Mumbai, India’s largest city, is confronting an epidemic of drug-resistant TB and has few ways to fight it.

Independent producer Lauren Rudser brings us this signature story on an often overlooked global health issue.

Dhobi Ghat in Mumbai’s Mahalaxmi neighborhood, where most of the workers belong to the Dhobi (washermen) caste. Photo: Ben Piven

Multimedia reporter Ben Piven spent nine months researching and documenting for Caste in the City [PDF] on a Fulbright grant. He recalls his field research and the questions surrounding caste and Indian nationalism in the slums of Mumbai. Ben is currently completing his master’s degree in journalism at Columbia University.

Watch Worldfocus’ signature videos on Dalits in India.

The peppery aroma of snack carts permeated the humid air. Workmen gathered under a corrugated tin overhang to sip on mango lassis and sweet lime juice.

At the end of a long day of interviews in the scorching April sun, I was finishing up my fieldwork inside a predominantly Dalit slum called Ramabai Colony in eastern Mumbai. A passerby stopped to ask why I was conducting research on the relevance of caste in contemporary Mumbai.

“What is your caste?” he asked me in Hindi.

“We don’t have caste in America,” I responded abruptly. “America is different from India.”

I then paused for a few seconds, quickly becoming pensive. After 15 grueling interviews, I was not keen on explaining the nuances of American social stratification in my choppy Hindi.

On other days when I was in more edifying moods, I explained class distinctions in the U.S. and how the religion of my birth did not differentiate along caste lines. When folks demanded to know, I sometimes joked that I was a Hindu of the Hebrew caste.

To many ordinary Indian people, caste is a universal. Humans in every country must belong to a caste, they suppose. How could any society function otherwise? Some sanitation workers even believe that their filthy profession is predestined.

Across India’s biggest city, thousands of leather workers, washermen and rag pickers ply the same trade as their ancestors. But many of their children have become bureaucrats, factory workers and merchants. Dalits are members of the lowest rung of traditional Hindu society, and they are increasingly asserting their political and economic rights.

To be sure, the enigma of caste is not entirely unique to India. Yet its omnipresence on the subcontinent makes it as quintessentially Indian as curry, Gandhi, and the head wiggle.

Even so, some Indians place national unity far above caste. In front of the Bombay Stock Exchange - arguably the most important symbol of India’s 21st century prosperity - I interviewed a bank watchman named Yogesh Kumar Singh. A young migrant from poor, rural Uttar Pradesh in north India, he simply could not identify his own caste.

In a proud defense of his caste ignorance, he declared, “All castes are the same. We’re all basically just Indian.”

Singh turned toward the crowd of people who were observing the interview and said triumphantly, “The caste divide doesn’t matter because we’re all brothers.”

- Ben Piven

Aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake.

Aftermath of the attacks on Mumbai.

In May, a 7.9-magnitude earthquake killed an estimated 87,000 people in China. In the aftermath of the quake, victims complained that corrupt officials weren’t properly dispensing aid and relief supplies. Last month, villagers attacked police, claiming they had been cheated out of relief.

Following the terrorist attacks on Mumbai in November, there was also public outcry in India that led the government to admit to lapses in security.

A blogger at “2point6billion” compares the two countries’ attitudes toward transparency and their different approaches in the aftermath of these tragedies.

Dealing With Tragedy – China & India’s Differing Perspectives

Within just six months of each other, both China and India experienced tragedies that impacted each of the respective nations nationally and internationally. While China lost over 60,000 people in the Sichuan earthquake, India was confronted with a vicious terrorist attack in its financial capital that left close to 200 dead and over 500 wounded. Yet the ways in which the two countries have responded could not be more markedly different.

The Sichuan quake, a natural disaster, lead directly to accusations of corruption and shoddy building work across the region. The immediate response from the Government in terms of pragmatism was to send in the troops – many of whom remain there today assisting with reconstruction work and stabilizing the living conditions of the living and wounded.

International aid too began to pour in. However, in terms of dissatisfaction with the quality of buildings, locals were prevented from raising issues with the media. Additionally, aid could only be sent through official, Chinese sanctioned channels.

Today, the country has loans from the World Bank to assist with reconstruction work, but those most affected – people living there – are as effectively cut off as ever. Tourism and traveling journalists are discouraged on the grounds that it is dangerous. In more damning news, courts in China were instructed not to hear any lawsuits brought by victims of the disaster, and that the government itself would handle compensation. Any accusations of shoddy construction or corruption would therefore be kept out of the picture. The people would rely solely on the government for support, with it remaining their voice and sole provider.

