Interviewees

Medha Patkar

Medha Patkar is a social activist who has led the struggle for the people affected by the controversial Sardar Sarovar Project on the Narmada River in Gujarat, India. She founded the Narmada Bachoao Andolan and National Alliance of People's Movements and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Goldman Environmental Prize, Amnesty International's Human Rights Defender's Award and the BBC's Green Ribbon Award.

Videos featuring Medha Patkar

  • A Threat to Living Communities

    Farmers in India are at great risk, says Medha Parker, award winning social activist warning against the dangers of globalization and industrialized food systems in "A Threat to Living Communities". In this film, Patkar speaks to us from the major protest "Action 2007" in New Delhi, India where hundreds of local farmers and community organizations gathered to assert their "right to life and livelihood" in the face of the development paradigm undermining sustainability and threatening to destroy living communities.

    (5 min 37 sec)

  • What Would It Look Like?

    What if the world embodied our highest potential? What would it look like? As the structures of modern society crumble, where do we find solutions that can help us build the future that serves us all? This 25-minute Global Oneness Project film retrospective asks us to reflect on the state of the world and ourselves, and to listen more closely to what is being asked of us at this time of unprecedented global transformation.

    (24 min 54 sec)

  • No One Eats Dollar Notes

    Medha Patkar, Indian social activist and advocate, rejects the idea that indigenous peoples must assimilate to a market economy that is neither inclusive nor sustainable on a long-term basis.

    (1 min 33 sec)

  • Alternative Sources of Energy

    Medha Patkar, social activist and advocate for peoples vulnerable to massive dam projects in India, asks why India should follow a Western paradigm of development. She asks why disrupting traditions of land use in exchange for non-renewable resources that are unsuitable for India's population is acceptable—when alternative technologies that support local communities are available. Most importantly, says Medha, India must tap into the most remarkable form of power: the human power of democratic, cooperative action.

    (4 min 49 sec)
"So we are basically fighting this battle for an alternative economic and political perspective against the present development paradigm, which is being imposed on the people and the market."
From
A Threat to Living Communities
On the web