The permaculture movement in India: a social movement with Southern characteristics

Abstract

Permaculture is an attempt to design and develop sustainable communities in harmony with natural ecosystems. It embraces solutionoriented approaches to contemporary social and environmental problems. Originating in Australia, permaculture was initially considered a design system but it has become a global social movement and it is practiced in different countries in various forms and at multiple scales. It is manifested in numerous networks of local practitioners, teachers, promoters, demonstration sites, organisations and magazines where various ideas and practices converge. Despite its popularization scant attention has been given to analysis of permaculture as a social movement. Moreover, the few academic writings which analyse permaculture as a social movement do not systematically engage with its manifestation and adaptation in the global South. The latter is the main contribution of this article. Based on original research this paper narrates the origins of the permaculture movement in India, and it pays close attention to its contextual adaptation by a diverse group of practitioners. It demonstrates that these diverse actors and their strategies have clear linkages to the independence movement; they are influenced by the incomplete project of Indian liberal democracy; they operate on the sphere of civil and political society; and they engage middle and lower classes in a formal and informal political nexus.

Everyday political geographies of community‐building: Exploring the practices of three Zimbabwean permaculture communities

“…Given the focus of this article on examples from Zimbabwe, it is important to highlight that most literature on permaculture, both practice‐based and academic, is based on experiences from the Global North. Fadaee's recent study of the permaculture movement in India concurs that the literature does not “engage with its manifestation and adaptation in the global South” (2019, 721). Fadaee's study makes an important contribution by outlining historical and contextual adaptations of the permaculture movement in India, connecting it to the independence movement and unfolding “project of Indian liberal democracy” (ibid.…”

“…However, there is little evidence in the literature to date to suggest this and indeed, permaculture's attention to local context and cultural practices means that local knowledge and cosmologies are integrated into permaculture's place‐based manifestations. In the Indian context for example, Fadaee suggests that “many believe their involvement with the permaculture movement is in fact a continuation of a tradition and a struggle which started before India's independence” (Fadaee, 2019, 729). Similarly, Millner (2016) argues that in El Salvador, permaculture enables communities to (re)design environments “via the ontological forms of knowing and traditions that are [already] practised there” (15).…”

Middle Class, Tradition and the Desi-Realm—Discourses of Alternative Food Networks in Bengaluru, India

“…The persistence of peasant structures in the Global South could give an advantage when creating or promoting AFNs there [3,5]. According to Krul and Ho [2], peasants often still cultivate without the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers.…”

“…In this paper, we seek to redress the North-South imbalance in the AFNs literature by drawing on our in-depth study of AFNs in Bengaluru, India. The few existing contributions on Southern AFNs show that both smallholder structures and traditional agricultural practices in the Global South are seen as positive, resourceful characteristics on which to base AFNs [2][3][4][5].…”

Life Paths to Leading Systems-Level Change: Higher Education's Pitfalls and Potential

“…Engaging in permaculture design is one pathway for responding to the accelerating and worrisome impacts of climate change. The term and concept of permaculture were developed in Australia in the 1970s as a solutions-based design framework guided by ethics and principles that aim to be in synergy rather than disharmony with nature (Fadaee, 2019). In particular, permaculture design aims to mimic the functions and resilience of natural ecosystems to promote biodiversity and reduce negative impacts of human existence on sustainable and just living (Morel et al, 2019;Spangler et al, 2021).…”