Compared with Mumbai, the very nature of the event was entirely different. Terrorists landed, and machine gunned locals and visitors in hotels and bars, in a siege that lasted nearly three days. Yet the political and social aftermath was very different.

Within days, Indian government ministers had been forced to resign on charges of incompetence and the lack of any security to repel what was essentially an invading, aggressive military unit. The public, shocked and outraged, found their voice through the media. Government was held accountable by the people, and they had to respond. They did, troops were sent in and an entire reshuffle of coastal defenses and security put into place. Money was made available for victims, rebuilding and national security.

Today, Mumbai has made great strides in recovering, affected hotels and bars have re-opened. It’s an act of defiance that anyone would find it hard to imagine under similar circumstances in China. Hotels and bars where victims perish in China are shunned; superstitions still die hard in this emerging giant.

To read more, see the original post.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Photos courtesy of Flickr users Remko Tanis and USELESSNANO under a Creative Commons license.

The young stars of the Oscar-winning film “Slumdog Millionaire.”

Danny Boyle’s feel-good love story “Slumdog Millionaire” won eight Oscars Sunday night, including Best Picture and Best Director. Set in Mumbai, India, the film tells the story of 18-year old Jamal Malik, an orphan from the slums, who wins big on the Indian version of the show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”

While celebrated internationally, the movie has faced criticism in India. Slum-dwellers in Mumbai, where the movie was shot, have protested the word “dog” in the title. Others in India have criticized “Slumdog” because its depiction of Mumbai focuses entirely on poverty.

Journalist John Elliot describes the celebrations of “Slumdog” around Mumbai, as well as its wider reception in India:

As I write, reporters and commentators on every India tv news channel are tumbling over themselves in an ecstasy of superlatives as they try to match the success with words. Television sets are on all over India, including in Dharavi and Garibnagar (see pic), whipping up a mood of national celebration that is usually reserved for cricket victories against Pakistan…

Perhaps inevitably, Slumdog has been widely criticised in India because the flip side of all the success is a national unwillingness to accept anything that is even slightly negative or critical (as I have often discovered on this blog). So both the words slum and dog have been attacked, as has the portrayal of the uglier side of Indian life.

Blogger “Lekhni” believes this criticism stems from the discomfort that middle-class Indians feel towards “the other” India:

I wonder if our main objection to the movie is because it depicts a part of India we’d rather not focus on.  We’d like to celebrate our economic growth and our resurgent middle class.  We’d like to point to our new malls and glass-fronted buildings.   The movie does not show much of the prosperity of middle class India.  It shows the other India that not many of us know very well, or would like to think about - the poor India that has remained poor despite all the recent economic growth.

A blogger of “Voice from a 2.5 World Country“ disagrees, arguing that poverty remains the enduring, but increasingly inaccurate, image of India:

This is the only India the world knows about, and that as anybody living in this country who has a functioning pair of eyes, ears and nose, knows about. How many times in a millisecond must we be reminded that this is India ‘too’? How many times? In fact, this is so ingrained into the Westerner’s psyche, that when my American friends came to India to visit, their first question to me coming out of the airport driving into the city was: ‘We feel let down. Where are all the poor people?’. Because shock of shocks, there is some part of India which does not look like Dharavi.

Blogger Juan Cole finds fault in the film’s focus, not on poverty, but on the crime in Mumbai slums:

That the film depicts an one-dimensional view of the poorer areas of Bombay is undeniable. There are Fagins and pimps, gangsters and corrupt building contractors, courtesans and orphans. But poor neighborhoods in India are a dense thicket of social and economic networks, with a working class, shopkeepers, peddlers, and other responsible if poor citizens toiling to eke out an honest living. The film eschews the urban working class for an unrealistic focus solely on the criminal element. Extortion rackets exist. But they prey on small restaurants and shops. If there were no honest workers or businesses, there would be no way to extract protection money.

Foreign Policy magazine has compiled a photo essay “India’s Real-World Slumdogs,” featuring the thriving businesses in the slums of Mumbai.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user KaushiK™ under a Creative Commons license.

U.S. aid packages to Pakistan may soon depend on Pakistan’s effectiveness in fighting terrorism, according to The New York Times. On both Sunday and Monday, suspected militants attacked NATO supply depots in Peshawar.

Ahmad Kamal, a former Pakistani ambassador to the United Nations, speaks with Martin Savidge about these developments.

Amit Pandya, a senior associate at Stimson, a global security think tank, discusses Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari’s meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the extent to which his government can add meaningful value to the investigation.

Daniel Markey, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, speaks with Martin Savidge about the future of Pakistan’s participation in the war on terror, Asif Ali Zardari’s response to the attacks in India and a visit to Pakistan by U.S. joint chiefs of staff.

