India is clearly on a path of ecological suicide, increasing inequality, and conflicts. An urgent search for alternative pathways that can lead it to sustainability and equity is illuminated by myriad practices of communities and agencies around the country, based on which a framework of radical ecological democracy is emerging.

1. Ecological Swaraj
Towards a
Sustainable and Equitable India

2. ‘Development’
• Development = opening up of
opportunities: intellectual,
cultural, material, social
vs
• ‘Development’ = material
growth (through industrial and
financial expansion)
– measured in % economic
growth, per capita income,
etc

3. Development = economic
growth at all costs
•Industrialisation & infrastructure, esp. large-scale
•Green Revolution: heavy inputs (chemicals,
irrigation, hybrids), commercialisation, monocultures
•Urbanisation: focus on cities, away from villages
•Consumption = consumerism (demand-led economy)

4. Economic ‘reforms’?
1991-onwards…
• Trade (export-import) liberalisation
• Foreign direct investment
• Delicensing / single window clearances
• Privatisation

5. Today’s vision
of
‘development’
Violence against nature, people, and
cultures

6. Destruction of India’s environment
–
–
–
–
>5.5 million ha. forest diverted in last 60 years
70% waterbodies polluted or drained out
40% mangroves destroyed
Some of the world’s most polluted cities and
coasts
– Nearly 10% wildlife threatened with extinction
Smitu Kothari

7. India’s ‘development’ refugees
• Over 60 million displaced in last 50
years
• Many millions more dispossessed
of land, water, natural resources,
livelihoods
• Impoverishment of small farmers:
250,000 suicides (many in Punjab!)

8. So-called ‘natural disasters’
are often human-made

9. Impacts: growing inequality,
leaving half our population behind
• Myth of growing employment:
‘jobless growth’ in organised
sector:
– 26.7 million in 1991
– 30 million in 2012
• Wealth inequities:
– top 10% own 53% wealth
– bottom 10% own 0.2%
• % below poverty line: 38 to 70%
• World’s largest number of
malnourished and undernourished
women/children

11. India the new Coloniser
(joining China, Japan…)
Over half a million hectares in Africa taken
over by Indian companies to grow crops for
export to Europe etc
More coming up in L. America
Direct/indirect support by government

12. 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’

13. Towards alternatives

14. Food security:
sustainable agriculture

15. Deccan Development Society (AP):
integrating conservation, equity, &
livelihoods through sustainable agriculture
•Reviving traditional diversity, promoting cultivated and wild foods
•Creating community grain banks
•Empowering women/dalit farmers, securing land rights
•Creating consumer-producer links (Zaheerabad org. food restaurant)
•Linking to Public Distribution System

16. An individual revolutionary…
Natwar Sarangi
Narishu vill, Cuttack dist, Odisha
Growing 360 varieties of rice
Seed albums and banks
GenX: Jubraj Swain

17. Can India feed itself?
•Organic farming can be highly productive
•Integrated food systems (crop-livestock-fish)
•Rescuing land from non-food cash crops
•Encouraging diversity of food habits, farmerconsumer links

18. Water security: decentralised
harvesting & distribution

19. Arvari Sansad (Parliament),
Rajasthan: water and food
security through
landscape governance

20. Kachchh
Water self-sufficiency in one of
India’s lowest rainfall regions

21. Natural resource security &
nature conservation

22. GLIMPSES OF COMMUNITY CONSERVED
AREAS IN INDIA
(from: Draft Directory of CCAs , Kalpavriksh )
Changpas
Bishnois
Gaddis
Van Panchayats
Pipens
Arvari
Grassland Sansad
management
Sacred
mangroves
Turtle
conservation
Sacred
groves
Sacred
groves
Turtle
conservation
Yuksam
Peoples
Protected JFM
Areas
Community
Forestry
Heronries
Traditional
tanks
Note: list and related publications available
with Kalpavriksh
www.kalpavriksh.org
Tragopan , and
Golden langur
protection

23. Towards tribal self-rule, with conservation:
Mendha-Lekha (Maharashtra)
All decisions in gram
sabha (village assembly);
no activity even by
government officials
without sabha consent
Informed decisions
through monitoring, and
regular study circles
(abhyas gat)

24. Conservation of 1800 ha forests, now with full rights
under Forest Rights Act
Earnings from sustainable NTPF use (over Rs. 1
crore in 2011-12), and use of govt schemes
towards:
•Full employment
•Biogas for 80% households
•Computer training centre
•Training as barefoot engineers
2013: all agricultural land donated to
village, collective ownership
Vivek Gour-Broome

25. Community Forest Rights (FRA)
Several hundred claims accepted in
Maharashtra (>7 lakh acres), Odisha
(>70,000 acres) & Andhra
126,998 acres in Baiga &
other areas, MP
Assertion of CFRs against industrial projects (e.g.
POSCO), mining (e.g. Vedanta), logging (e.g.
Baigachak), plantations (Odisha), enclosures
(Kachchh)

26. Livelihood security

27. Jharcraft
(Jharkhand)
Employment for 2.5 lakh families…
reviving crafts, reducing outmigration

28. Economic democracy…
Livelihood security through community-led
cooperatives, self-help groups, producer companies:
Dharani, Andhra Pradesh; Kachchh Mahila Vikas Sanghatan / Kasab,
Gujarat; Nowgong APCL, Madhya Pradesh; Nyoli, Uttarakhand; Swach,
Pune; Aharam Traditional Crop Producer Co.,Tamil Nadu)

