Developing Sangrampur Village

Research, Design and Reccomendations

From 2012 to 2017 I have conducted various research projects focusing on development in India. These projects can be broken down into 3 completed phases.

Phase I:

Role of Entrepreneurship at the grassroots level

Phase II:

Gaps in energy infrastructure and services and impact on rural grassroots economy

Phase III:

Gaps and challenges to public education in rural schools

Explorations and data from Phase I and Phase II were used to create a community center design for one of the villages which were a focus of the research. The design centers on using public space in the village center to create social and functional spaces that support educational, vocational, nutrition, and energy needs of underprivileged communities within the village.

I was born in Uttar Pradesh and lived in Sangrampur for the first 5 years of my life. Close family continues to live here. I have visited Sangrampur often and my personal proximity has allowed me access and insight usually invisible to outsiders. Alongside 5+ visits since 2011, I have spent 3+ visits on focused research work including interviews, site visits, surveys, and secondary research.

Understanding Sangrampur continues to be an ongoing effort. The overarching goal continues to be to give back to the community in an empowering and sustainable way. Furthermore, as a microcosm of a rural Indian community, Sangrampur offers the opportunity to learn about how rural development might be understood and approached in other parts of the country.

Phase I: Research and Insights regarding grassroots development

Phase I was a series of interviews across the village to identify pockets of entrepreneurship. While phase I was not explicitly focused on identifying social and economic dynamics, the outcome gave insights regarding the same and shaped future research.

Key insights were as follows: Sangrampur is a heavily agricultural community with most land held by privileged caste “Thakurs” who employ socio-economically underprivileged communities in agricultural and other work. This dynamic is also preserved in local politics, even when federal quotas require members of traditionally underprivileged castes as they lack resources and time to put towards campaigning and resources. Often public funds are also diverted toward private causes, impacting areas such as public schooling. While government resources have made a visible difference in education and infrastructure, there is substantial room for change in social structures and the development of public resources. Development of shared resources, supplementary education and vocational training could help bridge some of these gaps.

Phase II: Research and Insights regarding energy needs and infrastructure in rural Uttar Pradesh

A critical ingredient for development is access to energy. One of the traits of what are labeled “developing countries” is the lack of access to energy. In India urban centers are likely to be connected to the grid and have access to electricity for large parts of the day. Rural areas, however, get limited electricity ranging from 6-18 hours a day, depending on whether it is election season or festival time. For parts of the world with access to electricity at all hours, electricity becomes something taken for granted, a reliable fact of life. For various parts of rural India, large parts of the day are spent waiting for electricity to be back on so people can turn on the fan, use a heater, study, work, irrigate their land, iron their clothes, grind their flour, charge their phones, and maybe watch some television. For the scope of this research, the focus was on identifying the causes and impact of gaps in energy services in a rural setting. The purpose of this research was to explore whether alternative energy system could help fulfill the local needs.

In India, the energy industry has largely operated in the public space, with segments of the supply chain such as generation being privatized. The public sector infrastructure and processes have long failed to curb inefficiencies. As of today, there are strong efforts at reform and privatization. At the time of this research, privatization was still only a suggestion. However, alongside privatization, this research explores the potential for microgrids and decentralized energy systems to optimize the use of local resources, create self-sufficiency, and spread awareness about conservation of energy.

To conduct this research I interviewed people across various socio-economic categories and occupations in 5 villages in central Uttar Pradesh over 2 months to identify their needs and challenges. I also visited the NTPC (National Thermal Power Corporation, Unchahar, Uttarpadesh) where I interviewed various individuals (managers, engineers, directors) to understand systemic issues at play in the energy space. The findings informed the design of a community center for Sangrampur India.

