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

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

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

4.
Violence against each of us: our identity, our health, our well-being!
Livelihoods to Deadlihoods
Illustrator unknown

5.
42 billionaires’ wealth = 50% world population
Growing inequities

6.
Shrinking
democracy
Dilutions in public participation spaces in laws
and policies (e.g. approval of development
projects)
Weakening local consent provisions (land
acquisition, forest diversion)
Attack on dissenting civil society: ‘anti-
development’, ‘anti-national’, ‘terrorist’

7.
Are there alternatives?

8.
Alternatives to what?
Structural roots of unsustainability & inequity
Concentration of power
Capitalism
State-dominated regimes
Patriarchy
Caste / race / ethnicity
….

9.
False, partial, or ‘post-truth’ solutions:
Technofixes, market mechanisms, green growth,
REDD/REDD+, CDM, geoengineering …
‘sustainable development’

10.
Towards transformative, systemic
alternatives

11.
Resistance …
… is part of
the alternative
satyagraha

12.
Assertion of self-
determination & ancient
ways of life, recognition of
the unrecognised
Dongria Kondh
indigenous people vs.
Vedanta corporation &
Indian state

13.
India: alternative initiatives for well-being
Water
Crafts
Shelter
Food
Energy
Governance
Livelihoods
Conservation
Village
revitalisation
Urban sustainability
Learning
Health
Producer
companies
Inclusion
Sexuality
Gender

14.
Alternatives across the world
Commons
Solidarity
economy
Degrowth
Buen vivir / sumaq kawsay /
kametsu asaike
Ubuntu / ukama / unhu
Ecofeminism
Agroecology /
permaculture Biocivilisation
Ecosocialism
Zapatista
Kurdish Rojava
Kyosei
Country
Transition
Nayakrishi
Agaciro
GNH Agdal

15.
•Reviving traditional agr diversity, community grain banks
•Empowering women/dalit farmers, securing land rights
•Creating consumer-producer links (Zaheerabad org. food restaurant)
•Producer company / cooperative
•Linking to Public Distribution System
•Community media (films, radio)
Deccan Development Society
(Andhra Pradesh)

16.
Arvari Sansad (Parliament),
Rajasthan: water and food
sovereignty through
ecoregional governance

17.
Self-rule & decentralised governance:
Mendha-Lekha (Maharashtra)
All decisions by
consensus in gram
sabha (village
assembly)
“Our government in Mumbai and Delhi,
we are the government in our village”
2013: all private
farmland converted
to village commons

18.
Indigenous autonomous
government in Peru
Wampis refuse to allow oil
companies in their territory Jacob Balzani Lööv,
Independent

19.
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)

20.
Political transformations, elsewhere ...
• 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”)
• and many more …

21.
Economic transformations, elsewhere ...
• 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, Bekerich, Kenya)
• Cuba’s urban agriculture
• Transition Towns / Movement, Europe
and many more…

22.
Learning / education: rooted in cultures / ecologies,
decolonising, encouraging creativity, inquisitiveness,
combining head-heart-hand-feet …
•Adharshila, Jeevanshala, SECMOL, Imli-Mahua, Marudam, Bhoomi, Beeja (India)
•Multiversities / pluriversities (several countries), African Leadership Univ
•Zapatista autonomous schools (Mexico)
•Forest schools (Czech Republic)
and many more …
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Skhole = leisure!

23.
Technology by/for/with/of people
Technological innovations to reduce ecological impact,
governed democratically
(malkha cotton weaving, AP; Hunnarshala housing,
Kachchh; Solar passive architecture, Ladakh)

24.
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

25.
Can we discern elements of holistic
frameworks from these initiatives?

26.
Recipe for transformational alternatives

27.
Ingredient 1. 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

28.
Ingredient 2
A NEW ECONOMICS: Earthshastra
Open localisation: self-sufficiency/sovereignty in basic needs, larger
trade built on this
Production, consumption (prosumption) locally controlled
Re-integrating work & leisure: livelihoods
Re-commoning private & state property
Demonetisation & decentralisation of currencies: Relations of
caring/sharing, local exchange systems

29.
Ingredient 3: 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

30.
Ingredient 4: CULTURE AND KNOWLEDGE
Respecting inclusive diversity of languages, cuisines,
knowledges
Decolonising the mind, epistemologies, ontologies
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)

31.
Ingredient 5.
RENEWED RELATIONSHIP WITH/IN NATURE

32.
Indigenous peoples’ and community
conserved areas (ICCAs)
www.iccaconsortium.org

33.
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
The dish...

34.
Swaraj
• ‘Self-rule’ / autonomy / freedom
• Individual & community freedom & well-being,
with
• responsibility towards others’* freedom
* Others = other humans, other species, the planet
(IMP: not the only Indian concept … )

35.
Worldviews from elsewhere …
• Indigenous peoples’ territorial struggles and notions of
well-being
– buen vivir: sumak kawsay (Andes), suma qamana (Bolivia),
kume mongen (Chile), kamatse asaike (Peru)
– ubuntu (S. Africa), umuntu (Uganda), ukama (Zimbabwe),
eti uwem (W. Africa)
• Degrowth, Commons, Solidarity economy,
Biocivilisation, Ecosocialism, Ecofeminism …

36.
• 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)
• Interconnectedness / reciprocity
• Fun!
And the cooking base and spices?
Values & principles of
transformative alternatives ….

37.
Issues for dialogue….
Who will catalyse the transformation: Mass movements? NGOs?
Worker unions? Political parties?
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?
How to rethink academics / ‘disciplines’, epistemologies?

38.
How to reach critical mass?

39.
Vikalp Sangams (Alternatives Confluences):
practical collaborations, democratic visioning of futures

40.
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?

41.
Visioning the future,
grassroots-up

42.
More collective
visioning:
40 authors, 30
themes
Dreaming the future,
showing pathways

43.
Radical alternative
practices &
worldviews across
world
120 authors, >100
essays
(due out end 2018)
For more: Roundtable on
Alternatives to Development
22nd June, 8.30 am

44.
Time for a
Global Alternatives Forum
(Earth Vikalp Sangam)?
Preliminary discussions at
Degrowth (Malmo, Aug) and
Degrowth (Mexico City, Sept)

45.
UTOPIA?
Galeano, quoting Fernando Birri:
"Utopia is on the horizon. I move two steps closer; it moves
two steps further away.
I walk another ten steps, and utopia runs ten steps further
away.
As much as I may walk, I never reach it.
So what's the point of utopia? The point is this: it makes us
continually advance.”

46.
www.alternativesindia.org
www.radicalecologicaldemocracy.org
• chikikothari@gmail.com
For continuing the dialogue …