Pipal Tree

Established in 1984, Pipal Tree has been concerned with development and capacity building programmes for the past twenty years.

It has its office at the Fireflies inter-cultural centre, located in a village outside Bangalore. Fireflies is an international training and cultural centre which come under the Pipal Tree trust.

Legal Status

Registered as a Charitable Trust with the Commissioner of Income Tax, Bangalore, and bears Registration No: Trust/718/10A/Vol/BII/P.86 under Section 12A (a) of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

Main Activities

Pipal Tree is working in the areas of women’s empowerment, child rights, conflict resolution in communities affected by communal violence, water management and awareness campaigns, sustainable agriculture, lake restoration, Adivasi empowerment and HIV/AIDS prevention.

It has also been involved with inter-acting and networking with NGOs on ‘problem solving methodologies’ that use mediation and advocacy.

By problem solving, we mean empowering local communities to solve concrete issues that have to do with livelihood, human rights and community peace. The problem solving approach is centered on values that can, on the one hand, lead to vigorous non-violent campaigns and on the other, to frank and respectful dialogue processes.

– Strengthening Community Based Organisations.
– Networking and Dialogue.
– Study and research.
– Mediation and advocacy.
– Capacity building and training.

The Methodology

We believe that solving problems related to the poor is an empowerment process that must produce short-term, mid-term and long-term results. For example, we believe that in solving the problem of drinking water in urban poor communities we can arrive at consensus that transcends ideological differences. The need for drinking water for poor urban communities is an issue that no-body can disagree with. But a process of mediation is needed to help groups narrow their differences and overcome ideological barriers.

Various sections of the community do not have to abandon their respective ideological positions, what we are doing through our programmes is creating goodwill to listen to each other across the continuum of various ideological scenarios. This climate helps build coalitions to effectively solve problems related to the marginalized and excluded sections of society. Not only NGO’s, but government departments, bureaucrats, media, local leaders, intellectuals, open-minded religious leaders and businessmen/women can all be drawn into this process at different levels and different times.

A spin-off from this methodology is the fostering of a deeper understanding of the need for provisional consensus within the democratic process to solve concrete problems. This process will help with building of multi-stake-holder alliances that can work for effective participatory governance.

Programmes

1/ India Dialogue Forum (known as In-Dia Forum) is a network of NGOs and concerned citizens and groups working towards developing methodologies on problem solving through mediation and advocacy.

The vision of Pipal Tree is a peaceful society where people meaningfully communicate and dialogue and consciously make interventions for problem solving related to human life.

The gamut of the Forum runs through areas like right to work, Adivasi rights, child rights, prevention of HIV/AIDS, issues related to water like conservation and management, communal harmony and so on.

The main thrust of the Forum is to involve various sections of the community in multilogues which transcend parties and positions. It is more by way of creating the kind of goodwill to listen to each other cutting across the continuum of various ideological scenarios. Moreover this platform could be the common ground to build coalitions to effectively solve problems related to the marginalized and excluded sections of society.

The coalition include, apart from NGOs, government departments, bureaucrats, media, local leaders, intellectuals, business people and open-minded religious leaders. This process will help with building of multi-stake-holder alliances that can work for effective participatory governance.

2/ Meeting Rivers is a global peace forum for inter-religious and secular initiatives. The objective of this programme is to harness the pluralistic energies that religions offer (along with those of ‘inclusive’ secularism) to meet the social and ecological challenges of today. The purpose of this programme is to invite religious leaders, including women and youth, to a platform which reflects and acts on the contribution of religions to transform the pressing social and environmental problems of our present day societies.

Meeting Rivers tries to reach the above objectives through its work with religious leaders and practitioners who share the same concerns. International conferences, conflict-resolution programmes and publications that promote religious renewal along the lines of personal growth, social intervention and environmental action are some of the activities.

3/ International Alliance of Journalists. As an organization concerned with culture, environment, and education Pipal Tree has worked with journalists to explore the possibilities of expanding the space for social reporting in mainstream media, and to encourage journalists to give greater attention to social and environmental issues.

Working with journalists over the years we have often heard them express a sense of isolation, fatigue and low morale when working on these issues. The newspapers they work for don’t seem as concerned with social writing as they are with political and infotainment writing. Some of us at Pipal Tree are writers and journalists who have keenly begun to feel a need to informally network with journalists to see if we can raise a support group. The Journalist’s Alliance is an international community of concerned and socially aware journalists who interact with one another through small group meetings, e-mail and a blog (devoted to reflections on the experience of development writing –the frustrations and rewards). The Alliance acts as a support group that offers journalists a sense of community and solidarity. Pipal Tree coordinates and facilitates this interaction between individuals and groups. Apart from reporting and features, journalists from this group post news/views/analysis and reflections on the blog.

4/ Fireflies Ashram is an inclusive secular Ashram open to all spiritual traditions concerned with personal growth, social engagement and environmental action. Fireflies aims at bringing together a community of friends and soul mates who revere the Earth as their first mother.

