Asia Pacific Research

Dheera Ram Kapaya was raised in such a poor family that even when he could not join school himself, he used to carry another boy’s heavy school bag for five km just to get a scoop of daliya (porridge). Belatedly when he could start his school, he had to leave after class five and join other adolescent workers. However as soon as he got some opportunities, he joined community efforts for forest protection, adult literacy and other constructive work. In the course his hidden talents for writing also emerged and he became known for the songs and street play scripts he wrote for forest protection, for preventing child marriages and for taking forward other social reforms.

Bhurki Bai could never go to school and after an early marriage being imposed on her, she was the mother to four children at the age of 19. Then an accident disabled her husband for life. It was in the middle of such seemingly unsurmountable difficulties that Bhurki somehow clutched at the few opportunities that had suddenly appeared in her remote village in the form of a self-help group. At times carrying her youngest child to meetings, she emerged in a leadership role in the village, first mobilizing women for repairing an irrigation source and then for protecting a pasture and planting trees.

When Devi Lal lost his father at the age of 12 years, this was also the time he had to leave school as he accompanied his mother and sister to work in a city to toil at a wage of Rupees 10 per day. However making use of some opportunities back in village, Devi Lal could emerge in leadership roles to protect pastures and lead struggles for forest produce rights.

Uday Lal Suthar had to go to toil in cities as a teenager on a more permanent basis, moving finally to Mumbai where in later years he could set up a carpentry business. On a visit to his village he attended a meeting where he appeared to find his true calling in protecting forests and pastures. Devoting himself to this work, he courageously fought battles against influential outsiders who were encroaching on community forest and pasture land.

What is common to all these four inspiring stories concerning persons with potential leadership talent for taking forward social concerns is that many difficulties were keeping them tied down, but as soon as they got some opportunities they made full use of these to realize their so-far hidden potential. How did these opportunities arise? The other common link in these stories is that such opportunities arose in these villages of Udaipur district (Rajasthan) because of the various constructive activities taken up by a voluntary organization Seva Mandir. Whether this was in the form of a center for adult literacy or the organization of a self-help group of women or the starting of a campaign to protect village commons including community forests and pastures, these various activities, apart from achieving other desirable results, provided an entry or contact point for those with a lot of pent-up desire as well as talent for various kinds of community welfare and protection work, with special emphasis on protecting and regenerating degraded forests and pastures.

What further helped the emergence of these community leaders was the understanding and solidarity shown by various members of the Seva Mandir family in helping and encouraging these emerging grassroots leaders, so that adequate opportunities could be opened up and at the same time a helping hand was always available in difficult times, such as at the time of struggles against powerful encroachers and forest produce smugglers.

Ten such inspirational stories of community leaders who overcame very heavy odds to become saviors of forests and pastures at the grassroots have been related in such a compelling way in a recent book titled ‘Being Earth—Portraits of Militant Nonviolence’ by the author Amrita Nandy, a senior academic, that this book is full of important learning experiences while at the same time reading like very interesting personal stories. Each one of the ten community leaders covered in this book lives on in our memory for a long time as we keep thinking about their eventful life, the challenges they faced and how they overcame them with grit, determination, patience and wisdom.

A note on the work of Seva Mandir by Narendra Jain and Ronak Shah provides a wider framework in which these inspiring stories can be better understood. A thought-provoking foreword written by Suraj Jacob provides valuable insights and also places these experiences in the broader framework of several development debates and concepts. One of his interesting observations relates to seeing these experiences as a combination of struggles (sangharsh) and various kinds of constructive work (nirman). Jacob also recalls the emphasis on combining ‘sangharsh’ aur (and) ‘nirman’ in the course of the inspirational work of the great leader of workers Shankar Guha Niyogi and, in fact, the combination goes back to the days of Mahatma Gandhi’s efforts, which too are recalled by Jacob as an inspiration source for the efforts and initiatives described in this book.

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Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Saving Earth for Children, Planet in Peril, A Day in 2071 and Man over Machine—The Path to Peace. He is a regular contributor to Asia-Pacific Research.

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