Pondering non-violent development in India*
by Joanna Levitt

The eastern Indian state of Orissa is often dismissed as an impoverished backwater of the country, notable only for its recently-discovered mineral wealth of coal, iron ore and bauxite. The Orissa I encountered, however, was a place of extraordinary cultural and biological diversity, of visionary philosopher-activists, and—far from a backwater—home to movements and currents that seem to form an important epicenter of the global struggle to envision and fight for alternative models of development and human life on earth.

Last Monday I flew to Bhubaneshwar, the capital of Orissa, where I met up with my colleague Madhu, and her crew of fellow human rights advocates and activists (I should say "sister advocates and activists" as once again I was with a crew of all women!) From Bhubaneshwar, we traveled by van to the village of Dhinkia to spend the night. Dhinkia is one of the many farming communities fighting to stop the massive open-pit iron ore mine and steel processing plant proposed by the Korean company POSCO. The project is a particularly striking case of the kind of aggressive industrial, private-sector-led development in India that is taking place largely on prime agricultural lands. Farmers and farmlands are displaced and destroyed to make way for industrial parks and chemical plants, which are established as "Special Economic Zones"--the controversial new system here by which foreign companies can operate in virtually tax-free enclaves, outside of many labor and environmental laws. It's quite stark.

Madhu commented at one point with exasperation, "When will people wake up?", as we looked out over the vast rice fields surrounding Dhinkia village. The entire expanse of lushly green rice fields, dotted with palm trees and graceful white egrets, is slated for destruction, to make way for the Posco steel processing plant. And all while more headlines are appearing each day about the global food crisis. "At what point will everyone open their eyes and realize that this 'development' is destroying the basis of all of our survival?"

This past week in Orissa was indeed an awakening for me, in many ways.

We joined with the people of Dhinkia and thousands of villagers from the region for an incredible march against POSCO and in defense of their lands and livelihoods. Walking along with the marchers, ahead and behind me thousands of women and men from the villages, marching peacefully down the raised narrow dirt road that traverses their rice fields, marching towards the rally point, I looked over my shoulder and the line of people stretched back to the horizon as far as I could see. Bright saris. Blue sky. A sea of rice fields all around. One of the more powerful days of my life.

The next day, I traveled to the town of Rayagada, in the mountainous interior of Orissa. High in the mountains above Rayagada, I visited the adivasi community of Kuchiepadar, which has been leading a nationally-renowned struggle against an open-pit bauxite mine on their ancestral lands. Interestingly, Kucheipadar--like Sarayaku, my adopted community in the Ecuadorian Amazon--has been the only community left standing, as all around them fell. I seem to have a soft spot for such places. A very moving interview with a young community leader and elder woman leader there. "They want to take from us something that is worth more than gold--our land," said Ambai, the elder woman. "And in return they offer us things worth far less than silver. We know that our land is our life, it is our future. We act together--always together--to defend our lives on this land."

Kuchiepadar and their struggle will be featured in the People's Guide as a case study. The folks I met in Rayagada who have been supporting the struggle are very interested to use the guide to do trainings with surrounding communities who are now facing the life-threatening impacts of displacement, and who are struggling to find ways to hold the mining company accountable to its promises of compensation and rehabilitation.

Finally, during my evening in Rayagada after visiting Kuchiepadar, I had the immense privilege of having tea and a long conversation with Professor B.P. Rath, a Ghandian scholar, and former professor of English literature at the local university, who has amassed a personal library in his humble home in this small interior town of Orissa, that felt like something out of another time. I left our talk with many new thoughts. Particularly about non-violence. And about the need to bring back to life and full-force this incredible movement and tradition brought into being by Gandhi, and his greatest disciple, Martin Luther King. On this weekend, which marks the 40th anniversary of MLK's assassination (I know this weekend is the anniversary because my younger sister is at a conference in Memphis, Tennessee that is being held in honor of this date--a conference called The Dream Reborn. She sent me an email from there that moved me to tears), I wonder, could we build a movement for non-violent development? Non-violent to the environment, to the people who live at the source, to those who work along its assembly lines and construction sites? Like achieving independence, or gaining civil rights, it will require a transformation and strength of spirit, a joyful willingness to make sacrifices for something far beyond ourselves, a different way of living, a sea-change in our societies the likes of which I do not think we have seen since Gandhi and MLK. Since speaking with Professor Rath, I have been pondering what it might look like for such a movement to be midwived into being...

But as I sit here this afternoon in a loud internet cafe in Bangalore, with wealthy teenage kids yelling in designer clothes as they play shockingly violent video games, suddenly it seems hopelessly naive to even think such a transformation could be possible. Well, who knows. I suppose history and humanity constantly surprise us and offer up paradoxes, so I will not presume to think it impossible.

*Joanna wrote this piece during her visit in Orissa in April 2008