Paper short abstract:

To what extent food sovereignty movements make environmental justice possible? When marginalised community compete over scarce resources, simultaneously negotiate with the neo-liberal economy, what are the manifestations?

Paper long abstract:

The paper will focus on the local food practices, traditional knowledge system and the moral economy of the Kondh tribes of Odisha. Kondhs are a primitive tribal community with a unique system of agroecology and practice various forms of mixed cropping. Their socio-religious life ad rituals revolve around their patterns of agriculture and food system. They consider the ecosystem and nature as sacred. However, multiple factors of 'development' and their negotiation with modern power structures are gradually unsettling their socio-economic life. The commercialisation of crops, rampant usage of pesticides and Bt. cotton has brought new dimensions into their economy and shifted the identities of 'indigeneity'.

The Kondhs values regarding ecosystem are rapidly changing and the paper tries to capture aspects of this through manifestations of community (caste, gender, class) relationship.

The various local agencies found in diverse levels of the politico-economic hierarchy have created ways of exploitation. Yet, the Kondh practices of mixed cropping, morality, revere of nature and celebration of seeds and festivals strongly points at ways of resistance than merely following an animistic religion. The paper focuses on two villages in particular that are located in interesting geographical regions. Their proximity to the market and the caste and class of the populace offered new insights into forms of resisting the dominant development paradigm and negotiating with them in various forms. It explores the changing nature of community life in Kondh society and the way in which their traditional knowledge system might offer hope to regain control over their production system.