BY DEVIKA C. MEHTA
LOS ANGELES, CA - Some think, some lead and some inspire;, Dr. Ramaswami Balasubramaniam fondly known as Balu, is a man of all wills. An avid follower of Swami Vivekananda, Balasubramaniam has faith in the famous quote: “So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor who,
LOS ANGELES, CA - Some think, some lead and some inspire;, Dr. Ramaswami Balasubramaniam fondly known as Balu, is a man of all wills. An avid follower of Swami Vivekananda, Balasubramaniam has faith in the famous quote: “So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor who,
having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them!”
Following Swami’s footsteps, Balu today has an army of 600 men, ‘who are honest, pious, celibate (mentally), with a courage to change the world’. He says, “They are all young men and women ranging between 24-28 years, helping in creating a better society. I am privileged to lead them.”
So, he leads by example, but what is leadership to him and who are his favorite leaders? Balu says, “The general tendency would be to name people in the spotlight, however, my definition is slightly different. For me, the person may or may not be in a position of authority.”
He then gives two narratives of two leaders: A man in Mangalore, Karnataka named Appa Sahib who is now above 70, has built a high school as his kids could never go to school, after saving 10 percent of his orange sales every day for the past 20 years. Next, he gives an example of Arunima Sinha, who lost her leg in 2011 after she was thrown out of a moving train for resisting a robbery attempt, but has now completed her journey from the tracks to Mount Everest!
His third example is of a popular leader - Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Mr Modi inspires courage and belief that our country can reach new heights, a thought that was missing in India for the last few years. One should measure him by his actions and intent, not by political ideology. But, yes I would like to see him doing more about social development as that is my personal bias and prerogative.” He adds, “People often blame governments for no development, but why criticize others when we do nothing. Charity begins at home, in fact how many of us know our rights, how many of us actually question them. We need to engage more.”
When asked about his NGO, he first called NGO a poor choice of words for civil society organizations like his. He then talked about Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (www.svym.org) and Grassroots Research And Advocacy Movement (www.graam.org.in) where he has been working on local levels.
He says GRAAM today has acquired the status of a legally independent entity since March 2014 after being incubated since its inception in January 2011 in Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement. But, does he face any difficulty in leading such movements in India. He says, a lot! “SVYM is based on principles of Ahimsa (nonviolence), Satya (Truth), Seva (Service), and Tyaga (Sacrifice) are extremely difficult to follow in India. I have suffered a lot, got arrested at one point but what I do is not just social change or my expression, it is my selfish desire to do good and know myself.”
Talking about GRAAM, he says, “Policy should not be imposed from the top down but instead should bubble up from the bottom. GRAAM is trying to achieve that by focusing on research incorporating grassroots perspectives and policy advocacy which is driven by empirical evidence through a collaborative approach and dialogue.”
Discussing about his overseas help and program, Balu states, “SVYM has a foreign base in Fullerton, US and get all sorts of help from NRI sponsors. Lot of people find us, we also have Vivekananda Institute of Indian Studies (VIIS), which is a global initiative to build thought leaders in the social space through exposure to the Indian context and value perspectives by tying with several universities in UK and US.” He also compares India and US in terms of social development and suggests that both struggle with similar statistics. “Today we are an extremely connected world, boundaries are irrelevant, policies in America impact India and vice versa. It is time we all adopt the idea of global citizenship.”
His dream for India lies in a similar fate. Taking a para from his famous blog- ‘Refashioning India’s development dream’- he concludes, “Where no Indian will go hungry, where human rights is not a mere slogan but a way of life, where democratic participation is not a fanciful aspiration but an everyday expression of citizenship, and where food, nutrition, livelihood, infrastructure, education, health care and religious freedoms are not mere political promises but entitlements of an empowered citizenry. Only when this happens can we call India a ‘Developed Nation’.”
