Professor Emeritus at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy Robert Meagher spoke to a small group of interested students and faculty about the problems and future of India last night in the Cabot Intercultural Center.
Meagher's talk began with some Indian history, focusing on the Indian problem of political and ethnic assassinations. Renowned leaders, including Mahatma Gandhi and former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gahndi, were all assassinated.
Rajiv's widow, Sonja Gandhi, mother of two, decided against running for prime minister out of fear of being attacked, Meagher said.
The most recent election for prime minister surprised observers when the Congress Party made a coalition with 14 other political parties for the first time ever to try and beat the militant Hindu nationalist party, known as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The election of the Congress Party candidate, former financial minister Manmohan Singh, was particularly novel since the allegiances of the parties in the coalition are so varied, Meagher said.
Meagher expressed contentment that the BJP candidate did not emerge as the victor, since the group claims that only Hindus should be given Indian citizenship. Meagher is very supportive of Singh, with whom he is well acquainted, and characterized him as humble but desirous of bringing about change.
According to Meagher, Singh's election constitutes a "revolutionary chance at the secularization of India" and an opportunity for direct aid to the poor.
"[Singh] reminds me of Franklin Roosevelt in his devotion to the poor," Meagher said, but added that he was unsure of how realistic Singh's ideas were.
One of Singh's slogans is a quote by Mahatma Gandhi: "Wipe every tear from every eye." The motto is ambitious, as India is currently plagued with soaring poverty levels, colleges that can barely afford a few books a year and farmers who are forced to contemplate suicide in the event of a bad monsoon season.
"The villages have nothing, and it is hard to foresee change anytime soon," Meagher said.
Another area where India has room for improvement is women's rights, especially regarding the tradition of arranged marriages, Meagher said. Though arranged marriages are ingrained in Indian culture, dowries, or payments from the bride's parents to the groom's parents, have been recently outlawed.
Meagher said he has "never seen a wedding without a dowry" in his 53 visits to India, however.
He said some young women actually hang themselves when their families cannot afford to pay a dowry, which is why Singh's enforcement of the ban on dowries is of utmost importance.
Another major problem in India, Meagher said, is its lack of cultural unity. Primary schools teach children in local languages, but post-graduate opportunities mostly require English language skills.
Additionally, intercultural dialogue is hindered by the persistence of the Indian caste system the fact that there is only one national highway in the country.
Though Meagher spent much of his lecture detailing the problems India faces, he spoke lightheartedly and hopefully about its future and its economic prospects.
He cited Singh's efforts to make India more investor friendly. Corporations have been wary of the nation since it backed out of a power plant deal with Enron and General Electric after two years of negotiations.
Singh supports the outsourcing of jobs, which Meagher attributed to the fact that labor is cheaper in India than in the West. He compared this situation to that of the United States in the late 1800s, when northern jobs were outsourced to southern states.
In closing, Meagher expressed his enjoyment in visiting and lecturing in India for so many years. The Indian students to whom he lectures are often curious about life in America, he said. "They ask what it is like to date in America," he said, adding that he finds Indian people to be very welcoming.
Meagher warned travelers, however, that if they want to visit India, they need to go for "longer than just a week" to understand its culture. He advised that travelers should not "act like an American in India, but should try to learn and act like an Indian in India."
Meagher studied at the Bombay School of Economics, among other schools, and joined the Fletcher faculty in 1967 as the legal expert in the school's development studies program.
He retired from the Fletcher School in 1992, and is currently the legal advisor to the India Interest Group, as well as a consultant in international economic law. He has also published a number of articles on India.
