India's lower house of Parliament passed a historic anticorruption bill Tuesday, 42 years after one was first demanded, regaining the initiative in a months-long national debate over the pervasiveness of graft.

The bill will have to be passed by the upper house to become law, but it upsets the dynamics of a bitter battle that has played out in the past year between the government and anticorruption activist Anna Hazare.

India's civil society, which coalesced around the Gandhian Mr. Hazare, has created considerable momentum in its campaign to get an anticorruption law passed. It has drawn the country's normally politically apathetic middle class out on the streets in favor of an anticorruption law that Mr. Hazare championed.

Indeed, it remains to be seen whether Mr. Hazare will be satisfied with the version passed by the Lok Sabha, Parliament's lower house. He began a three-day fast Tuesday to protest the government's version of the bill, which would create a new national anticorruption agency, called a Lokpal, to police corruption among politicians and bureaucrats. The lower house voted on the government's bill Tuesday with several amendments, but they may not be sufficient to stop Mr. Hazare's campaign.

The anticorruption bill was passed in the lower house as an ordinary bill, often referred to as "statutory bill." This requires a simple majority of those present. It didn't succeed on a separate vote on whether to make the body part of the Indian constitution.

The vote in the lower house capped a dramatic day when Mr. Hazare began his new fast in Mumbai, attracting thousands of supporters, and the government opened the debate in Parliament on the Lokpal bill.

The two scenes, playing out simultaneously in split screens on India's breathless television news stations, crystallized the clash that has dominated Indian politics for most of the past year. Mr. Hazare has been a thorn in the government's side since April and attracted a mass following for a two-week hunger strike in August, while the government has struggled to show that it, too, is serious about corruption despite a series of scandals that have tarnished it in the past year.

In effect, it has become a struggle between Parliamentarians elected by voters against the people amassing around a popular movement that wants Parliament to go further than the government has proposed. The verdict on who won the fight is still out though the passage of the Lokpal bill in the lower house puts the ball firmly in Mr. Hazare's court to respond either by declaring his campaign successful and ceasing his fast or by insisting that his supporters continue to fight against the government's version of the bill because it fails to meet some of his key demands.

He has said previously that he plans to campaign against the ruling Congress party in state elections in 2012. But whether he can muster the same crowds after the Lok Sabha vote will be an important signal of his enduring popular strength

The government bill would create an anticorruption ombudsman, known as a Lokpal, with jurisdiction over public officials, including the prime minister. Mr. Hazare, 74 years old, and his supporters slammed the bill then as "weak and ineffectual."

Mr. Hazare's main objection has been that the bill keeps India's top investigative agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation, out of the ombudsman's purview.

In Parliament, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was adamant that the ultimate say on the new law belonged to lawmakers. "Others can persuade and have their voices heard, but the decision must rest with us. The nation is waiting with bated breath for the Lokpal Bill," Mr. Singh said.

But Mr. Hazare continued his attack. "At some point then, the public will teach the government a lesson," Mr. Hazare said. "The government has not seen what people power is. It is more powerful than Parliament."

Mr. Hazare has been running a fever for the past few days but he has vowed to go on with his fast, despite pleas by supporters to end the fast. Indian TV channel reported late Tuesday that Mr. Hazare might be taken to a hospital since his health appeared to be deteriorating.

Late Tuesday afternoon, the crowd of supporters in Mumbai neared 10,000 people. While the turnout was less than the crowds of tens of thousands that he first drew in August in New Delhi—and less than what the organizers had expected—there was a rekindling of the same spirit that brought out the masses for Mr. Hazare in the summer. A working day, many people skipped their lunch break to show their support, while 

In a year with more than its share of protests worldwide, perhaps the most striking act of dissent took place in India, where the country's ruling coalition took flak for a host of corruption cases implicating a number of leading politicians. Anna Hazare, a 74-year-old activist with a Gandhian air, commanded something of the Mahatma's aura when he embarked on a series of hunger strikes in protest of the graft that his supporters say pervades all strata of Indian society. Hazare's fasts — even the threat of them — triggered mass demonstrations of support across India's major cities and heaped pressure on the government to create an independent ombudsman body capable of investigating the nation's political elites — even the Prime Minister — and bringing the corrupt to justice. The anticorruption bill, which critics fear could erode India's robust, albeit imperfect, democracy by placing it under the authority of an unelected institution, is still being debated in Parliament. But the mass support Hazare commanded, particularly from India's burgeoning middle class, is a sign of the growing frustrations and aspirations of those in the world's largest democracy.

By ISHAAN THAROOR
For Time Magazine 

 Noted Telugu film director Sekhar Kammula will sit on dharna at Dharna Chowk at Indira Park on April 8 to express solidarity to social activist Anna Hazare, whose fast-unto-dharna against corruption at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi entered third day. 

Talking to media persons, the director said that rampant corruption in the country would be a detriment to the all-round progress of society. He said he would take part in hunger fast on behalf of youth.

'When a 72-year-old man is fighting against corruption, it is certainly not for himself or for his generation. He is doing it for us and the future generations. I appeal to the youth to join the relay-hunger strike in support of Anna Hazare's fast for 'Jan Lok Pal Bill' since this is our hope for a better India,' the film director appealed.

Youth for Better India, a voluntary organization in the city, will be organizing relay hunger strike from April 8 to 10 at Indira Park in the city.

Youth for Better India City Coordinator Sashank appealed to all sections of the people to extend their support in this crusade against corruption.He said that noted educationist Chukka Ramaiah and United Forum for Right To Information campaign state convener Ramakrishna Raju have also extended their solidarity to dharna. Earlier actor Mohan Babu had also expressed his support to Anna Hazare.