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Introduction
- thought provoking quotations
As we are starting to look into Gandhian
philosophy and praxis on ecology, it will be very appropriate to start with
what Bapuji has said regarding environmental
issue to ignite our mind.
(i)
The earth, the air, the land and the water are not an inheritance from our fore
parents but on loan from our children. So we have to handover to them at least
as it been handed over to us.[1]
(ii)
The riches of the Earth are enough to meet everyone’s need but not to satisfy everyone’s
greed.[2]
(iii)
Wildlife is decreasing in the jungles, but it is increasing in the towns.[3]
(iv)
I do believe that all God’s creatures have the right to live as much as we
have.[4]
These
quotations become an ethical line to modern environmentalism. From a quick
glance on it, one may have an insight to what methodological framework to
employ for the studies on Gandhian thought and action pertaining to ecological
issue.
The
rationale - Why Gandhi’s philosophy and praxis?
Gandhi was the pre-eminent leader of Indian
independence movement in the British-ruled India. He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community. He attempted to practice non-violence and truth in
all situations, and advocated that others do the same. He led nationwide
campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and
ethnic amity, ending untouchability, but above all for achieving swaraj
or self-rule. Employing non-violent
civil
disobedience movement, he led India
to independence in 1947, and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom
across the world. That is why he was widely described as ‘father of the Indian
nation.’ His birthday, 2nd
October, is commemorated as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday,
and world-wide as the International
Day of Nonviolence.[5] Scholars had done
innumerable studies on his thought and actions.
His philosophy and
praxis incredibly proved to
be convincing and influential by becoming the groundwork in nation building.
Most
of Gandhi’s published works have relatively little to convey about ecological
issue. It is striking that he hardly explicitly initiated an environmental
movement, nor does the word ecology appear in his writings.[6] His ideas about human
connectedness with nature is not explicit, therefore must be inferred from an
overall consideration of his works.[7] So, in order to comprehend
ecological dimensions of Gandhian thinking and practice, sometimes one must
need to go beyond the ordinary implications of his thought and practices.
Besides, the environmental concern as we understand today was not that much a
burning issue during his time, but his ideas on development, technology, self
sufficiency, village swaraj, etc. disclose his environmental concern. Different
streams of environmental philosophy have paid their indebtedness to Gandhi. His
thought gave to the society a new vision to harmonize nature with the needs of
the people.[8]
This clearly shows that his philosophy
and praxis has meaningful
implication in today’s quest for ecological justice. His spirit has undoubtedly
moved philosophers and environmentalists all over the world.
Satya/truth, ahimsa/non-violence and
tapyasa/self-sacrifice
Gandhi
was not an environmentalist in modern sense. He did not create a green
philosophy but he is often described as ‘an apostle of applied human ecology.’
His views on nature are scattered throughout his writings. His ideas relating
to satyagraha based on truth and
non-violence, simple life style, and development reveal how sustainable
development is possible without doing any harm to nature and our fellow beings.[9]
These three concepts are his fundamental philosophy all his life.
To
Gandhi, non-violence/ahimsa means
non-injury in thought, word and deed; not only to human life, but of all living
things. It illustrates oneness of life.[10]
Truth/satya can be achieved only by means
of non-violence. It affords the fullest protection to one’s self respect and
sense of honor. Self-sacrifice/tapyasa
is necessary to achieve the highest truth.[11]
He believed in non-duality/advaita
and the essential unity of human and all that lives.[12]
In this sense, if one human gains spirituality, the whole world gains; if one
human fails, the whole world fails. Therefore, Gandhi’s ecological scope is
unlimited with these metaphysical principles as they attributed to all living
and non-living beings. Besides, ecological preservation is non-violent in
nature which needs true sacrifice on the part of human wants.
Cosmic law and law of species
The
green thoughts of Gandhi gave us a new vision to harmonize nature with the
needs of the people. He considered the earth as living organism. His ideas were
expressed in terms of two fundamental laws. (i) Cosmic law that views the
entire universe as a single entity. (ii) The law of species without which the
cooperation and sacrifice of both human and non-human beings evolution is not
possible.[13]
It appears that he evolves these principles from his understanding of different
religious traditions. His whole socio-economic and political idea seems to be framed
on the understanding of interdependence of the whole universe.
Economics
motive vis-a-vis environmental concern
Gandhi’s
economics has to be studied with: first, from the view point of his moral,
ideals and spiritual principles. Second, he did not separate economics from
ethics. Third, he considered economics as the constituent of larger indivisible
whole, not of independent human activity.[14] In the light of these
three, one should examine Gandhian
economics motive.
