name	Arundhati Roy
birth date	November 24, 1961
birth place	Shillong, Meghalaya, India
nationality	Indian
religion	Atheist
occupation	Novelist, essayist, activist
period	1997–Present
notableworks	The God of Small Things
awards	}}

Arundhati Roy (, born 24 November 1961) is an Indian novelist. She won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel, ''The God of Small Things'', and has also written two screenplays and several collections of essays. Her writings on various social, environmental and political issues have been a subject of major controversy in India.

Early life and background

Arundhati Roy was born in Shillong, Meghalaya, India, to Ranjit Roy, a Bengali Hindu tea planter and Mary Roy, a Malayali Syrian Christian women's rights activist.

She spent her childhood in Aymanam in Kerala, and went to school at Corpus Christi, Kottayam, followed by the Lawrence School, Lovedale, in Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. She then studied architecture at the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, where she met her first husband, architect Gerard da Cunha.

Roy met her second husband, filmmaker Pradip Krishen, in 1984, and played a village girl in his award-winning movie ''Massey Sahib''. Until made financially stable by the success of her novel The God of Small Things, she worked various jobs, including running aerobics classes at five-star hotels in New Delhi. Roy is a cousin of prominent media personality Prannoy Roy, the head of the leading Indian TV media group NDTV,. She lives in New Delhi.

Career

Literary career

Early career: screenplays

Early in her career, Roy worked for television and movies. She wrote the screenplays for ''In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones'' (1989), a movie based on her experiences as a student of architecture, directed by her current husband, and ''Electric Moon'' (1992); she also appeared as a performer in the first. Roy attracted attention in 1994, when she criticised Shekhar Kapur's film ''Bandit Queen'', based on the life of Phoolan Devi. In her film review titled, 'The Great Indian Rape Trick', she questioned the right to "restage the rape of a living woman without her permission," and charged Kapur with exploiting Devi and misrepresenting both her life and its meaning.

''The God of Small Things''

Roy began writing her first novel, ''The God of Small Things'', in 1992, completing it in 1996. The book is semi-autobiographical and a major part captures her childhood experiences in Aymanam.

The publication of ''The God of Small Things'' catapulted Roy to instant international fame. It received the 1997 Booker Prize for Fiction and was listed as one of the ''New York Times'' Notable Books of the Year for 1997. It reached fourth position on the ''New York Times'' Bestsellers list for Independent Fiction. From the beginning, the book was also a commercial success: Roy received half a million pounds as an advance; It was published in May, and the book had been sold to eighteen countries by the end of June.

''The God of Small Things'' received stellar reviews in major American newspapers such as ''The New York Times'' (a "dazzling first novel," "extraordinary," "at once so morally strenuous and so imaginatively supple") and the ''Los Angeles Times'' ("a novel of poignancy and considerable sweep"), and in Canadian publications such as the ''Toronto Star'' ("a lush, magical novel"). By the end of the year, it had become one of the five best books of 1997 by ''TIME''. Critical response in the United Kingdom was less positive, and that the novel was awarded the Booker Prize caused controversy; Carmen Callil, a 1996 Booker Prize judge, called the novel "execrable," and ''The Guardian'' called the contest "profoundly depressing." In India, the book was criticized especially for its unrestrained description of sexuality by E. K. Nayanar, then Chief Minister of Roy's homestate Kerala, where she had to answer charges of obscenity.

Later career

Since the success of her novel, Roy has been working as a screenplay writer again, writing a television serial, ''The Banyan Tree'', and the documentary ''DAM/AGE: A Film with Arundhati Roy'' (2002).

In early 2007, Roy announced that she would begin work on a second novel.

Arundhati Roy was one of the contributors on the book ''We Are One: A Celebration of Tribal Peoples'', released in October 2009. The book explores the culture of peoples around the world, portraying their diversity and the threats to their existence. The royalties from the sale of this book go to the indigenous rights organization Survival International.

Advocacy and controversy

Since ''The God of Small Things'' Roy has devoted herself mainly to nonfiction and politics, publishing two more collections of essays, as well as working for social causes. She is a spokesperson of the anti-globalization/alter-globalization movement and a vehement critic of neo-imperialism and of the global policies of the United States. She also criticizes India's nuclear weapons policies and the approach to industrialization and rapid development as currently being practiced in India, including the Narmada Dam project and the power company Enron's activities in India.

Support for Kashmiri separatism

In an interview with ''Times of India'' published in August 2008, Arundhati Roy expressed her support for the independence of Kashmir from India after massive demonstrations in favor of independence took place—some 500,000 separatists rallied in Srinagar in the Kashmir part of Jammu and Kashmir state of India for independence on 18 August 2008, following the Amarnath land transfer controversy. According to her, the rallies were a sign that Kashmiris desire secession from India, and not union with India. She was criticized by Indian National Congress (INC) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for her remarks.

Sardar Sarovar Project

Roy has campaigned along with activist Medha Patkar against the Narmada dam project, saying that the dam will displace half a million people, with little or no compensation, and will not provide the projected irrigation, drinking water and other benefits. Roy donated her Booker prize money as well as royalties from her books on the project to the Narmada Bachao Andolan. Roy also appears in Franny Armstrong's ''Drowned Out'', a 2002 documentary about the project. Roy's opposition to the Narmada Dam project was criticised as "maligning Gujarat" by Congress and BJP leaders in Gujarat.

In 2002, Roy responded to a contempt notice issued against her by the Indian Supreme Court with an affidavit saying the court's decision to initiate the contempt proceedings based on an unsubstantiated and flawed petition, while refusing to inquire into allegations of corruption in military contracting deals pleading an overload of cases, indicated a "disquieting inclination" by the court to silence criticism and dissent using the power of contempt. The court found Roy's statement, which she refused to disavow or apologize for, constituted criminal contempt and sentenced her to a "symbolic" one day's imprisonment and fined Roy Rs. 2500. Roy served the jail sentence for a single day and opted to pay the fine rather than serve an additional three months' imprisonment for default.

Environmental historian Ramachandra Guha has been critical of Roy's Narmada dam activism. While acknowledging her "courage and commitment" to the cause, Guha writes that her advocacy is hyperbolic and self-indulgent, "Ms. Roy's tendency to exaggerate and simplify, her Manichean view of the world, and her shrill hectoring tone, have given a bad name to environmental analysis". He faults Roy's criticism of Supreme Court judges who were hearing a petition brought by the Narmada Bachao Andolan as careless and irresponsible.

Roy counters that her writing is intentional in its passionate, hysterical tone: "I ''am'' hysterical. I'm screaming from the bloody rooftops. And he and his smug little club are going 'Shhhh... you'll wake the neighbours!' I ''want'' to wake the neighbours, that's my whole point. I want everybody to open their eyes".

Gail Omvedt and Roy have had fierce discussions, in open letters, on Roy's strategy for the Narmada Dam movement. Though the activists disagree on whether to demand stopping the dam building altogether (Roy) or searching for intermediate alternatives (Omvedt), the exchange has mostly been, though critical, constructive.

United States foreign policy, the War in Afghanistan

In a 2001 opinion piece in the British newspaper ''The Guardian'', Arundhati Roy responded to the US military invasion of Afghanistan, finding fault with the argument that this war would be a retaliation for the September 11 attacks: "The bombing of Afghanistan is not revenge for New York and Washington. It is yet another act of terror against the people of the world." According to her, U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair were guilty of a Big Brother-kind of doublethink: "When he announced the air strikes, President George Bush said: 'We're a peaceful nation.' America's favourite ambassador, Tony Blair, (who also holds the portfolio of prime minister of the UK), echoed him: 'We're a peaceful people.' So now we know. Pigs are horses. Girls are boys. War is peace."

She disputes U.S. claims of being a peaceful and freedom-loving nation, listing China and nineteen 3rd World "countries that America has been at war with – and bombed – since the second world war", as well as previous U.S. support for the Taliban movement and support for the Northern Alliance (whose "track record is not very different from the Taliban's"). She does not spare the Taliban: "Now, as adults and rulers, the Taliban beat, stone, rape and brutalise women, they don't seem to know what else to do with them."

In the final analysis, Roy sees American-style capitalism as the culprit: "In America, the arms industry, the oil industry, the major media networks, and, indeed, US foreign policy, are all controlled by the same business combines." She puts the attacks on the World Trade Center and on Afghanistan on the same moral level, that of terrorism, and mourns the impossibility of imagining beauty after 2001: "Will it be possible ever again to watch the slow, amazed blink of a newborn gecko in the sun, or whisper back to the marmot who has just whispered in your ear – without thinking of the World Trade Centre and Afghanistan?"

In May 2003 she delivered a speech entitled "Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy (Buy One, Get One Free)" at the Riverside Church in New York City. In it she described the United States as a global empire that reserves the right to bomb any of its subjects at any time, deriving its legitimacy directly from God. The speech was an indictment of the U.S. actions relating to the Iraq War. In June 2005 she took part in the World Tribunal on Iraq. In March 2006, Roy criticized US President George W. Bush's visit to India, calling him a "war criminal".

India's nuclear weaponisation

In response to India's testing of nuclear weapons in Pokhran, Rajasthan, Roy wrote ''The End of Imagination'' (1998), a critique of the Indian government's nuclear policies. It was published in her collection ''The Cost of Living'' (1999), in which she also crusaded against India's massive hydroelectric dam projects in the central and western states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

Criticism of Israel

In August 2006, Roy, along with Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and others, signed a letter in ''The Guardian'' called the 2006 Lebanon War a "war crime" and accused Israel of "state terror." In 2007, Roy was one of more than 100 artists and writers who signed an open letter initiated by Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism and the South West Asian, North African Bay Area Queers and calling on the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival "to honor calls for an international boycott of Israeli political and cultural institutions, by discontinuing Israeli consulate sponsorship of the LGBT film festival and not cosponsoring events with the Israeli consulate."

2001 Indian Parliament attack

Roy has raised questions about the investigation into the 2001 Indian Parliament attack and the trial of the accused. She has called for the death sentence of Mohammad Afzal to be stayed while a parliamentary enquiry into these questions are conducted and denounced press coverage of the trial. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has criticized Roy for what it alleges is defence of a terrorist going against the national interest.

The Muthanga incident

In 2003, the Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha, a social movement for adivasi land rights in Kerala, organized a major land occupation of a piece of land of a former Eucalyptus plantation in the Muthanga Wildlife Reserve, on the border of Kerala and Karnataka. After 48 days, a police force was sent into the area to evict the occupants—one participant of the movement and a policeman were killed, and the leaders of the movement were arrested. Arundhati Roy travelled to the area, visited the movement's leaders in jail, and wrote an open letter to the then Chief Minister of Kerala, A.K. Antony now India's Defence Minister, saying "You have blood on your hands."

