Radical Ecological DemocracyLearnings from India Towards a Sustainable and Equitable World

Ashish Kothari

Kalpavriksh

India’s Impressive Growth• One of world’s biggest economies, rapid growth,

affluent middle class, 600 million mobile phones …

but…

…a flawed vision of ‘development’

Violence against nature, people, and cultures

Economic Globalisation

• Post-1991 global integration, privatisation, liberalisation … acceleration of impacts

Destruction of India’s environment

– >5.5 million ha. forest diverted in last 60 years– 70% waterbodies polluted or drained out– Some of the world’s most polluted cities and coasts– Nearly 10% wildlife threatened with extinction

– Dispossession of ecosystem-dependent communities

Self-devouring growth

World Bank (2013): Cost of environmental damage = 5.7%

points economic growth

(impacts taken into account) • urban & indoor air pollution• inadequate water supply, sanitation and hygiene• agricultural damage by soil salinity, water-logging and soil erosion • pasture degradation• deforestation

Continuing and new poverty & unemployment

• ‘Jobless growth’ in organised sector:– 26.7 million in 1991– 30 million in 2012

• % below poverty line: 38 to 70%

• World’s largest number of malnourished and undernourished women/children

• 60 million people displaced by ‘development’ projects

Where is all the money going? 1% richest own almost 50% wealth!!!!

Increasing conflicts

State vs. democracy

• Increasing attempt to silence civil society & peoples’ movements, e.g. Greenpeace India, INSAF, Sabrang

India the new Coloniser (joining China, Japan…)

Indian companies have taken up >500,000 ha. in Ethiopia & Tanzania for floriculture,

sugarcane, palm oil, etc

Gandhi:

‘if India is to take Britain’s path of ‘development’, it will strip the

world bare like locusts’

Towards transformational alternatives

Resistance …

… is part of the transformation

India: alternative initiatives for well-being

Water

CraftsShelter

Food

Energy

Governance

LivelihoodsConservation

Village revitalisation

Urban sustainability

Learning

Health

Producer companies

Recipe for transformational alternatives: Ingredient 1. A NEW POLITICS

Swaraj

“Our government in Mumbai and Delhi, we are the government in our village”

Towards tribal self-rule: Mendha-Lekha (Maharashtra)

Informed decisions through monitoring, and regular study circles (abhyas gat)

All decisions in gram sabha (village assembly); no activity even by government officials without sabha consent

Mendha-Lekha: economic revival based on reclaimed governance of 1800 ha forest

Vivek Gour-Broome

Earnings from sustainable NTFP use (over Rs. 10 million) … used for full employment, energy & water security, training as ‘barefoot’ engineers and researchers

2013: all agricultural land donated to village, collective ownership

Participatory urban governance

Participatory budgeting, Pune / Bangalore

Decentralised decision-making on civic facilities, Bhuj

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

Ingredient 1. A NEW POLITICS

Direct democracy: power emanating from grassroot rural and urban communities

Embedded democracy, ensuring accountability of representatives / delegates at larger levels through right to recall, citizens’ charters, public hearings, social audits, right to participation

Ecoregional decision-making … political boundaries aligned with ecological and cultural ones … demise of the nation-state?

Ingredient 2. A NEW ECONOMICS

Earthshastra: An economy of permanence*

* JC Kumarappa

Village reconstruction: outmigration is not inevitable

Ralegan Siddhi and Hivare Bazaar (Maharashtra), Kuthambakkam (TN)

Khamir/Kasab, Kachchh, India: secure livelihoods for

craftspersons through producer companies / cooperatives

Jharcraft (Jharkhand) Employment for 300,000 families…

reviving crafts, upgrading skills

Dignified livelihoods for urban poor

Kagaj Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat

&

Swach

(Pune)

Ingredient 2. A NEW ECONOMICS

Mindful of ecological / planetary limits

Localisation: self-sufficiency/sovereignty in basic needs

Community (not capitalist or state) control of production & consumption (prosumption)

Demonetisation: Relations of caring & sharing, local exchange systems/currencies, restructuring the market (haat)

Well-being indicators as alternatives to GDP: basic needs, happiness, social relations

Ingredient 3. A JUST SOCIETY

When people go hungry, it is not food but justice that is in

short supply

• Organic, biodiverse farming, community grain banks • Empowering women/dalit farmers, securing land rights• Creating consumer-producer links• Linking to Public Distribution System

Conservation, equity, & livelihoods Deccan Development Society

Towards equitable cities

Bhuj (Kachchh, west India):

• decentralised control by the poor: water, housing, sanitation • information-based empowerment for participation in city planning

(Hunnarshala, Sahjeevan, Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan, ACT, Setu)

Ingredient 3. A JUST SOCIETY

Towards equity amongst

classes

castes

women and men

ethnic groups

abled and ‘disabled’

city and village

humans and rest of nature

Ingredient 4. WAYS OF

KNOWING

Diverse knowledges,

diverse cultures

Learning & Education: away from mass production of clones, towards ecologically & culturally rooted experience

Mix of traditional and modern, oral and written, local and global, experiential and theoretical …

•Pachashala, Andhra Pradesh•Adharshila, Madhya Pradesh•Jeevanshala, Narmada•Adivasi Academy, Gujarat

•Beeja Vidyapeeth, Uttarakhand•Bhoomi College, Karnataka

Technological innovations: pro-poor, pro-environment, democratically controlled, knowledge-plurality

malkha cotton weaving, Andhra Pradesh (Dastkar Andhra)

affordable ecofriendly housing, Kachchh (Hunnarshala)

decentralised energy, Ladakh, Bihar (Greenpeace India)

Ingredient 4. WAYS OF KNOWING

Relinking with rest of nature

Diverse knowledge systems

Knowledge as the commons: no IPRs!

Democratising R&D and technological development

Opportunities for spiritual/ethical growth

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…

Hey, don’t forget the spices!

Values & principles….• Diversity and pluralism (of ideas, knowledge, ecologies,

economies, polities, cultures…)• Self-reliance for basics (swadeshi)• Cooperation, solidarity, the ‘commons’ • Rights with responsibilities • Dignity of labour & respect of subsistence • Qualitative pursuit of happiness• Equity & social justice • Simplicity, ‘enoughness’ (aparigraha)• Respect for all life forms

(add your own spices…)

Pathways….• Mass resistance • Stretching limits of system (the state responds!) • Empowering political carriers of new visions ….

movements, students, unions, etc• Citizens’ networking, joint actions, collective

visioning: Alternatives confluences (Vikalp Sangam)

Vikalp Sangams (Alternatives Confluences) Timbaktu, Andhra Pradesh, Oct 2014Madurai, Tamil Nadu, Feb 2015Ladakh, J&K, July 2015Wardha, Maharashtra, October 2015

www.alternativesindia.org

Mutual learning with others ….• Latin American experiments: direct and delegated

democracy, worker-led production, community health, land re-

appropriation movements • Europe’s degrowth movement • Cuba’s urban agriculture, public R&D • Indigenous peoples’ territorial struggles and notions

of well-being (buen vivir, sumak kawsay, ubuntu …) • Many others….

An end to globalisation? No!

• Global flow of ideas, cultures, materials based on principles of Radical Ecological Democracy

NO IMPOSITION OF ONE MODEL ACROSS WORLD!

Issues for dialogue….

Would there be a state? What would be its form and role?

Would there be a private business sector? Profits?

What would be the nature of globalisation and global governance?

Who will catalyse the transformation: Civil society? Workers? Political parties?

• http://radicalecologicaldemocracy.wordpress.com

• www.alternativesindia.org

For more information….

Email: chikikothari@gmail.com