| National Innovation Foundation |
| GIAN |
Debiprasad Dash
| Expressions of an Enchanted Diku: On Attending Shodh Yatra in the Hills of Southern Orissa |
| Debiprasad Dash |
| Author's Note: Travelling in the villages of Koraput, marvelling at the mountains, partaking of the animated demsa dance, but still counting days to return to my comfortable urban dwelling, I could not but be self-critical about my identity as a diku tourist. In the context of tribal politics in India, the term ‘diku’ refers to a non-tribal, exploitative outsider in a tribal area. I have used this term to refer to myself in a self-aware sort of way. To be honest, my social location and my personal orientation may not be very different from the stereotype the term refers to. Of course, being aware of it does not amount to endorsing that identity or overlooking my potential for transcending it. |
| 1. Expressing Enchantment |
| On returning from the Shodh Yatra, I began writing these reflections in a state of enchantment. The journey through southern Orissa exposed me to such stunning natural beauty and such delightful people that it uplifted my spirit. Therefore, first I had to give expression to my enchantment, so as to effectively bracket it and get on with the reflective task I have assigned myself. Hence, this brief poem in my untrained verse, Scented Life: |
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| From this elevated and enchanted level, Koraput appears like a tender dream: tender, especially because of its vulnerability. Everything I have alluded to above seem vulnerable. The infinite trust is vulnerable; the culture of giving is vulnerable; the collective grit is vulnerable; even the Deomali peak and the mountainous springs are all too vulnerable. The keen awareness of it runs counter to my infatuated spirit. It threatens to push me from the enchanted height, down to the arduous Koraputian valleys, where life must endure the daily quota of surprises and frustrations in order to evolve into its unknown destiny. |
| 2. Journey of Refinement: Outside and Inside |
| The practice of Shodh Yatra was pioneered by the members and collaborators of the Honey-Bee Network (http://www.sristi.org/cms/en/our_network) in March 1998, in order to promote social contact and people-to-people learning. Held twice a year, in summer and winter, it is a journey in search of knowledge, creativity, and innovations by ordinary people, who must continuously struggle to simplify their lives, living as they are with various scarcities and hardships in the midst of naturally challenging environments. |
| Started in Gujarat, India, the Yatra has moved people and ideas across the length and breadth of the country. The Yatra has encountered the same truth year after year, that the two great books of life, the book of tradition and the book of discovery, are still the main sources of support and optimism in the lives of people who are not yet full participants in the prosperity of our modern technological society. |
| Seeking to collect and share traditional knowledge, innovative solutions, and stories of unusual success works as a process of refinement in two directions: external and internal. The external refinement produces improved practices, new solutions, and fresh potentials in society. The internal refinement produces greater self-awareness, sensitivity, new behaviours, and the capacity for stronger relationships within the individual. (The idea of the two refinements was suggested earlier by A. K. Gupta, in his inaugural address to the Shodh Yatra at Koraput, on May 8, 2006.) |
| In this article, I present an account of my internal refinement process that was triggered by participating in the 17th Shodh Yatra that took place in the hills of southern Orissa, during May 9-16, 2006. Participating in the Shodh Yatra (in Oriya, Jñan Sandhan Yatra), was a provocative experience for me. It stretched my imagination and unsettled my equilibrium with myself. It got me in touch with my own values, needs, inabilities, questions, and my out-and-out otherness vis-à-vis the people I met. |
| Of course, being myself a keen traveller in the journey of self-awareness and sensitivity, I was watchful of myself and my interaction with the others, taking mental notes of what was happening to me and trying out new behaviour when it seemed right. Now as I look back upon that experience, I can clearly see what I have internalised, what I might have grasped but failed to internalise, and the issues I have not even grasped adequately—which remain dilemmatic, open. I would like to elaborate on these, with examples. |
| 2.1. Internalised |
| I have fully internalised the notion that no human community is “developed” or “under-developed” in any absolute sense. Every community confronts issues and challenges typical to its natural and social circumstances, its material and cultural resources, its accumulated experiences, its institutions, and its moral codes. I am resentful towards any governmental, non-governmental, or evangelical rhetoric that is eager to portray some regions and communities as “backward.” In Koraput, experiencing the wholehearted welcome, the unreserved trust, the joyful music and dance, the dignified directness of talking, and the open-handed sharing of food, I sensed the local culture as far more advanced than mine, in so many ways. I was aware, I might be committing the error of judging the whole from the parts; but then there was a need within me to balance the received rhetoric of backwardness with my lived experience of a rich culture. |
I have also internalised the idea that the life of a community and the lives of its individual members can very well be structured along different relatively autonomous tracts, despite a degree of interdependence among them. For example, the winds of modernity that threaten to wipe out a community’s cultural or traditional knowledge may still be welcomed by some (even all!) of its members for the value or meaning they individually derive from it. The immense popularity of Bollywood VCDs/DVDs in the Koraput villages would be a case in point. |
