Chipko of the Farmers
Photo courtesy of Amol Sonar
It has been nearly 60 years since a group of women farmers in the Himalayas, inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, hugged trees to protect them from the chainsaws of government-backed logging. Known as the Chipko movement, they sparked similar protests across the country, eventually leading to a ban on commercial felling. Today their legacy lives on, as seen in the recent farmers’ protests that resulted in the repeal of three controversial bills. Thousands of farmers marched peacefully, many on foot, from Punjab and its neighbouring states to Delhi in a year of mass protests. I spoke with ecofeminist and food rights advocate Vandana Shiva about how Chipko influenced the farmers’ protests and continues to inspire small farmers across the world.
Yasmin Dahnoun: Chipko means to ‘hug’ or ‘hold’ in Hindi since tree hugging was a big part of the movement. Would you say this kind of peaceful protest was inspired by Gandhi’s principles of satyagraha (nonviolence)?
Vandana Shiva: Yes! Many of Gandhi’s immediate disciples moved to India to work with him in the freedom movement. The ideas of direct civil action are very much inspired by Gandhian ideas, and women absorbed this, particularly because they relied so intimately on the forest. The beauty of Gandhi’s teaching is that it’s wide enough to be adapted to any situation. For example, when the World Trade Organization (WTO) went to Seattle in 1999 for the international forum on globalisation, we had months of civil disobedience and direct action – there were organised young people on the streets with their arms connected through pipes, blocking the roads. I stopped and I asked them, “How did you think of that?” They smiled at me and said, “Gandhi.”
Yasmin Dahnoun: The Chipko movement was incredibly successful in many ways. In the 1980s, prime minister Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi imposed a 15-year ban on felling in the Himalaya. But was this ban truly implemented on the ground?
Vandana Shiva: On the logging issue, yes. Forest policy shifted from being an extractive policy to being a conservation policy. It was recognised that the forests of the Himalaya are primarily systems of water and conservation. But now the biggest cause of deforestation in India is due to the madness of dam building and our global addiction of highways to nowhere.
Yasmin Dahnoun: In recent protests, hundreds of thousands of farmers in convoys of tractors, horses and on foot marched across India. After a year of peaceful protest, prime minister Narendra Modi repealed the three controversial laws around farming, which had loosened rules protecting farmers from the free market and threatened to destroy their livelihoods. What made the movement so successful?
Vandana Shiva: First, they united across gender, class and religion. Secondly, they were doing a Chipko of Mother Earth. In a way, the Indian farmers are the ultimate statement of what taking care of the Earth means, and the dignity and freedom that it involves. Thirdly, their message is strong. They are saying, “We will not be violent. We are small farmers who feed India by working with Mother Earth,” and, most importantly, “We will be the defenders of this landscape.”
Yasmin Dahnoun: The protesters were met with police batons, teargas, water cannons and concrete barricades, yet they continued to march towards Delhi. What influenced their tactics to remain peaceful?
Vandana Shiva: They remained peaceful because they know about our past freedom movements, they know that violence incites more violence and that the rulers will always have more guns than they could ever accumulate. And even though there were attempts to fabricate violence on behalf of the farmers, those were exposed. Over these many years, the reason farmers have stayed nonviolent is that the movement is driven by love for the Earth and dignity and pride in their vocation of farming. I call it the Chipko of the farmers.
Yasmin Dahnoun: How do these protests reflect the wider degradation of small farmers’ rights around the world?
Vandana Shiva: The laws that Modi tried to implement were laws that had been shaped by The World Bank in 1991. Most people forget there is an international structure of exploitation, built post-war to prevent freedom from becoming true freedom. These are instruments of colonisation, and recolonisation. The International Monetary Fund, The World Bank and the WTO try to deregulate the market and corporatise farming – and democracy always throws them out. And these same forces that are trying to destroy the small farmers of India are the same forces destroying farmers in England, Africa and America.
Yasmin Dahnoun: In what way can activists come together to protect the rights of Nature as a united cause?
Vandana Shiva: The environmental movement for too long has focused on single issues. Western environmentalism is still caught up in the idea that we are separate from Nature. We are alive because Nature gives us life. You cannot disconnect the issue of the soil, water, or biodiversity. So first of all, we need to look at brainwashing and expose it. Secondly, we need to be alert to how our governments are being hijacked and how our policies are being shifted towards corporate dominance. Thirdly, we need to reclaim our food sovereignty. The single biggest revolution is to eat in ways that protect and regenerate real soil, real seed, and then you are eat the gifts of the Earth and support the hard work and labour of real farmers.
