Cultivating Cultivation

Learning and Sustaining Agricultural Practices

The Dialectics of Cultivating Cultivation in Rural India

Springer, 2021

Karen Haydock, Abhijit Sambhaji Bansode, Gurinder Singh, Kalpana Sangale.

More about the book, including the PDF, at the publisher's and the author's websites.

The book and I.

This book too came into my life courtesy Bookworm's Reading Circle and I begin by thanking the group and Bookworm.

I read the book slowly, very slowly, as it repeatedly set me thinking. It made me question some of my actions and I was left wondering if I would have benefitted by reading a book of this nature at an earlier stage in life. This book is immense in its scope — it deals with documenting a process, understanding societal realities, and exploring science, education, cultivation, learning and more.

Cultivation and us.

We eat multiple times a day and yet we know so little about the food we eat - who grows it, where it is grown, how it reaches our homes, who all were involved in the process and much more. We are a nation that loves talking about money - despite this we do not know how the economy of the majority families in our country functions. We have moved far away from cultivation, but this is not surprising - neither our school text-books today nor our art-works from history give cultivation the space it warrants in our life. One reason could be that the text-books and the art-works are shaped by those in power - particularly the upper-classes and upper-castes - whose priorities lay elsewhere. Historical artworks often focused on battles and tigers. Even where today's textbooks discuss cultivation, the focus is on memorising names rather than on hands-on learning.

Learning and life.

The book re-emphasized that trial-and-error is one of our biggest teachers. We have to learn by doing. Even if we do not have answers, not doing is not an option in life. We keep trying - this is how life works. And, as we get into the thick of it all we realize that opposing forces - the constant ‘push-and-pull’ - are present all around in the world. A world which is continuously evolving - beliefs, ideologies, traditions, people, relationships, seeds, crops, all change with time. And we keep on learning, adapting.

Science and research.

Science in life is very different from how it is taught in schools. It can also be understood as a process rather than only as a fixed body of knowledge. Research is better done with an open mind and a willingness to explore the linkages and connections that shape and define our world. It will do good to go beyond the proverbial ‘blacks and whites’, for the world is far too complex and interlinked for our preconceived ‘boxes’ to make sense of it. For science and research to be meaningful, we need to rid them of their arrogance and of the almost religion-like status we have bestowed on them. I was reminded of Udayan Vajpeyi saying, “an idea or a statement is scientific if it has the ability to be proved wrong”.

Words we use.

Do we understand the terms we use? Do we understand them in the same way? What is skill for example? Who defines it? Is it relative - if many know a skill does it still remain a skill?

The book sensitively uses terms like ‘majority-world’ instead of ‘third-world’ or ‘undeveloped-world’ or 'underdeveloped-world’. It goes a step further and uses terms that underscore the role markets have in our lives today - ‘capitalist-science’ and ‘capitalist-education’.

A parting thought.

In this book an English speaking group (loaded with money and academic skills), goes to a home in a village, stays with them, to understand their lives and work. I wonder if the reverse will ever happen? And if the people from villages - with lesser money and academic qualification - will be keen to learn about the affluent? And, whether the affluent will be willing to open up about their lives with honesty?