The Ganga River basin is home to more than 400 million people. Yet most of the public discussions about the health of India’s iconic river have been centered for generations around the archaic ideas of old men who occupy the higher bureaucratic posts in government.
Where are the voices of the river people? The nation’s farmers? The fishing communities? The artists and ordinary citizens who live on the river’s banks and depend on its waters?
In 2016, after finishing my studies as an aerospace engineer, I decided to set out on a listening journey, on foot, along the entire 1,680-mile length of the Ganga. I wanted to understand the actual ground realities of the river, not rely on the usual assertions of politicians or holy men wrapped in saffron robes. Or even the occasional environmentalist, whose aim may be to control a river as a resource rather than see it for the complete ecosystem that it is.
This is how Veditum India Foundation was born: a grassroots organization set up to learn about India’s environment and culture at boot level, and amplify the voices of communities.
Siddharth Agarwal crosses the Ganga during his river trek with the Out of Eden Walk.
Paul Salopek
My first walk along Ganga proved to be an experiment to test out this idea. Starting from the mouth of the river, at the Bay of Bengal, I walked upstream following the river’s curving banks. Within the first month, alternative narratives started emerging. Villagers on both sides of the massive Farakka dam, built in 1972 in West Bengal, told me of massive disruptions in their lives that weren’t reflected in popular discussions.
“The Ganga has become very unpredictable now,” a senior citizen told me as we sat in a roadside tea shack some miles upstream of the dam. “In the past 40 years I've built 12 houses. Eleven are now part of the river. The river would always meander, but never at this rate.”
By the end of my six-month Ganga walk, which rambled through dirty cities, remote villages, steaming rice and jute fields, past countless shrines, and ended at the river’s source at the 13,000-foot Gangotri glacier, in the Himalayas, I’d become convinced that the concept of connecting to India’s river lands, people-to-people, one step at a time, would work.
Soon after completing several other long river walks in central India, I had the opportunity to join Paul Salopek on the Out of Eden Walk. I will never forget one landmark day along our shared 900 miles of the trail, when we sat under a neem tree by the side of a canal and tweeted out the first call for applications from Indian nationals from all backgrounds for the Moving Upstream fellowship—a joint effort between Veditum and the Out of Eden Walk.
Moving Upstream supports young Indians in trekking along stretches of rivers for up to two weeks, living among the local communities and documenting what they learn in the medium they choose.
Siddharth Agarwal crosses the Ganga during his river trek with the Out of Eden Walk.
Paul Salopek
My first walk along Ganga proved to be an experiment to test out this idea. Starting from the mouth of the river, at the Bay of Bengal, I walked upstream following the river’s curving banks. Within the first month, alternative narratives started emerging. Villagers on both sides of the massive Farakka dam, built in 1972 in West Bengal, told me of massive disruptions in their lives that weren’t reflected in popular discussions.
“The Ganga has become very unpredictable now,” a senior citizen told me as we sat in a roadside tea shack some miles upstream of the dam. “In the past 40 years I've built 12 houses. Eleven are now part of the river. The river would always meander, but never at this rate.”
By the end of my six-month Ganga walk, which rambled through dirty cities, remote villages, steaming rice and jute fields, past countless shrines, and ended at the river’s source at the 13,000-foot Gangotri glacier, in the Himalayas, I’d become convinced that the concept of connecting to India’s river lands, people-to-people, one step at a time, would work.
Soon after completing several other long river walks in central India, I had the opportunity to join Paul Salopek on the Out of Eden Walk. I will never forget one landmark day along our shared 900 miles of the trail, when we sat under a neem tree by the side of a canal and tweeted out the first call for applications from Indian nationals from all backgrounds for the Moving Upstream fellowship—a joint effort between Veditum and the Out of Eden Walk.
Moving Upstream supports young Indians in trekking along stretches of rivers for up to two weeks, living among the local communities and documenting what they learn in the medium they choose.
Map by Siddharth Agarwal. Map may not reflect National Geographic's current map policy.
Two fellowship cycles have now taken place, and eight fellows have spent months walking hundreds of miles along the Betwa River in central India, creating a rich documentation of the river and life around it. Our fellows have included architects, urban planners, ecologists, wildlife biologists, product designers, artists, and journalists.
Ready to mail: River-walking "zines" prepared by Moving Upstream fellow Kabini Amin.
Photo by Kabini Amin
Looking at the work created from these walks is extremely encouraging. It points to the potential in the simple act of walking as well as the value in having varied perspectives on the human and natural worlds. Even with all the effort involved in hosting these fellowships, the final outcomes have often exceeded all expectations.
The walked experiences have translated into many diverse products—a thesis project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; a fabulous series of online and paper “zines”; photographs, drawings, and articles featured in various publications in India; and just as important, a methodology that enables civic and environmental organizations to turn their lenses toward this means of citizen-geography. More storytelling outcomes, including documentary films, are on their way.
Along with this multimedia work, we at Veditum are working hard to make our archives accessible to researchers, journalists, and the public at large. We hope this will encourage other organizations working on river issues in India to open up their archives as well.
Ready to mail: River-walking "zines" prepared by Moving Upstream fellow Kabini Amin.
Photo by Kabini Amin
Looking at the work created from these walks is extremely encouraging. It points to the potential in the simple act of walking as well as the value in having varied perspectives on the human and natural worlds. Even with all the effort involved in hosting these fellowships, the final outcomes have often exceeded all expectations.
The walked experiences have translated into many diverse products—a thesis project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; a fabulous series of online and paper “zines”; photographs, drawings, and articles featured in various publications in India; and just as important, a methodology that enables civic and environmental organizations to turn their lenses toward this means of citizen-geography. More storytelling outcomes, including documentary films, are on their way.
Along with this multimedia work, we at Veditum are working hard to make our archives accessible to researchers, journalists, and the public at large. We hope this will encourage other organizations working on river issues in India to open up their archives as well.
Moving Upstream fellow Radhika Singh with the family who sheltered her for the night in Jamori, a village on the Betwa River.
Shail Joshi
What does it take to walk a river in India?
Our fellowships have a few simple guidelines: always ask for help as you walk, listen, and record. There are no set rules. It still amazes me how the simple act of walking has the ability to break the hegemony of the news cycle and our short attention spans—our addiction to speed—and to counter the tyranny of roads.
There is no secret formula to the wisdom of walking.
Siddharth Agarwal has been walking across India, following rivers, trying to document and bring stories of marginalized people and the environment into the culture at large. He can be reached on twitter at @sidagarwal
Moving Upstream fellow Radhika Singh with the family who sheltered her for the night in Jamori, a village on the Betwa River.
Shail Joshi
What does it take to walk a river in India?
Our fellowships have a few simple guidelines: always ask for help as you walk, listen, and record. There are no set rules. It still amazes me how the simple act of walking has the ability to break the hegemony of the news cycle and our short attention spans—our addiction to speed—and to counter the tyranny of roads.
There is no secret formula to the wisdom of walking.
Siddharth Agarwal has been walking across India, following rivers, trying to document and bring stories of marginalized people and the environment into the culture at large. He can be reached on twitter at @sidagarwal