An updated version of presentation on radical alternatives to mainstream development and governance, along political, economic, social, ecological and cultural fronts, with a focus on examples from India.

1. Can Environment and
Development Go Together?
Towards a Radical Ecological Democracy
Ashish Kothari
Kalpavriksh

2. India’s Impressive Growth
• One of world’s biggest economies, high growth
rates, amongst world’s richest persons, 800 million
mobile phones, better services for middle class

3. ‘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

4. Today’s vision of ‘development’
Violence against nature, communities, and
cultures

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

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

7. Outlets:
• shop till you drop (retail therapy!)
• hate the ‘other’ or ‘outsider’

8. Jobless growth; continuing and
new poverty
• Myth of growing employment: ‘jobless
growth’ in organised sector:
– 26.7 million in 1991
– 30 million in 2012
• 20% unemployment among youth
• % below poverty line: 38 to 70%
• World’s largest number of malnourished
and undernourished women/children
• 60 million people displaced by
‘development’ projects

9. ‘Green revolution’ model
•High cost of inputs, low purchase prices = farmer indebtness
•Destruction of soil productivity, dependence on market & govt
Destruction of India’s agriculture
>300,000 suicides (many in
heartland of green revolution!)

10. 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
– Extensive chemical poisoning
Smitu Kothari

11. Cost of environmental damage =
5.7% points GDP
World Bank (2013)
(impacts taken into account)
•urban & indoor air pollution
•inadequate water supply, sanitation and hygiene
•agricultural damage by soil salinity, water-logging & soil erosion
•pasture degradation
•deforestation
Growthless
growth

12. Over-consumption by the rich
• Richest 1% consume 17x poorest 40% (per
capita)

14. 1% richest own 50% wealth!!!!
Impacts: growing
inequities, deprivation

15. Money
Cartoon by Vikram Nayak

16. Cartoon by Vikram Nayak
“Biggest grab of tribal lands since Columbus” (Min. of Rural
Dev committee report, 2009)

17. Water…the contested resource
•Several hundred million people without safe
drinking water
•Globally, 3X more spending on bottled water, than
needed to provide clean drinking water and
sanitation to every person on earth
•Indian bottled water market growing 20-40%
annually (global: 4.5%): from 2 mill. (1990) to 150
mill. cases (2010)!
•Coca Cola mines groundwater away from villages
that were using it (“if you can’t get water, drink
Coke”!)
Smitu Kothari

18. Does the media cover these
issues?
TOI / HT/ IE/ ET/ The Hindu coverage:
Development: 6%
Agriculture: 3%
Environment/wildlife: 1.7%
Most space to politics, crime, sports
(study by The Hoot)
Of top circulation papers, editorial space to
rural issues = 2%
(study by CSDS)

19. India the new Coloniser
(with China)
>500,000 hectares of pasture/agricultural land
taken over by Indian companies in Ethiopia
More in L. America and rest of Africa
Direct/indirect support by government

20. 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’

21. Are there alternatives?

22. Structural roots of unsustainability & inequity
Centralisation / concentration of power
Capitalism
State-dominated regimes
Patriarchy
Caste

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

24. Resistance …
… is part
of the
alternative

25. Food security:
sustainable agriculture

26. •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
Deccan Development Society (AP):
integrating conservation, equity, &
livelihoods through sustainable agriculture

27. An individual revolutionary…
Natwar Sarangi
Narishu vill, Cuttack dist, Odisha
GenX: Jubraj Swain
Growing >400 varieties of rice
Seed albums and banks

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

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

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

31. Natural resources:
conservation & livelihoods

32. Self-rule & decentralised governance:
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

33. Conservation of 1800 ha forests, now with full rights
under Forest Rights Act
Vivek Gour-Broome
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

34. www.kalpavriksh.org

35. Livelihood / job security

36. Jharcraft
(Jharkhand)
Employment for >3 lakh families…
reviving crafts, reducing outmigration

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

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

39. The Village and the City …

40. Gram swaraj & rural revitalisation:
outmigration is not inevitable
Ralegan Siddhi & Hivare Bazaar
(Maharashtra), Kuthambakkam (TN)
Kudumbashree (Kerala)

41. 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)

