An Emulative and Aplomb Corruption-Annihilator Revolutionary

Kisan Baburao Hazare known as Anna Hazare (born 15 June 1937) is an Indian social activist. He is known for developing a village called Ralegaon Siddhi in India. He played a large part in the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement. He has served in the Indian Army. He won the third highest award in India, the Padma Bhushan.

In April 2011, he started an indefinite hunger strike to pressurize the Indian Government to accept his demands on corruption. The Government accepted his demands later, and he ended his fast.

In August 2011, he started another hunger strike. This time, he wanted the Government to pass an Ombudsman bill. He ended the fast after the Parliament of India accepted his demands. This movement got a lot of support from city people across India.

Hazare has been criticized for many things like his strong views on justice, and forced vasectomy to control population.

He was born as kisan baburao hazare in ralegon siddhi village near ahmednagar as a eldest son of baburao hazare and laxmi bai. his father was an unskilled laborer and the family struggled to make end meet. Anna hazare tooks upon himself the responsibility of education and took him to mumbai where he was admitted into local school. however, due to financial strains the relative had to stop the boy's education while in seventh standard. Anna hazare strat his livlehood by selling flowers on railway stations.

·        He joined the Indian Army in 1960. He was trained at Aurangabad and initially he worked as an army truck driver.

·        He was posted at the border in the Khem Karan sector during the Indo-Pakistan War in 1965 where he miraculously survived an enemy attack. This incident shook him and for a time he even considered committing suicide.

·        However, war time experiences in which he emerged to be the sole survivor made him think about the meaning of life. He began reading the works of great minds like Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi and Vinoba Bhave which made him realize that he should be doing something purposeful in his life.

·        During his stint in the army he was posted at different places like Punjab, Sikkim, Bhutan, Mizoram, Maharashtra, and Jammu. He was honorably discharged from the army in 1975 after 15 years of service. He returned to his native village of Ralegan Siddhi and was dismayed to find it plagued by the issues of abject poverty, water problems, alcoholism and hopelessness. He was determined to do something about it. He gathered some like-minded youths and organized a ‘Tarun Mandal’ or Youth Association to work towards rebuilding the village. Alcoholism was a major problem affecting the men and the Mandal helped to close down over thirty liquor breweries. Followed their success in controlling alcoholism, the youths also decided to ban the sale of other intoxicating and dangerous substances like tobacco and cigarettes, which are now no longer sold there. 

He was the only one man behind the transformation of village ralegan siddhi from the poverty ridden, hopeless place with huge population of alcoholics and drug addict to a "model village" based on sustainable development. he played a key role in persuading the Government of India to pass the The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013. Anna hazare had been campaigning for years, often going on indefinite fasts in his bid to make the government take action towards creating a strong anti-corruption act.

Some Lesser Known Facts about Anna Hazare

§ Does Anna Hazare Smoke?: No

§ Does Anna Hazare Drink Alcohol?: No

§ He was born in Bhingar near Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra and was the eldest son of Laxmi Bai and Baburao Hazare.

§ His father, Baburao Hazare, was an unskilled labourer in an Ayurveda Ashram Pharmacy.

§ He was born as Kisan Baburao Hazare and later he adopted the name Anna, which means father or elder brother in Marathi.

§ His family was very poor and a relative tried to help him in his education, however, he couldn’t continue his studies after the 7th grade.

§ He started selling flowers to make his ends meet at the Dadar Railway Station in Mumbai and also owned 2 flower shops in the city.

§ After the Indo-Pak war of 1962, he joined the Indian Army in 1963 and served as a Truck Driver. 

§ During the Indo-Pak war of 1965, he survived a bomb-attack in which all his colleagues were martyred.

§ At times, he used to be frustrated and even contemplated suicide, however, an inspiration came at the New Delhi railway station, where he came across a book of Swami Vivekananda- he was inspired by the photograph on the cover of the book. The book inspired him to pursue his life for the betterment of the mankind.

§ After his 15 year service in the Indian Army, he opted for voluntary retirement and returned to his hometown- Ralegan Siddhi.

§ With his vigilantism and activism, he transformed his village- Ralegan Siddhi from a poor and drought-ridden village into a model village.

§ He also abandoned the liquor dens in his village by launching a movement against them with the help of youths and local villagers.

§ He made a local temple in his village as the focal point of his activism and in 1980, he started a Grain-Bank at the temple providing food security to the poor farmers during the times of drought.

§ In 1990, he was honored with Padma Shri by the Government of India.

§ In 1991, he launched a movement to fight against corruption- Bhrashtachar Virodhi Jan Andolan (BVJA) in Ralegan Siddhi.

§ In 1992, he was honored with Padma Bhushan by the Government of India.

§ He started fast unto death for the 1st time on 9 August 2003 for the corruption charges against 4 NCP Ministers of the Congress-NCP Government.

§ He launched a movement in Maharashtra in early 2000, which forced the Maharashtra Government enacting a revised version of Maharashtra Right to Information Act and this act later became the blueprint for the Right to Information Act 2005 (RTI) enacted by the Government of India.

§ He came to the National Media attention on 20 August 2011, when he began an indefinite fast at Jantar Mantar in Delhi to pass the Lokpal and Lokayuktas bill by the Government of India. A large number of people joined his movement including, Prashant Bhushan, Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi, etc. 

§ His supporters started a campaign- Main Anna Hazare Hoon (I am Anna Hazare) similar to We Are All Khaled Said campaign from the Egyptian uprising.

§ His supporters also launched a topi encrypted with Main Anna Hoon (I am Anna) which became almost a fashion statement. 

§ A Marathi language film- Mala Anna Vahaychay (I want to become Anna) is based on his life in which Arun Nalawade has played the role of Anna Hazare. 

A Bollywood film- Anna by Shashank Udapurkar is also based on his life in which his role has been played by Shashank Udapurkar. 

Anti-corruption crusader 

Anna Hazare has led a strong movement for an anti-corruption bill to be passed by parliament. He has demanded the formation of a joint committee of the representatives of the Government and civil society to draft a new bill with stronger penal actions and more independence to the Lokpal and Lokayuktas (anti-corruption ombudsmen in the states). 

> Did You Know that the Temple in Ralegan Siddhi was renovated using the money from Anna Hazare’s Provident Fund which was around Rs.20,000/- ? He is such an Honest Person.

Honours

The Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri in 1990 and the Padma Bhushan in 1992. 

Hazare is also a passionate advocate of the positive uses of the Right to Information (RTI) Act to being about greater transparency in administration of the country. 

As this inspiring Indian has said several times "The dream of India as a strong nation will not be realised without self-reliant, self-sufficient villages. This can be achieved only through social commitment and involvement of the common man." And all of us must do our bit.