Comments on 2008 Mumbai attacks

In an opinion piece for ''The Guardian'' (13 December 2008), Roy argued that the November 2008 Mumbai attacks cannot be seen in isolation, but must be understood in the context of wider issues in the region's history and society such as widespread poverty, the Partition of India (which Roy calls "Britain's final, parting kick to us"), the atrocities committed during the 2002 Gujarat violence, and the ongoing conflict in Kashmir. Despite this call for context, Roy states clearly in the article that she believes "nothing can justify terrorism" and calls terrorism "a heartless ideology." Roy warns against war with Pakistan, arguing that it is hard to "pin down the provenance of a terrorist strike and isolate it within the borders of a single nation state", and that war could lead to the "descent of the whole region into chaos". Her remarks were strongly criticized by Salman Rushdie and others, who condemned her for linking the Bombay attacks with Kashmir and economic injustice against Muslims in India; Rushdie specifically criticized Roy for attacking the iconic status of the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower. Indian writer Tavleen Singh called Roy's comments "he latest of her series of hysterical diatribes against India and all things Indian."

Criticism of Sri Lanka

In an opinion piece, once again in ''The Guardian'' (April 1, 2009), Roy made a plea for international attention to what she called a possible government-sponsored genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka. She cited reports of camps into which Tamils were being herded as part of what she described as "a brazen, openly racist war." She also mentioned that the "Government of Sri Lanka is on the verge of committing what could end up being genocide" and described the Sri Lankan IDP camps where Tamil civilians are being held as concentration camps. Ruvani Freeman, a Sri Lankan writer called Roy's remarks "ill-informed and hypocritical" and criticized her for "whitewashing the atrocities of the LTTE." Roy has said of such accusations: "I cannot admire those whose vision can only accommodate justice for their own and not for everybody. However I do believe that the LTTE and its fetish for violence was cultured in the crucible of monstrous, racist, injustice that the Sri Lankan government and to a great extent Sinhala society visited on the Tamil people for decades."

Views on the Naxals

Roy has criticized Government's armed actions against the Naxalite-Maoist insurgents in India, calling it "war on the poorest people in the country". According to her, the Government has "abdicated its responsibility to the people" and launched the offensive against Naxals to aid the corporations with whom it has signed Memorandums of Understanding. While she has received support from various quarters for her views, Roy's description of the Maoists as "Gandhians" raised a controversy. In other statements, she has described Naxalites as "patriot of a kind" who are "fighting to implement the Constitution, (while) the government is vandalising it". Many commentators have noted that Roy does not hold sympathy for the victims of Maoist terrorism. and have called her a "Maoist sympathiser."

Awards

Arundhati Roy was awarded the 1997 Booker Prize for her novel ''The God of Small Things''. The award carried a prize of about US $30,000 and a citation that noted, 'The book keeps all the promises that it makes.' Prior to this, she won the National Film Award for Best Screenplay in 1989, for the screenplay of ''In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones''.

In 2002, she won the Lannan Foundation's Cultural Freedom Award for her work "about civil societies that are adversely affected by the world’s most powerful governments and corporations," in order "to celebrate her life and her ongoing work in the struggle for freedom, justice and cultural diversity."

Roy was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize in May 2004 for her work in social campaigns and her advocacy of non-violence.

In January 2006, she was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award, a national award from India's Academy of Letters, for her collection of essays on contemporary issues, ''The Algebra of Infinite Justice'', but she declined to accept it "in protest against the Indian Government toeing the US line by 'violently and ruthlessly pursuing policies of brutalisation of industrial workers, increasing militarisation and economic neo-liberalisation.'"

Works

Books

''The God of Small Things''. Flamingo, 1997. ISBN 0-00-655068-1.

''The End of Imagination''. Kottayam: D.C. Books, 1998. ISBN 81-7130-867-8.

''The Cost of Living''. Flamingo, 1999. ISBN 0-375-75614-0. Contains the essays "The Greater Common Good" and "The End of Imagination."

''The Greater Common Good''. Bombay: India Book Distributor, 1999. ISBN 81-7310-121-3.

''The Algebra of Infinite Justice''. Flamingo, 2002. ISBN 0-00-714949-2. Collection of essays: "The End of Imagination," "The Greater Common Good," "Power Politics", "The Ladies Have Feelings, So...," "The Algebra of Infinite Justice," "War is Peace," "Democracy," "War Talk", and "Come September."

''Power Politics''. Cambridge: South End Press, 2002. ISBN 0-89608-668-2.

''War Talk''. Cambridge: South End Press, 2003. ISBN 0-89608-724-7.

Foreword to Noam Chomsky, ''For Reasons of State''. 2003. ISBN 1-56584-794-6.

''An Ordinary Person's Guide To Empire''. Consortium, 2004. ISBN 0-89608-727-1.

''Public Power in the Age of Empire'' Seven Stories Press, 2004. ISBN 1-58322-682-6.

''The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile: Conversations with Arundhati Roy''. Interviews by David Barsamian. Cambridge: South End Press, 2004. ISBN 0-89608-710-7.

Introduction to ''13 December, a Reader: The Strange Case of the Attack on the Indian Parliament''. New Delhi, New York: Penguin, 2006. ISBN 0-14-310182-X.

''The Shape of the Beast: Conversations with Arundhati Roy''. New Delhi: Penguin, Viking, 2008. ISBN 978-0-670-08207-0.

''Listening to Grasshoppers: Field Notes on Democracy''. New Delhi: Penguin, Hamish Hamilton, 2009. ISBN 978-0-670-08379-4.

Speeches, Essays, Interviews

We 'We,' documentary featuring the works of Arundhati Roy

Come September Transcript of speech on 18 September 2002 and conversation with Howard Zinn

Arundhati Roy on India, Iraq, U.S. Empire and Dissent—interview on ''Democracy Now!''

'We have to become the global resistance' (Abridged version of speech at the World Social Forum in Mumbai, 16 January 2004)

Tide? or Ivory Snow? Public Power in the Age of Empire (16 August 2004 speech in San Francisco)

ABC Radio National transcript of Sydney Peace Prize Lecture (with audio) or download the speech here

'The Most Cowardly War in History'; opening statement at the Iraq tribunal (Article dated 24 June 2005)

Podcast of Arundhati Roy and Pankaj Mishra discussing "India in the World" at the Shanghai International Literary Festival

Arundhati Roy on the Human Costs of India’s Economic Growth, the View of Obama in New Delhi, and Escalating US Attacks in Af-Pak

Audio: Arundhati Roy in conversation on the BBC World Service discussion programme ''The Forum''

Arundhati Roy on Obama’s Wars, India and Why Democracy Is “The Biggest Scam in the World”

"In the Valley of the Tigers"; Interview with Ascent magazine on the Narmada Valley

''Gandhi but with Guns'' – essay about the naxalites at guardian.co.uk (2010-03-27)

''Fault Lines – Arundhati Roy'' (video) – Interview with Arundhati Roy on Al Jazeera English (retrieved 2010-05-06)

Interview with the Guardian 05 June 2011 - Roy discusses political activism and why she no longer condemns violent resistance

See also

Anti-globalization movement

Narmada Bachao Andolan

Indian English literature

References

Books and articles on Roy

"The Politics of Design," in

Other

We, a political documentary about Roy's words. Available online.

Arundhati Roy denounces Indian democracy by Atul Cowshish

Carreira, Shirley de S. G.''A representação da mulher em ''Shame'', de Salman Rushdie, e ''O deus das pequenas coisas'', de Arundathi Roy''. In: MONTEIRO, Conceição & LIMA, Tereza M. de O. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Caetés, 2005

Ch'ien, Evelyn Nien-Ming, "The Politics of Design" (''Weird English.'' Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2004; 154–199). Essay on Roy's language. Available online.

Literary Encyclopedia (in-progress)

SAWNET biography

Bibliography

''Arundhati Roy'' – NNDB entry

Notes

External links

Column archive at ''The Guardian''

Arundhati Roy Faces Arrest for Questioning India’s Claim on Kashmir - video report by ''Democracy Now!'', October 10, 2010

Arundhati Roy on Obama’s Wars, Poverty and India’s Maoist Rebels - video interview by ''Democracy Now!'', November 8, 2010

Category:1961 births Category:Living people Category:Syrian Malabar Nasrani Category:People from Meghalaya Category:Anti-globalization writers Category:National Film Award winners Category:Booker Prize winners Category:Indian activists Category:Indian novelists Category:Indian women activists Category:Indian women writers Category:Indian writers Category:Malayali people Category:English-language writers from India Category:Bengali people Category:Indian atheists

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Name	Anna Hazare
Birth name	Kisan Hazare
Birth date	June 15, 1937
Birth place	Bhingar, Bombay Province, British India
Hometown	Ralegan Siddhi
Nationality	Indian
Known for	Indian anti-corruption movement, Watershed development programmes, Right to Information
Movement	Indian anti-corruption movement, Peace movement
Organisation	India Against Corruption
Influences	Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda
Other names	Kisan Bapat Baburao Hazare
Spouse	Never Married
Parents	Laxmibai Hazare Baburao Hazare
Religion	Hinduism
Awards
Website	}}

Kisan Baburao Hazare () (born 15 June 1937), popularly known as Anna Hazare () is an Indian social activist and a prominent leader in the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement, using nonviolent methods following the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. Hazare also contributed to the development and structuring of Ralegan Siddhi, a village in Parner taluka of Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra, India. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan—the third-highest civilian award—by the Government of India in 1992 for his efforts in establishing this village as a model for others.

Anna Hazare started an indefinite hunger strike on 5 April 2011 to exert pressure on the Indian government to enact a stringent anti-corruption law as envisaged in the Jan Lokpal Bill, for the institution of an ombudsman with the power to deal with corruption in public places. The fast led to nation-wide protests in support of Hazare. The fast ended on 9 April 2011, a day after the government accepted Hazare's demands. The government issued a gazette notification on the formation of a joint committee, consisting of government and civil society representatives, to draft the legislation.

For the year 2011 Foreign Policy magazine has named him among top 100 global thinkers. Anna has been ranked as the most influential person in Mumbai by a national daily newspaper. He has faced criticism for his authoritarian views on justice, including death as punishment for corrupt public officials and his alleged support for forced vasectomies as a method of family planning.

Early life

Kisan Hazare was born on 15 June 1937 (some sources say 1940) in Bhingar, near to Ahmednagar. The eldest son, with two sisters and four brothers, the later adoption of the name ''Anna'' reflects the Indian word for "elder brother". His father worked in a pharmacy and struggled to support the family financially. In time, the family moved to their ancestral village of Ralegan Siddhi, where they owned a small amount of agricultural land. A relative took on the burden of providing Kisan with an education, taking him to Mumbai because the village had no primary school. The relative became unable financially to continue the support and Kisan's schooling ended in the Standard Seventh grade; his siblings were not schooled at all. He started selling flowers at the Dadar railway station in Mumbai and was able eventually to own two flower shops in the city. He also became involved in vigilantism, joining groups who acted to prevent the poor from being bullied out of their shelters by thugs in the employ of landlords.

