CERES Global

IndiaTrip Information

Politics, History and Identity study tour: HUS3ISB HUS2ISB

If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions, I should point toIndia. – Max Mueller

The intention of this information booklet is to prepare you as much as possible for your upcoming trip to India, please read it carefully. However, try to nurture a sense of openness and flexibility about this trip as plans can

change at the last minute and life in India very much flows from one moment to another.

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Who you will be travelling with:

CERES Community Environment Park is located on 4.5 hectares of land on the banks of the Merri Creek in Brunswick East, Melbourne.

It is a place where people come together to share ideas about living well together, and directly participate in meeting their social and material needs in a sustainable way. Since CERES was established in 1982, the efforts of our community have transformed the site. Once an old landfill waste site, today CERES is a place of nature and

beauty, inhabited by a vibrant and diverse community. We attract around 490,000 visits each year through our on-site education and

training programs, our retail plant Nursery, the Organic Market & Grocery and our cafe. We also partner with a wide variety of organisations

to bring about mutually beneficial outcomes, and reach across the planet with CERES Global.

CERES GlobalCERES Global is the international outreach program at CERES aiming to engage with the issue of global inequities and the well being of all‐ people on the planet, and the environments in which they live. It has a special focus on working with communities to find solutions to environmental and climate change challenges. It also works to improve economic and social sustainability within these communities.

As part of this, we invite you to join us on cross-cultural, socio-environmental exchanges. These are unique participatory educational and skill sharing travel programs. CERES Global has been organising trips to India since 2005, Indonesia since 2009, and Mapuru in Arnhem Land since 2010. More recently there have been trips to East Timor, Cuba, China and Samoa. CERES Global return annually to each of the communities we visit, building rapport and friendship in order that we might work together in the future to overcome environmental and social challenges.

For more information visit: www.ceres.org.au/global

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CERES Global & LaTrobe University:

IndiaPolitics History and Identity Study TourCERES Global and LaTrobe University run a number of international journeys together to multiple international destinations across a number of disciplines. This particular study tour is our newest collaboration organised through discussion between Dr Alexander E Davis from La Trobe University and Ben Walta from CERES Global. The trip will explore the intersection between Politics, Investment, and the Environment and how they have shaped its history and contemporary identity in India.

The journey will take us from Delhi, meeting with government, University and environmental organisations; to the ancient city of ‘Benares’ (Varanasi), to meet with social and thought leaders; to remote tribal Maharashtra, to visit the Ghandian Hill station town of Pal and Jamnya; and back to the colonial metropolis of Mumbai.

Throughout the journey, we’ll experience the impact of the current environmental crisis and raise questions to understand President Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat’s clean up the Ganga program. We will explore possible solutions to these problems including potential foreign investment, local innovation, and the ongoing role of National and local government in addressing population, environmental, and social challenges.

In order to really understand India, the program has been designed to immerse our group in the places we visit with the opportunity to build personal relationships and connections. The journey will take us from the intensity of Urban Delhi, to the spiritual and mystical beauty of Varanasi, the natural comfort of rural Pal, and back to the epic colonial urban setting of Mumbai.

This will be an incredible journey, and we are excited that you will be coming along!

Journey Facilitators:

Jarra Hicks

Jarra has a long-term interest in meaningful cross-cultural exchange, ever since her childhood growing up between Southeast Asia and Australia. Jarra is an active community development practitioner and facilitator, working with communities seeking empowered solutions to climate change. After completing a bachelor of Development Studies, she volunteered and travelled extensively throughout India. Jarra has co-founded and worked for a range of community organisations and social enterprises, from food to energy, advocacy to banking, as well as having spent time as a tour guide in the Tasmanian wilderness.

When she is not running CERES Global trips, Jarra is a Co-founder and Director of the Community Power Agency, a leading organisation supporting communities to participate in the transition to renewable energy. Her role involves supporting,

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training and mentoring communities to establish community-owned renewable energy projects, as well as policy development, research, lobbying and advocacy.

Jarra is currently a PhD Candidate in the final stages of her research at the University of New South Wales. She is researching the potential for community energy projects to contribute positive social, economic and environmental outcomes for regional communities. Her research focuses on community engagement, social enterprise models and diverse (post-capitalist) economic arrangements that community energy projects use. Jarra’s other interests include nature adventuring, cooking, pottery, gardening and dance.

