Future from the past: Navdanya's alternative imagination

I ended my last blogpost with a question whether the current environmental movements show us alternative path to the future. In this regard, here I discuss about an organization called Navdanya which has a radically different imagination for the future of agro-food system. It is a program of Vandana Shiva's participatory research initiative Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology (RFSTE) in the foothills of the Himalaya. For those who are closely following global politics of seed and agro-ecology, Shiva's name should be enough to get a sense of principles of the organization. My personal acquaintance with Shiva's writing goes back to early 2000s when I was developing my interest on environmental justice issues in South Asia. Her powerful writings and passionate engagements in environmental politics, particularly on green revolution, eco-feminism, seed politics and bio-piracy were keys to understand political-economy of natural resource in the global south. As we talk about alternative imagination for the future, Navdanya's work offers a way forward that is locally instituted and indigenous knowledge-based agro-ecological system.

Right after the Chipko movement, Navdanya originates in the mid 1980s when there was growing political and ecological violence in India, e.g. Punjab riots and Bhopal disaster. Bhopal disaster was itself an ecocide whereas Shiva finds roots of Punjab's Shikh nationalism to the green revolution, which was creating winners and losers and breeding discontents among Shikhs (Shiva, 1992, Violence of Green Revoluton). Navdanya emerged as a result of non-violent resistance to the corporate control of agro-economy. It has now become a network of seed keepers and organic producers across India. It has established several seed banks in the country, trained farmers and promoted direct marketing of their produce. It has stressed on alternative science of socio-ecological system.

Navdanya has focused its work on five areas: (1) Earth democracy that includes seed sovereignty, food sovereignty, water sovereignty and land sovereignty; (2) climate change and its impacts on biodiversity and agriculture in the Himalaya; (3) women for diversity (movement and grandmothers' university); (4) organic movement, a call for a shift from suicidal economy to living economy, that includes organic production, organic certification, fair trade and organic products; (5) Bija Vidhyapeeth, school of seeds or Earth university, a learning center in Uttarakhand, India.

Navdanya has furthered its activities in terms of campaigns, events, publications, learning centers and organic farming practices. It has already organized several campaigns such as soil not oil, save a seed, start an organic garden, GMO free, biopiracy, bija-satyagraha (seed as a force of truth), jaiv panchayat (grassroot democracy, of all life, in everyday life), right to food and seed sovereignty. All of these activities in the leadership of Vandana Shiva and her national and international network have made the organization effective at the national and global level. She has become a globally renowned environmental activist to fight against corporate control of biodiversity. Therefore leadership, network, activities and most importantly its principles are keys to identify the organization.

Navdanya's name itself hints its principles. Navdanya literally means nine seeds (dhanya= seeds) and "nine gifts" (dana= donation / gift) and therefore symbolizes seeds as ultimate gift of life for continuity and heritage embedded in biological and cultural diversity. Navdanya imagines sustainability in the ecological system that develops from local knowledge and practice and aims at protecting agro-biodiversity, local farmers, and their framing system. It challenges existing knowledge and political system and strongly counters the current trend of corporatisation and privatization of the food and agro-system. The organization gives importance to the women's leading role to move toward sustainability. It embraces several Gandhian notions like non-violent resistance of satyagraha (force of truth), swaraj (sovereignty) and traditional knowledge and practice based economy.