Vandana Shiva (1): Earth Democracy
Posted on June 10th, 2012
Part one of Vandana Shiva’s talk for Moravian College as their fifth Peace and Justice Scholar. Dr. Shiva, an internationally known scientist, environmental activist, ecofeminist philosopher, author, and recipient of the Right Livelihood Award (also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize), is speaking on the topic of “Human Freedom and a Fragile Planet.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmJYZKd5iGg&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL802AE2161D17726F
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June 10th, 2012 at 7:11 pm
The dominant paradigm that shaped our relationship between India and Sri Lanka in the post-colonial era Up until now was to deal with the central government for all the affairs and to exclude all other state governments of India and their regional masses. But in contrast, the Indian government has been allowed to works directly with our provincial populations and provincial governments in many ways. The result was clear. The central government of India has cheated us in every way of our dealings with them. No wonder, because Indian politics is full of corrupt criminals. They are the ones determining how to deal with Sri Lanka and what RAW must do to mess with us.
But for last few decades, the gap and the difference between ordinary masses of India and this criminal class, to say, the completely colonized Indian ruling class/business class has been widened and still getting wider and wider day by day.
The business community of India directly depending on western governments and corporations has been willingly doing the dirty job. They are not only betraying their own people but also the entire South Asian solidarity. While profiting out of the misery of their people, they dictate the terms to the ruling class of India to demonstrate the allegiance to multi-national corporations in the west. Today they not only have sold out their own people, but also they have sold out the chances to the economic freedom of the entire region. They even are envisioning bringing NATO into the region; for whose benefit is a valid question to ask.
However, now the ordinary Indians becoming aware of what’s happening to them, and also they know that the Indian business/ruling class is working for somebody outside the region. Under this circumstance, we must understand and recognize who controls whom, and that the RAW and even Indian foreign policy and policy toward Sri Lanka is a direct result of this power equilibrium.
I think we must reach out to ordinary Indian masses and their grass root level organizations to educate them about our problems that directly related to Indian politics of Delhi and Tamilnadu. India is a vast land and is abundant in ideological diversity. We definitely can find some solidarity there. This is a good time to build some network through public diplomacy.
If we come back to agriculture, if we compare the situation of Indian agriculture that Vandana Shiva discusses here, with that of Sri Lankan Rajarata paddy farmer’s situation, we can see that the same corporations have bought up our officials, politicians at a point, and have enforced some agricultural policies cheating the innocent farmers.
I think we must work together with all the agricultural communities of the region for the common good.