Gandhi inspired
movements for civil rights as said earlier. His influences are seen in some
social movement like Chipko Movement
and Narmada Bachao Andolan. ‘The
critique of modern mega projects and heavy industrialization, the focus on
people’s decentralized management and heavy industrialization, the focus on people’s
methods of protest are among the indicators of Gandhian motives.’[15]
Gandhian
economics focused on the need for economic self-sufficiency at the village
level. His policy of sarvodaya called
for ending poverty through improved agriculture and small-scale cottage
industries in every village. He
challenged Nehru and the modernizers in the late 1930s who called for rapid
industrialization on the Soviet model; he denounced it as dehumanizing and
contrary to the needs of the villages where the great majority of the people
lived.[16] Moreover, he criticized
modern western culture and economy. He identifies human greed as the root cause
of exploitation by imperialism and industrialism which leads to depletion of
resources. For him, environmental degradation can be avoided only by opting
against the unlimited multiplication of wants and the global chase for resources
and means to satisfy human self.[17] He was against market
oriented profit making and money economy as the controlling principle since its
marginalized natural resources and larger masses.
According to Gandhi,
a country must drop dollar chasing civilization and return to simple life.
Here, he didn’t equate this return with animal hunting and fruit gathering;
but, his eco-vision is non-violent agrarian economy which would take care of
the basic human needs through a careful, non-destructive house holding of the
resources. His famous sentence quoted at the beginning of the paper sums up his
environmental philosophy and ethic. For him, the issue is not to move from
anthropocentrism to biocentrism or eco-centrism, but from greed-driven economy
to need-oriented economy.[18] At the same time, his
thought is not free of criticism.[19] Anyway, there is no doubt
that his motives did play a significant role in environmental movements.
True economics,
according to Gandhi, never militates against the highest ethical standard, it stands
for social justice; promote the good of all in equality that is inclusive for the
weakest and is indispensable for decent life.[20] If Gandhi had been alive
in the 1990s, it is probable that he would start a social movement against the
‘New Economic Policy’ of Indian Government that ushered the country into
liberalization, globalization and privatization which again resulted into
marginalization of weaker sections and natural resources. He promoted and wrote
extensively about the importance and urgent need for organizing cottage
industries, khadi and village
industries.[21]
While western environmentalists spread the message of ‘going back to the
nature,’ he spread the message of ‘going back to the villages,’ and believed
that ‘the blood of the village is the cement with which the edifice of the
cities is built.’[22] This doesn’t mean that he
was against development. His first basic principle was ‘simple living and high
thinking’[23]
which means the simple, eco-friendly and people friendly development that
sustained civilization is what he longed for. If not, he believed that villages
would soon disappear due to urbanization of which environmental degradation is
a product.
Ecological
economics
Gandhi asserted that true economics stands for
social justice. It promotes the good of all equally, including the weakest and
is indispensable for decent life. Gandhian economic concepts are use of home
made goods/swadeshi, trusteeship,
bread labor, etc. received attention and acceptance from the whole world. The
economic ideas of Gandhi differed from conventional economics and bore close
resemblance with ecological economics. His ideal of vision of the world known
as universal uplift/sarvodaya
safeguards the rights of future generations through the progress/welfare of
all. Dr. J.C. Kumarappa summed up Gandhian economic ideas as constituting
philosophy that sought to create an economy of permanence.[24]
Farm
yard manures
Gandhi had, on many
occasions, emphasized that the country should promote greater use of farm-yard
and green manures for enriching the poor soil. This instance led to the plea
that cattle should be developed as one of the basic unit of rural economy.
Artificial manures, if used, must be properly mixed with compost manure in
order to achieve a proper balance of soil fertility.[25]
Critique
to modern civilization
Gandhi
believed that modern industrial civilization propagates nothing other than
hunger for wealth and the greedy pursuit of worldly pressures. He criticizes it
as satanic, and observed that machinery represents a great sin that
impoverished India. The point is, he was not against the technology, but
disagrees with the technologism which creates hierarchical relationship among
human as well as between human and nature. He believed that the greatest
achievements of modern civilization have been weapons of mass destruction,
awful growth of anarchism, frightful disputes between capital and labor and
cruelty inflicted on innocent, dumb, living animals in the name of science and
technology. He believed science to be science only if afforded the fullest
scope for satisfying the hunger of body, mind and soul.[26] This critique is based on
his work Hind Swaraj, which he
published in1909.
People’s
remarks
Scholars of
those who had done a depth study on Gandhi’s philosophy and praxis given him a
high regards. Let’s look into some remarks relating to ecological issue. According
to Ramachandra Guha, Gandhi is an early environmentalist. Some social thinkers
regarded Gandhi as a man with deep ecological view of life.[27] For Arne Naess, a
Norwegian philosopher and deep ecologist, Gandhi’s Utopia is one of the few
that shows ecological balance, and his rejection of western material abundance
and waste is accepted as ecological movement.[28] To Vinay Lal, Gandhi was a deep ecologist long
before the term had arisen.[29]
Considering these regards, by looking deep inside Gandhism, what is very
crucial for us is ‘who do we say Gandhi for the 21st century
society?’ Our answer may be different, but to a large extent, no can deny the
implication of his ecological ethics for today’s society where materialism and
consumerism is rampant.