The attacks in Mumbai have brought new attention to an old dispute between India and Pakistan about the land of Kashmir.

The region of 13 million straddles Pakistan, India and China, but India has controlled the majority of Kashmir for decades. Pakistan controls a much smaller area, as does China.

Since 1947, India and Pakistan have fought three wars over the part of Kashmir controlled by India. Though India is mainly Hindu, two-thirds of the population in this part of Kashmir is Muslim, the predominant religion of Pakistan.

An anti-Indian insurgency in Kashmir has recently intenstified, and India believes such insurgents may have been responsible for the attacks in Mumbai.

Haley Duschinski is a cultural anthropologist at Ohio University who regularly travels to Kashmir, most recently in February. Her research focuses on violence and war, human rights and transitional justice in Kashmir within the context of the ongoing peace process between India and Pakistan.

Thank you all for your questions. Professor Duschinski has answered them here.

The region of 13 million people straddles Pakistan, India and China, but India has controlled the majority of Kashmir for decades, while Pakistan controls a smaller area.

Vikram Singh, a fellow with the Center for a New American Security, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the importance of Kashmir, the Lashkar-e-toiba group thought to be behind last week’s attacks in India and what Secretary of State Condaleeza Rice’s visit to India may mean for the conflict over Kashmir.

Have questions about Kashmir? Ask cultural anthropologist and Ohio University professor Haley Duschinski here.

Jeff Stein of Congressional Quarterly continues the discussion of Pakistan’s possible role in last week’s Mumbai attacks, evaluating the ability and willingness of Pakistani officials to help fight terrorism in the region.

Firemen near the Taj Mahal hotel.

A memorial in Mumbai for victims of the attacks .

The Internet has played a role in the coverage and understanding of the recent attacks on Mumbai, as Worldfocus previously reported: Tweets, texts and chats change coverage of Mumbai.

Bloggers from all corners of the globe have weighed in on the attacks from a variety of angles and perspectives.

On the ground

Listen to survivors talk about their experiences here and here.

The “Arun Shanbhag blog” live blogs from the Taj Mahal hotel, the site of one of the attacks.

The “Mumbai Help” blog provides links to emergency information for those in need.

The “ALittleTooFast” blog in Mumbai mourns the death of friend Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg, a New Yorker whose religious and educational headquarters in Mumbai came under attack.

“The Rydes in Mumbai” blog, written by members of an American family in Mumbai, writes about the situation of Americans in the city, some of whom were targeted.

Foreign involvement

Initially, a little-known group called the  Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the attacks, though the group may be a front for another organization.

India now claims the perpetrators were all from Pakistan, heightening tensions between the two countries.

The “Teeth Maestro” blog, written by a Pakistani dentist, expresses solidarity with Indian victims but frustration at the “blame game” played by the Indian government.

Blogger “Adil” writes that he is a Mumbaikar in solidarity with those in India.

The “Pakistan Policy Blog” writes that India should look in the mirror and come to terms with its own failing security.

The “2point6billion” blog writes that India and Pakistan must work together to diffuse terrorism.

Pakistan has also seen violence in recent days, and dozens have died in riots in Karachi.

Looking forward

Blogger “Mohyna” in Mumbai writes about lessons learned from the attacks.

A blogger at “An Indian Muslim” doubts that political change will occur, saying no one will look into police reforms.

Blogger “Juan Cole” writes about possible economic ramifications of the attacks.

Photos courtesy of Flickr useres USELESSNANO and zeeble under a Creative Commons license.

Thomas Sanderson, the deputy director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, assesses the accuracy of the accusation and comments on Pakistan’s commitment to anti-terrorism.

Sanderson explains why these attacks are being described as “inspirational” for other terrorist groups and asserts that this type of terror is combated with intelligence.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice travels to India to try and calm the situation amid reports that Indian leader Manmohan Singh is boosting military forces on the Pakistani border.

Princeton University’s Zia Mian joins Martin Savidge to discuss the tension between these two countries and explain how Pakistan can demonstrate its commitment to stopping terrorism.

A member of the Indian army near the Taj Mahal hotel.

In the wake of the attacks on Mumbai, former Indian army officials have called for a shift in strategy and training to enable the army to better combat urban terrorists.

Saskia Sassen is a professor of sociology at Columbia University working on a project about cities and war. She writes at OpenDemocracy about the growing phenomenon of urban warfare, which puts cities and their residents on the front lines.

Cities and new wars: after Mumbai

The Mumbai attacks of 26-27 November 2008 are part of an emerging type of urban violence. These were organised, simultaneous frontal assaults with grenades and machine-guns on ten high-profile sites in or near the central business and tourism district.