Balasubramaniam is a development scholar, author, public policy advocate, leadership trainer and activist. He was also the Frank H T Rhodes Professor at Cornell University between 2012 to 2014 and continues to hold academic positions in other universities. His book` I, the citizen’ is a compilation of narratives and reflections of a development activist and was released in 2015 by the Prime Minister’s office. Contact Dr. Balasubramaniam at: [email protected]
Following Swami’s footsteps, Balu today has an army of 600 men, ‘who are honest, pious, celibate (mentally), with a courage to change the world’. He says, “They are all young men and women ranging between 24-28 years, helping in creating a better society. I am privileged to lead them.”
So, he leads by example, but what is leadership to him and who are his favorite leaders? Balu says, “The general tendency would be to name people in the spotlight, however, my definition is slightly different. For me, the person may or may not be in a position of authority.”
He then gives two narratives of two leaders: A man in Mangalore, Karnataka named Appa Sahib who is now above 70, has built a high school as his kids could never go to school, after saving 10 percent of his orange sales every day for the past 20 years. Next, he gives an example of Arunima Sinha, who lost her leg in 2011 after she was thrown out of a moving train for resisting a robbery attempt, but has now completed her journey from the tracks to Mount Everest!
His third example is of a popular leader - Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Mr Modi inspires courage and belief that our country can reach new heights, a thought that was missing in India for the last few years. One should measure him by his actions and intent, not by political ideology. But, yes I would like to see him doing more about social development as that is my personal bias and prerogative.” He adds, “People often blame governments for no development, but why criticize others when we do nothing. Charity begins at home, in fact how many of us know our rights, how many of us actually question them. We need to engage more.”
When asked about his NGO, he first called NGO a poor choice of words for civil society organizations like his. He then talked about Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (www.svym.org) and Grassroots Research And Advocacy Movement (www.graam.org.in) where he has been working on local levels.
He says GRAAM today has acquired the status of a legally independent entity since March 2014 after being incubated since its inception in January 2011 in Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement. But, does he face any difficulty in leading such movements in India. He says, a lot! “SVYM is based on principles of Ahimsa (nonviolence), Satya (Truth), Seva (Service), and Tyaga (Sacrifice) are extremely difficult to follow in India. I have suffered a lot, got arrested at one point but what I do is not just social change or my expression, it is my selfish desire to do good and know myself.”
Talking about GRAAM, he says, “Policy should not be imposed from the top down but instead should bubble up from the bottom. GRAAM is trying to achieve that by focusing on research incorporating grassroots perspectives and policy advocacy which is driven by empirical evidence through a collaborative approach and dialogue.”
Discussing about his overseas help and program, Balu states, “SVYM has a foreign base in Fullerton, US and get all sorts of help from NRI sponsors. Lot of people find us, we also have Vivekananda Institute of Indian Studies (VIIS), which is a global initiative to build thought leaders in the social space through exposure to the Indian context and value perspectives by tying with several universities in UK and US.” He also compares India and US in terms of social development and suggests that both struggle with similar statistics. “Today we are an extremely connected world, boundaries are irrelevant, policies in America impact India and vice versa. It is time we all adopt the idea of global citizenship.”
His dream for India lies in a similar fate. Taking a para from his famous blog- ‘Refashioning India’s development dream’- he concludes, “Where no Indian will go hungry, where human rights is not a mere slogan but a way of life, where democratic participation is not a fanciful aspiration but an everyday expression of citizenship, and where food, nutrition, livelihood, infrastructure, education, health care and religious freedoms are not mere political promises but entitlements of an empowered citizenry. Only when this happens can we call India a ‘Developed Nation’.”
Balasubramaniam is a development scholar, author, public policy advocate, leadership trainer and activist. He was also the Frank H T Rhodes Professor at Cornell University between 2012 to 2014 and continues to hold academic positions in other universities. His book` I, the citizen’ is a compilation of narratives and reflections of a development activist and was released in 2015 by the Prime Minister’s office. Contact Dr. Balasubramaniam at: [email protected]
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