Presented at the 5th International Degrowth Conference, Budapest, 2 Sept 2016; journey through alternative initiatives in political, economic, social, cultural fields, towards ecoswaraj or a radical ecological democracy. Several new slides compared to earlier related publications.

1. Eco-swaraj:
Radical Ecological Democracy
Alternatives to Unsustainability & Inequity
Ashish Kothari
Kalpavriksh

2. Today’s plenary menu …
• Unappetiser: violence of development / growth
•
• Appetiser: alternatives at the grassroots
• Main dish: frameworks of transformation
• Coffee: some key questions to ponder over
• Desert: confluences

3. Dominant vision of ‘development’
Violence against nature, communities, and
cultures … growth as cancer

4. Cartoon by Vikram Nayak
World’s majority turned into nowhere people….

5. Clash of civilisations …
From livelihoods as ways of life …

6. … to livelihoods as jobs, divorced from rest of life:
Violence against each of us: our identity, our health, our well-being!
Livelihoods to Deadlihoods
Illustrator unknown

7. 1% richest own 50% wealth!!!!
Growing inequities,
deprivation

8. More nails in ‘growth’s coffin?
Air pollution kills ½ million every year

9. India (& China, etc) on the path
of ‘globalised development’?
Gandhi: ‘if India is to take Britain’s path of
‘development’, it will strip the world bare like
locusts’
(completing a job started by industralised countries)

10. Are there alternatives?

11. Alternatives to what?
Structural roots of unsustainability & inequity
Concentration of power
Capitalism
State-dominated regimes
Patriarchy
Caste / race / ethnicity
….

12. False or partial solutions:
Technofixes, market solutions,
green growth, REDD/REDD+,
CDM, geoengineering …
‘sustainable development’

13. Towards transformative
alternatives

14. Resistance …
… is part of
the alternative
“Civil society responsible
for 2-3% GDP loss” Ministry
of Home Affairs
satyagraha

15. Assertion of self-
determination & ancient
ways of life, recognition of
the unrecognised
Dongria Kondh
indigenous people vs.
Vedanta corporation &
Indian state

16. India: alternative initiatives for well-being
Water
Crafts
Shelter
Food
Energy
Governance
Livelihoods
Conservation
Village
revitalisation
Urban sustainability
Learning
Health
Producer
companies
Inclusion
Sexuality
Gende
r

17. Alternatives across the world
Commons
Solidarity
economy Degrowth
Buen vivir / sumaq kawsayUbuntu / ukama / unhu
Ecofeminism
Agroecology /
permaculture
Biocivilisation
Ecosocialism
Zapatista
Kurdish Rojava
Kyosei
Country

18. Food sovereignty:
sustainable agriculture

19. •Reviving traditional agr diversity, community grain banks
•Empowering women/dalit farmers, securing land rights
•Creating consumer-producer links (Zaheerabad org. food restaurant)
•Linking to Public Distribution System
•Community media (films, radio)
Deccan Development Society
(Andhra Pradesh)

20. Water security: do we need
big dams and canals?

21. Arvari Sansad (Parliament),
Rajasthan: water and food
sovereignty through
ecoregional governance

22. Natural resources:
conservation & livelihoods

23. Self-rule & decentralised governance:
Mendha-Lekha (Maharashtra)
Informed decisions
through monitoring, and
regular study circles
(abhyas gat)
All decisions by
consensus in gram
sabha (village
assembly)

24. Conservation of 1800 ha forests, now with full rights
under Forest Rights Act
Vivek Gour-Broome
Earnings from sustainable forest use (over Rs.
20 million in last few years), and use of govt
schemes towards:
•Full employment, energy security, new
livelihoods (barefoot engineers, GIS mapping)
2013: all agricultural land donated to
village, collective ownership
“Our government in Mumbai and Delhi,
we are the government in our village”

25. Elsewhere in the world ….
• Indigenous peoples’ assemblies
• Zapatista self-governed region: people’s assemblies,
oversight councils, rotating ‘leadership’
• Kurdish Rojava autonomous region
• Latin American experiments: direct and delegated
democracy (e.g. Venezuela’s consejos comunales,
neighbourhood assemblies “we don’t want to be
government, we want to govern”)
• Australia east coast corridor, landscape-level
governance
• and many more …

