Radical democracy in India & Africa

Radical democracy in India & Africa

Convened by Global Tapestry of Alternatives (GTA) and Grassroots to Global (G2G). Welcoming Ashish Kothari & Shrishtee Bajpai (GTA)

Indigenous peoples and other local communities in India and Africa are asserting their rights to decision-making in forms of radical democracy that go well beyond the forms of representative democracy that dominate the world, incorporating local citizens' assemblies, ecological responsibility, and livelihood sovereignty.

Shrishtee Bajpai is a young activist-researcher from India, a member of Kalpavriksh (an environmental action group). She documents, researches, and networks radical alternatives to dominant systems of statism, capitalism, patriarchy and other forms of concentration of power. She focuses on exploring indigenous, traditional, and customary ways of living, decision-making and their underlying worldviews. 

She helps in coordinating the process of alternatives confluence in India called 'Vikalp Sangam' that aims to weave together the grassroots processes on alternatives. She also helps in coordinating a global process called the Global Tapestry of Alternatives which seeks to create exchanges, synergies, cross-learning, and collaboration amongst the various radical alternative and social/ ecological justice movements around the world. She is active with other social movements and youth groups in India. She has been researching and networking on Rights of Nature in South Asia with particular focus on rivers, and has helped intiate the rights of rivers south Asia alliance. 

Simon  Ndonco Mitambo  Born and raised in Tharaka indigenous community, Simon is an Earth Jurisprudence Practitioner and a teacher of the ancient wisdom of Tharaka indigenous people. He is founder for Society for Alternative Learning and Transformation (SALT) and a nature-based school in Kenya, The Kithino Learning Centre, an emerging centre for stimulating, awakening and regenerating bio-cultural diversity. He is currently the Regional Programs Coordinator for African Biodiversity Network (ABN).

Aseem Mishra is an Urban Planner, is presently associated with Homes in the City (HIC) programme as Programme Director. HIC is an innovative Program coordinated by five civil society organisations having similar philosophy but working on diverse themes in the city of Bhuj along with issue-based collectives, citizens and several other organisations. They are collectively developing Bhuj to be a city where citizens, particularly the urban poor, improve their socio-economic condition and access basic services through political participation in local governance. Prior to joining this programme, he has worked with various civil society organizations, government departments and academic institutions in the western and northern part of India. Over past one decade, he has worked on a range of issues such as decentralised governance and planning, informal economy, housing to urban poor, urban violence, poverty and inequality, environment etc. in urban context.

Ashish Kothari is the founder of Kalpavriksh, an Indian non profit organisation working on environmental and social issues at local, national and global levels. He was trained at the Indian Institute of Public Administration and coordinated India’s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan. He served on boards of Greenpeace International. He is part of the coordination team of Vikalp Sangam, the Global Tapestry of Alternatives and Radical Ecological Democracy. He is the (co-)author of several books including Churning the Earth (2012) and a co-editor of “Pluriverse: A Post-Development Dictionary” (2019).

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