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Essay Draft Two
Jennifer Cheng
May 4, 2007
Draft 1
Title
Walking into a park, sitting on grass, enjoying the sunshine around you in a warm spring afternoon is so enjoyable that everyone will love. However, when you realize that someone is fed on the grass you are sitting on, will you be as enjoyable as others? “The Grass-Eaters” by Krishnan Varma is an example of the miserable life of the poor in India. The main character, Ajit Babu, didn’t have a stable shelter and lived in a pipe, a wagon and even on a roof. Babu and his family didn’t have enough food and clothes and only one of his sons survived. Although the miserable life might be caused by many reasons, the Indian Government should be blamed at least partly, if not totally, for the suffering the poor had.
What should a government provide for his people and what should a government do? In my point of view, safety, basic medical care, promoting the economy of the country and stabilizing the price. Nevertheless, the Indian Government failed in all the above aspects.
It is common that various religions exist in one country. And it also goes without saying that the government should enable the different religions to stay in harmony. That’s why we have departments like Religious Affair Committee in our government. However, as we can see from the article, it wasn’t the case in India. “We had just arrived in Calcutta from East Bengal where Hindus and Muslims were killing one another.” has revealed the bedlam of the Indian society. The Government failed to alleviate the religious conflicts between the Hinduism and Muslimism and they ended up with violence, which caused suffering to the innocent citizens: they had to drift from place to place. The government could have done better to avoid this.
As the story tells us, Swapna Babu, Ajit Babu’s wife, gave birth to four children. But only the fourth child, Prodeep, survived. Diphtheria and fatigue made the other three children die young. It is quite unbelievable that a child died of diphtheria, especially in such a large city like Calcutta. As we all know, vaccine for diphtheria has already been invented since 1940 and many countries, including China, which is a developing country as well, consider providing free vaccine for diphtheria as one of the government’s duty. Thus, it is inappropriate to say that the Indian Government was irresponsibel for one of Babu’s sons’ death. If the government did good enough to provide free vaccine, the child may survive and the Babus may not have to endure the pain of losing their loving kid.
Economy is one of, if not the only one, the ways to show the power of a certain country. Also, one of the most important duties of a country’s government is to promote its economy to ensure its people live a satisfactory life. Education is financially supported by government and the money the government invests in education comes from taxes. Babu taught in a “municipal primary school”, but he got little payment. It is assumed that people wohse income comes from taxes don’t have worries about money if working in a country with good econmy. But it isn’t the case for Babus. As a civil-servant, his income was given by the government. His not getting enough money implied that the government didn’t get enough taxes. And why didn’t the government get enough taxes? The answer was simple: the bad economy at that time in India. If the India government were able to promote the economy and get more taxes, the Babus wouldn’t have lived so miserably.
Stabilizing the price of the market should also be considered one of the government’s duties. As we can see, “We took to eating it (grass) when the price of rice started soaring.” shows the government’s incapacity to stabilize the price of daily necessities. The government could have used some administrative method to control the price so that the Babus wouldn’t have to suffer eating grass instead of rice as their staple food. How sad it is for human beings to live on grass! If the government had been more effective, there might be no “grass-eaters”. If the government had governed the country well, the Babus could have lived on some ordinary food.
Babu experienced so much suffering which is beyond our imagination. However, at the end of the story, the narrator tells us that Babu lost one leg from a fall from the roof of a tram. The tram accidents seemed to be very common, as the story tells us:
If he tries to, the passengers beat him up, set fire to the tram and any other vehicles parked in the vicinity, loot nearby shops, break street lamps, take out a procession, hold a protest meeting, denounce British imperialism, American neo-colonialism, the central government, capitalism and socialism, and set off crackers.
How could a government let such things happen! The police are supposed to maintain the public security and to protect the safety of the citizen’s life and possession. But, it didn’t function. The society had totally turned into a mess. There is no possibility for its citizen to stay free from damage. That’s why Babu lost his leg. If the government had had effective police, Babu might not lose his leg and not have to endure the physical and mental pain of losing a leg.
Looking back to the article, every one would be sympathetic for Babu. He had too many sufferings: money shortage, the pain of losing loving children, living on grass, being forced to shift from place to place and the physical disability. Sadder, none of the above is his fault. It is the incapable government that made all the suffering possible. Varman helped us to discover the truth and the government should learn a lesson after reading it.
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(20.9.11 08:09)
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