(IN): Saving Grace

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Link: http://www.assamtribune.com/hori.html

 

Saving Grace by Pranjal Bezborah

 

Since times immemorial nature has been centrestage in the cultural

landscape of Indian consciousness. From an average Indian's birth to

his death, via marriage, family life, earning livelihood,

participating in public life, etc, the dynamics of his life are found

to be extensively permeated by nature. This is why in the country's

cultural lexicon nature is always referred to a Mother Nature as it

sustains the streams of life of the average Indian, through all thick

and thin.

 

This is why from ancient times nature has been associated with

attributes like spontaneity, purity, freshness, sacredness, fertility

and even divinity. Nature worship, therefore, continues in one form or

another in different spectra of society, tribal, rural, and urban.

Nature worship is not merely to propitiate Mother Nature to seek her

favours of pursuits, this-worldly as well as otherworldly, but more

importantly, to signify one's faith in the invigorating value of

nature to ensure continuity of life endowed with safety, vitality and

bliss.

 

Today when the country is standing at the threshold of the 21st

century that has already ushered in the challenging era of

modernization, globalization and ceaseless material development, it is

in great need of the blessings of nature to meet the troika of these

three-fold overpowering challenges. Imagine how the race for

unrestrained industrialization, technologization, mechanization,

commercialization, urbanization, etc., has harmed nature and disrupted

the ecological balance built over millennia of human history. This

phenomenon starkly negates the spirit of friendliness between nature

and science.

 

Disregard of nature is culturally foreign to Indian consciousness.

Every generation has considered itself to be a trustee of the

resources of Mother Nature for its generation next, yet to be born.

The scriptures bear a testimony to this philosophy. And historically,

this philosophy was sought to be transmitted from generation to

generation through education imparted in the sylvan surroundings of

gurukula, ashrama, pathsala and vihar. Even the famous seats of higher

learning like Taxshila, Nalanda, Vikramshila, Vallabhi, etc, followed

the maxim of education through nature, in the midst of nature, in

conformity with nature, for the preservation of nature. And it was

that education which shaped generation after generation of the civil

society of the India of the yore.

 

The country inherited that nature-compliant system education from its

hoary past. The system not only survived in full bloom but also got

enriched, strengthened and diversified through the later cultural

periods of the Bouddhas, Jains, Kushans, Shakas and Muslims. However,

under the British colonial rule, that brought in its wake the forces

of mercantilism, capitalism, monopolistic market economy,

mechanization and exploitative governance, the umbilical cord of

native education with Mother Nature was snapped.

 

In post-independence India too, barring cosmetic changes in the

system, education remained divorced from the groundswell of native

culture, namely, the philosophy of naturalism of ancient seers, of

Tagore, and Arvind Ghosh; the philosophy of idealism of Vivekananda

and Dr Radhakrishnan; and the philosophy of humanistic nationalism of

Mahatma Gandhi, Dr Zakir Hussain and Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad.

 

The defining moment in the country's history arrived in a flash when

it found itself caught in the " Hailstorm of overpowering forces

released by the massive onslaught of globalization, privatization and

liberalization. " The erstwhile quiet ethos got shaken by a powerful

torrent of competition, marketization, knowledge explosion,

technological innovations, and a rising tide of aspirations to get

transformed into a fully developed nation, a nuclear weapon state, a

world power of high eminence in economy, science, technology, military

might and geopolitical clout.

 

But this defining moment has proved to be a moment of crucial moral

crisis for the country. Even though it must aspire to be transformed

into a developed country sooner than what its president Dr. Kalam

dreams of. His time frame being 2020, it must sincerely endeavour to

realize the dream of development with a human face and an

environment-friendly ethos. It must aim at building a civil society

based on a synergy of science and spirituality, of nature and

technology, of a high standard of living with an equally high standard

of life and of the mundane law with the moral law. And this can be

accomplished only through an ongoing process of environment-compliant

education for the human resources of the country.

 

However, this likely to prove to be a hard task, for all these years,

we have experimented with modes other than direct education to address

the problems created by environmental degradation. And problems have

been plenty — ill-health, death, disentitlement, poverty, internal

displacement, grave human rights violations, particularly of the

rights to life with dignity, to own and enjoy property, to freedom to

earn a living and to have equality before law, and of course, law and

order. There have been agitations too — the Chipko movement led by

Sundarlal Bahuguna, and the Narmada Bachao Andolan led by Medha Patkar

have been legendary agitations. The struggle by the victims of the

Union Carbide gas leakage disaster of Bhopal too has been a unique

fight through satyagraha as well as judiciary. Public interest

litigation is an innovative tool for redressing injustice caused by

environmental crime. MC Mehta, the activist from Delhi, has been a

pioneer of legal activism. It was his initiative that has made Delhi

free from air pollution and saved the famous Taj Mahal from the blight

of discoloration caused by industrial fumes in Agra.

 

And we should not forget the newly emerged judicial activism in the

country to make the law of the land prevail, when the other two arms

of the state, viz., the executive and the legislature, look other way.

The problems of noise pollution created by the use of loudspeakers at

night on religious grounds or for celebrations or by bursting fire

crackers in Diwali or in marriage processions were firmly handled by

the Supreme Court intervening to protect the Civil Society based on

respect for law, for nature and for life in any from.

 

It is, however, unfortunate that power politics, considerations of

electoral gains, greed for economic windfalls and disregard of human

values generate a mindset of eco-indifference and in extreme cases

eco-hostility. Take the case of the agencies in charge of the control

of pollution in states. In many instances it is both in spite of them

and because of them that the provisions for environmental discipline

are being flouted by polluting industries with impunity. Of course,

this does not mean that measures like popular movements, social

mobilization, legal activities, judicial intervention, and legislative

or executive actions have no place in the civil society's endeavours

to enhance environmental quality and to remedy digressions. In fact,

they do yield an indirect educational fallout, too inasmuch as they

spread awareness about the importance of environmental sanity.

However, these measures are predominantly reactive. They originate

with a problem, and end with it, too. They are not durable in their

ultimate impact on a citizen, his attitudes, his convictions, and his

character. For that purpose we need formal education.

 

Education is a proactive force bringing about modification in a

person's behaviour on a durable basis. It helps in laying the

foundation of a sound moral character and a disciplined civil

citizenship that would see the recipient through many a crisis, like

crime against environment, which is philosophically, and realistically

crime against civil society. It is therefore, necessary that a

multipronged and multilevel study of the complex issues of sustainable

environment as a value is incorporated into the curriculum of the

education system of the country at all its stages — school, college

and university.

 

Pranjal Bezborah