Samanvaya News Room

Recently I was asked by a govt. agency in Tamil Nadu to participate in a short introductory meeting on how to promote a #CircularEconomy idea within the state, what forms of systems and policies needs to be put in place.  In the meeting I realized that the basic challenge is with achieving a common understanding and ensuring that people agree on what is pragmatic approach to take within the typical govt. implementation challenges.  Normally i will send such notes to govt. with a prayer and forget it. but this time was different. i have been teaching Circular Economy as part of diverse alternate economies that have emerged across the world to the current global capitalist model. i profile 12 such models and look at their pros and cons based on available material. This I have built over a period of time as part of the Introductory Course on Green Economy that I offer to colleges and universities. What i put together as  a quick note to the govt. is basically expand one part...

 

As a Nation and Society since last year, the Pandemic has given us many lessons. While the Healthcare professionals have come much into the limelight thanks to media houses and social media that has highlighted their work in great detail, the civil society that responds to every challenge represents the will of the ordinary people who are willing to step out and do extra ordinary work. Voluntary work that ordinary citizens often initiate without worrying about the nature of the challenges or their agreement or dis-agreement as its causes, who is responsible or what may be the consequences.   This year we bring to the focus one such individual, Mr. Thilak Raj. He has been at the forefront of supporting the migrants returning back to their native places here in Chennai, facilitating their long arduous journey last year, by organizing a support system. This was the  first phase of the pandemic. The second phase saw Thilak reach out to those who were struggling to fi...

USA has just gone through a serious political crisis and it is not over as yet. While they may have a new Government as you read this today, the politics in recent weeks has left many across the world shocked. And yet, America inspires hope in several ways. In the middle of the worst pandemic in which 25 million Americans have been affected, several stories of neighbourhoods, people helping each other and generosity has come up. In the midst of a political crisis, the voices of sanity, of peace and non-violence has sprung up. In the middle of last year's major protests during the Black Lives Matter movement, several new ideas, questions, challenges were posed by the country and its citizens to itself and many have transpired into policies and initiatives and perhaps the most diverse colored government takes oath today as that country tries to eclipse the diverse power centres that visibly held sway for some years. It was in this context that I interviewed Ms. Ania Wright , an you...

Prof. Samdong Rinpoche has been one of the leading wise voices for the planet for a long time. It was a surprise to receive a note of New Year wishes from him that is timely and emphasizing the needs of the world currently.  Happy to share the same herewith.    Note: All emphasis in the text is mine and not part of his message. - Ram, 02/01/2020

  Samanvaya Team wishes everyone a healthy, peaceful and powerful 2021. Let all honest, peaceful and ethical forces across the world gain strength and power this year and let the forces that weaken the planet, that reduce our being human and which contributes to distrust and divisiveness amongst people and animals be removed from the collective human conscience and action. The end of the year 7 hour long reflective online exercise was wonderful with a combination of insights, experience sharing and a great amount of warmth and honesty.  Here is the video for the same in case you have missed it. 

 It was perhaps in the early days  of being introduced to the alternate sector in the late 90s or early 2000s that I was introduced to the amazing book called Bapu Kuti by Rajni Bakshi . It had profiles some of the most amazing people who were making a big impact already in the country. We were fortunate to meet up with some of those in the book and work with a few of them as well.  But I had not met with the Rajni Bakshi till early 2019. In fact, I saw her name appear in an online group couple of years ago. It was in Jan 2019 when she came to the Vikalp Sangam meeting in Auroville that I actually got to meet with her.  A serious scholar, she was hanging out with another one of her generations heroes for me, Uma Shankari .  While in the office she recorded an interview with with me as part of the Ahimsa conversations that she was having.  Of course, due to background sounds and poor recording quality, we had to do it again and the same is online now . ...

"so you came to flaunt how rich you are, living among all these amazing people", commented LC Jain when i met him physically the last time in Bengaluru. I had taken an amazing voluntary network coordinator with me to meet him. I had visited him couple of times earlier, once met his wife, Devaki, briefly when I had been to his place for lunch with my wife. Among the many materials he had sent me as reference for my work were one lecture by her. She was charming when we met and made great sense when I read her lecture. In  2006 , when Dharampalji died he sent a personally written note for the memorial meeting we organised in Chennai. When he passed away in Delhi, it was a personal loss because I learnt much even within the short duration. So, when I ordered this book it was with an expectation that was personal as well as professional. It arrived yesterday and I haven't put it down yet. What a remarkable life! It is one thing to be born into an upper class south...

 

Snippets of conversations on Ahimsa, it was great to have this conversation with Rajni Bakshi. Though the first conversation was recorded under better environment in the middle of moving around and having lunch together in Sustainable Livelihood Institute in early January, due to disturbing nature of the audio we had to re-record the interview again during the lock down in the more sedentary position with me sitting in my cluttered home office....The full conversation is already available on youtube alongside these snippets. 

Freedom consistently defined our work culture at Samanvaya. We have always been free to pursue whatever we felt was important at a given point in time. Almost always it had to do with social causes, organizations and initiatives and more recently institutions. Looking back to 1998 when we started Samanvaya, I wonder today, whether we had an element of "Patriotism"? or to what extent it was a motivation for us. A honest reply is, "I don't think it mattered", we were  happy to experiment working for social causes through a consulting firm. Yes there was inspiration through reading of Vivekananda and Aurobindo to some extent, Gandhi came much later. But, there was no need to justify ourselves with some form of badge or another when we started, all our knowledge on Indian history, studying of India's past 400 years of historical research, our own research on communities and their strengths and extended work with villages came much later.  When we started, ...

When Indians meet …An Encounter with the Native America Ramasubramanian During Oct-Nov 2018, I visited the USA for 2 weeks.   In addition to delivering a few lectures, I interacted with Indigenous American leaders and thinkers for a dialogue that I call the ‘Indian – Indian Dialogue’. I was trying to understand their world view, current situation, their struggles and how they see the world in the context of today’s climate change crisis. In this article, I highlight some of the salient aspects of the dialogue with the Native Americans whom I got to meet.   This article is informed by my dialogues with native leaders, my own research, and my extensive conversations with my colleague and host, Reverend Sara Jolena Wolcott, Director of Sequoia Samanvaya , who is actively engaging in changing the way Americans see their history. A version of this article was first published in the April 2019 issue of The Vedanta Kesari, monthly Vedantic magazine published by the Ra...