Sameeksha 2011: Celebrating The Folk Spirit.

This year for Sameeksha we tried to experience life from another point of view, from the point of view of the Adivasis. The fest was held on 31st January 2011 and our theme was to celebrate the vast knowledge and the distinct culture of the Adivasis.
Since our theme was so different this time, we thought we’d approach it differently as well, instead of a poster exhibition, we had a hatke-matke exhibition, we had all painted some pattern or the other on the matkas, some had Warli paintings, while some had art that depicted other tribes; along with this display of art, some matkas showed information, like the depiction of a Gond settlement and other information about the Adivasis of India. It was an entirely different experience, the responsibility of painting wasn’t primarily on the artistically gifted but even those who might feel that they were lacking in that department, let go of their inhibitions and grabbed a paintbrush and let their creativity flow, in turn realizing that they weren’t so bad at art to begin with! In addition to the matkas, we also had a hut that the students made from scratch. The dawn of 31st January 2011 brought to realization the community architectural dream of the Sameeksha hut, complete with colorful painted walls( as inspired by the Adivasis) and its entrance graced with rangoli that was made using natural colors that was prepared by the students itself. Haldi, rice and dal got a whole new meaning!
To get this ambiance to life we had events such as folk games, applying mehendi and a quiz. All of us got in touch with our bachpan with games like Tinka trying very hard not to get out! For those of us who were feeling a little more adventurous, tried out ‘ Reigning in the Deer’, where we tried hard to lasso a(fake) deer, but realized it’s not easy as it looks with some players ending up lassoing themselves. The quiz was a light one but it made us realize that there’s more to Adivasis than we know. That they have languages cultures and rights.
Next was the street play titled “Gaon Chodab Nahin” which was inspired by the protest video of the same title. Agreed, that for our fest we wanted to celebrate the culture of the Adivasis, but looking at various aspects of their life and not looking at the violence that they have to face wouldn’t be right. This violence might not leave any Adivasi culture left to celebrate! So, our street play dealt with the issue of the Adivasis being displaced, their culture and life being snatched from them by the forces of Development and how amongst these atrocities committed against them the Adivasis unite and vow to fight against these forces, to fight for what is rightfully theirs.
All these activities combined, made us understand that Adivasis aren’t “jhingalala people” as is normally understood. Certain aspects of their life that we consider “rudimentary” and “primitive” have deeper meaning and purpose than we would like to know. We might consider them as weeds that need to be pulled out as we don’t see any apparent use for them but it’s time we understood that even “weeds” have the right to life and have their own intelligence.