Earth Spirituality deals with the interconnectedness of human beings with each other and the Earth. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we are all intimately connected with trees, birds, animals and all other human beings. We have co-evolved with the rocks and the waters. We are not merely beings, we are inter-beings. Each step that we take on Earth is sacred and is connected to everything else. This awareness enhances our joy.

Fireflies encourages the view that all great religious traditions are the collective heritage of humankind. However, we also respect those who feel the need to deepen their understanding and practice of any one single spiritual tradition.

At Fireflies, we acknowledge and learn from the wisdom of seers and sages such as Gautama Buddha, Kabir, Christ, Basava, Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Ramana Maharishi, and J. Krishnamurthi. We also strongly believe in the contribution that secular thinking has made to the advancement of human freedoms. In this light, we consider it important to integrate modern secular thinking with those intuitive insights that give deeper meaning to our daily lives. The sacred and the secular have to converge and fuse if we are to solve the grim personal, social and environmental problems facing humanity today.

Fireflies nestles among trees, on land that slope towards a lake. It has simple but comfortable accommodation for visitors as well as a meditation hall, a conference hall, an amphitheatre, a traditional dining hall, a well-stocked library and ample walkways for a refreshing saunter. For more Information: www.fireflies.org.in

Apart from practicing a simple lifestyle, we also work with poor farmers and women to improve their agricultural practices. We practice organic agriculture ourselves and the expertise we have developed is imparted to the small farmers around us.

5/ The Fireflies Intercultural Centre holds regular workshops round the year on themes such as ‘Religions and Ecology’, ‘Conflict-Resolution Amidst Inter-Religious Conflict’, ‘Water Conservation’, ‘Organic Farming’, ‘The Empowerment of Women in Poor Communities’, ‘Creative Literature and Personal/Social Meaning’, ‘Yoga’, and ‘Spirituality For Our Times.’ The workshops bring together teachers, students, social workers, women, intellectuals, writers and businessmen. In addition to discussions, participants also have the option to commune with nature, meditate, read poetry and explore personal and social journeys.

It has also organized international workshops dealing with development themes in Thailand, Philippines, Nepal, Japan, Australia and other countries. The first international planning meeting of the World Social Forum in India in the year 2001 was held at this centre. The meeting was convened by Mr. Siddhartha, Executive Trustee of Pipal Tree.

At Fireflies Intercultural Centre, members have opportunities to study and take action on local environmental issues, to empower women and organic farmers, to promote peace among communities in conflict, to tend to trees and gardens, to help in the conservation of our fast-depleting water resources, and to welcome a steady stream of local and international visitors. Many also engage in personal reading and writing as well as in deepening their practice of yoga, meditation and chanting.

6/ Fireflies Art Village. Fireflies has always emphasized the importance of art in creating convivial societies. The Art Village today includes a sculptor unit in granite and copper. It also has a weaving unit, which is attempting to train a group of poor village women. A pottery training unit also functions. The Art Village has a strong social and ecological emphasis.

7/ The Charter of Human Responsibilities is a response to the social, economic, political and ecological crisis of the present era. It is a response to the widening economic gaps within and between nations, the concentration of economic and political power in ever-fewer hands, threats to cultural diversity, or the over-exploitation of natural resources creating unrest and conflicts world-wide with deep concerns of the future of our planet. It is not a response to the short-term concerns of any human activity. Rather, it enshrines some general principles, to be shared by all those who endorse it.

The Charter of Human Responsibilities is a call to recognize the imperative need to assume new responsibilities at the individual as well as the collective level.

The Charter of Human Responsibilities is not an end in itself. It highlights the essence of the common elements of many suggestions of many groups. It is only an initial framework for us to discuss, add on and grow.

As a group of concerned activists, we have been trying ways of finding a solution. And this charter is just a tentative approach to it. More like a sounding board that can bounce off ideas for a world of responsibility and solidarity.

This charter is a call for us to come together to overcome our feeling of powerlessness in the face of the major crises of today’s world Crises like the gulf between the South and the North, between the poor and the rich, between men and women, between nature and humankind. And a common “Platform » is created for people across all continents to share their experiences and ideas in almost fields of human endeavour, and to frame proposals for a life of dignity for all human beings and for the preservation of the planet.

8/ Fireflies Semester. Pipal Tree holds two university semesters each year. The semesters bring university students to the Pipal Tree-Fireflies campus from January to April and August to November. Credits are awarded by the Pipal Tree Committee and ratified by the respective Universities. The semester is organized around the themes of Critique of Development, Social and Environmental empowerment and Indian Culture and Social Life.

9/ Pipal Tree-Irenees Programme

Irenees is a key actor in the pro-motion of non-violent conflict transformation with programmes in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa.

The principal responsibility of the Pipal Tree-Irenees programme is to document best practices and methodologies in a variety of social areas related to right to work, child rights, water, inter-religious conflict resolution & harmony, tribal empowerment and other relevant areas.

This programme is also concerned with the promotion of non-violent approaches to social change in conjunction with Indian partner organizations.

Contact:

• Pipal Tree, 139/7 Domlur Layout, Bangalore 560071, India.
• Tel: 0091 805 351 756
• Fax: 0091 805 351 086