On the 21st-22nd, there was a conference on Sajiv Kheti, or Organic Farming, in Vadodara, where friends we wanted to spend time with and acquaintances I’d like to know more about were in the audience and panel of speakers. We semi-attended the lectures, especially my dad, who found stepping out to chat with friends about their work and catching up with others during breaks (in one word – GOSSIP) more compelling.
I got stuck in one boring segment (I shall not reveal which lest I offend avid eggplant zealots) when my dad left me stranded for 2 hours to go fix our cellphone without telling me (I KNOW RIGHT WHAT KIND OF DAD DOES THAT?), but I had Orhan Pamuk’s White Castle with me so not too bad…
But there were some interesting lectures on Endosulfan as a fertilizer, and both sides sent their representatives to talk about and debate the two standpoints. Let’s be honest here, I tuned out half of it, especially because the discussions segment was cordial and respectful (who wants to hear that?), but I must elaborate on a few salient points of the raging endosulfan dispute, a heartrending tale for many.
I got this excerpt from an article from the Scientific American, which wrote in June of 2010 that the EPA in the States has banned endosulfan as it harms farmworkers:
“Endosulfan is a chlorinated insecticide that is chemically similar to DDT, which was banned nearly 40 years ago. Like DDT, endosulfan builds up in the environment and in the bodies of people and wildlife, and it is transported around the world via winds and currents. Nearly all other organochlorine pesticides already have been banned.” The EPA classifies endosulfan in its most extreme toxicity category (highly acutely toxic) because relatively small doses are lethal, according to the Pesticide Action Network. India, the largest producer of endosulfan in the world, banned the toxin initially. Then it succumbed to corporate pressures and lifted the ban, but in May of this year once again the Supreme Court “banned the production, distribution and use of endosulfan in India because the pesticide has debilitating effects on humans and the environment”.
There have been cases documented of endosulfan spraying in Kerala causing birth defects in children of farmworkers. More than 135 individuals died in Kerala as a direct result of the pesticide, and the government, after initially hesitant to admit the fact, was pushed to deliver compensation in 2006. The pictures of the poor children in the photos in the main speaker’s presentation, some with stag horn fingers (literally look like the two shoots of deer antlers) and others suffering mental retardation, evokes such disgust at the entire charade of these industries.
Remember the whole DDT episode in US history and Rachel Carson’s investigative journalism? Well forty years later, similar disastrous toxins are pushed onto developing countries with much more sinister human effects. This not only occurs in India but happened all over South America, the Philippines, SE Asia… Thank the lord of sajiv kheti that the world finally embarks on the road towards eliminating the use of the toxic pesticide.
The group of presentations that I felt was the most captivating dealt with adivasis and sajiv kheti. Our friends Michael and Swati live in a village an hour and a half from Vadodara. After graduating with degrees respectively in Engineering and Physics – they were studying at college at the same time my parents – they went on motorcycle adventures throughout India – North to South and East to West for months as newlyweds. Then they settled down in what was an even more remote tribal village in 1991. I am really close to this couple individually, and love them like my aunt and uncle.
They wrote short synopses about their adventures integrating and winning the support of the community, and the first entry titled “She’s Our Daughter Too” explains their initial reactions to becoming citizens of this village. If any of you want to read it, I have a copy ;). Two members of the village names Ishwar and Jayanti do a lot of work with the two, and gave their own presentations about local farming, the hardships, and their experience with chemical and natural fertilizers. With very informative pictures and some funny one liners, it was definitely the top presentation. Ishwar and Jayanti were young kids when the Mozda experiment started, but these two young men are such all-rounders now and contribute such vibrant voices; from engineering solar panels and wind mills to speaking their minds and personal experiences in forest rights or organic farming seminars. These two are so well-accomplished and motivated but composed. Then Neeta Hardikar, a founding member of Anandi organization, also gave a very comprehensive and insightful talk. But more about that in a few days.
Presentations and discussions at this seminar enabled me to appreciate what the critics of the present development model were striving towards creating, a more sustainable and masses-friendly alternative. Again I emphasize these men and women do not fancy a green world where everyone wears hemp skirts and live in self-growing food collectives. What I mean to say is that their visions for India’s future does not offer a view restricted to environmental and human rights colors. It also incorporates cost benefit analysis in terms of money and net return to the farmer. That is how any practical businessman would make his economical decisions! The farming based on heavy usage of chemicals was actually failing to turn out high returns after the introductory few years. The industry overly reliant on government largesse was becoming sick – creating such negative effects in the now that it hampered growth in the long run. Like using agricultural land for BT cotton (a widespread phenomenon), a quick cash crop that actually plummets the quality of soil after an initial few seasons. Remember I talked about fisherman knowing the limits of their current profits so they could keep a replenish-able stock for their future livelihoods in a much earlier blog post? There are these tradeoffs that common sense and years of village wisdom can accept, but free market profit making cannot.
Why not help people create more locally adapted alternatives that they can control and do not require such massive centralized investment decisions? Decentralization, loose local decision making processes allow for the most sustainability, in terms of environment, human lives, AND prosperity. The farmers in this meeting who were reporting back their successes with organic farming are in fact true entrepreneurs, innovators, and modern risk takers! Who says they’re regressive? It seems some times that the people who do not understand the various shades of one monoculture of agriculture or industry do not understand the future. If you want to know more about all of this, the main organizer, Kapil Shah, again a friend of my parents runs Jatan Trust, which promotes organic farming.
