Examples from around India and other parts of world, of grounded initiatives in justice, equity, sustainability, and resistance to forces of destruction and inequality. Presentation for Youth Alliance, Ahmedabad, 24.12.2022. (Similar to several earlier ones, but updated)

1. Eco-swaraj:
Can Environment and Human
Well-being Go Together?
Lessons from Environmental and Social
Movements
Ashish Kothari
Kalpavriksh / Vikalp Sangam / Global
Tapestry of Alternatives

2. Delhi,
1979
Campaign to
protect Delhi
Ridge forest

3. Tehri Garhwal,
1980-81: travelling
through Chipko
movement area

4. Narmada:
struggle to save
a river valley
1983-onwards

5. 2010—onwards:
the search for alternatives
Towards a Sustainable and Equitable
World

6. A bit of development &
environment history…
Colonial period: take-over of common lands (forests,
waterbodies …)
Post-Independence, 1950s-60s: big infrastructure/industry
thrust; Green Revolution in agr
1970s-80s: Environmental movements, laws, policies
1990s-onwards: Neo-liberal, privatized, globalized economic
growth

7. India’s Impressive Growth
• 5th largest economy of world, high growth rates, a
billion mobile connections …

8. ‘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

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

10. Growth-based ‘development’ is inherently
unsustainable
• Several planetary
boundaries already crossed
• We are already at
1.5XEarth
• Runaway climate change is
at our doorstep
Rockstrom et al 2009

11. Current context:
Destruction of India’s environment,
livelihoods, communities
– 50% forest destroyed in last 200 years
– 70% waterbodies polluted or drained out
– 40% mangroves destroyed
– Many of the world’s most polluted areas
– 10% (?) wildlife threatened with extinction
– Displacement, loss of livelihoods, impoverishment of
several hundred million ecosystem-dependent people
(NBSAP Final Report, 2004)
Smitu Kothari

12. 1% richest own 70% wealth!!!!
Growing inequities,
deprivation
60 million people displaced
by ‘development’ projects

13. Over-consumption by the
rich
• Richest consume 17X
poorest
• Does this really bring
happiness?

14. … 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

15. Shrinking democracy
Govt/corporate attack on dissenting
civil society: ‘anti-development’, ‘anti-
national’, ‘terrorist’, ‘sedition’
2021: targeting of youth environment /
labour activists in India

17. COVID (and
related global
crises):
an excuse for more
authoritarianism, profit-
making, unsustainability
or
opportunity for systemic
transformation towards
justice, equity,
sustainability?

18. Are there alternatives to destructive
development? How can environment
and human well-being go together?

19. ALTERNATIVES TO WHAT?
Bandaid solutions?
Technofixes, market mechanisms, green growth,
geoengineering, net-zero … ‘sustainable development’

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

21. Doublespeak:
Self-reliance (atmanirbharbharat) and ‘Net-zero by
2070’ (PM Modi at Glasgow COP26)
Really?!?!?!
Coal mining; contract farming; mega-solar/wind parks;
‘ease of doing business’ for big corporations

22. So, what are real alternatives?
Ploori-verse, by Ashish Kothari

23. • People’s movements against dams, mining,
pollution, over-fishing, SEZs…. India’s most
powerful environmental movements
Resistance to destructive
development…
Protest against dams on
Indravati, 1980s

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

25. Satyagraha:
Civil disobedience against injustice,
across world
Note: some pics from web

26. Youth
protests
against
destructive
mining,
industries,
highways,
ports

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

28. •Empowering dalit women farmers, through collectives
•Securing women’s land rights
•Reviving traditional agricultural diversity / practices (millets)
•Creating community grain banks
Deccan Development Society, India:
conservation, equity, food sovereignty, livelihood
security

29. Kachchh
Water self-sufficiency in one of
India’s lowest rainfall regions
Knowledge transfer to parageohydrologists

30. Maati Sangathan, Uttarakhand (India)
Women’s empowerment through nature-based livelihoods

31. Kudumbashree, Kerala: dignified
livelihoods, empowerment of women,
rapid COVID response

32. Kunariya (Kachchh): towards self-
reliance in health, economy

33. Maha Gram Sabha,
Gadchiroli (Mah)
• Stop mining!
• Federation of 90 villages
• Aims: sustainable
livelihoods, forest rights &
conservation, local
governance built on
traditions of decision-making,
women’s empowerment,
cultural identity

34. www.kalpavriksh.org
Very little conservation science focus;
Urgently need recognition and support…

35. COVID-time
resilience through
community
mobilisation … and
collective rights

36. Livelihood revival with hybrid
knowledge: crafts / handloom
“The loom is my
computer”: Prakash
Vankar, Bhujodi village
Sheetal Hiteshbhai,
Siracha village

37. Glimpses of gram swaraj …
Localised self-reliance, village
revitalisation: Kuthambakkam (TN, Elango
R), 100-mile radius (Ela Bhatt/SEWA),
Hivare Bazaar & Ralegan Siddhi
(Maharashtra; reverse migration)

38. ‘’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, dignified housing for the poor
(Hunnarshala, Sahjeevan, Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan, ACT, Setu)
Right to a Sustainable City

39. Urban actions by middle classes …
Lake revival & conservation,
water harvesting, garbage
management, rooftop/terrace
gardening, pedestrianisation
(Pune, Delhi, Bengaluru, Salem, Gangtok,
Leh)
Participatory budgeting
(Bengaluru/Pune)
Zero-waste retail (Goa,
Pune)

