Badanavalu sathyagraha..
It is about sustainable living, fair and dignified livelihoods, reviving our traditional arts and bettering the lives of artisans and farmers..
That was Badanavalu sathyagraha, planned at the famous
Gandhian (Khadi) Institute in Badanvad,
some 7kms from Nanjangud a town half hour from Mysore.
The great Gandhiji had visited Badanvad in the 30's and that history is
enough, I would think..
To this day there is a hand spinning centre that’s
functional and in those glorious days Badanvad and thagadoor spun so many yarn,
lives, livelihoods and value..
Now that is more or less a dead town, with very minimal
activity..
When Gandhiji visited this centre, it was a great functional
place with 1000s involved in
Like every other town of the famous cotton value chain of
yester years, it is dwindling in activities, and with the last of the
practitioners..
Oh man, when I visited this centre some 6 months back to try
and give more business for the hand spinners on behalf of Tula, it was a different world..so closed and
talking so much ‘typical’ bureaucracy!
And when I was interacting with the women (all old) who were
spinning, and happened to show all those
photos hanging on the top wall, and questioned them on who they were, the women
identified only Gandhi! They knew none
of the others! Vinobha, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Nehru, Patel, all were unknown
So a sustainable and meaningful live and livelihood also was
forgotten along with the colorful history..so not only minds, the buildings are
dilapidated..so Prasannaji and co are also up to reviving and restoring the
buildings and look and feel of the place as much as the sustainable and
dignified living.
Prasanna, a great Gandhian and popular writer & kannada
theatre artist, who founded Desi and Charaka brands that have spun so many
sustainable livelihoods in todays
context and been touching many lives sustainably, started this struggle- to take
the fight to the governments which are trying so hard to kill the handloom
sector.
The governments are trying to help the power loom lobby at the cost of
handloom sector.
As usual the paradigm of development sought after by the
Manmohans and Modis alike, is being questioned too. These are bunch of
sathyagrahis who question the very fundamentals of GDP and the neo- development
paradigm..these are socialites who believe in promoting alternate modes of
development and sustainable simple living in villages to ensure continuity of
traditional indigenous employment modes instead of measuring growth by
comparing GDP! also demanding dignity and fair compensation for those who struggle with more labour esp of hand..
The Badanavalu sathyagraha is to protect the livelihoods,
food, farms, forest thus bringing together all those organisations and people
working on these areas..
There were many youngsters, lots of farmers from all over
Karnataka..there were urbans and some foreigners too..
Many social activists like Medha patkar, Kavitha Kuruganti,
Belgaum Gopi, supported this as much as
stars of the karanataka film and litterateurs, theatre personalities and even
Bollywood..
Santosh Koulagi, Aneel hedge, Sumanas, ‘Nesara’Bala and many others were
active for weeks before the event..
There were padayatras promoting sustainable living, talking
of environment, ecology, farming, protecting livelihoods and also to save the
handloom sector. Many groups started off from various parts of Karnataka (from mysore, bagalkot, HDKote,
heggodu etc) few days before and interacted with and educated people all the
way..such was the response that so many 1000s assembled from these villages
that the padayatris touched..
They all had talks, discussions, street theatres all the
way..
It was very interesting to note more than 5000 were present
on the D day – 19th April at Badanvad..
There were so many farmer groups that had come to display
their seeds..the “amruth bhoomi” group from chamarajnagar has come in a
beautifully decorated bullock cart with seeds on display..Sahaja Samrudha had
displayed their seed diversity and even had good organic tasty food served made
from traditional varieties!
The attractions were many..
Very simple big structures –pandals, stalls, water and
eating points and lotsa people – most from near by villages..
The very striking thing was that there were many youngsters-
urban & rural!
Just a few volunteers and mostly people taking leads and cue
on themselves and doing very many things..
One could see even Prasannaji happily calmly walking around
and casually talking to many of us rather than being the ‘tensed organiser’..
There were simultaneous talks/ debates happening at 2 big
halls and there were the exhibition stalls too..
There was an organic farmer with a tractor load full of
water melon, selling them happily on a hot day to all these people who had
assembled..
Whether it is ‘sustainable’ or not, there were the rural India’s attraction-
pepsicolas and the ice sticks walas..
Sadly there also a local ‘shop keeper’ who thought selling
his plastic packaged biscuits and cokes was ‘sustainable’ until one of the
organizers saw him and shoo-ed him away:-) but that is the reality..Samanvaya
Ram once surveyed in some south TN
villages and found some 300 plastic (SKUs) packets on an average in small
village shops too (how true and sad)
There was a exhibition and sale of charaka products..
The Badanwad womens group were showcasing the hand spinning
the whole day..
Some looms were also set up to sho case hand weaving..
A bunch of students from Dheenabandhu school, enacted a
street play on “colas” “fair and lovely whitener” and “seed business/loss of
sovereignty”. they really freaked out..
The best part infact was the potter showing live his skills
with a big wheel..that attracted lots of people..
Then there was the “ Kadkolaa” mat that was on display. 3
weavers had set up a simple cool open loom on the road side where they wud
display the simple ways of weaving a mat..there was the plant (reed) from which
the mats were being woven..the aloe vera fibres were extracted live and spun
with “thakli” – the spindles used to spin yarn so easily and efficiently.. this
aloe fibre was used in the loom to weave the mat and also to tie the various
strands..this was such a big attraction..sadly these were the last 3 men who
will be weaving mats..and soon this will die:-(
It’s the case with many other weaving and spinning
communities too..
So are many arts..
So a movement has begun..the Badanvalu sathyahgraha is just the beginning..know more about
it..participate in it..initiate such gathering in ur localities/cities/state..
And let us take the sustainable living forward and let our
demands be heard by the politicos.
posted by Ananthoo @ 9:15 PM
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