By Pedro Walpole, SJ

Mission inspires Jesuits to work and mission inspires Jesuits to meet. The reflective meeting in Ranchi last February was one such meeting so that we might work better together in this case on the Governance of Natural Resources.

 

 

Designed by the South Asia Conference, it engaged the Africa and Madagascar Conference as well as a number of us from the East Asia and Pacific Conference. It became a South-South engagement.

 

One of the signs of our times is the struggle of the marginalized for their dignity as persons, their integrity as cultures, and their rights to traditional resources. As Jesuits we all find this global concern resonate within. Put another way, the "small people" give us a sense of where God is. If we lose this presence with the poor in our life, then we have lost the Society.

 

This is what we experienced when we visited communities along the Karanpura Valley. We listened to them relate their struggles and losses over the last 10 years or more and saw the recently flattened houses as the mines expand and will continue to expand for the next 30 years. There are over a thousand square kilometres in the valley to be mined.

 

How are these people going to live? And how many tens of thousands of people are to be displaced? Have they no right to keep their cultural integrity and receive basic needs or must they be culturally impoverished and beaten down to only then participate in a developing society? We cannot speak of economic development without any recognition of people's rights.

 

Governance speaks of people, of local government and national government. It includes peoples' organizations, NGOs, civil society, research groups, the academe, and advocacy groups. We need better governance more than ever because of the complex effects of the massive use of natural and mineral resources driven not by local need but by national development and global competitiveness. In developing, we often miss out on things and these are often what matters to small people. If governance and the use of resources, particularly the competing use of resources, do not respect the basic rights of peoples' presence, then governance becomes oppression.

 

We see much oppression across the lands of Jharkhand, the most obvious of which is in the areas of coal mines and brick kilns. As we acknowledge this oppression from the start before there are answers and work with the people concerned, then perhaps as a society we at least get closer to a better balance. Let's face it, a few of us Jesuits work with and live with the poor, and so also struggle with the Society in our love of such a mission given us. In our system of greater universal good, we are more likely to advocate for the poor in their struggle and that is much needed. Our meeting acknowledged deeply the struggles of the poor and the Jesuits working with them, while turning to the greater body of Jesuit connectivity to look for synergy in needed advocacy.

 

I learned that in India that the integrity of pastoral work has a diversity of interaction with empowerment of people and education for all, and this is very impressive as acculturation. Concerns for education, governance, forced migration all come back to the tribal peoples and forest dwellers and their needs. The "Rights to Forest Act" is a document that has great value in society and must take root in the lives of the people concerned. How do we strengthen this action anywhere in the world?

 

In the South-South dialogue, this was a first for Natural and Mineral Resources. What the dialogue gives me is a very clear understanding that the tensions in the South are the same. In so many respects, the particulars of resources and culture may differ, but the problems and patterns of oppression are the same across countries.

 

In society's development plans, we say to the poor that "the national advance has to be at your expense of lack of rights; you must remain poor. Poverty is not just economic, you must go hungry so there is more food to consume on the open market. You must be stripped of your identity and integrity as there is one culture to honour in the ideal. You must be rootless, as labour must flow to the greater demand in the market. You have no right to be poor and still love the land of your forefathers and live on that very landscape."

 

At the global level, Jesuits seek in today's world an advocacy for the poor while keeping their feet in the mud. We do this if only by visiting the "small people" and humbly awakening the compassion within, the inner movements of which is often the source of vocation. In this way we can reaffirm our commitment and objectives. That is what the field visit did for me going from Ranchi to Hazaribagh. This is where we see a rebirth of the mission and social commitment of the Society spoken of in GC 35.

 

So what is the possibility of action and meaningful collaboration, what is the fruit of the gathering? The advocacy of the different Conferences identified the importance of information on the exploiters and the exploited on a global level affecting countries in Africa and East Asia and key states in India. Forced migration is the modern leprosy of our global society and confiscation of land and resources of the poor is a major cause. Groups connected to the poor are called to strategically plan what advocacy helps and to connect globally.

 

Coal mines for example in the Karanpura Valley will proceed for decades and need to operate with justice for the real people on the ground. People have been marginalized to these lands during the last century and received little. Now society wants where they reside and they must give it up and disappear again, as with hundreds of other communities around Asia; or is there a humble justice possible in our society? There are caring connections in the global world that are needed in responding to the pain of the next 30 years.

 

Global energy India seeks to develop and in the basic plan taken from history, these sources of energy are needed. In India today there are major hydro, coal, and nuclear plants. With global political awareness, there is pressure on all countries to mitigate their carbon sources of pollution. Countries in the North are very emphatic that all countries should cut back on their carbon emissions, and this, combined with the politics of the recent economic investment abuses, does not seem a fair response to countries getting into industrialization. India and China oppose the requirements of the Copenhagen agenda, as they are heavily political and not just environmentally sound.

 

We obviously need to look at new initiatives and approaches and changes in lifestyle, not just cutting down on carbon emissions. The world will have to contribute to the cost of carbon reduction in India if India is to move ahead. And if India is determined to do so, she also must find new ways.

 

So who eats next? India's energy is based on polluting industries including the iron industry, one of the highest energy consumers. If we look further down the line, how many thousands of square kilometres were flooded or mined for coal and minerals? While here at the source in Jharkhand, there are many realities that will not bring such lower caste people and tribals within the basic minimum standard of living in this century.

 

Unfortunately the model of development we are heading towards will never be enough for all and we will never get there - only a few. Yet in this work, God is calling people today and hopefully we are giving all we can.