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

41. 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; open source
software)

42. 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

43. Progressive government
responses …
• Laws/policies:
– 73/74 Constitutional amendments for self-governance
– Right to Information Act
– Rural Employment Guarantee Act
– Forest Rights Act
• Programmes:
– Organic farming in 16 states: Sikkim 100% by 2015,
Andhra ‘natural farming’, Ladakh by 2025
– Renewable energy
– Kudumbashree women’s livelihoods, Kerala

44. 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
Swaraj
ICCAs
Food / energy
sovereignty
Worker-owned
production
Climate justice
Constructive alternatives across the
world

45. Kurdish Rojava women’s movement
Autonomy, democratic confederalism, ecofeminist
principles in midst of war zone
Hevjiyana azad (living together in freedom)
Jineoloji (science of woman & life)
Images: courtesy Kurdish
Women’s Movement

46. Solidarity economy, alternative currencies, open
software: options for urban youth
Beki local currency, Biekerech,
Luxembourg
Time-banking at
neighbourhood school,
Athens, Greece
Pagkaki coop café, Athens
In India:
• Open software / ethical hacking
• Alternative media
• Transformatory arts (e.g.
‘Justice Rocks’
• Millet/organic food restaurants
• Non-profit shops

47. Ecological
resilience &
wisdom
(rights of nature, conservation)
Radical democracy
(direct citizens’ power, accountable
representative institutions, ecoregional
governance, borderless world)
Economic democracy
(producer sovereignty, localised self-
reliance, caring/sharing, commons)
Social justice &
wellbeing
(justice, equity of genders, ethnicities,
Culture &
knowledge diversity
(new learning, knowledge commons,
celebrating creativity, cultural co-
existence, spiritual deepening)
Flower of transformation:
5 spheres of systemic alternatives
VALUES

48. RADICAL POLITICS, ECONOMICS &
JUSTICE
Direct/radical democracy : decisions in hands of
people everywhere (“in our village, we are the
government”): people’s assemblies, referendums
Localisation & democratisation of economy, self-
reliance, caring & sharing, commons, worker-owned
production, qualitative indicators of well-being beyond
growth and GDP
Social justice and well-being: struggles for human
rights - gender equality, castelessness, anti-racism, etc
Cultural / knowledge diversity: decolonial approaches,
commons ; public control over technology/media

49. • Recognising humans as
part of nature
• Respecting rest of nature
(ethical / spiritual / rights)
• Conservation, sustainable
use
RENEWED RELATIONSHIP WITH/IN NATURE
Poorva Goel

50. • Diversity and pluralism (of ideas, knowledge, ecologies, economies,
ideologies, polities, cultures…)
• Self-reliance for basic needs (swavalamban)
• Self-governance / autonomy (swashasan / swaraj)
• Cooperation, solidarity, commons (including knowledge!)
• 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!
WORLDVIEWS THAT CELEBRATE LIFE!
Values & principles of
transformative alternatives ….

51. 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

52. Swaraj
• Sangharsh (resistance) to nirman
(reconstruction)
• Individual / collective autonomy,
responsible to others’ autonomy
• Personal = political
• Politics & spirituality integrally linked for
power to be emancipatory

53. Pre/Post-development worldviews from
elsewhere … a pluriverse
• 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)
– kyosei (Japan), sentipensar, minobattsiiwiin (native American)
– jineoloji / hevjiyan azad (Kurdish)
• Roots & radical re-interpretations of major religions
• Degrowth, Commons, Solidarity economy, Biocivilisation,
Ecosocialism, Ecofeminism …

54. 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?
How to rethink academics / ‘disciplines’, epistemologies?

55. How to make macro-change
happen?
• Resistance /subversion
(sangharsh/satyagraha) + construction
/ reconstruction (nirman/swaraj)
• Transition + transformation
• Outscaling, not upscaling
• Visions of the future, building on
ancient worldviews

57. Vikalp Sangams (Alternatives Confluences):
collaborations, cross-learning, collective visioning of future
www.vikalpsangam.org

58. Vikalp Sangams
(regional)
Andhra Pradesh: Oct 2014
Tamil Nadu: Feb 2015
Ladakh: July 2015, Sept 2021
Maharashtra: October 2015
Kachchh: July 2016
W. Himalaya: Aug 2016
Kerala: April 2017
Madhya Pradesh: Sept 2017
West Himalaya: Nov. 2018, Oct
2021
(thematic)
Energy democracy: March 2016
Food sovereignty: 2016 & 2017
Youth: 2017-2022
National: Nov 2017
Peace in conflict areas: June 2018
Health: June 2018
Well-being: 2019-2022
Democracy/swaraj, Oct 2019
Economies, Jan 2020
Worldviews, Nov 2022

59. Youth Vikalp Sangam … an ongoing process

60. www.vikalpsangam.org:
one stop place for stories of hope & transformation

61. Stories of
hope … on
‘social’
media,
video
channels …

62. Confluences of resistance and
alternatives across the world
Sharing/exchanges/collaborations
Collective visioning of a just world …
and how to get there!
Global Tapestry of
Alternatives
https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org

64. Radical alternative practices & worldviews
across world - 100 essays
Alternative visioning & case studies from India:
political, social, cultural, economic, ecological

65. UTOPIA?
Eduardo 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.”

66. • ashishkothari@riseup.net
• www.vikalpsangam.org
• www.radicalecologicaldemocracy.org
For further dialogue….
www.kalpavriksh.org