Word: mumbai
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...what has actually happened has fallen far short of that promise. In Mumbai, luxury hotels have certainly tightened up security, but at Victoria Terminus, the deadliest site of the attacks, the new metal detectors are almost comically inadequate. The flimsy contraptions are no match for millions of commuters, who swarm through and around them undeterred as they shake with the surge of the crowd. During this year's national elections, urban voter turnout remained well below that of the villages, and none of the reform-minded independents who ran for Parliament won more than 2% of the vote - including...
...Certainly that's what the city's residents demanded, and what officialdom pledged. More than the ubiquitous candlelight vigils, the anger and frustration that I heard from ordinary people in Mumbai, and later in India's other big cities, seemed new. They resolved to demand more from their politicians - better services and real accountability - and from themselves. Instead of just dusting themselves off and getting back to work, many promised to complain less, volunteer more and take the trouble to vote. Swati Ramanathan, whose Bangalore-based group Janaagraha led an ambitious national voter-registration drive, told me shortly before...
...India wants to honor the famously resilient spirit of Mumbai, it could begin by acknowledging that India no longer "lives in its villages" as Mahatma Gandhi said it did - at least not in the same way. Town and country are more connected than ever. Most of India's wealth is created in its cities, generating the tax revenues that fund the schools, electricity and clean water villages need so desperately. More than 70% of the country may still live in rural areas, but over the next decade, that will drop to 60%. Having a son or father working...
...India - including its villages - needs cities that work. Ramanathan, for one, is trying to organize neighborhood-watch committees in Mumbai, an effort slowed considerably by the resistance of the local police. To revitalize India's cities, the country needs a new vision of itself - and a government committed to the hard work of making it real...
...Read "Mumbai's Fallout: Will India's Government Survive...