Manoj Mathew

Manoj Mathew is an independent consultant. He brings 17 years of professional experience in non-profit leadership and

organisational development. Until recently, he was Head of Public Policy & Corporate Affairs for Don Bosco Tech where he was responsible for working closely with the Executive Director to position DB Tech as a credible partner for conversations and partnership around Skilling India. Manoj served as the Director

of Operations & Outreach for India’s prominent think tank, Centre for Civil Society (CCS).

Manoj was former Country Manager of Lattitude Global Volunteering, an International youth development charity offering volunteering and gap year placements to young Australians.Manoj is a globetrotter engaged in facilitating, training, fundraising, organising programs, and campaigns; involved in various youth representations to International forums, meetings and UN consultations.

Vibhuti Aggarwal

Vibhuti is a graduate from Delhi University with a deep interest in social work, sustainability and education. After her studies she volunteered with the organisation Make a Difference teaching communicative English to girls in an orphanage for three years. During her college years, she helped found an organisation for youth called Youth Alliance and worked there in different capacities, from designing programs for youth to facilitating and managing the logistics. The idea of the organisation is to nurture young empathetic leaders who care about equity, environment and have the fire to change the world.She has experience and passion in facilitating democratic learning, organising “un conferences” and writing. She regularly facilitates young adults and children through circle sharing spaces and creative experiences.

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DESTINATION BACKGROUND AND ENGAGEMENTS

IndiaContemporary India is a melting pot of tradition, culture, religion and people. For thousands of year’s Indian culture has simultaneously developed whilst being influenced by neighbouring societies and outside invaders. From language, dress, music, dance, beliefs, stories, rituals and cuisine, the diversity among regions can at times seem quite remarkable but also provide for a very exciting, engaging and interesting time when travelling.

Perhaps one of the most striking and sometimes overwhelming aspects of India is that it has a lot of people! Its population is around 1.3 billion which is 50 times that of Australia and when you factor in land size (India is around half the size of Australia), India’s population density comes out as 100 times ours. So where you might see one person in Australia – you’ll see 100 in India.

India is also a country of vast diversity and extremes. You will often find yourself making an observation then immediately finding plenty of examples to contradict it. These complexities of this mysterious and wonderful country are what makes it so fascinating and engaging.

SWACHH BHARAT

Throughout each of your engagements in India, you will come across Swachh Bharat Abhiyan which a current campaign across all of India that aims to clean up the streets, roads and infrastructure of India's cities, smaller towns, and rural areas. It is a good idea to research and understand the notions of this campaign and political policy before arriving to add value to discussions in each engagement.

Delhi

About the location

The capital of India and a huge metropolis with a population equal to the whole of Australia. Delhi is one of the busiest and most polluted cities in the world, but within all this you can find richness of culture and history and a vibrant and colourful community.

SWECHHA

Swechha is an organisation dedicated to enabling themselves and others around them to ‘Be the Change’, in making a visible difference to the Environment- both Physical and Social. Their mission is to inspire, create and support – a just, equitable and sustainable society, for everyone and forever.

In the last fourteen years of work, Swechha has grown in its Vision, Programs and Outreach. The European Commission, UNDP, UNV, UNEP, The American Embassy, British Council, Nokia Siemens Network, SRTT, CNN International, NDTV etc are some of the institutions that they have worked with along this journey.

For more information visit: http://swechha.in/

Australian High Commission in Delhi

Australia has placed India at the forefront of its international partnerships. Both governments recognise there is significant potential for further cooperation across a broad range of areas.

The Australia-India economic relationship has grown significantly in recent years. Australia's strength in exporting primary products, particularly minerals and energy, as well as services such as education, positions us well to supply growing Indian industrial and consumer demand. India is Australia’s tenth-largest trading partner and our fifth-largest export market.

The Department of Education and Training office at the Australian High Commission leads strategic policy, regulation and government-to-government engagement in international education and research. The office works in partnership with Austrade, which is responsible for the international marketing and promotion of Australian education and training.

Australia India Institute

The Australia India Institute is a partnership for the research and analysis of the relationship between India and Australia. It is also a hub for dialogue, research and partnership formation. The Australia India Institute in Delhi has partnerships with Australian universities, the University of Melbourne, La Trobe University and UNSW Sydney. Dr Alex Davis will present on trends in Australia India relations and coordinate discussion on expectations for future development of our ongoing bi-lateral friendship.

