Local Nonviolent Economy - A Transition Movement

 

Local Nonviolent Economy - A Transition Movement

What is the emerging around local and nonviolent economy,it looks like a transition movement-Rajagopal

 

IMAGINE -CHALLENGE -INNOVATE- BE SMALL

 

Rajaji began the call by saying that he was happy to discover that successful strides have been taken in South India by various movements towards creating an alternative to existing market economy. Rajaji regards as transition movement for India. In west it is taking shape but not many people are aware of what is happening in India and so he framed the purpose of the call, which was to have many successful change-makers of the south share short summaries of their journeys leading to figuring out ways of synergizing and collectively moving forward.

 

Local Economy: See strengths of being small

Prasannaji quit theatre, and inspired by Gandhian teachings, founded the Shramajeevi Ashram, and Charkha, a dynamic rural khadi co-operative, managed entirely by local women. The ashram and weavers have the distinction of having revived traditional dyeing techniques and textiles such as the Udupi handloom saree that was teetering on the brink of extinction. Prasanna is proud that the 30,000 metres of khadi produced in the ashram.

 

The unit has 600 Dalit women in it. Over the last 2 years he has been trying to get the benefits of scale while keeping the strengths of being small. He found it beneficial to decentralize the 25 units of the organization into independent units while Charkha remained as a service provider for them (training, etc.).

 

Prassannji saw the important of “economy” in creating a nonviolent, locally based life and society. Taking his lesson, “How we can and must learn from the mainstream corporates”. He showed how they have evolved and implemented systems that could even be called Gandhian, such as decentralizing, treating employees as stakeholders, etc.

 

Executing Gandhi’s vision of a local economy

Dr. Jacob Pulickanji from Trivandrum spoke next. His journey started when he discovered that it was difficult to get even 25 people to attend a speech on Gandhi. He then turned to working with youth, women, etc. and to help them create ventures that were financially independent, sustainable, and generated income for participants while executing Gandhi’s vision of a local economy. They started by perfecting the technology of soap-making and added necessary products like food items and consumer products to their portfolio. Each unit focused on obtaining raw materials from, and supplying products in, the area where they were based in, and relied on door-to-door personal sales than using shops and ads. The movement spawned successful replicas throughout Kerala and has been received wholeheartedly by the people of each area while fostering financial independence.

Challenging Centralised Economy

Ananthooji of Thula was the next speaker. He pointed out that he is troubled by the centralized economy where Indian billionaires doubled their money in recent years, without creating the promised trickledown effect, and while creating ecological damage. He pointed that each village shop on average has 360 plastic packaged items from multinationals. All this means we are handing over a degraded, damaged earth to the coming generations. He spoke of CESCI Nagapattanam, where there was a synergy between the local community and the organization. Raw materials were sold to the organization by the local women, the finished product(oils) and by-products(composted) were sold at a subsidized rate to the villagers. Similar local oil creation firms are challenging the multinational hold on oil sales throughout Tamil Nadu.

 

Creating A Wholesome, Sustainable, Society

Dr. Manjunath H spoke next about Sacred economy in agriculture and about their Sahajala experiment in creating a wholesome, sustainable, society in Rangapura Panchayat of Tumkur. He spoke of Madhugiri, the area where Rangapura exists, in detail. It has a forest ecology (shrub, deciduous forests), pastoral ecology with high water absorption, rain-fed agricultural lands where mono cropping is being transformed to a more beneficial multi-storeyed natural cropping, and water-bodies, which would have been be affected if chemical farming is pursued. The initiative also intends to eliminate malnutrition in the area using local produce of fruits, vegetable, and grains, and also intends to create an art, culture & sports centred public space too for the area.

 

Coming together Connect to reclaim

Muthu Velyuthamji spoke next about how this coming together of already existing change-makers and movements could connect to existing markets. He spoke of ITC's attempt to cultivate and market Ashwagandha, an herb known by our tribal communities for many centuries, and of Dabur's Amla farm in Katni. He pointed out that we could reach such markets around the world with existing knowledge.

 

Riya: Civil Society Support needed to bring back nutritional diversity

Ms. Riya Simon spoke on behalf of Natural Farming Coalition. She spoke of the Odisha Millet Mission as its inspiration. OMM was able to promote millets in large way. It encouraged and scaled up millet production, the government purchased it creating a market, and then used it in PDS, school midday meals, etc., bringing changes to consumption patterns, and thereby created a wholesome and complete process chain and ecosystem. The NF coalition was trying to achieve the same thing in Natural Farming. Some of the initiatives are to encourage kitchen farming at various levels (home, anganwadi, etc.), farmer’s markets in various places including Mysore, efforts to bring back nutritional diversity that we had in the past, etc. She also said that many governments wanting to bring such changes but that they may need some help from the civic society for that.

 

Mr. Sridhar:Learning From Ventures & Invites Us Challenge Some Traditional Perspectives On Economy

Sridharji spoke of his organization that started in tourism, then progressed to honey creation and marketing, and then to natural indigo-dyed denims. He spoke of how they require the youngsters who train with them to start their own ventures. He spoke of catering to 7000 people over ten years with no hotel involvement in either accommodation or food, in their eco-tourism business. Based on his experiences, Sridharji invited us to challenge some traditional perspectives. He proposed:

a) A reconsideration of the relationship of scale and sustainability.

b) Whether we can go beyond the cost+margin view of pricing, and of charging a premium where the customers are ready and capable, so that we can have resources for a rainy day.

c)How decentralized movements have an advantage through their ability to customize their products vs a multinational who focuses on standardizing.

d) He also spoke of tantalizing opportunities to charge a premium for not doing anything/much to a product. Eg: unprocessed honey, white shirts, etc.

e) How information is a new addition to the traditional supply-demand paradigm and how AI and Big data can help in finding the correct market, and successful marketing.

f) How many individuals in the mainstream and in new technology fields wishes to make a difference and will be able allies if they get receptivity, a bit of open mind, and flexibility from us.

