Anna Hazare: India's New Hero

August 16th, 2011, a man by the name of Kisan Baburao Hazare was arrested just four hours before a planned hunger strike by Indian authorities, a move that has sparked the attention of thousands of social activists across India and millions across the world.

Why you might ask? Well his reasoning was because of the Janlokpal bill, a "Citizens Ombudsman Bill", or anti-corruption bill designed to successfully eliminate corruption on all levels, refocus attention on the successful redress of grievances and protect those that try to call out certain corrupt authorities within the system. If successful this bill would install an independent body with the absolute power to investigate all branches of the government for corrupt ideals and individuals and act without prior government permission.

But who exactly is Anna Hazare, a man of such peace wielding ability with the people of India and other countries around him? Well he was born on June 15th, 1937, and after years of political turmoil, he became a social activist for the Indian Movement against corruption. He is largely renowned for reforming a village named Ralegan Siddhi into a model village, of which earned him the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award by the government of India. The reformation of the village included the banning of Alcohol, increased Milk production, the implementation of a Grain bank, and educational advances. At 25, after reaching the seventh intellectual standard in India, Anna was ordered into military service, and after the Pakistan war with India, Hazare decided to retire his military service at the age of 38. This came after Anna Hazare's thorough readings of literary works from Gandhi, Vivekananda, and Bhave, of which Havare dedicated his life to the pursuit of equality among humanity especially within his country.

After dedicating his life to the humanities and preservation of social justice, Anna Hazare began to radically fuse himself with other prominent members of social activism to push for a plethora of causes, most of them mainly for anti corruption and the general increase of happiness among the citizens of India. During the early 2000's, Hazare pushed for the Maharashtra right to information act to be passed, a bill considered to be the base document for the 2005 RTI Bill, which in itself allowed for citizens and lower security officers and political leaders to access information easier to gain a better foothold on the corruption that is still currently leading the nation.

After fighting for the RTI bill, Hazare decided to attack the Official Duties Discharge Delay and regulation of Transfers in the political sector. This bill was designed to keep corrupt political leaders from sitting back and relaxing in appointed positions for years on end while others that were honest had to transfer every few weeks and months into the position. Hazare's position on this was to propose the bill to prevent paper trails from disappearing by corrupt entities while honest individuals were pushed to region of India where they couldn't interfere. Maharashtra became the first state in India to introduce such an act, preventing transfer before the three year stint, although the bill to date still hasn't received much enforcement, thus adding to the corruption within India to date.

In 2006, in reference to the murder case of the exposed case of Indian National Congress leader Pawanraje Nimabalker by Padamsinh Baijirao, a member of Parliament and Nationalist Congress Party, Anna Hazare has been put on contract for murder in which he fought vigorously against Baijirao. As of August 16th, 2011, the verdict is still pending on whether there is enough evidence to convict Baijirao, Anna Hazare still in contract's graze as he fights frantically to push even further for activist causes, an effort that many have tried and followed his path around the world, but have lost the fight to political influences.

In many ways, Anna Hazare is culturally and politically related to the Gandhian way, or the pursuit of the general well being of the Indian people. I can only hope that through this brave individual's radical push for productive social formalities, we can eventually see a better world image emitting from the Indian region of this world. I hope that this article encourages more people to be active in issues surrounding the political corruption that haunts every nation on this planet. Thank you Anna Hazare, you are making a difference in the Indian community, and others will indefinitely follow in your footsteps.