Editorial

Rama Rajya

Democracy and Vedanta O nce, Swami Vivekananda told his American audience: ‘There is a chance of Vedanta becoming the religion of your country because of democracy.’ He then explained it thus: ‘You have a government, but the government is impersonal. Yours is not an autocratic government, and yet it is more powerful than any monarchy in the world. Nobody seems to understand that the real power, the real life, the real strength is in the unseen, the impersonal, the nobody. As a mere person separated from others, you are nothing, but as an impersonal unit of the nation that rules itself, you are tremendous. You are all one in the government — you are a tremendous power. … Each man is the power.’

This is also the message of Vedanta. It does not preach a God sitting in Heaven who plays with our lives. Instead, Vedanta teaches a democratic God; ‘the infinite principle of God embodied in every one of us.’ Exploring and discovering this innate Divinity is what we call spiritual journey. This spiritual discovery in our inner world becomes easy when our outside world has social and political democracy. This is Swamiji’s point.

Real men and women

‘But’, Swamiji cautions his audience, ‘it can become so only if …you become real men and women, not people with vague ideas and superstitions in your brains…’

Indeed, achieving freedom in the two dimensions of our life—in the inner body-mindego complex and in the external social life—is possible only when we learn to take responsibility for our actions. Responsibility necessarily involves a sound sense of values, a higher vision, and self-restraint. It calls for courage to face the truth and a steadfast determination to pursue the goal. When men and women become responsible in this sense, then they become real men and women. It is such people we need today in our country.

As we write this editorial, our democratic general elections are entering into the final phase. All through the elections, marked by nasty intolerance, every party swore that those in the opposing camps were most unfit to lead the country. If this mutual assessment is true, as it could be for they know each other best, then we probably have none fit enough to be our democratic leaders! Yet, by the time this issue reaches the readers, some of these same parties will be conducting the affairs of the government at the Centre and in some States.

In the face of wide-spread corruption, escapism, mass hysteria, narrow sectarianism, and a general lowering of standards seen in our society, should we surrender to despair and scepticism? Never. To do so would be an insult to Man, his higher nature, his divinity, and a disbelief in the universal moral law.

Faith in God is faith in man.

Swami Vivekananda desired India to strive for the evolution of a Vedantic civilization where politics, science, religion, literature, and everything else would lead man to higher and higher levels of self-expression. This he said was also India’s responsibility towards the world Civilisation.

Tyaga and Seva

How do we become real men and women and achieve true freedom within and foster real democracy in the world outside? Swamiji gave two tools of action to realise this: Tyaga and

Seva. As he puts it, ‘The national ideals of India are renunciation and service. Intensify her in those channels, and the rest will take care of itself.’

Is Swamiji asking the whole society to renounce the world with an ascetic spirit and remain engaged in the one-pointed pursuit of mukti? That would be an impossibility, a totally impractical idea.

Renunciation can be understood in two senses. It is to renounce or give up our ‘unripe’ ego, our lower self with its selfish desires and intemperate sense hankerings. It is also, more importantly, to give up our wrong perception of the world. Our rishis discovered the truth that the whole universe is one Consciousness, one Existence which we call God. It is a mistake to secularise the world and see it as separate from us. Seeing this separation is what we call Maya. The world is God, is our own true self.

The Isavasyopanishad tells us ‘All this – whatever moves on the earth—should be covered by the Lord. Protect your (Self ) through that detachment.’ It means to give up seeing the world as we have conjectured it to be through our partial experience, poor reasoning, and attachment to senses. Swami Vivekananda calls out: ‘Never approach any thing except as God; for if we do, we see evil, because we throw a veil of delusion over what we look at, and then we see evil. Get free from these illusions; be blessed. Freedom is to lose all illusions.’ He demands of us, ‘Put God behind everything — man, animal, food, work; make this a habit.’

The more we realise this spirit of renunciation, the more naturally will we move towards serving our fellow living beings and environment with utter selflessness and love.

Rama Rajya

When more and more people in our society engage in such renunciation and service, it will create what we call Rama Rajya.

Rama Rajya is not simply a state where all people worship Lord Rama, or build a big temple for Him.

It is a state where every citizen strives to realise inner and outer freedom. In this striving lies Dharma. When every citizen thus struggles to practise Dharma, then that society will have a raja established in Dharma.

