Highway To Swades

Brewing Knowledge Friday

Author Bhairavi Jani discusses her book “Highway to Swades” and her 18,000 km journey across India.

Key Takeaways

• The Journey: Jani’s 18,181 km, 51-day drive across India was a quest for a firsthand understanding of the country, inspired by the ancient Indian principle of pratyaksha (witnessing).

• The 12 Superpowers: The book identifies 12 core strengths of India, with “Power of Assimilation” highlighted as uniquely Indian—the ability to adopt external influences while retaining its own identity.

• The Raft Analogy: India’s Republic is a raft on the eternal river of its civilisation. Citizens must pick up the oars and actively participate in its progress, as the country is run by its people, not just politicians.

• The “Chappan Bhog” Philosophy: Jani advocates for a life of diverse experiences—a “chappan bhog” (56-dish feast)—by challenging comfort zones and saying “yes” to life, avoiding the mental walls that create stress.

Topics

The Journey: “Highway to Swades”

• Inspiration: A lifelong practice of pratyaksha (witnessing) for learning, seeded by childhood travel with her parents and school.

• Catalyst: A question about policymakers’ understanding of India’s people and their choices.

• Scope: 18,181 km over 51 days, from Nagaland to Kutch and Kashmir to the Deccan.

• Method: An organic, anticlockwise parikrama (circumambulation) averaging 360-370 km/day, with 15-20 interviews daily.

• Key Discoveries:

  • Undakoti, Tripura: A hidden 6th-century rock-cut sculpture site, a major historical gem that was largely unknown.

  • Nalanda, Bihar: A watchman’s reverence for the ruins as a “temple of knowledge” revealed a deep cultural value for learning.

  • Safety: The journey proved that India is safe to travel in, with people across the country offering help and hospitality.

The 12 Superpowers of India

• Core Insight: A common thread of strengths binds India’s diverse people.

• Key Superpowers:

  • Enterprise: Entrepreneurship is a pervasive trait, seen from tribal women in Eastern Ghats markets to tech CEOs.

  • Nature: A reverential partnership with nature, contrasting with the anthropocentric view common elsewhere.

  • Knowledge: A deep cultural reverence for learning, not just education.

  • Creativity: An inherent aesthetic drive, from truck art to rangolis.

  • Assimilation: The unique ability to adopt external influences while retaining identity (e.g., Gobi Manchurian).

  • Inclusion: A natural acceptance of diversity, reflected in holidays for all major faiths.

• Internal Contradictions: Jani also questioned why a country that values beauty struggles with cleanliness and why, despite vast arable land, malnutrition persists.

Philosophy & Outlook

• India at 100: An India where 1.4 billion people are individually empowered (Swaraj) to realise their full potential, creating a gift to the world.

• The Raft Analogy: India’s Republic is a raft on the eternal river of its civilisation. Citizens are the sailors who must pick up the oars and actively participate in the progress.

• The “Chappan Bhog” Philosophy: Life should be a “Chappan Bhog” (56-dish feast) of diverse experiences. This is achieved by challenging comfort zones and saying “yes” to life, which eliminates the stress of “juggling.”

• Love Defined: Love is about receiving with an open heart and no expectations. This openness allows for a floodgate of love and warmth, leading to gratitude.

FATHOM AI-generated content, read with care.

The Recruitment Paradox: Men as Champions for Girls' Education

Read And Lead 

To read and discuss chapter 4 of Every Last Girl, “Learning Who Should Lead.”

Key Takeaways

• Local Messengers are Essential: External teams face deep community mistrust (e.g., kidnapping rumours, hostility for violating social norms). Effective change requires local leaders who are trusted and understand the culture.

• The “Culture Paradox”: Progress is often blocked by a “culture paradox”—a conflict between a stated goal and deeply ingrained social norms. This applies to both the book’s mission (girls’ education) and the session’s goal (promoting reading).

• Rethink Recruitment for Impact: The initial strategy of hiring only women was unworkable due to a “missing generation” of educated women in rural India (~4% complete 12th grade). Hiring male champions like Kamlesh proved effective and necessary for scale.

• Find the True Influencers: Identifying real leaders requires deep local knowledge. The team learned this by mistaking an opium smoker for an elder, then discovering a powerful, unassuming priest (Prabhuji) who was the village’s true guardian of girls’ education.