42. Middle class actions …
Lake revival / conservation,
water harvesting, garbage
management (Bengaluru, Salem)
Participatory budgeting (Bengaluru/Pune)
‘Maptivism’ by Transparent Chennai

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

44. Learning / education: traditional and modern, oral and
written, local and global, experiential and theoretical …
•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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45. Intergenerational transmission
of knowledge
•Surshala
•Karigarshala
•Sagarshala
•Kala Vidyapeeth
•Parageohydrologists
Traditional & new skills for
livelihoods

46. Energy, technology…
Energy: decentralised, renewable, efficient
(Ladakh solar; SELCO Karnataka)
Solar micro-grid
powering village
Dharnai, Bihar

47. Energy, technology…
Technological innovations to reduce ecological impact,
reach the poor (malkha cotton weaving, AP;
Hunnarshala housing, Kachchh; Solar passive
architecture, Ladakh)

48. Alternative Media & Communications
Freeing media of 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

49. 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?

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

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. Towards a sustainable and
equitable society … 5 pillars
•Ecological sustainability
•Social well-being & justice
•Direct democracy
•Economic democracy
•Cultural and knowledge diversity

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

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

55. Cartoon by Vikram Nayak

56. 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
boundaries aligned with ecological and cultural ones?

57. Ingredient 2.
A NEW ECONOMICS OF PERMANENCE*
Earthshastra: Economics as if the
earth (including people) mattered
* JC Kumarappa

58. Whatever happened to self-
reliance?
We already
Kudumbashree: “are we so dirty we need a multinational to
make soap for us?”

59. A NEW ECONOMICS
Mindful of ecological / planetary limits, away from
growth addiction
Localisation: self-sufficiency/sovereignty in basic
needs
Production, consumption (prosumption) locally
controlled; & sustainable consumption line?
Demonetisation: Relations of caring/sharing, local
exchange systems, restructuring the market (haat)

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

61. A JUST SOCIETY
Towards equity amongst
classes
castes (eradication of)
women and men
ethnic groups
species
Towards universal rights-based approaches, infused with
responsibilities

62. Ingredient 4. WAYS OF
KNOWING
Diverse
knowledges,
diverse
cultures

63. CULTURE AND KNOWLEDGE
Relinking with rest of nature
Mix of tradition and modernity … both critically
examined
Democratic R&D / S&T / knowledge / innovation: in
public domain, participatory, transparent
Alternative media and arts
Opportunities for spiritual / ethical growth (without
falling into trap of communal religious institutions)

64. Ingredient 5.
RENEWED RELATIONSHIP WITH/IN NATURE

65. Mutual learning with other peoples /
cultures ….
• Latin American experiments: direct and delegated democracy,
worker-led production, community health, land re-appropriation
movements
• Europe’s degrowth movement, solidarity economy
• Cuba’s urban agriculture, public R&D
• Indigenous peoples’ territorial struggles and worldviews
of well-being (buen vivir, sumaq kawsay, ubuntu …)
• Many others….

66. 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

67. Pathways to ecological swaraj….
• People’s resistance (Vedanta/POSCO, Orissa; anti-SEZ;
hundreds of others)
• Stretching limits of system (RTI, FRA)
• Citizens’ networking, joint actions, collective visioning
• Personal introspection, spiritual deepening
• Empowering political carriers of new visions ….
movements, students, unions, etc

68. Vikalp Sangams (Alternatives Confluences):
practical collaborations, bottom-up visioning

69. Vikalp Sangams (regional)
Timbaktu, Andhra Pradesh, Oct 2014
Madurai, Tamil Nadu, Feb 2015
Ladakh, July 2015
Wardha, Maharashtra, October 2015
Kachchh, July 2016

70. Vikalp Sangams (thematic)
Decentralised renewable energy: March 2016
Food sovereignty : Sept 2016 & 2017
Youth: early 2017
Learning and education: 2017
Arts: 2017?

71. www.alternativesindia.org
www.vikalpsangam.org

72. What can we do?
•Visit, understand, study community initiatives
•Support actions against destructive development
•Make our lifestyle sustainable
•Make our school/college sustainable
•Spread awareness amongst others
•Get creative! (responsible art, media, tech)
•Choose a career/life-choice contributing to a
saner future!

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