Earth
Democracy Thrives In Nandigram
By Vandana Shiva
16 May, 2007
Zmag
Nandigram
a little known corner of Bengal, near the mouth of the Ganges river
suddenly entered the nations consciousness in early 2007.
The fertile land of Nandigram
had been identified as a Special Economic Zone (Zone) for a chemical
hub to be run by the Salim Group. The Salim group is named after its
founder Liem Sior Liong, alias Sordono Salim. In 1965, when Suharto
overthrew Saekarno, Salim emerged as a crony who helped build Suharto's
$16 billion assets. In the 1980's and 1990's during Indonesia's oil
boom, Salim set up the Bank of Central Asia. He set up noodle, flour
and bread businesses. He set up Indomobil Sukses Interantional to make
cars, Indo cement Tunggal Prakasa to make cement. Altogether he held
500 companies in Indonesia. This is the group that was trying to grab
the land of farmers in Nandigram.
Nandigram was chosen because
it is next to Haldia, a major port. SEZ's are tax free zones, where
no law of the land applies - no environmental law, no labour law, no
Panchayati Raj law for local governance. SEZ's were created in 2006
through the SEZ Act of 2005, which allowed the government to appropriate
farmers land and hand it over to corporations.
But the small and landless
peasants of Nandigram stood up in revolt. They formed the Bhoomi Uched
Pratirodh Samiti (the Movement against land grab) and refused to give
up their land. In January, 2007 the first violence against the movement
took place. On March 14th, 17 people were killed. On 29th April, another
five lost their lives.
I was in Nandigram on 28th
and 29th of April to pay homage to the martyr's of Nandigram and to
work with the farmers to give them Navdanya seeds for setting up seed
banks and starting organic farming. The farmers of Nandigram had succeeded
in driving out Salim's chemical hub. I felt it was appropriate that
we work together to make Nandigram a chemical free organic zone and
the local communities were willing. All day we sat together and made
plans while shootouts and bombing was taking place a few miles away.
And during my visit to Nandigram I witnessed the practise of Earth Democracy
in its most sophisticated form.
Nandigram's Living
Economy
Nandigram is rich in soil,
water and biodiversity, the real capital of communities. Each village
has its ponds, making for water sovereignty. Each farm is a multi functional
production unit, producing "paan", coconut, rice, bananas,
papaya, drumstick and the richest diversity of vegetables I have seen
or tasted. In fact, during our meeting, the village square blossomed
into a farmers market - with farmers selling four kinds of potatoes,
eight kinds of bananas, gur (sugar) made from date palm and Palmyra
palm.
Farmers markets like the
one in Nandigram need no oil, no Walmart, no Reliance, no middlemen.
Farmers are traders, sellers and the buyers. The market is self organised.
The community organizes itself for trade. There is no Government license
raj, no corporate control. This is the real free market, the real economic
democracy.
The rich biodiversity of
Nandigram supports a rich productivity. In conventional measurement,
based on monocultures, industrial agriculture is presented as being
more productive because inputs are not counted, nor is the destruction
of biodiverse outputs and the soil, water and air. In a biodiversity
assessment, the biodiversity dense small farms of Nandigram are much
more productive than the most chemical and energy intensive industrial
farms.
The lunch the community cooked
for us was the most delicious food we have eaten - greens from the fields,
dum-aloo made from indigenous potatoes, brinjal that melted in the mouth
- and of course for the fish eaters the inevitable fish curry of Bengali
cuisine. All other meals we had in Calcutta or on the way to Nandigram
in fancy restaurants were costly but inedible.
Nandigram has a food richness
that big cities have lost. These are not impoverished, destitute communities
but proud and self-reliant communities. In fact their self reliance
was the ground of their resistance.
Nandigram is a post oil economy.
Cycles, and cycle rickshaws are the main mode of transport. That is
why when the Government unleashed violence against the people of Nandigram,
they dug up the roads so no police or Government vehicle could enter.
Their freedom from oil allowed them to defend their land freedom. Their
living economy allwed them to have a living democracy. This is the practice
of living economy, of Gandhi's "Swadesh".
Living Democracy
The living democracy in Nandigram
allowed the communities to resist. Many farmers used to be members of
CPM but in their resistance to land they transcended party lives. The
Land Sovereignty Movement in Nandgram is totally self organised. There
has been an attempt to present the land conflict a party conflict.
However, it is a conflict
between global capital and local peasants, and the peasants have got
organised because defending land is not a new issue in Nandigram. Peasants
of the region participated in the revolt against East Inida Company
in 1857. Nandigram is a celebration of 150 years of India's first movement
of independence from corporate rule with a new movement for freedom
from corporate control. Nandigram was also the site of the Tebhaga Movement
for Land Rights after the Great Bengal Famine. One can only enter Nandigram
as a guest of the community - with their consent and their clearance.
There is a high level of self-organisation, with women and children,
old and young all involved in keeping watch for unwanted outsiders.
Real democracy and living democracy, Gandhi's "Swaraj", is
the capacity of self-organise.
Living Culture
The real strength of the
people of Nandigram is their living culture - an agrarian culture, the
culture of the land. This culture is common to the Hindus and the Muslims.
Nandigram is strong because these community has not been divided by
communal forces and the forces of religious fundamentalism. Hindus and
Muslims practise their diverse faiths, but are part of one community.
Even in the struggle against the SEZ and Salim, they have fought as
one. Their identity with the land, their earth identity binds them together.
I have come away from Nandigram
humbled and inspired. These are the elements of Earth Democracy we need
to defend and protect from the violence and greed of corporate globalisation.
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