Placed in the heart of the exhibition space, the seeds with their individual names form a protected fluid core representing the wisdom and expertise of local food sovereignty.  Found at “the scene of crime” and under threat of permanent disappearance, the seeds are the vocabulary of an extensive knowledge system that has been shared, experimented with, and developed over decades.

When Natabar Sarangi, a former schoolteacher recently turned rice farmer and seed activist, started cultivating rice a decade ago, he found only a handful of different seeds still in use in Odisha. He remembered all the various species of rice from his childhood, along with their shapes, tastes, and natural qualities. To preserve this rich heritage and to bring it back into the natural cycles of cultivation, he set out to collect, grow, harvest, disseminate, and archive the seeds. In The Sovereign Forest, 272 individual species of rice are represented, with each type of seed displayed in a handmade container, labeled, and archived with great care.

Accompanying the seeds are six small books that compile texts and photographic evidence. They recount the manifold levels of resistance, not only against political and corporate violations but also against the loss of memory of the dead and disappeared and of the passage of time in the struggle to preserve, resist, and survive.

The Constitution is a book about knowledge that is not scripted. The woven pages of this book suggest necessary chapters that are missing from all national constitutions.

The Prediction foretells the assassination of Shankar Guha Niyogi, the leader of probably the largest democratic mass movement of workers, peasants and tribals in post Independent India. Niyogi predicts his own murder, which occurred on 28th September 1991. Leading industrialists were convicted of the crime but the Supreme Court of India overturned the rulings in 2005.

The three large handmade books, each with their own films, are The Counting Sisters, The Prediction and The Constitution. Visitors are invited to turn the pages and read all the books. The Counting Sisters is a fascinating collection of stories with evidence that is embedded inside the paper such as a fishing net, a cloth garment, rice seeds, a betel leaf and a newspaper. The six Counting Sisters are mourners who count the dead, the disappeared and many more things and The One Alone counts the living.

On Shankar Guha Niyogi’s last testament.