Topics

The Challenge: External Teams Face Deep Mistrust

• External teams from Mumbai faced hostility and suspicion in rural villages.

• Specific Incidents:

  • Pooja’s father (Ram): Threw stones at the team, fueled by grief and alcoholism.

  • Motorcycle Incident: A team member riding with a male colleague violated social norms, causing a hostile confrontation with villagers.

• Root Causes of Mistrust:

  • Unfamiliarity: Villagers were unaccustomed to outsiders.

  • Rumours: Fear of kidnapping spread.

  • Cultural Missteps: Inappropriate dress, tone, or dialect.

• Conclusion: The problem was not just the message, but the messenger. Change requires local voices.

The Solution: Find and Empower Local Leaders

• The team shifted from a top-down approach to a listening-first approach and began finding internal champions.

• Two Contrasting Examples:

  • Dhirindal (False Lead): An opium smoker mistaken for a village elder. This showed that appearance and development theory alone are insufficient for identifying true leaders.

  • Prabhuji (True Champion): The unassuming village priest was the real leader, acting as a “school guardian.”

    • Enforced school attendance and accountability.

    • Instituted fines for child marriage, citing personal experience with girls dying in childbirth.

• Nadia Banu (Community-Led Change): A respected elder in a village where no girl had ever attended school.

  • After seeing the government residential school, she personally convinced 10 girls (ages 11–14) and their families to enrol.

  • Outcome: Girls’ enrollment is now a self-sustaining tradition, driven by the community.

The Recruitment Paradox: Men as Champions for Girls’ Education

• Initial Strategy: Hire only women, inspired by the author’s aunt, who championed her education.

• The Paradox: This strategy was unworkable.

  • Data: Only ~4% of rural Indian girls completed 12th grade, creating a “missing generation” of qualified female candidates.

  • Conflict: The author struggled to lead a feminist organisation with a male workforce.

• The Shift: Reality forced a change in strategy.

  • Sanjay (Motivated Brother): Advocated for his sister’s daughters, driven by guilt over his own education.

  • Asif (Determined Father): His resolve for his daughter, Salma, was “She will not break stones.”

  • Kamlesh (Effective Champion): A taxi driver inspired by his wife’s volunteer work.

    • Credibility: Used his father’s status as a government teacher.

    • Skills: Used his persuasive ability to engage difficult community members like Ram.

    • Results: Enrolled 10 girls in a challenging village in his first four months.

Session Discussion & Connections

• Pushpita Ghosh: Connected the book’s themes to school texts:

  • Grade 7: “The Day the River Spoke” (girl’s longing for school).

  • Grade 9: “How I Taught My Grandmother to Read” (educating the elderly).

• Sandeep Dutt: Identified a “culture paradox” in the session itself—a stated goal (promoting reading) vs. a lack of participation.

• Sneha Pundir: Proposed inviting students to future sessions to connect the book to their curriculum.

FATHOM AI-generated summary. Read with care.

BOOKS OF THE WEEK

Birds In My Garden And Beyond 

by Bulbul Sharma

ABOUT THE BOOK

Walk into a delightful garden full of birds, bees, nests, trees, flowers, and lots and lots of stories.A great big jamun tree and a fat cat dominate Bulbul Sharma garden in Delhi. But the true life of this lovely patch of Green are the birds—sparrows, Parakeets, sunbirds, doves, and many more—who come here to look for food and nectar, build nests, find friends, quarrel with one another, or simply sit and sing to each other. Bulbul writes of the magpie Robin loudly interrupting the other birds; the hoopoe that calls its own name and rushes around busily; the shy Golden oriole that prefers to hide in the large peepal tree; the sharp-eyed owls that watch silently and then swoop down to pick up the mouse that venture out at night. She also describes the hectic activity around a small water body and a forest, the gathering place for sandpipers, dabchicks, snake-birds, red munias, grey Partridge and many migratory birds that fly in from far-off places like the Arctic and Siberia. Filled with glorious colour illustrations, birds in my garden and beyond brings to vivid life The world of Indian birds, and shows us what we need to do to look after them—and make our world more beautiful.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bulbul Sharma is a writer and an artist. She teaches art to children with special needs. She is the author of a number of books for adults and children. She lives mostly in the hills where she loves going on bird-watching and talking-to-trees excursions.

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