"They tried making the ground difficult to sit on.We remained seated.When I bent down to drink water they smashed me on the head."Freedom fighter Baji Mohammed calmly describes the brutal attack he bore for his peace keeping efforts in the aftermath of the #BabriMasjid demolition
A firm satyagrahi, he continued serving his country long after independence by participating in any cause that mattered to masses. Having donated all his 14 acres of land to the Bhoodan movement, his most cherished possesions are photos of him in Mahatma Gandhi's protest marches.
He was part of a vanishing tribe of countless rural Indians who sacrificed much for India’s freedom."I was more seva dal than Satta dal,"says the gentle old man,smiling, as the many sacrifices for an idea of India sit lightly on his shoulders.ruralindiaonline.org/articles/nine-… @PSainath_org
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Lenindhasan, or Lenin– as he is called – and his friends, are trying to replace modern rice varieties and resist mono-cropping. Their plan is to restore lost diversity. And to germinate a rice revolution.
It's a different kind of revolution, led by another kind of Lenin.
Lenin cultivates 30 varieties of rice. He sells another 15 raised by fellow farmers. And he conserves 80 types of paddy seeds. All this, in his family’s six-acre farm in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruvanamalai district.
It seems as if he’s been farming and selling paddy for decades. But it’s only been six years.
Before he became a farmer, Lenin was a corporate employee in Chennai, with two degrees and a good salary.
Life has only become harder in the last 10 years (A thread)
India's poorest homes continue to rely on minor forest produce like mahua and tendu leaves, along with the assured Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MGNREGA) programme.
As they prepare for voting today in the General Elections 2024, Adivasi villagers here in Arattondi village say their lives have only become harder in the last 10 years...
MP govt is punishing "rioters" who had engaged in stone-pelting by destroying private property.
But the idea of Wasim pelting stores is difficult to digest. He had lost both his arms in 2005.
Then why was his house shop razed down too?
[read ahead]
In Wasim’s shop, customers would tell him whatever they needed and help themselves. “They would place the money in my pocket or the drawer in the shop and leave,” he says. “I had put whatever money I had raised into my shop. It was my livelihood for 15 years.”
But on a warm April day in Khargone, Wasim Ahmed watched in horror as a bulldozer ordered by the state govt crushed and destroyed his shop and the valuable material inside. That day, bulldozers flattened 50 other shops and homes in this Muslim-dominated locality.
A student once asked us:
"Why is inequality bad? The kirana owner has a small store & Ambani has a big business because of how hard they work. People who work hard, succeed."
PARI is hoping to address these misconceptions by showing the lives of hardworking Indians [a 🧵]
Unpacking the idea of ‘success’ is possible with a PARI story on unequal access to education, healthcare and justice.
We draw on them in classrooms to share the lives of hardworking people – on farms, in forests and the underbelly of cities, and more.
Students like Chennai high schooler, Arnav admit, “we view them [people below their socio-economic group] as statistics rather than an actual person who goes through things we often go through.”
Every day is Rural Women's Day here at PARI. Don't take our word for it. Browse our website to find stories of some of the most incredible women from rural India!
A thread to get you started 👇
#InternationalDayOfRuralWomen
1/ Seaweed is an essential algae to a wide array of industries, including the pharma industry. But who goes down into the sea to get it? @MPalani17304893 introduces you to the fisherwomen who spend 7-10 hours in the sea every day to harvest it.
2/ Shanti Devi is possibly India's first woman mechanic who has been working at a depot just outside Delhi for over two decades. She changes tyres, fixes punctures, repairs engines and breaks stereotypes. ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/a-…
In the 160 years since the British established tea production, Assam has become the largest tea-producing state in India, the largest tea-producing region in the world and the world’s fourth largest tea exporter.
Still, for every kilogram of packaged Assam tea sold, less than 5% of the cut goes to the workers.
850 million Indians consume tea daily. But who produces it?