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Faces of Exclusion

Families, communities and nations are increasingly defined by what and who they exclude, rather than what they include. Race, gender, religion, class, caste, economics and politics are common bases for exclusion. But there are other more insidious, inexorable, mechanisms of exclusion at work within societies. Entire ways of living are threatened.

I traveled all over India, covering everything from election campaigns and refugee exodus to political unrest and conflict. And everywhere I found 'development'. Dams, bridges, satellite dishes, shampoo in sachets, power looms, new roads and new power lines and TV antennae whispering in the wind. I saw motorboats, and trawlers dredging seabeds for shrimp by the ton where once fishermen had dived 100 ft without diving gear for a conch shell or two.

These people once represented the mainstream. Theirs was the way, in religion, in industry, in art and culture and social mores. Today they have been left behind, set aside, excluded.

Shyam Tekwani