29. Dharani, AP: farmer’s company
(facilitated by Timbaktu Collective)

30. Khamir/Kasab, Kachchh: secure
livelihoods for craftspersons
Facilitated by Sahjeevan, Kachchh Mahila
Vikas Sangathan, and others

31. The Village and the City …

32. Gram swaraj:
outmigration is not inevitable
Ralegan Siddhi and Hivare Bazaar
(Maharashtra), Kuthambakkam (TN)

33. Towards sustainable cities
Bhuj (Kachchh):
•reviving watersheds, decentralized water storage and management
•solid waste management and sanitation
•livelihoods for poor women
•dignified housing for poor
•Information-based empowerment under 74th Amendment
(Hunnarshala, Sahjeevan, Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan, ACT, Setu)

34. Dignified livelihoods for urban poor
Kagaj Kach Patra Kashtakari
Panchayat
&
Swach
(Pune)

35. Towards sustainable cities…
Decentralised water harvesting, Chennai
Participatory budgeting, Bengaluru/Pune
But a lot more to be done…. public transport,
energy, urban agriculture, zero-waste
colonies, ecofriendly architecture
(learn from UK transition towns, Cuba urban farming….)

36. Alternative learning / education
Traditional and modern, oral and written, local and global
•Pachashala, AP
•Jeevanshala, Narmada
•Prakruthi Badi, AP
•Adivasi Academy, Guj
•Beeja Vidyapeeth, Uttarakhand
•Bhoomi College, Karnataka

37. Technological alternatives…
Technological innovations to reduce ecological impact,
reach the poor (malkha cotton weaving, AP;
Hunnarshala housing, Kachchh)
Energy: decentralised, renewable
(Ladakh solar; Bihar integrated)

38. The government responds…
• New laws:
– Right to Information Act
– National Employment Guarantee
Act
– Scheduled Tribes and Other
Forest Dwellers (Recognition of
Forest Rights) Act 2006
• New programmes:
– Organic farming policies /
programmes in 16 states: Sikkim
100% by 2015, Kerala by 2020?

39. Decentralised governance
Nagaland ‘communitisation’: devolution of
govt powers over education, electricity,
health to village councils
Result: sharp increase in quality & quantity of
services

40. Radical ecological democracy
(RED) or
Ecological Swaraj
• achieving human well-being, through
pathways that:
– empower all citizens to participate in
decision-making
– ensure equitable distribution of wealth
– respect the limits of the earth and the rights
of nature

41. Fundamental values &
principles of RED
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Diversity and pluralism (of ideas, knowledge, ecologies,
economies, polities, cultures…)
Self-reliance for basics
Cooperation, collectivity, and ‘commons’
Rights with responsibilities/duties (sense of ownership)
Dignity of labour
Respect to subsistence
Qualitative pursuit of happiness
Equity / equality (gender, caste, class, ethnic)
Simplicity
Decision-making access to all
Respect for all life forms
Biophysical sustainability

42. Radical Ecological Democracy:
A NEW POLITICS and ECONOMICS
Localisation of decision-making, meeting basic needs
Embedded within larger structures of decision-making and
economic relations that do not undermine the local
State’s role as guarantor of rights, welfare of underpriviliged;
accountability through citizens’ charters, public hearings,
social audits, right to participation, right to recall …
Indicators of ‘progress’ relate to well-being: clean water,
nutritious food, secure housing, public transport, peace,
harmonious social relations, opportunities for intellectual and
spiritual learning …

43. Radical Ecological Democracy:
A JUST SOCIETY
Towards equity amongst
classes
castes
women and men
ethnic groups
abled and ‘disabled’
Towards rights-based approaches, infused with
responsibilities

44. Radical Ecological Democracy:
A NEW CULTURE OF KNOWLEDGE, AND
KNOWLEDGE OF CULTURE
Relinking with rest of nature: humans as part of nature, inherent
rights of nature
Mix of tradition and modernity … both critically examined
Learning through doing and experience, not only textbooks
Places of learning and education: mix of formal and informal,
‘barefoot’ teachers as important as PhDs!
Opportunities for spiritual / ethical growth (without falling into trap of
religious fundamentalism)

45. But … beware of false
solutions!

46. Ecology as fashion

47. Technofixes and market
solutions, ‘green economy’ …
REDD/REDD+, CDM,
geoengineering, carbon trade,
CSR, etc

48. Fascist, undemocratic
bedfellows…
Fundamentalist environmentalism
•green-saffron links (Tehri, Sethusamudran)
•blind revival of tradition (back to mythical
harmonious past)
•authoritarian conservationist (tigerwallahs,
privatisation…)

49. Pathways….creating space, buying time,
forging critical mass
• People’s resistance (Vedanta/POSCO, Orissa; anti-SEZ;
hundreds of others)
• Stretching limits of system (RTI, FRA)
• Citizens’ networking, joint actions, experimentation,
collective visioning
• Empowering political carriers …. movements,
students, unions, etc
• Alternatives confluences (vikalp sangam)

50. India is in a unique position to
evolve alternative models of wellbeing with sustainability & equity …
learning from / teaching other
countries and peoples

51. For more information….
• www.kalpavriksh.org
• chikikothari@gmail.com