 

Mr. Anuj Jain: Globalising the Effort of Local

Mr. Anuj Jain ji from Nova Scotia, Canada spoke of his desire to meet and talk to each of the presenters so that he can showcase these efforts globally. He asked us to ponder what unique aspect can the Non violent economy bring to the table. He also spoke of creating a macro narrative from these micro initiatives.

 

Rajaji summarized the meet and said a real-life meeting will be hosted. He observed Srilankan change-makers are also keen to adapt and adopt what is happening here.

 

Biju bhai offered formal vote of thanks.

 

 

Report Prepared by Mr. Anish Abraham

 

Make Violence a History

Make Violence History

The Jai Jagat 2021-30

Following the yearlong Jai Jagat 2020 campaign that engaged many people across the globe into nonviolent action with respect to the four pillars (ending poverty, discrimination, climate crisis and violence), there was enough interest generated to continue for the 2020 decade.  We undertook an evaluation and SWOT analysis in five different regions and concluded on January 30^th, 2021 that another campaign with short-term actions and longer-term planning would fortify the local-global concerns that had been raised in the 2020 campaign. (See www.jaijagatinternational.org.)

 

As people expressed the need for an international campaign that could bring people together across the world, it was proposed to re-label the by-line of the Jai Jagat 2021-30 to Make Violence History.  Whether the focus was climate (violence to the earth) or poverty & discrimination (violence towards people) or wars and conflicts (violence between people), Make Violence History would usher in an array of nonviolent actions. These nonviolent actions could be in the form of group formation, economic activities, or opposition to state policies or programs.

The Jai Jagat is planning 12 days of action between September 21st to October 2nd as the 2021 contribution to Make Violence History. Different civil society organizations are planning events in many countries, which includes nonviolent marches, economic activities, climate action, training on nonviolence and so forth. Make Violence History in India for example, among the groups that started the Jai Jagat 2020, will take up the campaign issue of nonviolent economy, as the work in the Covid period has focused on restoring labour and land rights to the most marginalized, which needs to be continued. For other Make Violence History campaigns, these will be supported by regional committees and various working groups that are currently in formation and a listing of the conveners will be provided on the Jai Jagat website.

The Jai Jagat International Advisory Committee (JJ-IAC), is also planning to link different Jai Jagat (CSO) actors into dialogue with a groups of policy makers in an international forum in December, 2021. The goal of the Summit will be to present the different civil society campaigns of Make Violence History to address some of the advocacy issues specifically related to nonviolent economy.

There have been many discussions among the Jai Jagat supporters in regard to the relevance of the UN organizations and the SDGs; and overall, it is affirmed that these international organizations (excluding the financial institutions) are seen as critical for the reset of policy processes that are salutary to Make Violence History. As is well-known, the United Nations was set up to rebuild peaceful coexistence among all nation states after the Second World War, and this remains its core commitment to the international community, which was displayed last year at its 75^th anniversary celebrations.

Civil society organizations can continue to push for big ideas of change such as Make Violence History in global for a especially when these are built from local actions and people’s engagement. There is a healthy skepticism that change is often re-appropriated by the powerful interests. This boosts energy and action to pre-empt violence while making change. At the same time, when people find common cause across borders, this empowers greater local-to-global action. Make Violence History is both local and cross-border and gives a trajectory of global action over this decade.

 

 

A Note on Grassroots Politics by Rajagopal.P.V

A Note on Grassroots Politics

Ekta Parishad is known for building nonviolent social movement with a special focus on marginalized people at the bottom. By and large Ekta Parishad has kept itself aloof from participating in direct electoral politics. During the election members of the organization were given free space to decide which candidate should be elected according to who can serve the interest of the marginalized communities.

In the recent national committee meeting of Ekta Parishad, it was decided to make a planned intervention in the grassroot electoral politics. Except one or two states in India where the grassroot politics is also on party lines, in all other states the Panchayat elections are conducted on a nonparty basis.  In a three-tier system of governance, panchayat is the only place where elections are held without direct party involvement. Unless this level of politics is strengthened and purified Ekta Parishad doesn’t see possibilities to deliver justice to the marginalized communities. Unfortunately, the corrupt system at the top has infiltrated deep into the bottom. Electoral representatives at the bottom are being used by powerful lobbies to advance their agenda. Along with decentralization of power corruption is also decentralized and this process is eating into the roots of democracy.

Ekta Parishad has taken note of this reality and has decided to actively intervene at this level. This will mean identification of the right kind of candidate at the ward level, providing them information and training to understand their role as elected representative. It will also mean continued support after the election to take their responsibility seriously and also to focus on delivery of justice to the poor  and marginalized.  We believe that many young people who are part of Ekta Parishad struggle for the last many years can be candidates for panchayat election. Large number of elected representatives at the grassroots level can bring about  a transformation in the political culture of India. Ekta Parishad has decided to set up a special wing to design this process and also to set up necessary systems for training, follow up, etc. Experts who have worked on this agenda for many years like Mr. Pran in Uttar Pradesh, PRIYA in Delhi will be drawn into this process. As they have already developed training modules and other systems to deal with grassroot politics.

Ekta Parishad believes that along with grassroots economy we should also focus on grassroot politics. Ekta parishad is also focusing on grassroots fundraising and grassroot leadership. We believe that this new approach of Ekta Parishad will not only strengthen the social movement in India but will also strengthen the democratic process of India.

Rajagopal.P.V