26. Indigenous peoples’ and community
conserved areas (ICCAs)

27. Livelihood security

28. Dharani farmer producer company,
Andhra Pradesh
(facilitated by Timbaktu Collective)

29. Maati Sangathan, Uttarakhand
Women’s empowerment through local resource-based
livelihoods

30. Rural revitalisation:
outmigration is not inevitable
Ralegan Siddhi & Hivare Bazaar
(Maharashtra), Kuthambakkam (TN)
Kudumbashree (Kerala)

31. Right to a Sustainable City
‘’Homes in the City’, Bhuj (Kachchh, Gujarat)
•self-reliance in water (India’s lowest rainfall)
•solid waste management and sanitation
•re-commoning of spaces
•livelihoods for the poor
•self-built, dignified housing for poor
(Hunnarshala, Sahjeevan, Kutch Mahila Vikas
Sangathan, ACT, Setu)

32. Right to a Sustainable City (contd)
Bhuj (Kachchh)
•information-based empowerment
for decentralised governance (SETU
Urban)
•women’s networks for rights &
participation (Sakhi Sangini)

33. Middle class actions …
Lake revival / conservation,
water harvesting, garbage
management (Bengaluru, Salem)
Participatory budgeting (Bengaluru/Pune)
‘Maptivism’ by Transparent Chennai
reStore (non-profit store), Chennai

34. Elsewhere in the world ...
• Factory take-over and democratic running by workers,
Argentina, Greece …
• Land re-appropriation movement (MST), Brazil
• Commons / solidarity initiatives, cooperatives (e.g.
Barcelona’s Cooperativa Integral)
• Local /social currencies (Helsinki, Bristol, Barcelona?)
• Cuba’s urban agriculture
• Transition Towns, Europe
• and many more…

35. Knowledge,
consciousness,
attitudes, worldviews
…

36. Learning / education: re-locating it in community,
ecological roots, creativity, inquisitiveness …
•Adharshila, MP
•Jeevanshala, Narmada
•SECMOL, Ladakh
•Imli-Mahua, Chhattisgarh
•Marudam, Tamil Nadu
•Adivasi Academy, Guj
•Swaraj University, Rajasthan
•Beeja Vidyapeeth, Uttarakhand
•Bhoomi College, Karnataka

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Skhole = leisure!

37. Intergenerational transmission of
knowledge
•Surshala (music)
•Karigarshala (construction)
•Sagarshala (coastal communities)
•Kala Vidyapeeth (crafts)
•Parageohydrologists
Traditional & new skills for
livelihoods

38. Technology by/for/with/of people
Technological innovations to reduce ecological impact,
reach & be governed by the marginalised
(malkha cotton weaving, AP; Hunnarshala housing,
Kachchh; Solar passive architecture, Ladakh)

39. Alternative Media, Communications, Arts
Freedom from govt & corporate control:
•Community radio (>150); FM?
•Mobile-based (CGNetSwara, Chhattisgarh)
•Movement newsletters, folk theatre
•Film/video (Video Volunteers)
•Internet (Scroll, Wire, Infochange, India Together …)
•‘Social’ networks … virtual communities
Pic: Puroshottam Thakur

40. Stories from elsewhere …
• Cuba’s public R&D
• Community control of health, e.g. Mission Barrio
Adentro, Venezuela
• Zapatista autonomous schools, ‘university of life’

41. Can we discern elements of a holistic
framework from these initiatives?

42. Ecological resilience
& wisdom
Radical democracy
Economic democracy
Social justice &
wellbeing
Culture & knowledge
diversity
Towards a sustainable and equitable society
5 interconnected, integrated circles
Olympics 2016
Olympics 2050?

43. Eco-swaraj:
Radical ecological democracy
(Radical = going to the roots, challenging the conventional)
• achieving human well-being, through:
– empowering all citizens & communities to participate in
decision-making
– ensuring socio-economic equity & justice
– respecting the limits of the earth
Community (at various levels) as basic unit of organisation,
not state or private corporation

44. Swaraj
• ‘Self-rule’
• Individual & community freedom & well-being,
with
• Control over one’s desires/passions, to be
responsible towards others’ freedom*
• Others = other humans, species; the planet
• IMP: not the only Indian concept …

45. Worldviews from elsewhere …
• Indigenous peoples’ territorial struggles and notions of
well-being
– buen vivir: sumak kawsay (Andes), suma qamana (Bolivia),
kume mongen (Chile)
– ubuntu (S. Africa), umuntu (Uganda), ukama (Zimbabwe),
eti uwem (W. Africa)
• Degrowth, Commons, Solidarity economy,
Biocivilisation, Ecosocialism …