How will such a raja be? The answer is Lord Rama. In his Raghuvamsa, Kalidasa gives a wonderful description of why we cherish and desire Rama Rajya: As Sri Rama was free from avarice, he was incorruptible and therefore his subjects were prosperous. As he protected them from all kinds of fears, they remained peacefully engaged in performing their dharmic duties. By standing up as a role model dharmic leader, he was like a father to his subjects, always guiding them on the right path. Finally, as he stood by them in their hour of grief and helped them to overcome all miseries, he was like a son to his subjects.

Unless a majority of our countrymen and women become dharmic, it is foolish to expect noble and great leaders at the helm of our national affairs. Yatha praja, tatha raja is the reality of our modern world. Until every household, every organisation answers to the call of Tyaga and Seva, we will have to witness many more such elections making a mockery of true democracy.

Seeds and Indian Ethos of Conservation, Sharing and Freedom

RAMASUBRAMANIAN

Recently, we have heard the case of a major multi-national corporate body suing a small farmer with 4 acres of land to the tune of 1.2 crores for using what it claimed as its own variety of Potato for making unhealthy food. As a country that has a very large number of small and marginal farmers who do farming with their families, India is continuously faced with the challenge of having to engage with economies, technologies, policies, practices and knowledge that is created from countries where farming is done by a very small population of farmers each owning very large tracks of land. It is important for India to revisit its ethos on food sovereignty to articulate a position that today in the global space is seen as not merely voicing a fresh approach but also more relevant in the context of the reality of climate change. This article tries to capture the groundswell of seed conservation movements in India and also the Indian ethos that is asserted in the process. The author has been associated with the Organic Farming movement in the State of Tamilnadu for over two decades and also coordinates one of the several farmers’ free exchange of seeds and biodiversity celebration festivals in Tamilnadu.

Mudhal thani viththeyo – Nammazhvaar addresses Lord Narayana, as ‘The first seed of the world.’ 1 Swami Vivekananda’s famous statement ‘Each soul is potentially divine’, is literally apt for seeds, because each seed is potentially a fullgrown plant or tree or potentially every seed can further nurture life-giving forces such as food, shelter, clothing, housing, etc. It is nature’s tiniest representative of the dormant potential in each living creature, and a continuous reminder of what can be achieved through a little care-giving. This potential is acknowledged and celebrated in our country as part of its tradition and ethos. Across the land, the Indian celebration calendar is dotted with the celebration of seeds. Farmers worship seeds before they are planted, and fresh produce is worshipped before they are consumed. These sentiments reflect a way of life in India.

Colonial disturbance

It is recorded that more than 3.5 million people starved to death in the Bengal famine of 1943. The renowned ecologist, Dr. Vandana Shiva states that more than twenty million were directly affected and this was due to the food grains appropriated forcefully from the peasants under a colonial system of rent collection. Exports of food grains continued despite the fact that people were going hungry. She cites the writer Kali Charan Ghosh that, ‘80,000 tonnes of food grain were exported from Bengal in 1943, just before the famine. India at that time was a

supply base for the British military. Huge exports were allowed to feed the people of other lands, while the shadow of famine was hourly lengthening in the Indian horizon.’ In response to this peasants movements were built around slogans such as, Jan debo tabu dhan debo na ‘We will give up lives but not our rice.’

All over India, the colonial disturbance was the struggle for rights of land and cultivation by peasants. But, there was a more fundamental encounter that happened as a subtext, this was the encounter of the ethics around production and sharing of food in India. The famous Gandhian historian Dharampal cites one instance to highlight the shift that happened in the way farming was done. Quoting a British archival document, he narrates about a particularly difficult year, when the colonial ruler found no farmer willing to pay tax. When the British officers who came to investigate asked the local farmers the reason for not paying tax, the farmers replied that as far as their memory went, they had never paid tax during the years when agriculture was difficult; on the other hand it was the responsibility of the raja to provide them with grains and additional support during such years. 2 In another of his lectures, Dharampal summarizes the Indian idea of food production and distribution stating that we can ‘imply that every person in this society enjoyed a certain dignity and that his social and economic needs were well provided for. Food and shelter seems to have been a natural right, given India’s fertility, etc. According to a historian of medieval India the only data which was available about the expenditure details of the rulers of Delhi referred to the free feeding of the people who required such a provision. 3