Ghandhian thought in action
Environmental
movement in India used Gandhi’s satyagraha
as the moral equivalent of war. Forest satyagraha
was first used effectively in Chipko movement to protest against
deforestation. Gandhian techniques like journey by foot/padayatras were conducted to save nature. Conflict resolution
techniques based on non-violence and self-sacrifice were used by environmental
activists like Chandi Prasad Bhatt, Baba Amte, Sunderlal Bahuguna, Medha Patkar
and other.[30]
So far as the Indian environmental movements are concerned, the issues are often
between opposite interest groups or companies, or between state and the people.
The movements are often led by peasant groups or local indigenous people. For
instance, singur land dispute, protest against kudankulam nuclear project, Narmada
movement and Chipko movement as we’ve seen. All these are in the form of
struggle for the protection of livelihood and resources with some form of
self-determination that rightly deserves respect even from the perspective of
natural law of justice.
Conclusion
The
potentials of Gandhian holistic view of the world and his principles of ecology
can be used as guiding principles, for finding solutions for a new eco-friendly
world order.[31]
From the discussion so far in this paper, one can observed that, for Gandhi, the
Indian situation demand a new vision on economics which is centered on
agriculture and village industries. As he conceptualized the new economic order
based on ecological balance, in which the village romanticism has been
considered as central to his environmental philosophy; going back to the his
thought is essential to build up a green future where there is no place for
human greed. ‘This is Utopia!’ must be a response from many people. However,
one must keep in mind that we need to quest for the applicable element which
will be efficiently positioned in our critical condition.
[2] Bas
Wielenga, Towards an Eco-Just Society
(Bangalore: CSA, 1999), 123.
[3] Vinay Lal, “Gandhian Ecology,” in https://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Gandhi/Gandhian_ecology.html
(27.6.2015).
[4] Thomas
Webber, “Gandhi and Deep Ecology,” in http://www.mkgandhi.org/environment/envt.htm
(27.6.2015).
[5] Wikipedia, (4.7.2015).
[6] Vinay
Lal, Gandhian Ecology, (27.6.2015).
[7] Thomas Webber, Gandhi
and Deep Ecology, (27.6.2015).
[8] A.S.
Sasikala, “Environmental Thoughts of Gandhi for a Green Future,” in
http:/www.mkgandhi.org/articles/green_future.thm (27.6.2015).
[9] A.S.
Sasikala, Environmental Thoughts of
Gandhi for a Green Future, (27.6.2015).
[10] Thomas Webber, Gandhi
and Deep Ecology, (27.6.2015).
[11] A.S.
Sasikala, Environmental Thoughts of
Gandhi for a Green Future, (27.6.2015).
[12] Thomas Webber, Gandhi
and Deep Ecology, (27.6.2015).
[13] A.S.
Sasikala, Environmental Thoughts of
Gandhi for a Green Future, (27.6.2015).
[14] M.P.
Mathai, Mahatma Gandhi’s World-View
(New Delhi: Gandhi Peace Foundation, 2000), 180.
[15] Bas Wielenga, Towards an
Eco-Just Society., 122.
[16] Wikipedia, (4.7.2015).
[17] Bas Wielenga, Towards an
Eco-Just Society., 122.
[18] Bas Wielenga, Towards an
Eco-Just Society., 123.
[19] (i) The
idealization of village economy tends to overlook the deep social divisions of
rural social-economy; (ii) rural-urban migration for job hunting was not solved
as people have poor access to resources; (iii) a vision for social
transformation was lacking [cf. Bas Wielenga, Towards an Eco-Just Society., 124].
[20] M.P.
Mathai, Mahatma Gandhi’s World-View., 199.
[21] Shriman
Narayan, Gandhi: The Man and His Thought,
Reprint (New Delhi: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of GoI, 1972), 36
& 40.
[22] A.S.
Sasikala, Environmental Thoughts of
Gandhi for a Green Future, (27.6.2015).
[23] Shriman
Narayan, Gandhi: The Man and His Thought.,
36.
[24] A.S.
Sasikala, Environmental Thoughts of
Gandhi for a Green Future, (27.6.2015).
[25] Shriman
Narayan, Gandhi: The Man and His
Thought., 46 & 47.
[26] A.S.
Sasikala, Environmental Thoughts of
Gandhi for a Green Future, (27.6.2015).
[27] A.S. Sasikala, Environmental
Thoughts of Gandhi for a Green Future, (27.6.2015).
[28] Thomas Webber,
Gandhi and Deep Ecology, (27.6.2015).
[29] Vinay
Lal, Gandhian Ecology, (27.6.2015).
[30] A.S. Sasikala, Environmental Thoughts of Gandhi for a
Green Future, (27.6.2015).
[31]
Poonam Kumaria, “Nature and Man: Gandhian Concept of Deep Ecology,” in
http:/www.gandhi-sevegram-ashram.in/articles/gandhian-view-on-environment.html
(4.7.2015).
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