Balamitra

The Hindu Saturday, May 10th, 2008

Seeds of Hope

Seed festivals as part of tribal welfare and awareness programmes are bringing people closer to nature than before, feels Sushila Marar

Hundreds of villagers came streaming down into the Sovva Valley on the 22nd of April. The gathering, on a normal course of events would never have attracted much attention because it’s a way of life for these hill tribes and celebration of any kind brings the whole community trekking down the hills and through the beaten tracks of the forests into the midst of togetherness. The rhythmic sound of the drums that reverberate in the valley serves as an opening statement to mark any festivity and as the villagers stream down into the valley it’s celebration time!

But this festival was one with a difference. Come to think of it, it would be pertinent to call it a movement rather than a festival...a movement which is on the rise. Aptly named the “Patha Vithinala Panduga” (the Old Seeds Festival), it’s a display of traditionally and organically grown seeds by the villagers as a way of reinforcing the belief that ‘a few small seeds can feed a family, a fistful of seeds the whole community’. It has all the reverence that a religious festival entails but with a difference. Here, they pay obeisance to Mother Earth’s bounties and show how they transpire their devotion into maintaining the virginity of the land.

“The whole thing has a spiritual connotation to it. And it’s about preserving the biodiversity and food security in the tribal area”, mentions Jaya Hattangadi who associates passionately with the tribals and their culture. “It’s a seasonal festival which also displays a sense of agricultural might of each village. The crux of the festival is the maturity of the seeds they bring, the traditional methods of storing them and the growth processes which are untouched by modern techniques”, Jaya continues.

The farmers dwelling in the hilly terrains of Aruku and neighbouring villagers come down to the valley to the accompaniment of tribal percussion instruments and gather in the respective enclosures assigned to each village. The Yejjodu (the priest) of the host village starts the proceedings after paying respect to the village deity. Now the seeds are ready for display. As people wait with baited breath, a jury of about five Headmen inspects the quality, quantity, variety and the array of seeds. The winner is announced based on the maximum count of varieties each village has grown.

A very unique ritual follows after the produce is displayed. The Yejjodu picks out samples from the array of seeds and symbolically scatters them over his head which are promptly collected by the ladies in their sari pallav.These then are mixed in their own crop of seeds, giving to the belief that this would bring in a better yield of crops as they sow them the next season.

“Getting the villagers to stick to their traditional farming methods without corrupting them with modern techniques, encouraging them to continue the age old methods of their ancestors in cultivation and storage of seeds for posterity and more than anything else, involving the children in such activities is a very gratifying thing to note. Seeing all the Girijans come together to pass on their skills to the younger generation is a positive sign of a better, knowledgeable and promising future for the otherwise unacknowledged people of the hills”, is how Seetharamaraju, a volunteer with Balamitra Tribal Educational Programme put it. His words ring with the hope that ensues in the efforts of a certain group of people who have made it their business to make sure that ‘natural’ and ‘nature’ are to be nurtured.

Organised by Sanjeevini, a Community Based Organisation (CBO), this is the third year running that the festival is being held. This year the venue was Karakavalsa village in the Sovva valley, around 20 km from the Aruku station. A strength of around 40 villages trudged the hard terrains of the hills to ensure that the endeavour by Sanjivini and supported by Samata, an NGO to bring unadulterated, organic food stuff back into the main stream is a success. This year the winning team came from Semiliguda in Orissa under the aegis of WIDA, an NGO who brought with them about 105 different varieties of cereal, pulses, vegetable and flower seeds.

This festival is of great significance to the modern world which is plagued by the ills of agri-terrorism and chemically poisoned food consumed by us. The health consciousness that has come up in the western world as a result of scientific recognition in the wealth of organically grown food and the need to consume natural food, has created a movement towards converting genetically modified, high yielding varieties of crop lands into natural farms.

“The Traditional Seed Festival is being celebrated to reiterate the importance of this form of food production and to strengthen the tribal people’s traditional and scientific knowledge of organic food. This cultural uniqueness is not merely a modern day fetishness for health foods, but a philosophy of life and a conviction in nature, carried through generations through their simple farming practices.” These were the words of Bhanu of Samata, for whom tribal welfare and the education of their children is in her every breath.

Indeed, these are festivities marking a movement.

“This kind of a movement requires the assistance from the whole country, not just a smattering group of people. Our success lies in maintaining a balance between modernity and old-worldliness, age-old and current techniques.” These parting words from Jaya sound like a clarion call for those of us who are in the process of waking up.

What’s more gratifying is the fact that not just are tribal rituals respected and lessons imbibed from, but also that the programme deeply involves the torchbearers of the generation – the tribal children!

If you have the inclination, time and opportunity are at your feet. It is the power of the language of seeds that will talk in future. Are you all ready for it?