Annam bahu kurvita

The Indian view on food has always been production and sharing of food in plenty. The famous words of Taittreya Upanisad to produce and share food in plenty is echoed by the Tamil poet-saint Thiruvalluvar who states that the most virtuous of traditions devised by the elders is the one of producing diverse food in plenty and sharing the abundance with all living beings 4 . Tiruvalluvar again says, ‘If the farmer were not to do farming, even the wise sages who have relinquished everything will have to go behind him begging.’ 5

In the Mahabharata, Sri Krishna tells King Yudhishtira, ‘The world, both animate and inanimate, is sustained by food…The giver of food is the giver of life and indeed of everything else. Therefore, one who is desirous of his wellbeing in this world and beyond should make special endeavour to give food’. 6 Indeed, this growing and giving food in plenty was the practice among Indian farmers till the onset of the Colonial era.

‘Many 18 th century western observers have specially noted the variety of seeds available to the Indian peasant, the sophistication and simplicity of his tools, and the extreme care and labour he expended in tending to his fields and crops. According to recent historical findings, 41 different crops were cultivated annually in the localities of the province of Agra. The number of crops cultivated in other areas of northern India was equally large. For the south of India, Alexander Walker (he was in Malabar and Gujarat from 1780-1810) notes that in Malabar alone upward of fifty kinds of rice was cultivated. This variety of seeds and crops that the Indian peasant possessed and his ability to vary these according to the needs of the soil and the season, seems to set him apart from most other peasants or cultivators of the world whose knowledge was limited to far fewer crops.’ 7

Seeds, their diversity and food

Modern health care system agrees with the ancient wisdom that consumption of diverse forms of food does help build immunity and strength.

India as a fertile land of abundance had several ways to conserve the diversity of food. However, much of this altered with the changing times.

Globally seeds have been conserved and shared across regions; traditionally too seed exchanges among farmers has been going on for centuries. This has resulted in widespread usage of certain crops even while there are certain crops which are unique and limited to certain parts of the world. One of the key findings of modern scientific understanding of seeds is that the more diverse varieties available in a given species, the better are its chances for survival in diverse and adverse conditions.

India is the home of rice varieties and it has been estimated that perhaps even as late as the beginning of the 20 th century, India grew perhaps about 2,00,000 varieties of traditional rice. 8 The diversity of rice in India was so high that there seems to have been rice for various occasions and various types of soil and water conditions. For instance, mapillai samba, a popular variety of rice was considered prestigious and it was cooked especially for the bridegroom and his family during wedding festivities! There are varieties that are grown in specific regions that lend a flavour, like the basmati rice variety that is grown in the IndoGangetic plain. There are of course regional variations, the jeeraga samba, variety grown in several southern Indian parts is a short rice variety that has a similar flavour. The kar varieties of red rice such as the kullakar, and poongar are red rice varieties that are known as ideally suited for preparation of idlis in southern India. The famous mannapaarai murukku, a delicacy snack in Tamilnadu supposedly derives its taste from the variety of rice that is grown in this particular part of the country. Apart from the regional variations, there are also variations of rice that are good for different types of people and health conditions. The variety karunguruvi, is good for lactating mothers and there are other varieties which are beneficial for the elderly and

the infants. There are wild varieties of rice that are used in traditional medicine; the variety kaala jeera is even today used widely as a medicinal variety of rice. Apart from these specialities, there are also varieties that are suitable for alkaline soil, varieties that can be grown in saline conditions, rice that can be grown in flooded condition, and rice that is grown only rainfed, and also in completely dry conditions. Such a vast variation meant that farmers could grow food in spite of any kind of climate-change challenges. Drought, floods and other natural calamities didn’t impact the farmers. In fact, in the post-tsunami period in Tamilnadu, it was noted that there were several locally conserved seeds that were planted by farmers in the saline-water inundated fields; even under those situations the farmers were able to have a good crop. 9 So, through conservation methods, the farmers had climatechange resilience, contributed to local tradition and health of the consumers as well, and by providing variety also contributed towards the overall wellbeing of the society. In the last 150 years much of this changed.

One of the significant impacts of modernity has been the propagation of the idea that man is above the animal species, and all plants and animals are to be ‘conquered’ and contained / manipulated / executed by humans. This idea stems primarily from the western world and is contrary to the spirit and thought of the indigenous communities in the East as well as West. With the advent of modern science and its industry, scientists and policy makers took a keen interest in improving farming through selecting, multiplying and enhancing quality of seeds, preserving livestock, understanding and working with soils.