Military service

The Indo-China War of 1962 caused the Indian Army to commence emergency recruitment measures. Hazare was recruited in April 1963, despite not meeting the physical requirements, and was attested as a soldier on 16 November of that year after undertaking training at Aurangabad.

During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, Hazare was posted at the border in the Khem Karan sector. He was the sole survivor of an enemy attack - variously claimed to have been a bomb, an aerial assault and an exchange of fire at the border - while he was driving a truck. The experiences of war time, coupled with the poverty from which he had come, affected him. He had considered suicide at one point but now turned to pondering the meaning of life and death. He has said of the truck attack that "[It] sent me thinking. I felt that God wanted me to stay alive for some reason. I was re-born in the battlefield of Khem Karan. And I decided to dedicate my new life to serving people." He spent his spare time reading the works of Swami Vivekananda, Gandhi, and Vinoba Bhave. In a blog post, Hazare expressed his views on Kashmir by saying that it was his "active conviction that Kashmir is an integral part of India" and that if required once again for service, he would remain "ready to take part in war against Pakistan."

During the mid-1970s, Hazare survived a road accident while driving for the army. He interpreted his survival as a further sign that his life was intended to be dedicated to the service of the community. Despite subsequent allegations that he had deserted from the army, official records show that he was honourably discharged in 1975 after completing his 12 years of service.

Transformation of Ralegan Siddhi

Hazare returned to Ralegan Siddhi, a village described by Satpathy and Mehta as being then "one of the many villages of India plagued by acute poverty, deprivation, a fragile ecosystem, neglect and hopelessness."

Although most of the villagers owned some land, cultivation was extremely difficult due to the rocky ground preventing retention of the monsoon rains; this situation had not been assisted by a gradual deterioration as trees were cut down, erosion spread and droughts were also experienced. The shortage of water also led to disease because conditions became unsanitary and water was re-used for multiple purposes. The economy of the village had become reliant on illegal manufacture and sale of alcohol, a product to which many of the villagers had themselves become addicted. Many inhabitants were at the mercy of moneylenders in order to survive, and those lenders would charge monthly interest rates of as much as 10%. Crime and violence (including domestic violence) had become commonplace, while education and employment opportunities were poor.

Hazare was relatively wealthy because of the gratuity from his army service. He set about using that money to restore a run-down, vandalised village temple as a focal point for the community. Some were able to respond with small financial donations but many other villagers, particularly among the elderly, donated their labour in a process that became known as ''shramdaan''. Some youths also became involved in the work and these he organised into a ''Tarun Mandal'' (Youth Association). One of the works of Vivekananda which he had read was ''Call to the youth for nation building''.

Prohibition of alcohol

Hazare and the youth group decided to take up the issue of alcoholism as a means to drive a process of reform. At a meeting conducted in the temple, the villagers resolved to close down liquor dens and ban alcohol in the village. Since these resolutions were made in the temple, they became, in a sense, religious commitments. Over thirty liquor brewing units were closed by their owners voluntarily. Those who did not succumb to social pressure were forced to close down their businesses when the youth group smashed up their liquor dens. The owners could not complain as their businesses were illegal.

When some villagers were found to be drunk they were tied to pillars and then flogged, sometimes personally by Hazare. He justified this punishment by stating that “rural India was a harsh society”, and that }}

Hazare appealed to the government of Maharashtra to bring in a law whereby prohibition would come into force in a village if 25% of the women in the village demanded it. In 2009 the state government amended the Bombay Prohibition Act, 1949 to reflect this.

Grain Bank

In 1980, the Grain Bank was started by him at the temple, with the objective of providing food security to needful farmers during times of drought or crop failure. Rich farmers, or those with surplus grain production, could donate a quintal to the bank. In times of need, farmers could borrow the grain, but they had to return the same amount of grain they borrowed, plus an additional quintal as an interest. This ensured that nobody in the village ever went hungry or had to borrow money to buy grain. This also prevented distress sales of grain at lower prices at harvest time.

Watershed development programme

Ralegan is located in the foothills, so Hazare persuaded villagers to construct a watershed embankment and associated works to stop water and allow it to percolate and increase the ground water level and improve irrigation in the area. These efforts solved the problem of water scarcity in the village and made irrigation possible.

Cultivation of water-intensive crops like sugar cane was banned. Crops such as pulses, oil-seeds, and certain cash crops with low water requirements were grown. The farmers started growing high-yield varieties of crop and the cropping pattern of the village was changed. Hazare has helped farmers of more than 70 villages in drought-prone regions in the state of Maharashtra since 1975. When Hazare came in Ralegan Siddhi in 1975 only of land was irrigated, Hazare converted it into about .

Milk production

As a secondary occupation, milk production was promoted in Ralegan Siddhi. Purchase of new cattle and improvement of the existing breed with the help of artificial insemination and timely guidance and assistance by a veterinarian resulted in an improvement in the cattle stock, increasing production of milk. Crossbred cows are replacing local ones which gave a lower milk yield.

Education

In 1932, Ralegan Siddhi got its first formal school, a single classroom primary school. In 1962, the villagers added more classrooms through community volunteer efforts. By 1971, out of an estimated population of 1,209, only 30.43% were literate (72 women and 290 men). Boys moved to the nearby towns of Shirur and Parner to pursue higher education, but due to socioeconomic conditions, girls could not do the same and were limited to primary education. Hazare, along with the youth of Ralegan Siddhi, worked to increase literacy rates and education levels. In 1976 they started a pre-school and a high school in 1979. The villagers formed a charitable trust, the ''Sant Yadavbaba Shikshan Prasarak Mandal'', which was registered in 1979.

Removal of untouchability

The social barriers and discrimination that existed due to the caste system in India have been largely eliminated by Ralegan Siddhi villagers. It was Hazare's moral leadership that motivated and inspired the villagers to shun untouchability and caste discrimination. Marriages of Dalits are held as part of community marriage program together with those of other castes. The Dalits have been integrated into the social and economic life of the village. The upper caste villagers have built houses for the lower caste Dalits by ''shramdaan'' and helped to repay their loans to free them from their indebtedness.

Collective marriages

Most rural poor get into a debt trap as they incur heavy expenses at the time of marriage of their daughter or son. It is an undesirable practice but has almost become a social obligation in India. Ralegan's people have started celebrating marriages collectively. Joint feasts are held, where the expenses are further reduced by the ''Tarun Mandal'' taking responsibility for cooking and serving the food. The vessels, the loudspeaker system, the mandap, and the decorations have also been bought by the ''Tarun Mandal'' members belonging to the oppressed castes. From 1976 to 1986, 424 marriages have been held under this system.

Gram Sabha

The Gandhian philosophy on rural development considers the Gram Sabha as an important democratic institution for collective decision making in the villages of India. Hazare campaigned between 1998 and 2006 for amending the Gram Sabha Act, so that the villagers have a say in the development works in their village. The state government initially refused, but eventually gave in due to public pressure. As per the amendments, it is mandatory to seek the sanction of the Gram Sabha (an assembly of all village adults, and not just the few elected representatives in the gram panchayat) for expenditures on development works in the village.

Activism

Anti-corruption protests in Maharashtra

In 1991 Hazare launched the ''Bhrashtachar Virodhi Jan Aandolan'' (BVJA) (People's Movement against Corruption), a popular movement to fight against corruption in Ralegaon Siddhi. In the same year he protested against the collusion between 40 forest officials and timber merchants. This protest resulted in the transfer and suspension of these officials.

In May 1997 Hazare protested against alleged malpractices in the purchase of powerlooms by the Vasantrao Naik Bhathya Vimukt Jhtra Governor P. C. Alexander. On 4 November 1997 Gholap filed a defamation suit against Hazare for accusing him of corruption. He was arrested in April 1998 and was released on a personal bond of . On 9 September 1998 Hazare was imprisoned in the Yerawada Jail to serve a three-month sentence mandated by the Mumbai Metropolitan Court. The sentencing caused leaders of all political parties except the BJP and the Shiv Sena came in support of him. Later, due to public protests, the Government of Maharashtra ordered his release from the jail. After release, Hazare wrote a letter to then chief minister Manohar Joshi demanding Gholap's removal for his role in alleged malpractices in the Awami Merchant Bank. Gholap resigned from the cabinet on 27 April 1999.

In 2003 corruption charges were raised by Hazare against four NCP ministers of the Congress-NCP government. He started his fast unto death on 9 August 2003. He ended his fast on 17 August 2003 after then chief minister Sushil Kumar Shinde formed a one-man commission headed by the retired justice P. B. Sawant to probe his charges. The P. B. Sawant commission report, submitted on 23 February 2005, indicted Sureshdada Jain, Nawab Malik, and Padmasinh Patil. The report exonerated Vijaykumar Gavit. Suresh Jain and Nawab Malik resigned from the cabinet in March 2005.

Three trusts headed by Anna Hazare were also indicted in the P. B. Sawant commission report. spent by the ''Hind Swaraj Trust'' for Anna Hazare's birthday celebrations was concluded by the commission as illegal and amounting to a corrupt practice, though Abhay Firodia, an industrialist subsequently donated to the trust for that purpose. The setting apart of 11 acres of its land by the trust in favour of the Zilla Parishad without obtaining permission from the charity commissioner was concluded as a case of maladministration. The commission also concluded that the maintenance of accounts of the ''Bhrashtachar Virodhi Janandolan Trust'' after 10 November 2001 had not been according to the rules and spent by the ''Sant Yadavbaba Shikshan Prasarak Mandal Trust'' for renovating a temple was in contravention to its object of imparting secular education.

Right to Information movement

In the early 2000s Hazare led a movement in Maharashtra state which forced the state government to enact a revised Maharashtra Right to Information Act. This Act was later considered as the base document for the Right to Information Act 2005 (RTI), enacted by the Union Government. It also ensured that the President of India assented to this new Act.

On 20 July 2006 the Union Cabinet amended the Right to Information Act 2005 to exclude the file noting by the government officials from its purview. Hazare began his fast unto death on 9 August 2006 in Alandi against the proposed amendment. He ended his fast on 19 August 2006, after the government agreed to change its earlier decision.