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Delhi University

Manoj Mathew will initiate a peer-to-peer discussion and mini conference with selected students from Delhi University, to sit on a panel with our Australian LaTrobe University participants and engage discussion on the relationship between politics and the environment in each of our countries. The ‘mini-conference’ will include an opening keynote address from a political spokesperson with the University or local political leader.

Republic Day Celebrations

Our final day in Delhi will be Republic Day, and opportunity for India to show it’s political and military prowess. Delhi being the capital will of course be the centre of attention, and a great opportunity for us to be involved in the celebrations. Manoj will co-ordinate logistics for the day and keep in mind that a crowd in India has a whole other energy to it than our crowds in Australia, so you’ll need to be mindful of health and safety protocols and arrangements for staying together. Tip: It’s always good to have your accommodation hotel card in your pocket just in case, and relevant in-country contact numbers.

Accommodation whilst in DelhiHotel Hari PiorkoAddress: 4775, Main Bazar Rd, Paharganj, Delhi-110055.p.+91 1123 587 888 | +91 1123 587 999.e. hpiorko@yahoo.in

w.http://www.hotelharipiorkodelhi.com/

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Varanasi

About the location

Varanasi is everything you would imagine India to be: colourful, bright, soulful, holy and magical with a surprise around every corner. It embodies a magnitude of history being the oldest continually inhabited city on earth. It is a sacred city for Hindu pilgrims who come to the Ghats lining the Ganges to bath in the holy rivers waters and cremate their loved ones. Varanasi, which was formerly known as Benares, is considered a ‘Princely State’ where Princes and Maharajas from each state of India came, and each has their own palace along the ghats of the Ganges river. As you can imagine, over time, these places became political hot spots for meetings.

It would be a great idea to research the Hindu belief about the path to Nirvana via the Ganges river, those who are and are not cremated before entering the river, and the

environmental implications this might have on the river at each stage of the river’s journey. We might be able to ponder all these things on a sunrise boat cruise one morning.

Prabhudatt Tripathi will be our host for the short time we are in Varanasi, coordinating engagements with local academics, thought leaders, musicians, babas,

sadhus, and who knows who else!

Pal and Jamnya Villages, Maharashtra

About the location

Pal is a village of around 6,000 people nestled in the Satpuda Ranges which borders the states of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Pal was once used as a hill station by Maharajas travelling in elephant convoys from Delhi to Mumbai. There are remnants of elephant stables in the grounds of the Pal Muslim temple. There are 3 tribal groups which inhabit the hills surrounding Pal; the Banjaras, Tadavis, and Powarah tribes. Each group has its own distinct dress, customs, marriage arrangements, ownership and gender practices. Some are Hindu, some Muslim, possibly blended with their ancient traditional religious practices.

The Satpuda Ranges were once a dense forest with monkeys, deer, tigers and panthers. Today only scattered trees remain in most parts, the trees having been cut down for firewood for cooking or heating. This is exacerbated by the increasing population and the clearing of land to grow additional food. These days one sometimes sees monkeys in the hills, and very rarely a panther or leopard. Animal life has largely disappeared.

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Jamnya is about 2 hrs away from Pal, deeper into the hills and forests along a rough, winding, dirt track passing through several river beds which become impassable in monsoon months (July –Sept). The people at Jamnya belong to the Powarah tribal group. Jamnya people are very poor they have some irrigated land so they are able to grow enough food to eat. Their population continues to grow and they cut down protected forest land to grow crops to feed their growing numbers. The Forestry Officers have told us the best way to stop deforestation is to educate children, so that they can get jobs in nearby towns and cities and bring wealth from outside back to Jamnya. This is partly why we developed our sustainable building project to provide good housing for teachers, so that the kids can receive an improved standard of education. It’s also why doing what we can to improve IT access and skills is very important, making young people more employable outside remote villages. The Jamnya housing project also seeks to attract a female teacher to Jamnya with improved accommodation for gender balance.

It will be wonderful to have Jarra’s incredible experience in community centred power initiatives as part of the Jamnya visit, where the next phase of the project is expected to be based in solar hot water and power generation. Understanding what access to sustainable power can mean for millions of remote rural and tribal Indians is an important piece of the ongoing environmental, political, investment conversation.

