This Satyagraha was consciously shaped as a shared campaign of urban citizens and rural communities, asserting that sustainable production and consumption are inseparable responsibilities.
Why Badanavalu
The movement took its name from Badanavalu, a small village located at the southern edge of Mysore District, bordering Chamarajanagar. The region is perpetually drought-prone, making sustainable livelihoods not a choice, but a necessity.
Badanavalu holds deep historical significance. In 1925, noted Gandhian Tagadoor Ramachandra Rao established a Khadi and Village Industries production centre here. The centre later received visits from Mahatma Gandhi, who stayed at Badanavalu on more than one occasion. Over time, the village came to embody the Gandhian vision of ethical production, self-reliance, and dignity of labour.
The Satyagraha in Practice
The Badanavalu Satyagraha unfolded across Karnataka through a series of sustained, participatory actions. Meetings, workshops, street performances, and visual art campaigns were organised to engage diverse publics and communicate the urgency of sustainable living. These cultural and educational interventions ensured that the movement spoke not only to policymakers, but also to everyday citizens.
Multiple padyatras long marches beginning from different surrounding regions converged at Badanavalu, physically and symbolically reinforcing the idea of collective responsibility. These journeys culminated in the National Convention for Sustainable Living, held on 19 April 2015, bringing together producers, consumers, activists, artists, and organisations committed to sustainable futures.
Desi Trust’s Advocacy Lens
For Desi Trust, the Badanavalu Satyagraha represented advocacy beyond resistance, it was an act of convergence. By supporting a platform where ecological, cultural, and livelihood concerns intersected, Desi Trust helped foreground sustainability as a lived, relational practice rather than a policy abstraction.
Impact and Takeaway
The Badanavalu Satyagraha reframed sustainability as a shared ethical contract between village and city. It demonstrated that protecting khadi, handlooms, and other sustainable production systems requires more than sectoral reform it requires social alignment, cultural participation, and conscious consumption.
Above all, the movement reaffirmed a Gandhian truth for the present moment: a just and sustainable society can only be built when those who produce and those who consume stand together.