Regulation of Transfers and Prevention of Delay in Discharge of Official Duties Act

Before 2006 in the state of Maharashtra, even honest government officers were transferred to other places according to ministers wish. Sometimes within months of being posted to a place, whereas some corrupt and favoured officials were cozy in their postings for many years in some cases even for 10 to 20 years and since there was not any guideline or law many government officials were reluctant to process files that contained important public proposals and decisions. Anna fought hard for a law whereby a government servant must clear a file within a specified time and that transfers must take place only after three years. After many years of relentless efforts of Anna, finally on 25 May 2006 state government of Maharashtra issued a notification announcing that the execution of the special act, The Prevention of Delay in Discharge of Official Duties Act 2006, aimed at curbing the delay by its officers and employees in discharging their duties. This act provides for disciplinary action against officials who move files slowly and enables monitoring officials who stay too long in a post, or in a department, and for involvement in a corrupt nexus. Within this act, it is mandatory for the government to effect transfers of all government officers and employees, except Class IV workers, after the stipulated three years. Act also prevents the government from effecting frequent transfers of officers before the stipulated three-year tenure, except in case of emergency and under exceptional circumstances. Maharashtra is the first state in the country to have introduced such act.

Campaign against liquor from food grains

Constitution of India Article 47 commits the State to raise the standard of living and improve public health, and prohibit the consumption of intoxicating drinks and drugs injurious to health.

In 2007 Maharashtra Government rolled out the grain-based liquor policy aimed to encourage production of liquor from food grain in the light of the rising demand for spirit – used for industrial purposes and potable liquor and Issue 36 licenses for distilleries for making alcohol from food grains. One of the State ministers Laxman Dhoble said in his speech that those opposing the decision to allow use of food grains for the production of liquor are anti-farmers and those people should be beaten up with sugarcane sticks. Hazare initiated fast at Shirdi, but on 21 March 2010 government promised to review the policy and Anna ended his 5 day long fast. But the government later granted 36 licences and grants of (per litre of alcohol) to politicians or their sons who were directly or indirectly engaged in making alcohol from foodgrains. Some of the main beneficiaries of these licences includes Amit and Dheeraj Deshmukh, sons of Union Heavy Industries Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Gopinath Munde's daughter Pankaja Palwe and her husband Charudatta Palwe, sons-in-law of P.V. Narasimha Rao, Rajya Sabha MP Govindrao Adik. The government approved the proposal for food grain-based alcohol production in spite of stiff opposition from the planning and finance departments saying there is a huge demand in other countries for food grain made liquor in comparison with that of molasses. Anna filed a Public Interest Litigation against the Government of Maharashtra for allowing food-grains for manufacturing liquor in the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court. On 20 August 2009 Maharashtra government stopped the policy. However, distilleries sanctioned before that date and those who started production within two years of sanction were entitled for subsidies.

On 5 May 2011 court refused to hear a Public Interest Litigation saying "not before me, this is a court of law, not a court of justice" as a reason of not hearing the plea. One of Principal Secretary in Maharashtra state C.S. Sangeet Rao, enlighten that there is no law exists to scrap these licences as this is a government policy. These include placing "the Prime Minister within the ambit of the proposed lokpal’s powers".

Hunger strike in Delhi

Hazare began his Indefinite Fast on 5 April 2011 at Jantar Mantar in Delhi to press for the demand to form a joint committee of the representatives of the Government and the civil society to draft a stronger anti-corruption bill with stronger penal actions and more independence to the ''Lokpal'' and ''Lokayukta''s (Ombudsmen in the states), after his demand was rejected by the Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh. He stated, "I will fast until Jan Lokpal Bill is passed".

The movement attracted attention in the media, and thousands of supporters. Almost 150 people reportedly joined Hazare in his fast. Social activists, including Medha Patkar, Arvind Kejriwal, former IPS officer Kiran Bedi, and Jayaprakash Narayan lent their support to Hazare's hunger strike and anti-corruption campaign. People have shown support in internet social media such as Twitter and Facebook. In addition to spiritual leaders Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Swami Ramdev, Swami Agnivesh and former Indian cricketer Kapil Dev, many celebrities showed their public support through Twitter. Hazare decided that he would not allow any politician to sit with him in this movement. Politicians like Uma Bharti and Om Prakash Chautala were shooed away by the protesters when they came to visit the site where the protest was taking place. On 6 April 2011 Sharad Pawar resigned from the ''group of ministers'' formed for reviewing the draft Lokpal bill 2010.

Protests spread to Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Shillong, Aizawl and a number of other cities in India.

End of hunger strike after meeting demands

On 8 April 2011 the Government of India accepted all demands of the movement. On 9 April 2011 it issued a notification in the Gazette of India on formation of a joint committee. It accepted the formula that there be a politician Chairman and an activist, non-politician Co-Chairman. According to the notification, Pranab Mukherjee will be the Chairman of the draft committee while Shanti Bhushan will be the co-chairman. “The Joint Drafting Committee shall consist of five nominee ministers of the Government of India and five nominees of the civil society. The five nominee Ministers of the Government of India are Pranab Mukherjee, Union Minister of Finance, P. Chidambaram, Union Minister of Home Affairs, M. Veerappa Moily, Union Minister of Law and Justice, Kapil Sibal, Union Minister of Human Resource and Development and Minister of Communication and Information Technology and Salman Khursheed, Union Minister of Water Resources and Minister of Minority Affairs. The five nominees of the civil society are Anna Hazare, N. Santosh Hegde, Shanti Bhushan Senior Advocate, Prashant Bhushan, Advocate and Arvind Kejriwal.

On the morning of 9 April 2011 Hazare ended his 98-hour hunger strike. He addressed the people and set a deadline of 15 August 2011 to pass the Lokpal Bill in the Indian Parliament.

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Anna Hazare said that if the bill does not pass he will call for a mass nation-wide agitation. He called his movement as "second struggle for independence" and he will continue the fight.

Differences with the government on draft bill

During the meeting of the joint drafting committee on 30 May 2011, the Union government members opposed the inclusion of the prime minister, higher judiciary and the acts of the MPs under the purview of the Lokpal in the draft bill. On 31 May 2011, Pranab Mukherjee, chairman of the joint drafting committee sent a letter to the chief ministers of all states and the leaders of the political parties seeking their opinion on six contentious issues in the proposed Lokpal Bill, including whether to bring the prime minister and judges of Supreme Court and High Courts under the purview of the proposed law. But the civil society members of the drafting committee considered that keeping the prime minister and judges of Supreme Court and High Courts out of the purview of the Lokpal would be a violation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption.

Anna Hazare and other civil society members decided to boycott the meeting of the joint Lokpal Bill drafting committee scheduled on 6 June 2011 in protest against the forcible eviction of Swami Ramdev and his followers by the Delhi Police from Ramlila Maidan on 5 June 2011, while they were on hunger strike against the issues of black money and corruption and doubting seriousness of the government in taking measures to eradicate corruption.

On 6 June 2011, the members of the civil society of the joint Lokpal bill drafting committee in New Delhi sent a letter to Pranab Mukherjee, the chairman of the committee, explaining reasons for their absence at the meeting and also asked government to make its stand public on the contentious issues related to the proposed draft legislation. They also decided that the future meetings will be attended only if they were telecast live. On 8 June 2011 at Rajghat, describing his movement as the second freedom struggle, Anna criticised the Government for trying to discredit the joint Lokpal Bill drafting committee and threatened to go on indefinite fast again from 16 August 2011 if the Lokpal Bill is not passed by then. He also criticised the Government for putting hurdles in the drafting of a strong Lokpal Bill and its attempts to malign the civil society members of the joint Lokpal panel.

Indefinite fast

On 28 July 2011 the union cabinet on approved a draft of the Lokpal Bill, which keeps the Prime Minister, judiciary and lower bureaucracy out of the ambit of the proposed corruption ombudsman Lokpal. Hazare rejected the government version by describing it as “cruel joke’’ and wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and told him his decision to go on an indefinite fast from 16 August 2011 at Jantar Mantar if the government introduced its own version of the bill in Parliament without taking suggestions from civil society members.

Within twenty four hours of cabinet's endorsement of a weak Lokpal Bill, over ten thousand peoples from across the country sent faxes directly to the government demanding a bill with stronger provisions. The Mumbai Taxi Men’s Union, comprises over 30,000 taxi drivers have extended their full support to Hazare’s fast by keeping all taxis off the roads on 16 August 2011. Lawyers of Allahabad High Court described Lokpal Bill proposed by the government as against the interest of the country and pledged their support to Hazare by hunger strike at Allahabad on 16 August 2011. On 30 July 2011 Vishwa Hindu Parishad supported Hazare's indefinite fast by saying movement for an effective anti-corruption ombudsman needs the backing of people.

On 1 August, Public interest litigation was filed in the Supreme Court of India by Hemant Patil, a Maharashtra-based social worker and businessman, to restrain Hazare from going on his proposed indefinite fast. The petitioner demanded to prohibit the fast alleging that Hazare's demands are unconstitutional and amount to interference in legislative process.

Arrest and aftermath

On 16 August 2011, Hazare was arrested four hours before the planned indefinite hunger strike. Rajan Bhagat, spokesman for Delhi Police, said police arrested Hazare under a legal provision that bans public gatherings and protests at the park in Delhi where he was planning to begin his hunger strike. Police took that action after Hazare refused to meet the conditions put forward by police for allowing the protest. The conditions included restricting the length of the fast to three days and the number of protesters at the site to 5,000. Later in the afternoon, Anna was produced before a magistrate who offered him bail but Anna Hazare refused to provide the bail bond. The magistrate sent him judicial custody for seven days and he was taken to Tihar jail. After announcements by Prashant Bhushan, local television, and social media sites (including Facebook), a march of thousands in support of Hazare began from the India Gate to Jantar Mantar.

Along with Hazare, other key members of the India Against Corruption movement including Arvind Kejriwal, Shanti Bhushan, Kiran Bedi and Manish Sisodia were also detained from different locations. It was reported that about 1,300 supporters were detained in Delhi. Media also reported that the arrest sparked off protests with people courting arrests in different parts of the country. The opposition parties in the country came out against the arrest, likening the government action to the emergency imposed in the country in 1975. Both the houses of Parliament were adjourned over the issue.

Eventually, after being kept in judicial detention for just four hours, he was released unconditionally without any bail bond by the magistrate on a request by the police, but Hazare refused to leave Tihar Jail. He demanded an unconditional permission from the police to observe a fast at Ramlila Maidan (Ground) in support of the Jan Lokpal bill and refused to leave the jail. Hazare continued his fast inside the jail and refused to leave the jail though the jail authorities had technically ''released'' him.

After his arrest, Anna Hazare received support from people across the country. There were reports of "nearly 570 demonstrations and protests by Anna supporters across the country" against the government's imprisonment of Hazare and others. Due to the nationwide protests of millions, the government agreed to allow him to begin a public hunger strike of fifteen days. After talks with public authorities, Hazare decided to hold his protest at Ramlila Maidan, New Delhi. On 20 August 2011 Hazare "left the Tihar Jail for the Ramlila Grounds". Hazare promised reporters "he would fight to the 'last breath' until the government gets his team's Jan Lokpal Bill passed in this session of Parliament, which ends on 8 September."

