Meeting Anna Hazare where his journey began

Clad in white home-spun garments and living in a spartan room of his village's Hindu temple, Anna Hazare is an unlikely thorn in the side of the government hundreds of miles away in New Delhi.

And yet for many Indians, he is a 21st-century Mahatma Gandhi, inspiring a rare wave of protests against the spiralling corruption that has tarnished the up-and-coming image of Asia's third-largest economy.

Like Gandhi, who led India's independence movement through peaceful resistance, Hazare went on a hunger strike - unto death if necessary - to press his cause: the adoption of the Lokpal bill.

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Image: Anna Hazare inspects a school building under construction in his hometown, Ralegan Siddhi.