This resulted in development of several varieties of seeds known as ‘high yielding varieties’—varieties of a particular crop that have a better yielding capacity. However, there were flip sides to this. In India, it has been well

documented 10 that the advent of high yielding varieties created paddy of short straw varieties that didn’t leave any hay for the cattle. This impacted the food for the livestock, and inadequate food for the livestock shot up the cost of maintaining livestock. This in turn meant advent of machinery to perform the task of livestock at less cost and more speed. But, the advent of machinery such as tractor instead of livestock meant that there was less manure for the field. This necessitated the fertilizing of the fields with chemicals which again meant more water was required for the fields to digest the chemical inputs. This contaminated water and more chemical infestation also deprived the soil of its health and in turn impacted the health of the plant making it prone to attack by many pests. Pest management thus became a major preoccupation because the plants couldn’t fight by themselves. This created chemical pest killers. Such pest ‘killers’ not only killed unwanton pests, but also wiped out pests that were beneficial to the soil and plant. With the loss of beneficial pests, their functions had to be performed by other chemicals or machinery. These are the unspoken costs of modernistion of agriculture. The entire agricultural economy thus shifts from benefitting the soil, the farmer and the consumer, to the chain of chemical and machinery supply. The vicious cycle that results from the advent of one high yielding variety of seeds into a significant change in the economy of agriculture over a couple of decades is there for all to see today.

Farmer’s conservation of seeds

A traditional farmer performs several tasks that are specialized today. He is able to read the weather, to conserve the seeds, to judge the health of the soil in his farm, to take care of the cattle, to identify pests of several kinds and know how to address them, to know the various herbs that can be utilized in addressing the different pest management, to know the various stages of plant growth and its needs, to harvest, post-harvest process and store the grains, and eventually to be able to recommend the way in which food has to be consumed!! The multiple domains of knowledge that a traditional farmer has is mind boggling.

The conservation, propagation, recovery, exchanging and sharing of seeds has been traditionally a part of the farmer’s work. This process has taken the shape of local festivals. In Tamilnadu for instance, the molappari festival is celebrated during the Tamil month of aadi, when the agricultural season begins. During this festival, the farmers sow their seeds in smaller pots and allow them to germinate in isolation. After the seeds have germinated and grown for a week, the seeds are taken in procession and placed before the local deity as an offering. The best of the saplings are noted and the seeds of that particular farmer are shared with others with the understanding that in that particular year those seeds have a better yielding potential. With many variations such festivals are held in various parts of our country. These festivals invariably conclude with a prayer for good rains and a bountiful harvest. Farming practices have their own processes of prayer. One of the key factors to note is that much of the seed conservation work has always been carried out by women farmers.

Seeds are conserved and shared by the farmers because it is the ultimate freedom of choice of what to grow in a given season and also what to consume. ‘The seed, for the farmer, is not the source of future plants and food; it is the storage place of culture and history. Seed is the first link in the food chain. Seed is the ultimate symbol of food security.

‘Free exchange of seed among farmers has been the basis of maintaining biodiversity as well as food security. The exchange is based on cooperation and reciprocity. A farmer who

wants to exchange seed generally gives an equal quantity of seed from his field in return for the seed he gets.

‘Free exchange among the farmers goes beyond mere exchange of seeds, it involves exchanges of ideas and knowledge, of culture and heritage. It is an accumulation of tradition, of knowledge of how to work the seed. Farmers learn about the plants they want to grow in the future by watching them grow in other farmers’ fields.’ 11

Several initiatives across the country

Beej Bachao Aandolan, a national network of organizations started to conserve seeds through on-field farmer conservation methods. Today it conserves 800 varieties of rice, 23 varieties of traditional cotton, 80 varieties of traditional maize and more than 50 varieties of vegetables 12 .