Fast at Ramlila Maidan, New Delhi

On 20 August 2011 thousands came to the Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi to show their support for Hazare, while "his advisers made televison appearances to rally public support and defend themselves against criticism that their protest campaign and refusal to compromise is undermining India's parliamentary process." The National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI) condemned Hazare's deadline for passing the bill as undermining democracy, which operates by "holding wide-ranging consultations and discussions, allowing for dissent and evolving a consensus. ...He [Hazare] has the right to protest and dissent. But nobody can claim it as an absolute right and deny the right of dissent to others." The Congress party confirmed that Maharashtra Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Umesh Chandra Sarangi (who has a history of mediating between Hazare and government officials) was meeting with the social activist again "to find points of consensus and defuse the situation". On 21 August 2011 "tens of thousands" came to Ramlila Maidan to support Hazare as he sat on an elevated platform. It was reported that Hazare at that point had "lost more than seven pounds since beginning his fast", despite this he stated "'I will not withdraw my hunger strike until the Jan Lokpal bill is passed in the Parliament. I can die but I will not bend.'" Hazare ended his fast on 28 August 2011, after the Indian Government had passed the resolution for the Lokpal Bill unanimously,

He was admitted to Medanta Medicity, Gurgaon for post-fast care. He had lost 7.5 kg and was very dehydrated after the 288 hour long fast.

I Am Anna Chant

Within a few days of Anna Hazare's first fast demanding a strong Lokpal (on 5 April 2011), supporters across various cities of India started a campaign known as "I Am Anna Hazare", which is similar to the "We Are All Khaled Said" campaign well known in the Egyptian uprising. At during Anna Hazare's second fast, the ''topi'', the cap which Anna Hazare became synonymous with, became almost a fashion statement. Sales of the topis hit an all time high. Kiran Bedi declared that the "I am Anna" topi should be used as a deterrence method whenever someone asked for a bribe. She went to say that the topi should be always kept in one's bag and whenever anybody ask for a bribe, the topi should be shown to them.

Fast on MMRDA ground

On 27 December 2011, Hazare began a 3 day hunger strike at MMRDA grounds, Bandra Kurla Complex in demand to a stronger version of the Lokpal bill than the is in debate in the Parliament of India. Hazare ended the fast on 28 December 2011, after his doctors said that his kidneys might fail if he continued his fast.

Before reaching the venue, Anna payed his tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at Juhu Beach. On his way in a rally, which was joined by several thousand people, he took two-and-half hours to reach the ground, passing through Santacruz, Tulip Star Hotel, Mithibai College, SV Road, Vile Parle, Khar and Bandra Highway.

Reiterating Anna Hazare's position, a PIL petition filed against the fast was turned down by the Karnataka High Court. A judge also noted that there was no public interest in the petition.

Electoral reform movement

In 2011, Anna Hazare demanded an amendment to the electoral law to incorporate the option of None of the above in the electronic voting machines during the Indian elections. The "None of the above (NOTA)" is a ballot option that allows an electorate to indicate disapproval of all of the candidates in an electoral system, in case of non-availability of any candidate of his choice, as his Right to Reject. Soon, the Chief Election Commissioner of India Shahabuddin Yaqoob Quraishi supported Hazare's demand for the electoral reforms.

Protest against atrocities against Swami Ramdev and his supporters

On 8 June 2011, Anna Hazare and thousands of his supporters observed fast from 10 am to 6 pm at Rajghat to protest against the midnight crackdown of 5 June 2011 by the Delhi Police on Swami Ramdev’s fast at Ramlila Maidan, New Delhi. The fast was initially planned to be held at Jantar Mantar, but the venue was shifted after the denial of permission by the Delhi police. Anna Hazare held the Prime Minister of India responsible for the atrocities and termed the police action as a blot on humanity and an attempt to stifle democracy. According to one of the Anna's young supporters, the large presence of youths in the protest was due to their support to his use of nonviolence means of protest similar to Gandhi.

Controversies and criticism

RSS Agent

Anna Hazare has often being criticized for being an agent of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh a right-wing Hindu body in India. United Progressive Alliance,the present ruling government in India has seldom charged Hazare with it. According to Digvijay Singh a senior leader of the Indian National Congress the entire crusade of 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement is a process being planned by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in which Plan-A was Baba Ramdev while Plan-B was Anna Hazare. Their basic job was to disturb the national security of the country. Further Digvijay Singh had charged Anna Hazare for having links with late Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader Nanaji Deshmukh with whom he worked as a secretary. However Anna has declined for having any such associations.

Views on Narendra Modi

In a press conference in April 2011, Anna Hazare praised Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat for his efforts on rural development along with Nitish Kumar, chief minister of Bihar, saying that the same should be emulated by the chief ministers of all states. Subsequently, Modi wrote an open letter to him, hailing him as a Gandhian and anti-corruption activist while Digvijay Singh, the General Secretary of the Congress party, criticised him for his comment. In May 2011, Hazare, during his visit to Gujarat, changed his view and criticised Modi for rampant corruption by Government officials in Gujarat. He urged Modi to appoint a Lokayukta in Gujarat. He also commented that the media had projected an incorrect image of Vibrant Gujarat, very different from the prevalent situation.

Fraud during fasts

A cardiologist from Pune, Abhijit Vaidya – founder of Arogya Sena, a non-governmental agency active in public health, disaster management and social campaigns – claimed that he was informed by the close associates of Anna Hazare during a fast in Ralegan-Siddhi, that he was given glucose and electrolyte solutions during a fast. Hazare and his associates refused to comment on the allegation.

Accusations of corruption

The government of the state of Maharashtra instituted a Commission of Inquiry under Justice PB Sawant in September 2003 to enquire into allegations of corruption against several people, including four ministers in the state as well as the "Hind Swaraj Trust" headed by Hazare. The Commission submitted its report on 22 February 2005 in which it indicted the Hind Swaraj Trust for corrupt practice of spending Rs. 2.20 lakhs of its funds on the birthday celebrations of Hazare. Two days ahead of Hazare's proposed indefinite fast on 16 August 2011, the ruling party of India, the Indian National Congress, launched an attack on him alleging that "the moral core of Hazare has been ripped apart" by the Justice P B Sawant Commission.

In response to this allegaton, Hazare's lawyer Milind Pawar, claimed that the commission had remarked about "irregularities" in the accounts, but had not held him guilty of any "corrupt" practices. Pawar said that on 16 June 1998, a celebration was organised to facilitate Hazare on winning an award from a US based NGO and it coincided with his 61st birthday. The trust spent Rs 2.18 lakh for the function. Abhay Phirodia, a Pune-based industrialist, who took the initiative to organise this function donated an amount of Rs 2,48,950 to the trust by cheque soon after the function.

Hazare himself responded to the allegation by daring the government to file a First Information Report (FIR) against him to prove the charges.

Accusation of being anti-democratic and anti-dalit

An article written in The Telegraph (Kolkata) by writer and historian Ramchandra Guha state that that environmental journalist Mukul Sharma found that that Anna Hazare forced the Dalit families in Ralegan Siddhi to adopt a vegetarian diet, and that those who violated the decree were tied to a post and flogged. Mukul Sharma also found that no panchayat elections have been held in the village for the past two decades, and that no campaigning was allowed during state and national elections, upon the instructions of Anna Hazare. Another activist Anoop Kheri claimed that "The language, symbols used by the movement clearly reflects its upper caste Hindu nature, a very rightwing Hindu patriotism is being used to get the entire country against corruption. And as a dalit, I have a problem with it."

There was also an allegation that an RTI activist was denied permission to protest by having a fast-unto-death at Ralegan Siddhi, the grama sabha stating that the reason was that only Anna Hazare can hold such fasts in his village.

During his protest against corruption, another activist, Udit Raj, who was denied permission to protest against Anna Hazare, warned that succumbing to Hazare's demands, which he claimed were against the parliamentary processes will set a dangerous trend rendering the backward classes more vulnerable, as such mass mobilisations coercing the government with a "set of solutions" against constitutional processes could also be used against affirmative action, and is a threat to democracy. Later, it came to light that poor dalits had been paid money of up to 200 each, exploiting their desperation. The participants said that they were asked to shout slogans against Anna, although the organizers have denied it. Some protesters said that they had been told that it was a pro-Anna protest, but feel cheated after realising that it was against Anna hazare.

Accusation of being nonsecular

On 22 August 2011 writer-actor Arundhati Roy accused Hazare in a newspaper article of being nonsecular. She questioned his secular credentials pointing out Hazare's "support for Raj Thackeray's Marathi Manoos xenophobia and (has praised) the 'development model' of Gujarat's CM who oversaw the 2002 pogrom against Muslims". The website of the newspaper published many responses to her article and these were mostly critical of her views. Activist Medha Patkar also strongly criticised Roy, saying that her views were misplaced.

Hazare has in the past stood in firm opposition to the Shiv Sena and BJP governments in Maharashtra. Activist and writer Asghar Ali Engineer in an EPW article on Communalism and Communal Violence reported,

Hazare was accused of working for RSS and BJP's behest, and against Muslims by cleric Bukhari of the Jama Masjid. Bhukhari was subsequently criticised for being a Royal Imam and the communal comments being his personal views which did not represent the view of ordinary Muslims.

Anna supports violence selectively

Hazare acknowledged his belief in violence after his remark "just one slap" in which the victim of violence was Sharad Pawar, a rival in maharashtra in terms of popularity.

Conspiracy to murder Hazare

Anna Hazare has exposed large corruption in co-operative sugar factories of Maharashtra. One of the sugar factories which Anna exposed corruption of is controlled by Dr.Padamsinh Bajirao Patil, a member of Parliament of 15th Lok Sabha and higher-ranking Leader of Nationalist Congress Party from Osmanabad, and also a prime accused and conspirator in the 2006 murder case of Indian National Congress leader Pawanraje Nimabalkar.

The conspiracy to kill Hazare was exposed when Parasmal Jain, an accused in the Nimbalkar murder case, in his written confession before a magistrate said that Padamsinh Bajirao Patil had paid a sum of to murder Nimbalkar, and also offered him supari (contract killing sum) to kill Anna Hazare. After this written confession, Anna appealed to the state government of Maharashtra to lodge a separate First Information Report ( FIR ) against Padamsinh Bajirao Patil for conspiring to murder him but the government did not take any action in this regard. Anna Hazare decided to lodge a complaint himself and on 26 September 2009, he lodged complaint at Parner police station of Ahmednagar District in Maharashtra against the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP Padamsinha Patil for conspiring to eliminate him. Padamsinh Patil approached the High Court seeking anticipatory bail but on 14 October 2009, the Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court rejected the anticipatory bail application of Padamsinh Patil in connection with a complaint filed by Anna after observing that there is a prima facie evidence against him.