| I must also state my internalised mistrust of the government machinery. Of course, I went to Koraput as a biased observer, suspicious of any welfare pretensions of the government. Nothing I saw at Koraput would make me revise my position on this. Of course, I saw many items of “infrastructure” built by the government; but none of it seemed to be conceived, built, or managed in the interest of the local communities. My mistrust of the government is rather buttressed after this experience. At one meeting organised within the Yatra, the head of district administration snubbed a local senior lady, discounting her plea and devaluing her voice. I felt intense dislike for the administrator at that moment. Of course, I also disliked myself for not standing up and protesting. |
| 2.2. Grasped but not Internalised |
| I have grasped the importance of people-to-people contact, provided the contact is imbued with a spirit of unconditional positive regard for each other. Although I have grasped the idea, I am yet to fully internalise it in my own behaviour. I do experience such unconditional positive regard for some people, now and then. Whenever I interact from such a platform, the interactions turn out to be mutually productive, energising, and satisfying. I had some such satisfying interactions during the Yatra. Still, I found myself unable or unwilling to extend such interactions to everyone. I did make an effort to reach out more fully to some of my co-travellers and the result was encouraging. This is going to require further thoughtful effort from my side. |
| During the Yatra, I was rather dismayed to notice that wherever outsiders have interacted with the local communities over a sustained period, it is inevitably the outsiders who have benefited at the cost of the local communities. In the process, the local communities have lost territory, livelihood, voice, and dignity. The highly evolved local culture of trusting, sharing, and welcoming others, which I adored so much, seemed to be rather defenceless against self-interested outsiders. I found almost nothing in my own personal practice that would address this issue. |
| I have grasped the value of identifying local innovativeness and supporting it through a wider facilitative network—exactly what the Honey-Bee Network aims to do. I have also grasped the role of the Shodh Yatra as a “mobile university” to facilitate the creation and development of such a knowledge network. However, the current focus of the Network and the Yatra appear too narrow to me. The current focus seems heavily inclined towards innovations which have some economic potential. I understand innovations more broadly, as constructive outcomes of systematically dissenting and deviating from the ideas and practices handed down to us. My personal orientation is towards connecting with the dissents and deviations in every department of life. As a result, although I have understood its value, I find myself unable to fully internalise the economic emphasis. |
| 2.3. Not Grasped |
| Let me put the issues I have not grasped in the form of questions so that you, the reader, can help me grasp these better. These issues appear dilemmatic to me and I do not seem to have the necessary wisdom to find an acceptable resolution. Ironically, nor can I live happily with the dilemmas unresolved. |
| Question 1. What right do I have to enter into the shared living space of another community? Do I automatically get the right to enter into that space to make observations and interventions, just because I think what I am going to do is for their own good? Should there be “informed consent” from the community? Should such entry be purely on invitation? Should it be based on a process of authentic negotiation between the parties concerned? |
| Question 2. In such community development initiatives, what sort of partnership is desirable with the government? The priorities of a democratic government get defined by the vocal, resourceful, and actively self-interested sections of the electorate. The interests of the voiceless and marginalised sections remain under-represented. Moreover, the bureaucratic mode of functioning typical to the government can be a deterrent in maintaining the required sensitivity, responsiveness, and commitment required in this type of work. I doubt if the government could ever be an authentic partner in such initiatives. Is some form of inauthentic partnership necessary therefore? |
| Question 3. How to handle the systemic tension between the conservative forces of tradition and the forward-thinking spirit of experimentation? In the Yatra, we seemed to ignore this tension altogether, extolling both traditional practice (say, the use of karanj oil for hair conditioning) and experimental action (say, the use of different mulching materials on ginger beds). The type of unconditional regard necessary to preserve tradition is almost antithetical to the irreverent outlook necessary to break out of tradition to perceive new alternatives. Can we consider them on par, without making a distinction? |
| 3. Festival of Learning on the Move |
| As might be evident from the above, the Yatra gave me a lot to feel uplifted, acknowledged, challenged, and bewildered—in different proportions, at different moments. Happening at a rather leisurely pace, rhyming with the long stretches we had to cover on foot, there was ample opportunity to observe, reflect, listen, and discuss. The planned and unplanned feedback sessions provided the impetus for processing what was happening to us, as individuals and as a group on the move. Of course, language was a hurdle, which was overcome to some extent with the help of the multilingual volunteers among us. Interesting role reversals were seen—students became demsa dancers, visitors became co-travellers, professor became commander of voluntary police, strangers became friends, and friends became lovers. |
| The event demonstrated the power of human connections when grounded on equality and openness to learn from each other’s experiences. It contained the power to melt frozen minds and frozen hearts. Quite a festival of learning on the move |