A pioneer who studied Gandhi
by
Greg
on Tue 11 Oct 2005 07:18 PM IST
Lu Banglie is alive and has been
speaking to the BBC about his ordeal. The Beeb also has a good piece on
local elections in a land without the rule of law. Benjamin Joffe-Walt and Jonathan Watts
profile the popularly elected village chief (today is the anniversary of Gandhi's birth,
A film about Gandhi changed his life. He believes the aggression and hyper-control of the Chinese authorities can be combated only with dialogue, teaching, learning, petitions. Mr Lu studied the doctrines of non-violence to appreciate simplicity, to focus, to spread the word in the villages.
Martin Jacques, currently a visiting scholar at Renmin University,
explains more about the background story: sharply increasing inequality and a flood of hundreds of millions of migrant workers sucked into the cities - totally unsustainable ..
In the early phase of Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms the farmers were the main beneficiaries, but by the end of the 80s the rural communities began to lose out to the cities, a process that has accelerated in recent years and is the single biggest cause of the alarming growth in inequality. The sense of rural injustice and grievance, fuelled by widespread corruption, is reflected in the huge increase in protests reported last year compared with previous years.
Stephen Bowen of Amnesty international writes,
The story of Lu Banglie and Taishi village is incredibly significant ('They beat him until he was lifeless', October 10) - a fork in the road at which the authorities can move towards human rights and democracy, or impunity for abusive officials. But, sadly, it is a far from isolated case. .