Padmasinh Patil appealed for an anticipatory bail in Supreme Court of India which the court rejected on 6 November 2009. On 11 November 2009 Padmasinh Patil surrendered before the sessions court in Latur as per a directive of the Supreme Court and was sent to judicial remand for 14 days. On 16 December 2009 Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court granted bail to him. , the verdict is pending.

As of December 2011, Anna Hazare has got Z+ security.

Honours, awards and international recognition

! Year !! Award !! Awarding organization
2011	NDTV Indian of the Year with Arvind Kejriwal	NDTV
2008	Jit Gill Memorial Award	World Bank
2005		Gandhigram Rural University
2003	Integrity Award	Transparency International
1998		CARE (relief agency)
1997	Mahaveer Award
1996	Shiromani Award
1992	Padma Bhushan	President of India
1990	Padma Shri	President of India
1989	Krishi Bhushana Award	Government of Maharashtra
1986	Indira Priyadarshini Vrikshamitra Award	Government of India

Personal life

Anna Hazare is unmarried. He has lived in a small room attached to the Sant Yadavbaba temple in Ralegan Siddhi since 1975. On 16 April 2011, he declared his bank balance of and as money in hand. He owns 0.07 hectares of family land in Ralegan Siddhi, which is being used by his brothers. Two other pieces of land donated to him by the Indian Army and by a villager have been donated by him for village use. His only income is a pension he receives from the Indian Army.

Writings

References

Further reading

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Periwinkle Environmental Education Part-X Author-Harendra Chakhaiyar, Publisher- Jeevandeep Prakashan Pvt Ltd, ISBN-8177444948, 9788177444940

From poverty to plenty: the story of Ralegan Siddhi Volume 5 of Studies in ecology and sustainable development. Authors- Ganesh Pangare, Vasudha Pangare. Publisher: Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage,1992.Original from the University of Virginia. Digitized 20 Oct 2009. ISBN 8190006142, 9788190006149 Length-47 pages.

Dynamics of rural development: lessons from Ralegan Siddhi Publisher- Foundation for Research in Community Health, 2002. Original from The University of Michigan. Digitized 21 Jul 2009 Length 181 pages.

Troubles and Wet Solutions: Success Story of Ralegan Siddhi's Watershed Development Project Centre for Alternative Agriculture Media

Ralegan Siddhi Authors: Ramesh Awasthi, Dashrath K. Panmand, Foundation for Research in Community Health (Bombay, India) Publisher: Foundation for Research in Community Health, 1994. Original from The University of Michigan. Digitized 22 Dec 2009. Length 92 pages

Religion and ecology in India and Southeast Asia Authors- David L. Gosling, Ninian Smart, Contributor- Ninian Smart, Edition-illustrated, Publisher- Routledge, 2001, ISBN 0415240301, 9780415240307, Length 210 pages

Springs of life: India's water resources Authors Ganesh Pangare, Vasudha Pangare, Binayak Das, World Water Institute (Pune, India), Bharathi Integrated Rural Development Society, Edition- illustrated, Publisher-Academic Foundation, 2006. ISBN 817188489X, 9788171884896

External links

Anna Hazare – ''Official website''

Civil Society – ''Official website''

Profile at NDTV

Biography at CNN

Anna Hazare collected news and commentary at ''The Times of India''

A successful case of participatory watershed management at Ralegan Siddhi Village in, Maharastra, India

''Draft Lokpal Bill'', 2010

''India Against Corruption''

A documentary film about Anna Hazare and the Jan Lokpal movement.

;Images

The anti-corruption movement by Anna Hazare, slideshow by ''The First Post''

Ahead of fast, Anna Hazare at Rajghat, slideshow by ''NDTV''

The face of a protest: Anna Hazare, slideshow by ''CNN-IBN''

Photo Essay: "Indian Protest the Arrest of Anna Hazare", ''Time''

Category:Indian activists Category:1937 births Category:Indian Hindus Category:Living people Category:Marathi people Category:People from Maharashtra Category:Founders of Indian schools and colleges Category:Indian civil rights activists Category:Gandhians Category:Indian Army personnel Category:Nonviolence advocates Category:Freedom of information activists Category:Recipients of the Padma Shri Category:Recipients of the Padma Bhushan Category:Prisoners and detainees of India Category:Indian human rights activists Category:Indian vegetarians Category:Indian sociologists Category:Indian revolutionaries

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Pankaj Mishra ( पंकज मिश्रा ) born 1969 in Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh (North India), is an Indian essayist and novelist. He is particularly notable for his book ''Butter Chicken in Ludhiana'', a sociological study of small-town India, and his writing for the ''New York Review of Books''.

He graduated with a bachelor's degree in commerce from Allahabad University before earning his Master of Arts degree in English literature at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. He was the Visiting Fellow for 2007-2008 at the Department of English, University College London, UK.

Writing career

In 1992, he moved to Mashobra, a Himalayan village, where he began to contribute literary essays and reviews to ''The Indian Review of Books'', ''The India Magazine'', and the newspaper ''The Pioneer''. His first book was ''Butter Chicken in Ludhiana: Travels in Small Town India'' (1995), a travelogue that described the social and cultural changes in India in the new context of globalization. His novel ''The Romantics'' (2000), an ironic tale of people longing for fulfillment in cultures other than their own, was published in eleven European languages and won the ''Los Angeles Times'' Art Seidenbaum award for first fiction. His recent book ''An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World'' (2004) mixes memoir, history, and philosophy while attempting to explore the Buddha's relevance to contemporary times. ''Temptations of the West: How to be Modern in India, Pakistan and Beyond'' (2006), describes Mishra's travels through Kashmir, Bollywood, Afghanistan, Tibet, Nepal, and other parts of South and Central Asia.

In 2005, Mishra published an anthology of writing on India, ''India in Mind'' (Vintage). His writings have been anthologized in ''The Picador Book of Journeys'' (2000), ''The Vintage Book of Modern Indian Literature'' (2004), and ''Away: The Indian Writer as Expatriate'' (Penguin), among other titles. He has introduced new editions of Rudyard Kipling's ''Kim'' (Modern Library), E. M. Forster's ''A Passage to India'' (Penguin Classics), and J. G. Farrell's ''The Siege of Krishnapur'' (NYRB Classics). He has also introduced two volumes of V. S. Naipaul's essays: ''The Writer and the World'' and ''Literary Occasions''.

Mishra writes literary and political essays for ''The New York Times'', ''The New York Review of Books'', ''The Guardian'', and ''New Statesman'', among other American, British, and Indian publications. His work has also appeared in ''The Boston Globe'', ''Common Knowledge'', the ''Financial Times'', ''Granta'', ''The Independent'', the ''London Review of Books'', ''n+1'', ''The Nation'', ''Outlook'', ''Poetry'', ''Time'', ''The Times Literary Supplement'', ''Travel + Leisure'', and ''The Washington Post''. He divides his time between London and India, and is presently working on a novel.

His book ''Temptations of the West: How to be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet and Beyond'' was reviewed by ''The Economist'' (1–7 July 2006 issue).

In 2008 he was one of the first authors to take part in the Palestine Festival of Literature. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2008.

He also Honored with “Proud Past Alumni" in the list of 42 members, from "Allahabad University Alumni Association", NCR, Ghaziabad (Greater Noida) Chapter 2007-2008 registered under society act 1860 with registration no. 407/2000.

Criticisms

In a lecture Prof Jagdish Bhagwati said that in reference to Mishra's op-ed pieces in the ''New York Times'': "Perhaps the most articulate critics are the ‘progressive’ novelists of India, chief among them Pankaj Mishra whom the op-ed page editors of The New York Times regularly and almost exclusively invite to write about the Indian economy, a privilege they do not seem to extend symmetrically to American novelists to give us their profound thoughts on the US economy!" He then said of Mishra's economic analysis "While economic analysis can often produce a yawning indifference, and Mishra’s narrative is by contrast eloquent and captivating, the latter is really fiction masquerading as non-fiction."

Patrick French in response to Mishra's review of French's book ''India: A Portrait''(2010), suggested that his writing is aimed to please his readers in his new home, Britain: "Pankaj has obviously been on a long journey from his self-described origins—in what he calls a “new, very poor and relatively inchoate Asian society”—to his present position at the heart of the British establishment, married to a cousin of the prime minister David Cameron. But he seems oddly resentful of the idea of social mobility for other Indians."

Personal life

He's married to a cousin of British Prime Minister David Cameron and divides his time between Delhi, Shimla and London.

Bibliography

Book reviews

"Impasse in India" ''The New York Review of Books'' 54/11 (28 June 2007) : 48-51 [reviews Martha C. Nussbaum, ''The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future'']

Books

Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006)

India in Mind, edited by Pankaj Mishra (Vintage Departures Original, 2005)

A Passage to India, by E. M. Forster, edited by Pankaj Mishra (Penguin Classics, 2005)

An End to Suffering: the Buddha in the World (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004)

The Siege of Krishnapur, by J. G. Farrell; introduction by Pankaj Mishra (NYRB Books, 2004)

Kim, by Rudyard Kipling; introduction by Pankaj Mishra (Random House Modern Library, 2004)

The Romantics (Anchor Books, 2001)

Butter Chicken in Ludhiana: Travels in Small Town India (Viking Penguin, 1995)

References

External links

Magazine contains articles written by Pankaj Mishra

Mishra archive from The New York Review of Books

Philosopher King by Adam Goodheart—book review in New York Times

"Pankaj Mishra, Intellectual and Spiritual Vagrant". An interview by Wendy Cheng at ''Loggernaut''.

Interview with Pankaj Mishra by Sarah Fay for "The Believer" 2007.

. Report by Pankaj Mishra regarding Kashmir on July 22, 2002 in the UK Guardian newspaper.

of Pankaj Mishra and Arundhati Roy discussing "India in the World" at the Shanghai International Literary Festival

Pankaj Mishra’s profile at The Guardian

Category:1969 births Category:Indian essayists Category:Indian journalists Category:Indian novelists Category:Indian travel writers Category:Allahabad Category:Living people Category:Allahabad University alumni Category:Jawaharlal Nehru University alumni Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature

de:Pankaj Mishra eu:Pankaj Mishra nl:Pankaj Mishra sh:Pankaj Mishra sv:Pankaj Mishra

Name	Norman Mailer
Pseudonym	Andreas Wilson
Birth name	Norman Kingsley Mailer
Birth date	January 31, 1923
Birth place	Long Branch, New Jersey, U.S.
Death date	November 10, 2007
Death place	New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Novelist, essayist, journalist, columnist, poet, playwright
Nationality	American
Genre	Fiction, non-fiction
Influences	John Dos Passos, George Eliot, Leo Tolstoy, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Mann, William Faulkner, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Henry James, Marcel Proust, Henry Miller
Influenced	Don DeLillo, Martin Amis, Truman Capote, Tom Wolfe, Lester Bangs, Jim Morrison
Portaldisp	yes }}

Norman Kingsley Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007) was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.

Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S. Thompson, John McPhee, and Tom Wolfe, Mailer is considered an innovator of creative nonfiction, a genre sometimes called New Journalism, which superimposes the essay onto the nonfiction novel. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize twice and the National Book Award once. In 1955, Mailer, together with John Wilcock, Ed Fancher and Dan Wolf, first published ''The Village Voice'', which began as an arts and politics oriented weekly newspaper distributed in Greenwich Village. In 2005, he won the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation.

In 1992, Mailer received the Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award. The Helmerich Award is presented annually by the Tulsa Library Trust.

Early life

Norman Kingsley Mailer was born to a well-known Jewish family in Long Branch, New Jersey. His father, Isaac Barnett Mailer, was a South African-born accountant, and his mother, Fanny Schneider, ran a housekeeping and nursing agency. Mailer's sister, Barbara, was born in 1927. His second sister, Norma, was born in 1930. Raised in Brooklyn, New York, he graduated from Boys' High School and entered Harvard University in 1939, where he studied aeronautical engineering. At Harvard, he became interested in writing and published his first story at the age of 18, winning ''Story'' magazine's college contest in 1941. As an undergraduate, he was a member of The Signet Society. After graduating in 1943, he was drafted into the U.S. Army. In World War II, he served in the Philippines with the 112th Cavalry. He was not involved in much combat and completed his service as a cook, but the experience provided enough material for ''The Naked and the Dead''.

Literary career

Novels

In 1948, while continuing his studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, Mailer published ''The Naked and the Dead,'' (1948) based on his military service in World War II. A ''New York Times'' best seller for 62 weeks, it was hailed by many as one of the best American wartime novels and named one of the "one hundred best novels in English language" by the Modern Library.

''Barbary Shore'' (1951) was a surreal parable of Cold War left politics set in a Brooklyn rooming-house. His 1955 novel ''The Deer Park'' drew on his experiences working as a screenwriter in Hollywood in 1949–50. It was initially rejected by seven publishers due to its purportedly sexual content before being published by Putnam's.

In the tradition of Dickens and Dostoevsky, Mailer wrote his fourth novel, ''An American Dream'', as a serial in ''Esquire'' magazine over eight months (January to August 1964), publishing the first chapter only two months after he wrote it. In March 1965, Dial Press published a revised version. His editor was E. L. Doctorow. The novel received mixed reviews, but was a best seller. Joan Didion praised it in a review in ''National Review'' (April 20, 1965) and John W. Aldridge did the same in ''Life '' (March 19, 1965), while Elizabeth Hardwick panned it in ''Partisan Review'' (spring 1965). Except for a brief period, the novel has never gone out of print.

In 1980, ''The Executioner's Song''—Mailer's novelization of the life and death of murderer Gary Gilmore—won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

Mailer spent a longer time writing ''Ancient Evenings''—his novel of Egypt in the XX dynasty (about 1100 B.C.E.)—than any of his other books, working on it off and on from 1972 until 1983. It was also a bestseller, although reviews were generally negative.

''Harlot's Ghost'', Mailer's longest novel (1310 pages), appeared in 1991. It is an exploration of the unspoken dramas of the CIA from the end of WWII to 1965. He performed a huge amount of research for the novel, which is still on CIA reading lists. He ended the novel with the words "To be continued," and planned to write a sequel, titled ''Harlot's Grave''. But other projects intervened and he never wrote it. ''Harlot's Ghost'' sold well.

His final novel, ''The Castle in the Forest'', which focused on Hitler's childhood, reached number five on the ''Times'' best-seller list after publication in January 2007, and received stronger reviews than any of his books since ''The Executioner's Song.'' ''Castle'' was intended to be the first volume of a trilogy, but Mailer died several months after it was completed. ''The Castle in the Forest'' was awarded a Bad Sex in Fiction Award by the ''Literary Review'' magazine.

Mailer wrote over 40 books. He published 11 novels over a 59-year span.

The New Journalism

From the mid-1950s, Mailer became known for his counter-cultural essays. In 1955, he co-founded ''The Village Voice'' for which he wrote a column from January to April 1956. Mailer's famous essay "The White Negro" (1957) "analyzes and partly defends the moral radicalism of the outsider and hipster." It is one of the most anthologized, and controversial, essays of the postwar period.

In 1960, Mailer wrote "Superman Comes to the Supermarket" for ''Esquire'' magazine, an account of the emergence of John F. Kennedy during the Democratic party convention. The essay was an important breakthrough for the New Journalism of the nineteen sixties. Mailer's contributions to the New Journalism include major books such as ''The Armies of the Night'' (1968—awarded a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award); ''Miami and the Siege of Chicago'' (1968); ''Of a Fire on the Moon'' (1971); and ''The Prisoner of Sex'' (1971). Hallmarks of these works are a highly subjectivized style and a greater application of techniques from fiction-writing than common in journalism.

Mailer wrote a ''Playboy'' article about Elmo Henderson, a boxer who had defeated Muhammad Ali in 1972. In the 1970s Henderson filed a $1 million lawsuit against Mailer and ''Playboy''. The magazine and Mailer lost the lawsuit.

The Big Screen

In addition to his experimental fiction and nonfiction novels, Mailer produced a play version of ''The Deer Park'' (staged at the Theatre De Lys in Greenwich Village in 1967), and in the late 1960s directed a number of improvisational avant-garde films in a Warhol style, including ''Maidstone'' (1970), which includes a spontaneous and brutal brawl between Norman T. Kingsley, played by Mailer, and Kingsley's brother, played by Rip Torn. Mailer received a head injury when Torn struck him with a hammer. In 1987, he adapted and directed a film version of his novel ''Tough Guys Don't Dance'', starring Ryan O'Neal and Isabella Rossellini, which has become a minor camp classic.

Political activism

A number of Mailer's nonfiction works, such as ''The Armies of the Night'' and ''The Presidential Papers'', are political. He covered the Republican and Democratic National Conventions in 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1992, and 1996, although his account of the 1996 Democratic convention has never been published. In the early 1960s he was fixated on the figure of President John F. Kennedy, whom he regarded as an "existential hero." In the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s and 1970s his work mingled autobiography, social commentary, history, fiction, and poetry in a formally original way that influenced the development of New Journalism. In October 1967, he was arrested for his involvement in an anti-Vietnam War demonstration at the Pentagon. In 1968, he signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.

At the December 15, 1971, taping of ''The Dick Cavett Show'', with Janet Flanner and Gore Vidal, Mailer, annoyed with a less-than-stellar review by Vidal of ''Prisoner of Sex'', apparently headbutted Vidal and traded insults with him backstage. As the show began taping, a visibly belligerent Mailer, who admitted he had been drinking, goaded Vidal and Cavett into trading insults with him on air and continually referred to his "greater intellect". He openly taunted and mocked Vidal (who responded in kind), finally earning the ire of Flanner, who announced that the discussion had become "extremely boring", telling Mailer "You act as if you're the only people here." As Cavett made jokes comparing Mailer's intellect to his ego, Mailer stated "Why don't you look at your question sheet and ask your question?", to which Cavett responded "Why don't you fold it 5 ways and shove it where the moon don't shine."

The headbutting and later on-air altercation was described by Mailer himself in his essay "Of a Small and Modest Malignancy, Wicked and Bristling with Dots." The Wikipedia article about landmark episodes of the show states:

A 1971 interview with Norman Mailer was not going well. Mailer moved his chair away from the other guests (Gore Vidal and Janet Flanner), and Cavett joked that "perhaps you'd like two more chairs to contain your giant intellect?" Mailer replied "I'll take the two chairs if you'll all accept finger-bowls." Mailer later said to Cavett "Why don't you look at your question sheet and ask your question?", to which Cavett replied "Why don't you fold it five ways and put it where the moon don't shine?"

A long laugh ensued, after which Mailer asked Cavett if he had come up with that line and Cavett replied "I have to tell you a quote from Tolstoy?".

In 1980, Mailer spearheaded convicted killer Jack Abbott's successful bid for parole. In 1977, Abbott had read about Mailer's work on ''The Executioner's Song'' and wrote to Mailer, offering to enlighten the author about Abbott's time behind bars and the conditions he was experiencing. Mailer, impressed, helped to publish ''In the Belly of the Beast'', a book on life in the prison system consisting of Abbott's letters to Mailer. Once paroled, Abbott committed a murder in New York City six weeks after his release, stabbing to death 22-year-old Richard Adan. Consequently, Mailer was subject to criticism for his role. In a 1992 interview with the ''Buffalo News'', he conceded that his involvement was "another episode in my life in which I can find nothing to cheer about or nothing to take pride in."

In 1989, Mailer joined with a number of other prominent authors in publicly expressing support for colleague Salman Rushdie in the wake of the ''fatwa'' calling for Rushdie's assassination issued by Iran's Islamic government for his having authored ''The Satanic Verses''.

In 2003, in a speech to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, just before the invasion of Iraq, Mailer said: "Fascism is more of a natural state than democracy. To assume blithely that we can export democracy into any country we choose can serve paradoxically to encourage more fascism at home and abroad. Democracy is a state of grace that is attained only by those countries who have a host of individuals not only ready to enjoy freedom but to undergo the heavy labor of maintaining it."

From 1980 until his death in 2007, he contributed to Democratic Party candidacies for political office.

Mayoral campaign

In 1969, at the suggestion of Gloria Steinem, his friend the political essayist Noel Parmentel and others, he ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic Party primary for Mayor of New York City, allied with columnist Jimmy Breslin (who ran for City Council President), proposing New York City secession and creating a 51st state. Mailer "foresaw the city, its independence secured, splintering into townships and neighborhoods, with their own school systems, police departments, housing programs, and governing philosophies." Their slogan was "throw the rascals in". Mailer was endorsed by libertarian economist Murray Rothbard, who "believed that 'smashing the urban government apparatus and fragmenting it into a myriad of constituent fragments' offered the only answer to the ills plaguing American cities," and called Mailer's campaign “the most refreshing libertarian political campaign in decades.” He came in fourth in a field of five. Looking back on the campaign, journalist and historian Theodore White called it “one of the most serious campaigns run in the United States in the last five years. . . . [H]is campaign was considered and thoughtful, the beginning of an attempt to apply ideas to a political situation."