A Visit to Hiware Bazaar

We had heard a lot about Hiware Bazaar. And the small political, sociological and “what is development?” discussions we used to have with our friends somehow led us into visiting this model village situated very close to the ‘far from model’ Pune city. Hiware Bazaar is a small village situated in Ahmadnagar district. Our term-end semester exams had just finished then. Off we went, on our own, not knowing the exact route to the place. Asking here and there for the exact location. It took us close to three and a half hours and 4 different means of transport to actually get to Hiware Bazaar. So, Hiware Bazaar it was.
Now, we had done some research about this place before leaving. So, firstly we would like to share what we read about Hiware Bazaar on the website of India Environment Portal(which is managed by the Centre for Science and Environment and promoted by the National Knowledge Commission) and also from blogs written by people who had visited the village. Hiware Bazaar is situated in the rain shadow region of Maharashtra and faced acute water crisis in the 70’s which led to a crippling agrarian crisis throughout the 80’s. The village had an annual rainfall of about 400-450mm which is nearly half of the district average. There was also a failed dam project close to the village. Agriculture, the primary occupation, was suffering in Hiware Bazaar. This led to villagers migrating to the cities for work. People began to engage themselves in liquor-related activities which led to a socio-moral crisis along with the already deep economic crisis. However, one man had different ideas. Shri Popatrao Pawar, a young MCom graduate then, was elected as Sarpanch of the village in the early 90’s. There were changes. And they were for the better. We would like to list out some of the reforms undertaken by Shri Pawar – (1) Addressing the need of water for irrigation through several means they constructed small bunds using finance from government schemes, passing a resolution to not cultivate water-intensive crops like sugarcane, planting more trees on the hills to let water soak into the ground and hence raising the groundwater levels and also increasing the rainfall amount to some extent. Trees were planted on a large scale. Water conservation structures like contour trenches were built around hills to conserve rainwater. (2) A resolution was passed to avoid green lands being spoiled due to excessive grazing by animals. The resolution also had a clause which allowed people to take in one head load of feed for their animals everyday by paying a nominal fee(the fee, maybe to dispel the notion that everything comes for free). (3) Every villager was made to put in manual labour for bund and pond construction and savings of money hence produced was used to build temples and a mosque (that too for just one Muslim family in the village). This helped in passing on the message that the efforts of people were going in for a noble cause i.e. development. (4) No one was allowed to sell the land to anyone from outside the village. (5) All houses in the villages would have the same façade design to show equality. (6) HIV test was made compulsory before marriage. (7) Ban on liquor and tobacco-related activities in the village. (8) Ban on cutting trees and grazing. Such reforms obviously needed support from the state. The Employment Guarantee Scheme and funds from the Adarsh Gaon Yojana helped in the cause.
This was some research done prior to the visit. We reached the village and were surprised to see concrete roads greeting us. All roads in concrete! There was green cover on the small hills surrounding the village. We got into the Gram Panchayat building and met Mr. Habib Syed who worked at an administrative level in the village under Mr. Pawar. Sadly, and paradoxically, Mr.Popatrao Pawar was in Pune city! Habib’s cousin brother Swaleen, who we met before entering the village was also around. They told us about the work done and also gave some tips to get around the village quickly enough(we were short on time, sadly). So, we were on our own now. Moving around. Observing. All houses actually had nearly similar facade designs. All houses had an attached toilet and a bathroom. There was a primary and secondary school. Solar street lights!! One kirana shop had a notice asking people to bring only cloth bags of their own and avoiding plastic bags. All houses had the names of both the man and the woman of the house. We were moving around and managed to get talking to a few women in the village. It was a Sunday afternoon and the women were threshing grains at the entry points of their houses. Their husbands were away working on the farms. We were talking to one such lady about the development story of the village. She seemed so very happy and satisfied about everything done by the Gram Panchayat. Her kids seemingly were doing well in school. She also stressed about the fact that Shri Pawar had given education a very important position in the village. Students were encouraged to study well. Also, villagers were told to work hard with their lives. She said “Te je boltat, barobar boltat…ani je kahi kelay te changlyasathich kelay” (Whatever the Sarpanch says is correct and whatever is done is for good). Questions were ringing in our mind about the social changes in the village. Is there gender inequality? Caste inequality? “Kaahi nahi”. All was well, she said. Girls have all the opportunities which boys get. Everyone is respected in the village. No one is treated badly. No tobacco. No liquor. Everyone is sane. This seemed ideal. After a short chat about village politics (which she said, did not exist) we took her leave only to end up talking with another woman who was doing a similar chore. From her, we got to know that the backward caste people were actually staying in houses which were away from the main village houses. We also managed to reach to a point from where we could conclude that there is a deeper thread of development running here.
People seemed very happy. They were satisfied. However, the bright conclusions which could be drawn are mostly economic in nature. There are social ones too, but they seem to originate from economic success. One fact we read was – there are 54 millionaires in Hiware Bazaar!! A village of barely a thousand people. But as human beings we try to find faults even in very good things. Same was the case here. This village has done a lot more than most villages in India and it is way ahead on most parameters of development. Still, the buck never stops at something. You have to keep on improving. One thing we felt which was missing here, is the presence of competition and the presence of a formidable political opposition. Too much of satisfaction can be harmful. One tends to get complacent about oneself and one’s decisions. The need for reasoned debate and arguments is something which has existed in the history of India(as pointed out beautifully in an Amartya Sen book – ‘The Argumentative Indian’). There is a need to challenge monotony(and even monarchy). That constant chirping about issues is needed. The constant endeavour to improve the standard of living is crucial. Another fact we observed was the possible neglect to social inequalities and freedom of expression. The reason for this could be the tremendous economic development. The ideal situation would be one where both economic and social development go hand in hand. Here too, socially the village is definitely not backward when compared to the rest of India. But we guess for us, social stability and freedom would exist in a better way in a situation where there are open discussions about social and cultural issues with an open and unbiased mind. The previous sentence would apply to all of India!
Kudos to Shri Popat Pawar for doing such a great job! He along with his villagers have actually set an example in front of all of us about the importance of political will in the development of a region. We enjoyed our short visit to the village. The analysis which we offered is something which we have just attempted. I am sure the analysis is not complete in any way!! After all, how can a few hours spent in a village give a good analysis of the situation in the village? There must be people who can offer insights to us on the issue. But I guess the best way to analyze better would be to spend more time in the village and talk to more people. There were certain things we could not observe during our visit, the absence of which you must have noted till now. The idea was to highlight a situation of developmental success happening right in our neighbouring district and the importance of political will in achieving that level of development, which again I hope you must have noted!!
THANK YOU
• Atul Kotagal & Sudarshan Shinde,
S.Y.B.Sc.

