Growing in Borvan Kachaar: Adi-Johar

Abstract

This article is inspired by the world view and the way of life of the Adivasi people of Central India. The aspiration is to emulate their way of living and to create a space that is founded on the world view of living in harmony with nature. This is because Nature is the provider, fulfilling the needs of the community. We seek to be a meeting ground, inviting people from different social and cultural backgrounds. This is to share ideas, learn and grow with each other, to experiment and make art, liberated from the capitalist ethos of modern consumerist society. This effort is materializing as the project of Adi- Johar. This article traces the journey that led to Adi-Johar. We settle down in the quaint village of Nandora, building a house using locally available resources in the hope to create a space fertile for collaboration between the Adivasis and people from the mainstream. This is written in the style of a memoir, describing meetings and experiences that were introductional towards the worldviews of the Adivasi people. That became the base to the way of life I aspire to live. It records the ways in which I experimented with making things that I need for myself, a continual adventure.