Key findings were as follows:

1. Electricity is treated as a free good leading to wastage and theft
Subsidized rates have created expectations for free or cheap electricity. Electricity is largely talked about as a human right to be provided by the government. Often, interviewees suggested that electricity is available extensively prior to elections when the incumbent wants to use their position to secure the next election. Furthermore, election platforms often contain promises for increased access to electricity and cheap services. When politicians make promises without accounting for the state of the current budget and infrastructure, this links these services to the government in the mind of the consumer. This has created the ground for a tragedy of the commons that leads to rampant wastage and theft when electricity is available.

2. Public distribution systems create a bottleneck in energy system
The energy system in Uttar Pradesh has struggled because even as there is ample capacity to generate electricity, distribution infrastructure is lacking and the public sector is unable to pay for electricity as they struggle to collect payments from end consumers. Usage of technology has recently helped alleviate some of this burden but additional infrastructure is critical to ensure that distribution does not become a bottleneck. Furthermore, high distribution losses indicate the need for additional metering and use of underground cables to create infrastructure that will serve local needs in the long term.

3. Lack of lighting creates safety hazards
Rural areas are poorly lit, with tracts of wild and agricultural land around them. Lack of electricity reduces people to carrying on with lanterns and other flame-based lamps that provide very little light. This not only hinders movement but creates unsafe environments around rural areas. This disproportionately effects women who are limited to their homes by calls for safety. The irony being that the very efforts to keep women and children safe imprisons them, and these spaces, constantly devoid of women become safe spaces for misogyny, and violence.

4. Availability and access does not fit use patterns and needs
In developed regions the steady availability of electricity has created heavy reliance of electricity, contributing to large quantities of pollution and waste. In rural areas, however, often people responded that 24 hours of continuous supply is not a need. Most people defined their needs differently: they wanted the schedule to be transparent and reliable. On average people suggested the need for 12-16 hours of electricity to be able to function efficiently. The expense of unreliable electricity was higher than that of limited hours of electricity as farmers were forced to hire expensive diesel engines to carry out irrigation at the last minute or to install generators to carry out business. Lack of reliable electricity schedule and supply also reduced the incentive for people to pay for a connection. Most people (except a few from the lowest socio-economic communities) mentioned that they were willing to get metered and pay for electricity use if theft could be prevented and if electricity was provided at regular hours and at regular intervals. People indicated that electricity was a resource they could not control or rely on and this led to loss and hesitation in investing further in local businesses.

With the above in mind, the community center design focused on creating self-sufficient energy infrastructure to supplement the grid. This would create public spaces where electricity could be available for extended hours, allow for public education, and create jobs and opportunity for vocational skill development in the energy space.

Acknowledgments:
I would like to thank Babson College, Olin College, Weissman Program and Family, Brian Duggan, Melissa Shaak, Abigail Mechtenberg and Martin Mechtenberg for their support and guidance in this research and design project.
I would like to thank the residents of Sangrampur village, officials in NTPC, and in government administration in Sultanpur, UP for sharing their experiences with me.

Seeking an authentic Indian experience, over 5.5 million visitors flock to Varanasi, India. Described as a “paragon of Indian culture, philosophy, traditions and spiritual ethos since times immemorial,” the city is presented as a hindu holy city where the past is still alive. Aartis i.e., ritualistic prayers, on the Ghats, the stepped embankments along the Ganges River and riverboat tours are encouraged by tourism websites and guides alike as a way to experience the city.

This series of photographs attempts to use activities and interactions on the Ghats to explore the impact of tourism, government intervention, and hegemonic power structures on the city and its inhabitants.

Images of the Aarti are the first in this series.

Enchanting and seemingly enigmatic, these scenes feature heavily in tourism advertisement and images shared by visitors. This ritual, conducted daily (and sometimes twice a day) on the Ghats, appears to be something straight out of an ancient past. The origins of this much publicized ceremony offer a different view however: the first Aarti was held on November 11, 1984 through the patronage of a former King. The Ganga aarti as choreographed ritual was started in 1992 by an NGO called Ganga Seva Nidhi. Since December 31, 1999 the Ganga Aarti, which was previously only performed on the occasion of two festivals, Kartik Purnima and Dev Deepawali, began to be performed regularly on Dasaswamedh Ghat and spread to other Ghats (Shah).