After the meeting we went to our friend Trupti and Rohit’s place, who my parents have know since they were 19.Trupti has a PhD and teaches economics at M.S. University and is the found of Sahiyar, a women’s group in GJ. She just finished a four volume study of the women’s movement and feminism’s history in India. She had finished the first two volumes when we visited her two years ago, and finally completed the set this summer. She gifted us a copy in Gujarati and although the set is translated into Hindi, hopefully one day I will be able to read them in English! Her volumes are acclaimed all over GJ. Later, when I went to St. Xavier’s University in A’bad, I saw the books with the intricate cover art sitting on their “recommended” shelf! She also revived “Manthan,” a youth group that R&T, Michael, Swati and my parents and many others we met in this trip formed like 25 years ago that I will speak about later.
Rohit studied engineering, and now reads and writes and acts in the field of environmentalism. He even argues environmental cases in front of the High Court, representing the workers of a union, and sometimes even the Supreme Court, though he did not formally study law! He is such a daring man and gets in trouble frequently for his sleuths and published writings. The couple and their son who is my age live amidst almost an entirely Muslim neighborhood, when they are not Muslim. Many of the members of sahiyar & manthan are from both the communities, in what is called ‘sensitive areas’. Rohit told me about how he was going to an area of Baroda where factory workers work and live, and was told about the massive health problems they deal with. He noticed holes in their noses and birth defects in their children. First unsure about the cause, and standing for days in front of the gate of the factory trying to figure out the culprit, he suddenly had an epiphany and went to the law library. There he found a special case documented in England in the mid 20th century of factory workers demonstrating the same deformities and health defects, realizing the cause was chromium! Rohit is himself affected by spending so much time with the factory and workers.
At the end of our visit, their son Manav and I went to a local ice cream store and brought back ice cream for everybody. I had such a good time in the family’s company that it saddens me I only get to visit these people once in a couple years.
This is the best time for me to say I had sooooo much fun with my 30+, 48+ year old friends. As I’m sitting at home in Charlotte recounting my experiences in GJ, I am missing them so much.
I really want to share some of my interactions with these activists, their dynamic histories, and the great insights and teachings I have received from them. Many of us have long histories of knowing each other; some are very close to my parents. Others I just met, but felt really strong connections to. I am really lucky to know such people advanced in their fields and vocal at the national and international platform from Delhi to UP to Bihar to Ahmedabad to Vadodara to Baria to Mozda to Rajpipla to Mera to… It’s unreal. So I really want to share all this with many of you all, I just don’t feel comfortable posting it all on the internet yet. Really, the relationships I’ve fostered were the most organic and fruitful part of my trip.
I worry this blog has been more fact based than feelings based, so I hope any of you can approach me and have individual conversations with me if you are interested. Most of you live far away, so please email me. Or like Maku, send me an endless list of deep questions to answer. No don’t. Just Kidding Maku, I definitely owe you that much for all that you’ve done for me, Obelix. (And I’m getting there after I finish all this…)
The next morning we went to our family friend Shreya’s place in Vadodara. She volunteers her time by helping design books and magazines of an independent, non-profit Gandhian publishing collective. Swati, my friend, is the co-editor of its bi-monthly magazine. Shreya has also worked with a woman’s empowering organization during her free time, and visited the women in slums to build prospects for their lives and discuss how to approach personal conflicts like domestic violence. We decided why not indulge in slum tourism as well for a few hours? I assured myself that though indulging this cursorily was morally questionable, I still had the right intentions. Urban poverty was something we skipped on this trip for a closer scrutiny in the future, but I believe those who work in the slums of cities have the most seemingly hopeless and painful day to day grind. Dealing with the filth and the factory worker/ maid’s labor situations are unimaginably difficult; there are entrenched matters of power relations and unorganized labor issues that impede progress, swamped by aggressive politics as well. With slum dwellers issues of gender (saw a couple of girls who work as prostitutes at night), domestic violence, and sanitation are often compounded.
Also, there are mafias that control local politics and economics. Most of the shacks are home to squatting owners who pay the mafia to live there without police notice, though they can get evicted easily. We went to two slums, one only got sewage two years ago. The other was the ‘upper end’ of slums, a basthi. Still lower middle class, but the residents were most likely small-scaled entrepreneurs who owned pani puri stands or coffee carts, etc. Others drove rickshaws. Most were not factory laborers.
In slums, Muslims and Hindus are neighbors and there is rarely friction –Mosques and mandirs are literally right next to each other. But when Hindu Muslim riots break out, they can be deadly. Your neighbor could be watch you get slain without protest, or even be your killer. In such close quarters when situations like water pump issues or derogatory language or some riot in another city blow up, dangerous outbreaks of violence become intensified.
Oh and seeing some more posters of the chief minister just outside the slum reminded me of the whole new dimension of desperately amassing political power in shady, even brutal ways. The CM, Modi, basically sanctioned the 2002 communal riots, where many BJP supporting Hindus mercilessly killed over 1000 Muslims in ways that makes the body shudder and head hang low in shame. Interestingly, a coalition of secular and minority Indian Americans including Gujaratis like my dad in the US were able to get the States to ban Modi from stepping a foot in the country. There are still some high profile investigations and cases and controversies raging on about his adminstration’s role nearly ten years later.
Anyways, if you want to know more about slum life, read City of Joy. It is seriously an excellently written book by Dominique Lapierre about a European priest who comes to live in Anandnagar, a slum in Calcutta in the 60s. I recently found out Patrick Swayze was in the 1992 film version of it. But don’t take the easy way out this time people. Read the book! I have it if anyone in Charlotte would like to borrow it.
We lunched at Shreya’s home. Dhosas – my favorite. I met her sons, and made two new friends!
Then, we were off to the bus station to go to Ahmedabad. It was a motivating first week in GJ.
