Karnataka youth back ‘simple living’

They were at the village to express their solidarity for the Badanavalu satyagraha taken up for the cause of “simple sustainable living with hard labour”.

Bureaucrats, intellectuals, writers, litterateurs, thinkers, volunteers of more than 100 organisations, actors, artists and artisans sporting Gandhi caps joined the satyagraha at which people from Australia, Switzerland and Belgium too were present.

There was a display of indigenous and rare seeds, traditional equipment and pottery making. Bapunayak, 68, from Kadkola, one of the three weavers left in the village, displayed the making of a traditional mat out of a plant fibre extract. The satyagraha was the second phase of a protest taken up by All India Federation of Weavers Organisations against the intrusion of technology based products and reckless industrialisation which are posing a threat to the weaving and traditional products sector.

Theatre personality, Prasanna Heggodu who has led Badanavalu satyagraha since March 21 said, “There should be a radical shift in economic policy. Instead of measuring growth by comparing GDP, we should promote alternate modes of development and sustainable simple living in villages to ensure continuity of traditional indigenous employment modes.”

Several stalls of khadi clothes and sarees and food prepared in an organic maner were also on display. The satyagraha concluded on Sunday. Badanavalu Khadi Centre, which was established in 1922 by Dr Thagadooru Ramachandra Rao, had more than six village industries including a khadi centre, paper mill, oil mill, matchstick industry, pottery making centre and others and employs at least 500 people in a rain shadow area.

Mahatma Gandhi had visited Badanavalu, once a prominent centre for khadi and village industries, back in 1932 and was pleasantly surprised by the success of the khadi centre here run on a 7.5-acre campus.