In fact, the making of a Hindu Varansi as it stands today can be attributed to a series of agendas by ruling groups ranging from Marathas who relocated Brahmins from western India to the region and began patronizing the building and maintenance of temples to British colonial orientalists who “in their self-styled role as preservers of Indian heritage... took over the task of patronizing Brahmin learning” (Desai). Madhuri Desai, in "Mosques, Temples, and Orientalists: Hegemonic Imaginations in Benaras", notes “To the colonial authorities communalism was conceived as a state of chaos that was only averted by the civilizing intervention of colonial authority. Communalism was therefore the opposite of colonialism.” Post-colonial nationalist further this narrative through hegemonic control of the spaces and introduction of rituals meant to commemorate a Hindu identity grounded in antiquity.
It is worth noting that: “A search for authenticity will always be nostalgic, and in turn propel the production of tradition. When tradition is produced in this way, however, the effect is to aestheticize a site by glossing over any real conflict that may be present.”(Desai)

Varanasi today has a rich mix of religious diversity with around 70% of residents following Hinduism, approximately 29% following Islam, and the remaining one percent divided into Christianity, Jainism, and Sikhism. The city is scattered with temples and mosques alike, and the stories of their origins are constantly being negotiated and re-negotiated based on current social and political dynamics.
While tourism is critical to the economy of this city, it is critical to analyze what the social and environmental costs of attracting tourist to the city are, especially if they impact the identity and welfare of the local people who depend on the river and who must live and thrive among the diversity they cannot escape even after tourists leave with images of a Hindu holy city.

The photographs that follow the visuals of the aarti explore some of the structures and dynamics at play on the ghats:

The first of the images are of Maya and her sister, both migrants to the city who make money from washing the large vessels used in the aarti for Rs.50 per day and selling flower garlands to the teeming crowds.

Among the next images taken the following morning you see a 13 year old boy, Intizar Ahamaza, a muslim child selling garlands made by his mother. These garlands are given as offerings as a part of Hindu prayer rituals at the temples. Compelled by household poverty, he has been selling garlands here for three years. When asked about his future he replies that he will finish 12th and “bhagwan ki den hogi to use jyada pad lenge”. This translates into “If god wills it or offers the opportunity I will study more than that”. Intizar’s father is a weaver of the prized Benarsi silk but struggles to make ends meet.

You also meet Manoj Kumar Gupta, the flower seller who has inherited his business from his grandmother. He’s been selling flowers for 15 years but finds sales are restricted to the morning and evening hours when pilgrims buy flowers for religious offerings. He has been allotted the small piece of land on which he has set up by the government as his family has been setting up there for generations. The allotment is for 30 years and restricts new vendors from setting up on the Ghat. He informs me that he is restricted to selling flowers by the government and therefore cannot add new products or seek expansion. What appears as protection from competition in one instance, quickly begins to seem like control and restriction in another.

The government control of the Ghats and surrounding areas appeared innocuous until I learned that in India all temple donations and rental Income from temple-owned lands is controlled by state governments for Hindu and Jain temples under the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Acts. This does not hold true for Churches, Mosques, Gurudwaras and Baudha Viharas. While the supposed reason for this act is to curb the mismanagement of funds, ongoing government control links government and religious institutions in an inextricable way.

The following images are those of the boatsmen on the Gangas who belong to the caste Kevats. These boatsmen or Kevats were traditionally nomadic merchants that traveled across the Ganges to transport goods and people. Now, they are restricted to certain sections of the Ghats similar to the flower vendors. They may begin their journey from any Ghat but must end on their allocated Ghat which allocated based on ancestry. Depending on the season, they earn between Rs. 2000-10,000 per month. Akash Sani, the boatsman who ferried us told us proudly that it was the Kevats who helped Ram cross in the religious epic, Ramayan. Half of Akash Sani’s earnings go to an upper caste Thakur who owns 40 boats on the Ghats and from whom he rents a boat for his daily work. The ads painted on the side of these boats suggest supplementary income for the owner.

