This is Pavlia, an unsung hero of our times. He is a Bhil Adivasi resident of Vakner village in Alirajpur district. He is standing on his farm on which he grows organic and indigenous varieties of sorghum, maize and cotton. He has a stone bund which prevents soil erosion in front of him and a forest that he has protected behind him. There is no grid electricity as his farm is deep inside the forest and so he uses a solar panel to meet his minimal needs for lighting. There is no mobile connectivity so he does not have a mobile. There is no road connectivity either so he does not have a motor vehicle. Obviously there is no television also. He uses the traditional paat technique to irrigate his farm through gravity.
He is free of the travails of the market. His farming is low cost and since it is default organic and biodiverse it is highly productive. He does not chase money of which he earns enough for his subsistence from selling minor forest produce like mahua, karanj, behera etc. So he does not face the struggles that chemical farmers are saddled with. What are most important are his worldview and lifestyle which are in harmony with nature unlike the rest of us.
Consequently, he is hugely carbon and water positive providing invaluable ecosystem services to society to combat climate change living a sustainable life.
Actually sustainability is a complex issue. Modern development based on advanced technology invariably is associated with ecological destruction and socioeconomic inequality. There is no way in which everyone can enjoy advanced technology and also save the environment at the same time. Moreover, advanced technology is also associated with militarism and financial skullduggery.
Ultimately it is all about our attitude to physical labour. Is physical labour liberating or does it limit our freedom.
Pavlia and others like him in Vakner have taken a conscious decision to live lives of subsistence. They can live a modern life enjoying mobikes, mobiles, TVs, etc, if they want to by migrating seasonally to cities for work as many other Adivasis in his village do. But they are the few who have analysed the situation and decided that their labour intensive lifestyle is better. They do use modern technology selectively but it is peripheral to their existence. They are veteran comrades from the hey days of our mass organisational work in Alirajpur and have retained the core of the political critique of modern capitalist development that we all together developed and so are deeply committed people. While I have not been able to live that life after 1995, Pavlia and some others in Alirajpur are still carrying the torch. They are conservationists par excellence.
We have to try and become carbon and water positive like him which is possible even after using modern technology much more than he does. We may not be as good as him as far as sustainable living is concerned but we can certainly do better than what we are doing at present.
All this has been possible because Pavlia is a member of the Khedut Mazdoor Chetna Sangath which has fought a long and successful battle to restore the Adivasis' rights to th
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