About the host organisation Satpuda Vikas Mandal, Pal

Satpuda Vikas Mandal is a community organisation devoted to working with tribal groups in the remote Satpuda ranges surrounding the village of Pal. Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, who called on Indian officials working for the British to leave their jobs and work for the poorest of the poor. An Indian Police Officer who lived in a village on the plains below the Satpuda ranges took up Gandhi’s call, left his well paid job and began working with tribal groups around Pal. He was actually murdered by moneylenders whose corrupt practices he opposed. His son, who was at university at the time, took up his father’s work and set up the organisation Satpuda Vikas Mandal in Pal. The focus of Satpuda Vikas Mandal is on agriculture and education – but they also work on broad community development projects, women’s groups, health issues, and environmental projects.

The organisation operates a farm on about 30 acres, experimenting with a variety of crops which it then trains tribal farmers how to grow on their own properties. The farm group also work out in villages supporting farmers with water harvesting and storage, irrigation, new varieties of crops, organic farming techniques, etc. Satpuda Vikas Mandal manages 6 schools in Pal and surrounding villages. All schools have hostels so that students from remote villages don’t have to travel each day. Roads are generally very poor and washed out during monsoon rains. During our visit to Pal and Jamnya villages, we will have the opportunity to visit and meet with school groups and teachers. We will likely be invited to hold conversation and engage in activities with school groups, so any resources and ideas for activities are most welcome.

For more information on the Jamnya Sustainable Housing Project, visit www.thejamnyaproject.comTo watch a short video on Jamnya, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7EjQet5NnA

Ways CERES Engages with Pal and Jamnya

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Major involvements which occur most years Interactions with school classes: providing practice in spoken English, possibly basic computer practice Environmental education Teacher training Climate action: exploring options for reforestation, introducing solar cooking or biogas Village Development: investigating and documenting priority needs of villages, practical steps to meet

needs Women’s Group: talking with groups about their plans, how to achieve them, providing support where

possible Jamnya Housing project (developing a model sustainably designed pilot housing project for teachers in

remote villages

Potential areas of future engagements and research

Researching local organic farming initiatives – documenting what’s worked, what hasn’t Investigating local initiatives for reforestation – working with teachers to involve schools Developing a plan for introducing solar cooking into villages – working out logistics with local leaders Working on environmental education activities with school teachers Investigate water harvesting and storage practices – compare with practices in other parts of India Learn about health issues in villages and discuss solutions

The success of a given engagement often depends on the enquiry of our group, and the rapport we’re able to build in usually a short period of time. It’s important to give some thought to what it is that each of us hope to gain from the engagement, what we might be able to share, and how we all might benefit from the interaction. It’s also important to be mindful of vastly different cultural norms, where there will often be layers of interpretation and cross-cultural (mis)communication. For example, it is common for our CERES Global groups to ask tribal women questions on female hygiene and menstruation, while the tribal women respond with questions around how many goats we each own.

Accommodation in Pal

Basic but comfortable accommodation will be provided by our partner organisation, Satpuda Vikas Mandal.

Rooms are shared and male/female quarters are separate. It’s a good idea to bring along with you a shawl, small blanket, or throw for extra comfort, and potentially a pillow/pillow-case if you prioritise that in your luggage. The comforts we’re used to at home are not often considered in India so it’s nice to be prepared, and Pal overnight can get a little cool at that time of year. You will be able to pick something up in Delhi if you prefer not to take it with you from home.

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Mumbai

About the location

Mumbai, formerly Bombay, is big. It is the capital of India’s film industry where you will find stars, millionaires and rich colonial architecture alongside slums, hard labourers and stray dogs. It is also India’s financial powerhouse and fashion epicentre. Explore its hidden corners and you will find unique colourful bazaars, hidden temples, hipster hide outs and a thriving restaurant and nightlife scene.

We’re leaving the final days in Mumbai open for the time being, you’ll likely want to explore Colaba, visit Fab India, visit Ghandi’s house, or watch a sunset over Chowpatty beach from a rooftop bar.

We will keep you updated with the engagements that are organised closer to the date.

Accommodation in Mumbai

Hotel KumKumAddress: 165, Lamington Road, Opposite Minerva Cinema, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400007, India.p. +91 75060 38989e.hotelkumkum@gmail.comwww.hotelkumkum.com

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For more information contact Sophie or BenCERES Global Coordinator

CERES Community Environment ParkCorner of Stewart and Robert Sts

Brunswick Eastp.03) 9389 0183

e.sophie@ceres.org.au

benedict@ceres.org.au

We are really happy to be taking this amazing journey with you. Keep in touch during your pre-departure preparation and ask any questions as they come up.

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