As midnight approaches, the streets of Bombay are mostly calm, lacking much in the way of festivities commemorating the 50th anniversary of India's independence - declared at 12:00 a.m., 15 August 1947 - from Britain. Those seeking fanfare are left watching BBC-TV, which carries pictures from Delhi's parades. Nikhil Lakshman, editor of Rediff on the Net, compares the government's slowness to "wake up" and plan celebrations to Rediff, where a commemorative Freedom section went live in August 1996. "We woke up last year."
Like most of the world, India is moving fitfully, lurchingly, impressively into the information age. The publishers of Rediff, a Bombay-based news and cultural webzine, have tried to be a step ahead of the game. Since going online in February 1996, its plan has been to lure the technophilic diaspora of educated Indians spread around the world - many in high-tech or engineering professions - while creating content geared toward national interest. As Internet access becomes widespread in India, a great base of content and conversation will already be in place.
"Most of our readership is in the US, though I'm told that there are a lot of readers in Malaysia as well," says Lakshman.
"Our aim is to showcase India, and this is probably the first time that a worldwide audience is able to see Indian writing, design, and photography on an everyday basis," Lakshman says. "When we started, we made it very clear that we were going to compete with the best world sites." They also wanted to create Indian content that might appeal to anyone, Indian or not.
With an editorial staff of 12 in Bombay, a Delhi bureau, and writers in all the Indian states - a "retinue of retainers" contributing stories on a daily basis - there is certainly no shortage of content. The online journal was started by CEO Ajit Balakrishnan, who is also the managing director of advertising firm Rediffusion India, a company with investment from Young & Rubicam and Dentsu.
Ads in Rediff are aimed pretty strongly at the expatriate readership - an alluring market because of its relative affluence. Citibank is a big player in the nonresident Indian market, and tries to convince Indians abroad to invest back home. Other companies' advertising is designed to attract the best and brightest students from abroad, and features the ability to submit résumés with a few clicks.
Lakshman is obviously proud of Rediff's foresight, and jokingly makes a comparison to Slate, noting that Rediff went online months before Bill Gates signed editor Michael Kinsley. But even now, nobody in the United States seems to be creating anything as broadly based as Rediff: On the same site one finds content that, at least from the outside, has much less to do with trends and overly considered demographics than with seeking out those who have stories worth telling.
"We've carried all shades of writers, including some chaps that really get the goat of our readers," notes Lakshman.
Bian Lobo, a staff writer, is one of those who does not allow herself to be pigeonholed. "It's not really about writing for any one people, is it? It's about expressing an opinion, exploring a topic, providing information to whoever wants to access it," she says. "I could never begin to start defining my audience with the Web. It would limit me and limit what the Web is and is not about. I am the Web - I'd like to think I write for myself - and you never know if I am psychopath or priest."
Lobo, a recent college graduate, spends four or five hours commuting every day to work for Rediff. For one piece, she is spending the night partying in a disco, hoping to gain insight into the younger generation's view of freedom. "I will be out on the streets getting the mood of the city. If I have to write about independence, I must live it first."
The view from the older generation, on the other hand, seems quite sober. A collection of remembrances of those who were around 50 years ago has incredibly bleak views of the country's future. Many root the problems in the trauma of India's partition, when more than a million people were killed, as well as a lack of moral center.
"There's a general sense of despair about India. We might be free and be able to build missiles, but we're evidently not able to feed our people," says Lakshmam, echoing some of the despair. "In Bombay, 55 percent of 13 million people live on the street, without a home to call their own. That's a frightening prospect for the future."
While Lakshman obviously sees the value in remembering the past, and Rediff presents a kaleidoscope of views, a change of pace is on the way. In the next couple of weeks, the Freedom section will look forward into the next 50 years. "We've had enough of soul searching and examination of what we've done wrong - we now wish to look forward."
Lakshman says he hopes to "co-opt" some of the Indians living in America who "seem to have a vision" for India's future. If plans work out, upcoming chats will feature Indian Americans whose entrepreneurial skills and worldly experiences, will provide interesting perspectives.
Tonight however, Rediff's editors are busy posting presidential speeches, and descriptions of events in the nation's capital. While parliament gathers for a 24-hour session, Indians from around the world can gather online to be a part of the experience, fiercely debating the harsh twists and turns, as well as the sweeter moments, that mark the evolution of the enormous country.