This has affinities with the asymmetric street warfare waged by the gangs in Rio de Janeiro that every now and then announce they will take over a major central area of the city from (say) 9am to 5pm: the result is shuttered shops and empty streets. If the police try to respond, it is open warfare, and the police rarely win - this is a challenge for which the police are not trained. After 5pm the gangs withdraw. It is often said that all of this results from inadequate policing or crime waves.

But that is too simple. There is a deeper transformation afoot. It is still rare but it is more frequently becoming visible. It is as if the centre no longer holds. Cities seem to be losing the capacity they have long had to triage conflict - through commerce, through civic activity. The national state, confronted with a similar conflict, has historically chosen to go to war. In my new research project - on cities and war - I am studying whether cities are losing this capacity and are becoming sites for a range of new types of violence.

Further, the new asymmetric wars have the effect of urbanising war. This brings with it a nasty twist: when national states go to war in the name of national security, nowadays major cities are likely to become a key frontline space. In older conventional wars, large armies needed large open fields or oceans to meet and fight, and these were the frontline spaces.

Today the search for national security may well become a source for urban insecurity. The “war on terror” reveals that cities become the theatres for asymmetric war, regardless of what side of the divide they are - allies or enemies. The attacks in Madrid, London, Casablanca, Bali, are symptomatic. So too is the United States’s conventional military aerial bombing. It took under three weeks to destroy the Iraqi army’s resistance and take over power in 2003. But then the asymmetric wars set in, with Baghdad, Mosul, Basra, and other Iraqi cities the sites of conflict - for years. Indeed, the fact that the Mumbai attackers evidently sought and prized Americans and British among the hostages they took, is clearly related to George W Bush’s declaration of war on Iraq and Britain’s supportive role.

The traditional security paradigm based on national-state security does not accommodate this triangulation. What may be good to protect the national state apparatus may cost major cities and their people a high (increasingly high) price. In the dense and conflictive spaces of cities, a variety of forms of violence can be foreseen.

To read more, see the original post.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user USELESSNANO under a Creative Commons license.

People are sharing and circulating information throughout India and the world via social networking and new media applications.

The sheer scope of the information channeling through various media outlets has also increased misinformation and rumors. Here is a fake story claiming that members of President-elect Barack Obama’s team were targeted in Mumbai.

The South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) has leveraged its community of journalists and new media technology tools to report and curate the information flowing out of Mumbai. The organization has become a hub for news outlets and resources — it even posted a contact list of reporters on the ground on sajaforum.org.

SAJA co-founder Sree Sreenivasan is a dean at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and a new media and technology reporter. He speaks with Martin Savidge about how new media tools have helped speed up communications and news coverage of the Mumbai attacks.

People can call in and share information on SAJA’s 90-minute BlogTalkRadio show, which is hosted every 12 hours.

New Delhi TV is live-streaming news on NDTV 24×7 (English) and NDTV India (Hindi).

Global Voices Online, a citizen media outlet, surveys what bloggers are saying about the Mubmai attacks.

This would not be the first time Muslim extremists have targeted Mumbai. A group called the Indian Mujahideen took responsibility for a series of blasts earlier this year.

Jeff Stein, who follows national security matters for Congressional Quarterly and writes a column called “Spy Talk,” speaks with Martin Savidge about the relationship between these groups and earlier warnings about threats to Mumbai. They also discuss tense Pakistan-India relations and the implications of the attacks for U.S. security.

Two eyewitness accounts are below the video.

Here are two eyewitness accounts:

Ankur Chawla, a staff trainee at the Taj Mahal Hotel, survived the attacks and speaks about his experience.	Rich Diffenderffer, an American businessman from Wilmington, Del., was on the fifth floor of the Taj Mahal Hotel when the terrorists struck.

Thumbnail courtesy of Flickr use darmesh84 and Creative Commons license.

AUDIO: Saumitra Srivastava, a businessman and eyewitness to the terror attacks, speaks to Worldfocus from on the ground in Mumbai.

Multiple terrorist attacks have killed at least 119 people and wounded at least 300 in Mumbai, India.

Gunmen opened fire at luxury hotels, a crowded train station and a restaurant popular with tourists.

The series of  terrorist attacks began shortly after 10 p.m., sending crowds streaming into the streets as explosions destroyed gas stations and grenade attacks broke out in at least seven different locations.

There are reports of hostages being held at hotels, some of them westerners.

A group called the Deccan Mujahideen has claimed responsibility for the attacks, and several suspects have been arrested.