Edit habits + Save earth=Enter better world

         “Natural Resources are not what we’ve rightfully inherited from our ancestors, but what we’ve borrowed from our future generations…” Now isn’t this reason enough for us to work for a development, that encompasses economic prosperity, environmental protection and social well-being, and that can be perpetuated to our future generations? Due to the need for such a development the term “sustainable development” has emerged; technically defined by the Brudtland Commission as “the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

        The main need of this special genre of development arises when natural resources are getting used up faster than our mother nature can replenish it. And this hyper-speed of humans is due to the population over-explosion, the super-fast industrialization and urbanization in the world and the big bug of consumerism. Thus, implementing Sustainable Development is the need of the hour. That’ll include steps right from switching off tube lights even without the announced “Earth Hour”, setting up renewable energy tapers.

        A fantastic example of the implementation of sustainable development is the Lake Baikal region of Russia, which contributes 1/5^th of the world’s freshwater and extends its habitat to 1800 species found no where else on the globe. To conserve this, George D. Davis, designed the concept of “Zoning” to implement sustainability in this region of 52 acres. He zoned this area into a total of 23 including landscapes, reserves, green belts, poultry yards, industrial parks etc. This ensured economic prosperity, employment opportunities, social well being, and a better standard of living. But most importantly this method conserved a piece of environmental legacy, which can be gifted (read returned) to our future generations.

        Like every other idea, even the idea of sustainable development has been subjected to vast critique. The people who voice the need of this type of development are labeled as “plain old talkers” as they don’t take enough pains to ensure its implementation. The vagueness of the term disturbs many philosophers and educationalists like John Baden and Luc Ferry. Moreover, Sylvie Burnel, the Third World expert, feels that the developed countries impose sustainable development on the developing ones. They continue to provide prime importance to their economic prosperity (thus degrade the environment) and force the developing countries to prioritize environmental conservation (and, thus, to lag behind economically). Is this fair!?

        In a nutshell, sustainable development is in our hands. We can choose to implement it on our levels or to contribute to the critique above, by just crying over its need and forcing it on each other. Hence, this is a war between our own thoughts and actions. So guys, walk your talk, use the wisdom-weapon, and fight hard…ALL for our Mother (Earth) and our Children (future generations)…here comes sustainable development!! :)

(Compiled by Rajashree Gandhi;inputs by Aliya Farooqui)