Some other images capture life along the ghats. Featured are dhobis or washmen: while visitors attempt to wash their sins, they wash clothes for affluent homes. Children dipping for coins tossed into the river and boatmen at ease among the water appear as well.

Pollution from upstream factories and an increasing in number of motor boats, trash and feces from visiting tourists, and often partially burned dead bodies sully the river that the temples and aartis claim to celebrate. While only the affluent who can afford the wood and rituals have the opportunity to be cremated on the two Ghats dedicated for this purpose, electric incinerators have been introduced to meet the demand for less able households. Being cremated at the Ghats is supposed to offer moksha or salvation. Whether electric incineration of

fers the same moksha, I cannot be sure. However, as bodies of unburned, privileged classes litter the river, it is largely lower caste communities such as the doms, kevats, and dhobis that depend on the river for their survival that must suffer the direct consequences of environmental degradation, social exclusion, and political control.

A paper on the socio-economic interface of the Ghats claims “The social structure lies mainly between the upper caste Bhramin and lower caste Boatmen, Doms, and Dhobis. Still they survive and even cooperate with each other. They try to dominate the space with myths and stories from the past. The later also helps them to justify their identity and occupations, which in turn is related to the socio-economic behaviors of the area. This phenomenon of struggle and coexistence makes this sacred regime much more valuable and incredible in the eyes of human civilization”(Singh). The story Akash Sani told me fits this pattern: people seek dignity in myths and stories that they are denied in their present reality. The attempt to preserve the Ghats based on myths and stories also preserves and furthers oppressive structures that these stories rely on. These stories are furthered by local social and political structures, shrouding oppression and exploitation in the aesthetics of nostalgia.

The Ghats often feature in images of India peddled to the rest of the world. This series of photographs invites visitors to Varanasi to dip below the surface to explore who these sites serve and how. In an age of images, we must be aware when we are being sold theater for reality.

Based on Hindu religious texts produced in the mid-14th century Varanasi is considered the center of civilization. Varanasi is also considered the birthplace of Parsvanath, the twenty-third Tirthankar, making it a prominent Jain pilgrimage site. Sarnath, where Buddha is supposed to have preached his first sermon post enlightenment, is a short 10km from Varanasi. The city is also the site numerous mosques such as the Alamgir Mosque which is a protected site and also lies on the Ghats. The city has given birth to or attracted numerous writers and artists across the centuries, and continues to feature in the imaginations of popular culture. As stories of the origins of various sites in the city are told and retold, they depict the struggles of various powers vying for prominence and control of the city. Beyond the surface however, the city itself continues to reinvent itself in pace with its diversity and evolving needs.

Sources:

• Field Research and Interviews conducted by Anibha Singh with support from Weissman Program, Babson College
• Desai, Madhur. Mosques, Temples, Orientalists: Hegemonic Imaginations in Benaras
• Shah, Gaurav, “Ganga Aarti: A case Study of an Initiative to Disseminate Message of Environmental Peace building”
• Bask, Sayantani. “Ghats of Varanasi- An emerging Centre of Pollution”
• Singh, Vishank. “Socio-economic interface on the ghats along the Ganges in Varanasi”. 2014-2015
• Varanasi City Census 2011 Data. https://www.census2011.co.in/census/city/153-varanasi.html
• “Tellers of Tales, Sellers of Tales”. Society and Circulation: Mobile People and Itinerant Cultures in South Asia 175—1950.
• “ Environning a Resiliant Cultural Landscape: Ghats on the Ganga, Varanasi, India
• http://www.varanasi.org.in/ & http://www.varanasi.org.in/ganga-aarti
• https://srijanfn.org/freeing-temples-from-govt-control/