46. Recipe for transformational alternatives:
Ingredient 1. A NEW POLITICS
Political Swaraj
“Our government in Mumbai
and Delhi, we are the
government in our village”

47. A NEW POLITICS
Direct democracy (local): decentralised and nested decision-
making
Direct democracy (state/national): referendums &
deliberative processes
Delegated/representative democracy, with mechanisms of
accountability (right to recall, public audit, reporting back…)
Ecoregional planning across states and countries … political
units aligned with ecological and cultural ones? Borderless
world?
Conditions: Rights, Capacity, Forums, and Maturity

48. Ingredient 2.
A NEW ECONOMICS
Earthshastra: Economics as if the
earth (including people) mattered

49. A NEW ECONOMICS
Mindful of ecological / planetary limits
Open localisation: self-sufficiency/sovereignty in basic needs, larger
trade built on this
Production, consumption (prosumption) locally controlled; &
sustainable consumption line?
Re-integrating work & leisure: livelihoods
Re-commoning private & state property
Demonetisation & decentralisation of currencies: Relations of
caring/sharing, local exchange systems, restructuring the market
(haat)

50. Ingredient 3. A JUST SOCIETY
When people go hungry &
thirsty, it is not food & water but
justice that is in short supply

51. A JUST SOCIETY
Towards equity amongst
classes
castes (eradication of)
genders
ethnic groups
species
‘able’ities
Towards universal rights-based approaches, infused with
responsibilities … sarvodaya

52. Ingredient 4. WAYS OF
KNOWING & BEING
Diverse
knowledges,
diverse
cultures

53. CULTURE AND KNOWLEDGE
Respecting non-divisive diversity of languages,
cuisines, knowledges
Democratic R&D / S&T / knowledge / innovation: in
public domain, participatory, transparent
Media and arts commons
Opportunities for spiritual / ethical growth (without
falling into trap of communal religious institutions)

54. Alternative globalisation
• Global flow of ideas, cultures, materials
(millennia old)
NOT
• Globalisation dominated by:
–unrestricted financial and economic flows
–imposition of one model of ‘development’
across the world

55. Ingredient 5.
RENEWED RELATIONSHIP WITH/IN NATURE

56. • Diversity and pluralism (of ideas, knowledge, ecologies, economies,
ideologies, polities, cultures…)
• Self-reliance for basic needs (swavalamban)
• Self-governance / autonomy (swashasan / swaraj)
• Cooperation, collectivity, solidarity, commons
• Rights with responsibilities of meaningful participation
• Dignity & creativity of labour (shram)
• Qualitative pursuit of happiness
• Equity / justice / inclusion (sarvodaya)
• Simplicity / sufficiency / enoughness (aparigraha)
• Rights of nature / respect for all life forms
• Non-violence, peace, harmony (ahimsa)
• Subsidiarity & ecoregionalism
And the cooking medium?
Values & principles of
transformative alternatives ….

57. Issues for dialogue….
Would there be a state? Its form and role?
What would be the nature of global governance? (Not the UN!)
Would there be a private business sector? Profits, or revenues
channelised back into social purposes?

58. Issues for dialogue….
How do scattered, often small initiatives face larger forces: the
micro-soft (caring, sharing, open) vs. the macro-hard (bills,
gates…)
Who will catalyse the transformation: Mass movements? NGOs?
Worker unions? Political parties?
How to rethink academics / ‘disciplines’, epistemologies?
What is nature of individual freedoms within community living?

59. Vikalp Sangams (Alternatives Confluences):
practical collaborations, democratic visioning of futures

60. Vikalp Sangams
(regional)
Andhra Pradesh, Oct 2014
Tamil Nadu, Feb 2015
Ladakh: July 2015
Maharashtra, October 2015
Kachchh, July 2016
W. Himalaya, Aug 2016
(thematic)
Energy democracy: March 2016
Food sovereignty : 2016 & 2017
Youth: early 2017
Learning and education: 2017
Arts: 2017?

61. Visioning the future,
grassroots-up

62. (www.alternativesindia.org)
www.vikalpsangam.org
transformap.co wiki.p2pfoundation.net

63. A wild idea: how about a big GAFf?
Global Alternatives Forum

64. Ecoswaraj / Buen vivir / Degrowth
etc: impossible utopias?
“Between these seemingly ‘impossible’
paths and the obviously insane one (of
unending growth), we prefer the former”
Churning the Earth, 2012

65. • chikikothari@gmail.com
For continuing the dialogue …