The Lamp of Hope Amidst Identity and Eco Destruction Subhi Dhupar (India

The Lamp of Hope Amidst Identity and Eco Destruction

Subhi Dhupar Editor’s note: As a conscious peacebuilder supporting grassroots interfaith leaders through her work in two international peacebuilding organizations, Subhi offers reflections on how the ongoing destruction of Indigenous identity and our ecosystems have called her to environmental activism and challenges us to do the same.

“Tulasi Gowda, a 72-year-old tribal woman from Karnataka, was conferred the Padma Shri award, India’s fourth-highest civilian award from President Ram Nath Kovind, in New Delhi, on Monday (November 8th 2021). This award was a recognition for her contribution to the protection of the environment.” In the days to come, the paparazzi celebrated the recognition of a tribal woman by swamping the social media in awe with pictures of an old barefoot woman adorned with several beaded necklaces around her neck and a half-sari loosely draped around her body. India celebrated a lady now known as the Encyclopaedia of Forest .

However, little did the celebration focus on the lesserknown truths and deep-rooted identity conflicts of the disappearing Halakki Vokkaliga community of Tulasi Gowda. Halakki Vokkaliga is the indigenous tribe of Karnataka that is struggling to protect its culture from environmental degradation caused by industrialisation and globalisation. This orchestrated community largely known for its primitiveness ,embodies the shoots and roots of their identity conflict in the perils of modernisation and the climatic crisis respectively. Like many around the world , the community is a living example of bereavement, deprivation and displacement emerging from the triple planetary crisis.

The shoots of this identity conflict are an invisible yet pertinent reflection of the ideology of our colonial masters before 1947. Our postcolonial ideological inheritance of ‘saving the other’ and ‘civilising the backward’ continues to inflict the Halakki Vokkaliga tribe with a ‘painstakingly long battle to be included in the Scheduled Tribe list in India’. Little does the rich matrilineal culture, knowledge of natural medicines, strong folk culture and traditional art form acknowledge the indigenous community as the custodians of forests within the ‘mainstream’ culture. The shoots of the conflict are hence enmeshed and stratified in the politics of majoritarianism, modernisation, advertisements and postcolonialism.

The roots of this identity conflict are far less visible. The roots that highlight the real story of climatic distress , and the changes in the land-use patterns, that are making them a victim of deforestation, modernisation of agricultural land, land grab, industrialisation and controversial forest laws in India. When the British government banned their traditional style of Kumbri agriculture, the tribe migrated to work for landlords, and around two decades later, the corporate greed drove them out of their forested homes , to settle near the sea. The ban on game hunting has caused the tribe to change their dietary choices and patterns of survival. The roots of the conflict, hence, remain deeply embedded and stratified in the politics of industrialisation, greed, power, climate change and environmental protection.

The limited availability of data and knowledge on the plight of such ‘community voices’ affected by climate change, unfortunately, contribute to building a selective narrative. A narrative that paparazzis capitalize on in the name of recognition, making selective lone ‘protectors’ or ‘survivors’ like Tulasi, as the heroes of the modern world. The slow yet known death of several such cultural and indigenous identities by the sword of ultra-globalisation, especially during the pandemic, is a gentle reminder of the continuum and stratified feature of the present-day conflicts we co-exist with and the solutions that urge us to rethink our part.

The mainstream top-down approach adopted round the world by governments, forest officials and even not for profits-inspired by the western model- suggest using a protected area model for conserving nature from the ‘intruders’ or ‘uncivilised tribals.’ The protected area model sets aside land ‘for nature,’ however, by giving mother nature its own land back, it uproots the natural custodians of nature, changes their consumption patterns, deprives them of their livelihood, divides cultures in the name of belief systems and creates new jobs for people that only mean business in the name of ‘protecting an area.’ The solution becomes an endemic cycle of problems that require constant business driven solutions.

Unfortunately, little does the ‘solution’ address the roots and shoots of the problem-identity crisis & environmental crisis- by offering a justice and human rights-based approach. Addressing the problem ‘as it is in their context.’ An approach that embraces togetherness without dividing people, that respects the natural way of living without creating structures for ‘its protection’ and that respects the natural order that mother nature has defined for humans.

An approach that reduces harm and strengthens the rights-based approach by building back nature to address deep-rooted issues of identity and survival as it is. COVID19 is an exemplary self-regenerating strategy of the environment, that has reflected the reaction and action of our wrong doings to mother nature. It is time we choose our ways pragmatically and hear to the yearnings of dying cultures that weren’t the recipients of recognition like Tulasi but continue to burn the lamp of hope. ²

Subhi Dhupar is a peace educator and trainer with over four years of experience promoting interfaith consensus and social inclusion among people of diverse cultures at local and international levels. She currently works at the United Nations Environmental Program in India. She worked as the Regional Coordinator for URI, supporting and mentoring grassroots groups in North India and Kabul, Afghanistan. Subhi models bridge-building and an intergenerational approach as critical to effectiveness and sustenance for grassroots groups. Subhi’s work has taken her to many conflict and post-conflict countries, where she engaged with youth organizations, universities, and public policy makers from around the world. Subhi has studied at Lady Shri Ram College and at South Asian University. She holds a Master’s degree in international relations.