She was renowned for being a tough, no-nonsense police officer, who earned the respect of her peers and a grateful country for the way she dealt with very challenging situations. Kiran Bedi, 66, who joined the Indian Police Service (IPS) in 1972, was its first woman officer. She started her career as a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) in Chanakyapuri area of Delhi, and won the President’s Police Medal in 1979. She served in Delhi, Goa and Mizoram. In a career spanning 35 years, she made a name for her campaign against drug abuse, for her tough action against Delhi traffic violators (earning her the sobriquet “Crane Bedi”), and most of all, for her reforms at the notorious Tihar Jail, which also won her worldwide acclaim and the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1994.
In 2003, Bedi became the first woman to be appointed the United Nations civilian police adviser. She resigned in 2007 to focus on social activism and writing. During 2008-11, she hosted a court show Aap Ki Kachehri. She was one of the key leaders of the 2011 Indian anticorruption movement, and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in January 2015.
Kiran Bedi has written several books, and runs the ‘India Vision Foundation’. One of her most acclaimed books is It’s Always Possible which documents vividly Tihar Jail and its transformation from criminality to humanity. The book is a result of the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship awarded to her in the year 1994. It was published by Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd., and describes the concentrated efforts of Kiran and her 3 C model (corrective, collective and community based), which resulted in success of an enormous task — transforming the mindsets of human beings.
The book focuses on Tihar, one of the largest prisons in the world. It has three sections, the first being, ‘What existed’, which describes the conditions which prevailed in Tihar, when Bedi took charge. The second section, ‘What evolved’, describes the holistic transformation of the prison system which put Tihar on the road to reforms. ‘What emerged’, the third section of the book, is a graphical representation of the methodology followed for changing Tihar The book has a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Released in September 1998, the book has entered its seventh reprint edition. Bedi has traveled widely in order to share her model of correction depicted in the book. It has had many city releases in the country. The book has already been translated and published in Indian languages, Hindi, Marathi and Urdu, and also foreign languages including Italian and Spanish. It’s Always Possible has been released in eight cities in the United States, the United Kingdom, and at the International Book Fair at Harare, Zimbabwe.
This rare documentation of a candid account is accompanied by a CD-ROM (produced by India Vision Foundation) with selected excerpts from the book, supplemented with powerful visuals, ranging right from the historical Vipassana Meditation Program wherein over a 1,000 inmates sat for ten long days in meditation to their festivities, educational programmes and visits from NGOs. This has been further complemented by the prisoners expressing their feelings on camera, their written petitions, poetry, paintings, art and craft, besides the statements of the staff. A graphical portrayal of the holistic process – a metamorphosis from criminality to humanity – was achieved within the same legal framework.
Kiran Bedi has offered excerpts from her book to One India One People, which we carry in the following the pages.
The Tihar transformation
Crime and delinquency is a thought-action product. It is intertwined. In order to correct action, we cannot ignore treating the thought process. Hence, crime correction has to take the thought-mind-intellect route to reach its goalpost of crime-free living. This basic understanding ought not to be uncommon. But, unfortunately, it is. Still, once it is understood, it knows no bounds. It has the capacity to break free in any physical or mental state.
When we, as Prison Administrators, initiated the spiritual journey, based on non-denominational spirituality in the Tihar Jails in 1993, the route map was clear. We knew that the journey was to be continuous. Also known was the role of prison administration, to be enabling drivers and co-travellers. Without being anxious for the far future ahead, we got on to the starting line and took off. The results were immediately visible. Recall the over 1,000 prisoners who joined in the Vipassana Meditation Programme. It created history and still remains a mystery, for the Western world in particular. I have addressed innumerable conferences and international forums across the seas, to explain the why and what of it all. The documentary film on it by Karuna Films, called Doing Time Doing Vipassana, is being screened in many overseas prisons where Vipassana courses are going on and in hundreds of Vipassana Centres, all over the world. The film went on to win the Golden Spire Award in San Francisco. It has already become a subject for intense research and interest. The film motivates individuals all over the world to learn and practice Vipassana, for it changes lifestyles and way of thinking.
I received one such letter from Leo Sande Gasneir the Norwegian convict prisoner. It says it all. I am encouraged to reproduce the letter in his own handwriting:
A day in the life of a model prisoner (Bedi’s India Vision Foundation works with the inmates of this prison)
My name is Govind Singh Lakki. My father’s name is Kishenlal. I am a resident of Delhi. For the last 7 years and 5 months I have been lodged at the Bhondsi District Jail. I have been booked under IPC 395, 397 and 120 B. My routine in jail is this: I am woken up every morning at 4. Once I have washed up, I start on my job of helping in the kitchen, which is making rotis for the rest of the inmates. This goes on for about 4 hours. After that I finish the washing up and eat myself. By 10 a.m. I reach the Centre where the India Vision Foundation organises daily activities like dancing, jute classes, art, music and painting for the prisoners. I participate and also help to conduct dance classes. I have nearly 24 students whom I help to teach. This goes on from 12 noon till 4 p.m. After this I wash up and go back to my kitchen duties. The jail roll call is taken by 7 p.m. By 8 p.m. we are back in our barracks. By 9 p.m. I go to sleep. If I don’t get sleep, I read or watch News or play carrom. This is my daily routine. Thank you.
– Govind Singh
The Experience of Vipassana in Tihar
As I went through my first Vipassana tenday course I realized that as long as there is going to be pleasures in life there will also have to be pain. Learning how to handle my pain just through sitting for ten days was my most difficult experience ever. Vipassana taught me how to smile when I’m sad and how to be happy without becoming hysterical.
Vipassana is creating perspective. Seeing things as they really are. That all phenomena are ephemeral, and there is of no use clinging or craving towards them. Better to just accept the external world as it is learning how to see with eyes of wisdom from an internal viewpoint. Just observing one’s physical sensations and mind, realizing how it’s all connected. How every action has a direct effect, Karma, and learning to act instead of merely reacting.
That it is possible to be sitting for these courses while serving time in jail is very beneficial. Not only for the individual meditators but also for society as a whole. Time for reflection and meditation should be obligatory in every jail as it gives the word reform a new meaning. To me Vipassana is a tool of reforming myself, improving my ways
of life. It’s the real thing as it doesn’t mix religion or sectarian rituals with the art of meditation. It is simply a scientific instruction on how to live in the present, more aware, and more awake to see reality, as it is.
It is my deep wish, and I hope from my heart that as many as possible will benefit from the precious teachings of the Buddha, the enlightened one, the Dhamma and the Sangha, the community which now even arises inside jail. May the flower of dhamma grow bigger and higher in order to benefit all beings. May all be happy!
Yours faithfully,
Leo Sande Gasneir, Convict