling Congress party.

    Dressed in his trademark white shirt, white cap and spectacles in the style of independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, Hazare was driven away in a car by plainclothes police, waving to hundreds of supporters outside his residence in New Delhi.

    His followers later said he had begun his fast.

    "The second freedom struggle has started ... This is a fight for change," Hazare said in a pre-recorded message broadcast online. "The protests should not stop. The time has c

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