Silent revolution
Pandurang Hegde argues that going
against the grain doesn't
require many millions of dollars - just the work of a lifetime.
The seeds of Chipko – popularly known
as the ‘tree huggers’ – were sown in the early
1980s in northern India and the forests of the Himalayas. For three
years Sunderlal Bahuguna and other activists, with the support
of the village people, undertook a 4,800-kilometre walk, or Padyatra,
from Kashmir to Kohima on the border with Burma, spreading their
message.
In 2005 a similar but smaller Padyatra was
organized on the banks of the Sharvaty River in the Western Ghats,
southern India. The
reasons for this stemmed from the decision by the British Government’s
Department for International Development (DfID) to give $40 million
official aid to conserve the tropical forests of Karnataka.
The Western Ghats Forestry Project caused
controversy from the start. It handed more power to the state-controlled
forest department,
and was seen as ‘anti-people’. A campaign in India
and Britain led to the concept of ‘participation’.
Oxfam UK and some local NGOs got involved in running a parallel
project, lending legitimacy to the whole process.
The result was the enhanced commercialization
of forests in monoculture plantations, destroying the biodiversity
of the tropical forest.
The project denied forest access to indigenous communities and
in several cases displaced those who were growing food crops. Oxfam
and the other NGOs proved to be more concerned with the agenda
of DfID than with questioning the basic assumptions behind the
project. It was all too reminiscent of the colonial mindset.
At this point the Chipko-Appiko (‘Appiko’ is a Kannada
word for ‘hug the trees’) Movement took up the campaign,
organizing people who were adversely affected. It led the struggle
to expose the claims of DfID in the local media. But the NGOs refused
to join, as this would have threatened their financial security.
Though the staff were sympathetic, as an institution Oxfam’s
hands were tied. It kept silent.
The solidarity of few groups in Britain
(Corner House, Survival International) brought pressure on DfID
to recognize the reality
on the ground. Surprisingly, it conducted an independent study
that confirmed that elements of the project were indeed anti-people
and anti-ecology.
Then the Japanese stepped in with much larger
funding. The local state bureaucracy made exactly the same mistakes.
Every effort
to deal with the Japan Bank for International Co-operation (JBIC)
yielded few results. Criticisms by Chipko-Appiko had very little
effect. The Bank is not interested in responding to on-the-ground
realities. There is more money for NGOs, but their work is like
a cog in the machine, with a narrow perspective and without the
courage to address the larger adverse impacts.
The trend of co-opting NGOs and scuttling
dissent has become the norm throughout developing countries, even
if there are exceptions.
To make campaigns effective it is important to link grassroots
work with social movements. International NGOs and campaign groups
must be willing to support such grassroots campaigns and work in
solidarity with them.
The Chipko-Appiko Movement is a living example
of this approach. It works with very little money, all raised from
its supporters
and local people.
Sudesha Behen, the hill women of the Himalayas,
say: ‘It
is the contribution of each household, a fistful of grain, that
supports Chipko actions.’ A fistful of grain might seem trivial – hardly
an answer to the millions spent by international agencies to ‘uplift’ the
poor. But these Chipko women have brought greenery back to the
barren hills of the Himalayas. A silent revolution has been funded
locally by women in the villages. They have regenerated biodiversity
across thousands of hectares of forest. The silent work of the
village women is the product of a social movement with its base
among common people.
Chipko is a living example of Gandhi’s
legacy of non-violent struggle and volunteer work. Its spread across
India indicates
a strong current of grassroots groups following a different path
from the NGOs.
The people are the sponsors, swimming against
the tide. They commit themselves to a lifetime’s work with social movements, sacrificing
the lure of consumer culture. They are steering a different path
that is difficult, but more satisfying. The basic question is:
will the legacy of Gandhi survive the test of globalization? •
Pandurang Hegde is an activist with Chipko-Appiko and has three
decades of experience with the NGO sector in India. appiko@sancharnet.in
|