Biographical subjects

His biographical subjects included Pablo Picasso, Muhammad Ali, Gary Gilmore and Lee Harvey Oswald, and Marilyn Monroe.

His 1973 ''Marilyn'' was particularly controversial. Arthur Miller, playwright and former husband to Marilyn Monroe, wrote in his 1987 autobiography Timebends of Mailer's biography that, "[Marilyn] was himself in drag, acting out his own Hollywood fantasies of fame and sex unlimited and power."

In its final chapter he stated that Monroe was murdered by agents of the FBI and CIA who resented her supposed affair with Robert F. Kennedy. Despite its problems, the biography was enormously successful, selling more copies than any of his works except ''The Naked and the Dead''. It stayed in print for decades, but was out of print in the United States.

(Two works he co-wrote presented imagined words and thoughts in Monroe's voice; these were the 1980 book ''Of Women and Their Elegance'' and the 1986 play ''Strawhead'', which was produced off Broadway with his daughter, Kate Mailer, starring.)

Personal life

Marriages and children

Norman Mailer was married six times and had nine children. He fathered eight children by his various wives and also raised and informally adopted Norris' son from another marriage, Matthew.

Norman's first marriage was in 1944, to Beatrice Silverman, whom he divorced in 1952. They had one child, Susan.

Mailer married his second wife, Adele Morales, in 1954. They had two daughters, Danielle and Elizabeth. Mailer was violent to his wife. He punched her in the stomach when she was six months pregnant, and coerced her to have group sex with his friends. In 1960, Mailer stabbed Adele with a penknife after a party, nearly killing her. He cut through her breast, only just missing her heart. Then he stabbed her in the back. As she lay there, haemorrhaging, one man reached down to help her. He snapped: "Get away from her. Let the bitch die." He was involuntarily committed to Bellevue Hospital for 17 days; his wife would not press charges, and he later pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of assault, and was given a suspended sentence. While in the short term, Morales made a physical recovery, in 1997 she published a memoir of their marriage entitled ''The Last Party'', which recounted the violence and its aftermath. This incident has been a focal point for feminist critics of Mailer, who point to themes of sexual violence in his work.

His third wife, whom he married in 1962, and divorced in 1963, was the British heiress and journalist Lady Jeanne Campbell (1929–2007), the only daughter of Ian Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll and a granddaughter of the press baron Lord Beaverbrook. The couple had a daughter, Kate Mailer, who is an actress.

His fourth marriage, in 1963, was to Beverly Bentley, a former model turned actress. She was the mother of his producer son Michael Mailer and his actor son Stephen Mailer. They divorced in 1980.

His fifth wife was Carol Stevens, a jazz singer whom he married on November 7, 1980, and divorced in Haiti on November 8, 1980, thereby legitimating their daughter Maggie, born in 1971.

His sixth and last wife, whom he married in 1980, was Norris Church Mailer (née Barbara Davis, 1949–2010), an art teacher. In her autobiography ''A Ticket to the Circus'', Norris Church recounts of a rape and a miscarriage. They had one son together, John Buffalo Mailer, a writer and actor, and Mailer informally adopted Matthew Norris, her son by her first husband, Larry Norris. Living in Brooklyn, New York and Provincetown, Massachusetts with Mailer, Church worked as a model, wrote and painted.

Works with children

In 2005, Mailer co-wrote a book with his youngest child, John Buffalo Mailer, entitled ''The Big Empty''.

Mailer appeared in an episode of ''Gilmore Girls'' entitled "Norman Mailer, I'm Pregnant!" with his son Stephen Mailer.

Death and legacy

Mailer died of acute renal failure on the morning of November 10, 2007, a month after undergoing lung surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, New York.

The papers of the two-time Pulitzer Prize author may be found at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas, Austin.

In 2008, Carole Mallory sold seven boxes of documents and photographs to Harvard University, Norman Mailer's Alma Mater. They contain extracts of her letters, books and journals.

Mailer was widely quoted, e.g. "Culture is worth a little risk" (see link below to "Wikiquotes": Mailer quotes).

Cultural References

In the comedy ''Sleeper'', Woody Allen remarks that Mailer "donated his ego to the Harvard Medical School." He's referenced in the Red Hot Chili Peppers song "Animal Bar" in the lyrics "Ever loving mug of Mr. Norman Mailer".

Selected bibliography

Fiction

Novels

''The Naked and the Dead''. New York: Rinehart, 1948.

''Barbary Shore''. New York: Rinehart, 1951.

''The Deer Park''. New York: Putnam's, 1955.

''An American Dream''. New York: Dial, 1965.

''Why Are We in Vietnam?'' New York: Putnam's, 1967.

''The Executioner's Song'' Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1979.

''Of Women and Their Elegance''. New York, Simon and Schuster, 1980

''Ancient Evenings''. Boston: Little, Brown, 1983.

''Tough Guys Don't Dance''. New York: Random House, 1984.

''Harlot's Ghost''. New York: Random House, 1991.

''The Gospel According to the Son''. New York: Random House, 1997.

''The Castle in the Forest''. New York: Random House, 2007.

Plays

''The Deer Park: A Play''. New York: Dial, 1967.

Short Stories

''The Short Fiction of Norman Mailer''. New York: Dell, 1967.

Non-fiction

General Non-fiction

''The Armies of the Night''. New York: New American Library, 1968.

''Miami and the Siege of Chicago: An Informal History of the Republican and Democratic Conventions of 1968''. New York: New American Library, 1968.

''Of a Fire on the Moon''. Boston: Little, Brown, 1970.

''The Prisoner of Sex''. Boston: Little, Brown, 1971.

''St. George and The Godfather''. New York: Signet Classics, 1972.

''The Faith of Graffiti''. New York: Praeger, 1974.

''The Fight''. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1975.

''Of a Small and Modest Malignancy, Wicked and Bristling with Dots''. Northridge, CA: Lord John Press, 1980.

''Why Are We At War?''. New York: Random House, 2003 ISBN 978-0812971118

''The Spooky Art: Some Thoughts on Writing''. New York: Random House, 2003.

''The Big Empty: Dialogues on Politics, Sex, God, Boxing, Morality, Myth, Poker and Bad Conscience in America''. New York: Nation Books, 2006

''On God: An Uncommon Conversation''. New York: Random House, 2007 ISBN 978-1400067329

Essay Collections

''Advertisements for Myself''. New York: Putnam's, 1959.

''The Presidential Papers''.New York: Putnam, 1963.

''Cannibals and Christians''. New York: Dial, 1966.

''Pieces and Pontifications''. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1982.

Biographies

''Marilyn: A Biography''. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1973.

''Portrait of Picasso as a Young Man: An Interpretive Biography''. Atlantic Monthly Press, 1995.

''Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery''. New York: Random House, 1996 ISBN 978-0679425359

Famous Essays and Articles

"The White Negro". San Francisco: City Lights, 1957.

References

Further reading

''Norman Mailer'' by Michael K. Glenday. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995.

''Radical Fictions and the Novels of Norman Mailer'' by Nigel Leigh. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990.

''Norman Mailer: Works and Days'' by J. Michael and Donna P. Lennon. Westport, MA: Sligo Press, 2000. Comprehensive, annotated primary and secondary bibliography with life chronology.

''Norman Mailer: The Man and His Work,'' edited by Robert F. Lucid. Boston: Little, Brown. The first collection of essays on Mailer.

''Norman Mailer'' by Philip Bufithis. New York: Ungar, 1978. Perhaps the most readable and reliable study of Mailer's early work.

''Acts of Regeneration: Allegory and Archetype in the Works of Norman Mailer'' by Robert J. Begiebing. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1980. Fine discussion of Mailer's "heroic consciousness."

''The Enduring Vision of Norman Mailer'' by Barry H. Leeds. Bainbridge, WA: Pleasure Boat Studio, 2002.

''Political Fiction and the American Self'' by John Whalen-Bridge. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998. Subtle examination of Mailer's dual aptitude of representing and resisting American mythologies.

''Critical Essays on Norman Mailer,'' edited by J.Michael Lennon: Boston, G.K.Hall and Co., 1986.

''Norman Mailer,'' by Richard Poirier. New York: Viking,1972. One of the best studies of Mailer's writing, tracking his career through the early Eighties.

''Norman Mailer'' by Richard Jackson Foster. University of Minnesota Press, 1968. Pamphlet.

''The Structured Vision of Norman Mailer'' by Barry H. Leeds, New York University Press,1969.

''Norman Mailer Revisited'' by Robert Merrill. Twayne, 1992. Contains perhaps the best analysis of ''The Executioner's Song''

''Mailer: His Life and Times,'' edited by Peter Manso. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985. Highly readable, but controversial "oral" biography of Mailer created by cross-cutting interviews with friends, enemies, acquaintances, relatives, wives of Mailer and Mailer himself.

''Conversations with Norman Mailer,'' edited by J. Michael Lennon. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1988.

''Norman Mailer: A Collection of Critical Essays'' edited by Leo Braudy. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1972. Contains useful insights on ''Miami and the Siege of Chicago.''

''Existential Battles: The Growth of Norman Mailer'' by Laura Adams. Athens: University of Ohio Press, 1976. Good discussion of early narrators.

''Time to Murder and Create: The Contemporary Novel in Crisis'' by John W. Aldridge. New York: David McKay, 1966. Contains Aldridge's important essay on ''An American Dream.''

''The Portable Beat Reader,'' edited by Ann Charters, Penguin Books. New York. 1992. ISBN 0-670-83885-3 (hc); ISBN 0-14-015102-8 (pbk). Contains "The White Negro."

''The Norman Mailer Review,'' edited by Phillip Sipiora. New periodical co-sponsored by the University of South Florida and The Norman Mailer Society (www.normanmailersociety.com).

The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture: Francis Irby Gwaltney http://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=3034

Van A. Tyson http://www.atkinschronicle.com/vantyson.htm

External links

Transcript of interview with Ramona Koval, Edinburgh International Book Festival, August 2000 broadcast on ''The Book Show'', ABC Radio National, November 12, 2007

The Norman Mailer Society

"Superman Comes to the Supermarket," article by Norman Mailer on John F. Kennedy, Esquire magazine, November 1960

Sunday New York Times review by Lee Siegel of ''The Castle in the Forest''

Norman Mailer on American Masters (PBS Broadcast)

Norman Mailer: The American (Documentary)

Norman Mailer's writing on The Huffington Post

A conversation with Norman Mailer (Minnesota Public Radio)

Norman Mailer and Günter Grass interviewed by Andrew O'Hagan at The New York Public Library, June 2007

Norman Mailer speech at UC Berkeley Vietnam Teach-In, 1965 (RealAudio) (via UC Berkeley Media Resources Center)

Joyce Carol Oates on Norman Mailer

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