That the traditional role of seed saving is eagerly welcomed by farmers can be easily seen by the growth of the seed varieties that are saved, as well as the number of farmers adapting to traditional seeds even through small initiatives. The ‘Save our Rice’ campaign to save indigenous seed varieties started with 16 varieties and 400 farmers in 2005. In less than 8 years, it grew to more than 60 varieties being conserved in the farms of over 3000 farmers! 13 Another farmer producer company today is selling certified indigenous seeds through their own venture 14 . Other similar efforts are reported individually and collectively from across the country in recent times. Rahibai Soma Popere of Kombhalne village in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra

is highly knowledgeable about agrobiodiversity, conservation of landraces, innovative techniques in paddy cultivation and the like. When she speaks in her Mahadeo Koli tribal dialect, even experts listen intently. The 54-year-old farmer has the distinction of conserving and multiplying 48 indigenous landraces of 17 different crops including paddy, hyacinth bean, millets, pulses and oil seeds. 15 Several such initiatives have sprung up in the past few decades. Vanastree in the Malanad region for instance states that their efforts to conserve is to ensure that, ‘the role of women farmers and gardeners is seen as integral to the social, cultural and ecological fabric of the unique Malnad region.’ 16 People like Dr. Vandana Shiva are seen as not merely articulating the seed saver’s ideas in India, but, for the entire world. Her organization Navadanya for instance has helped set up 122 community seed banks across the country, trained over 9,00,000 farmers in seed sovereignty, food sovereignty and sustainable agriculture over the past two decades, and helped setup the largest direct marketing, fair trade organic network in the country. Navadanya has also set up a learning center, Bija Vidyapeeth (School of the Seed / Earth University) on its biodiversity conservation and organic farm in Doon Valley, Uttarakhand, North India. 17 ‘There was never a business model in the multiplication of seeds. If the Seed Keeper shared just a seed with a farmer, that farmer could make any number of seeds from it, and grow the same vegetable season after season. In effect, every farmer was a Seed

Keeper who preserved seeds for posterity.’ says another seed conserver. 18

One of the important factors often not acknowledged adequately is the role of women in agriculture. Women were traditionally the seed savers in the farming community. In the Green Revolution model of agriculture, women lose control over agricultural production. Dr. Vandana Shiva calls this displacement of w o m e n’ s t r a d i t i o n a l k n o w l e d g e a ‘masculinization of agriculture,’ in which agriculture is transformed from a feminine and nurturing activity, to a masculine activity that uses technology and violence to control nature. 19

Seeds, diversity, farmer’s freedom and culture

The arrival of the monsoon is the beginning of the agriculture season in India. The farmer prepares the soil for the arrival of the first rains and then starts sowing—a sacred act for him, and an act of deep cultural significance. When he plants a seed free of tax or huge payments, he gets to assert not just his right over

seeds, their diversity and food system overall, but, also a deep cultural heritage that has been passed on to him from time immemorial.

Do participate in any seeds and biodiversity festival in your area this monsoon season and lend your support to the farmers in asserting this cultural heritage.

You are welcome to join the author in the Seed Festival at Auroville on 27 th of July 2019. Reach him at chief@samanvaya.com

1) Thiruvaimozhi, 9 th stanza 2) Author’s conversation with late Sri Dharampal 3) Dharampal, Pune Lectures, Collected Works of

Dharampal. Other India Books 4) Thirukkural, paguthundu palluyir ombudhal melor vaguthavatrul ellaam thalai 5) Thirukkural, …vittem enbarkkum nilay 6) Quoted & explored further in Annam Bahu Kurvita, by Dr. M.D.Srinivas and Jitendra Bajaj, Centre for

Policy Studies 7) Lectures of Sri. Dharampal, Agriculture and its recovery in India 8) Dr. Richaria, quoted by CIKS, Dr. Vandana Shiva, etc. 9) The author's study on the post-tsunami traditional seeds usage has been published by organic farmer’s movement in Tamilnadu. Similar studies have been done by the M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation. 10) Violence of Green Revolution. Vandana Shiva et al 11)Vandana Shiva, ‘Stolen Harvest’ 12)https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/

Seed-savers-network-formed-to-fightintellectual-property-rights-by-corporations/ articleshow/31592846.cms 13)Numbers given are only for Tamilnadu according to their website - http://thanal.co.in/article/view/ traditional-paddy-seeds-are-our-heritage-and-ourfuture-85994595 14)https://www.rural21.com/english/news/detail/ article/the-seed-savers-from-tamil-nadu-00001828/ 15)https://www.villagesquare.in/2017/08/25/ maharashtras-tribal-farmers-revive-traditionalcrops/ 16)http://vanastree.org/ 17)http://www.navdanya.org/site/ 18)https://www.thebetterindia.com/129463/seedkeeper-preserve-ancient-seeds-home-garden/ 19)https://ourseedsourselves.wordpress. com/2013/11/20/all-seed-savers-are-women/ References