#debal deb

Saving tilak chandan’s fragrance: Why a field in Rampur is growing an heirloom rice variety

India once grew more than 1,00,000 varieties of rice. History and mythology bear proof that rice was served to Gods, kings, and commoners across India’s geographically diverse corners, for millennia. Closer home, ask your grandparents about rice, and they will tell you of different varieties used for different dishes, one known for its fragrance, another considered healthy for pregnant women. But…

Debal Deb, a scientist who is building a seed bank in India’s Odisha state, has helped to preserve 920 varieties of indigenous rice

The GoodNewsIndia website is up again after a long time. And this is the story they are starting with this time. The story of a determined ecologist Dr. Deb struggling to save us from (yes from) the aftermath of the green revolution. He currently runs an in-situ farming facility which grows 700 varieties of indigenous hardy species of rice every year to save them from extinction till the farmers can shed the doctrines of the green revolution and adopt them. These seeds were collected from the fringes of east India which was fortunately untouched by the green revolution. He also talks about a 'zero growth economy' being the only way to achieve a sustainable fulfilling livelihood. Thanks to GoodNewsIndia for making me acquainted with Dr. Deb and his works. I have just ordered his book, Beyond Developmentality (it's available on flipkart.com btw) to find out more. I'll keep sharing whatever interesting I come across.

... Debal was chasing a fast disappearing integrated life in India, in which traditions, cuisine, dialect, music, festivals, the calendar of seasons and behavioural prescriptions played a part in creating self reliant communities. What threatened it now? In a word, 'developmentality'- a word he has coined, a word that at once conveys the serious malaise of modern man.

First make 'development' an unquestionable given. Then make all that is justified in its name, a priority. If you cannot convince people, coerce them. Promise a life with less work, easier money and freedom to 'enjoy'. In marxist run Bengal every village was politicised with apparatchiks strutting about everywhere. To be a cadre was itself a career. All that that was asked of them was to deliver consent and compliance to the central leadership. "What unites capitalism and communism,' Debal wryly observes "is industrialisation."...