Environmental Activism of Sunderlal Bahuguna: a New Model of Social Reconstruction

ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM OF SUNDERLAL BAHUGUNA: A NEW MODEL OF SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION

1Arpan Bhattacharya and 2Dr. Gouri Sankar Nag 1Assistant Professor and Head and 2Professor and Head 1&2Department of Political Science 1Ramananda College and 2Sidho Kanho Birsha University 1Bishnupur and2Purulia West Bengal. India

Abstract As regards Bahuguna’s thought and his propagation of small community based and need based approach to environment, what is conspicuous is the inherent thread of local consensus that can serve as the life blood of ‘communitarian form of environmentalism’. Its strong point is not the technological bulwark but rather it inheres in the legitimacy that such form of environmentalism enjoys. It is neither too much consumerism oriented and profligate nor it is idealistic in the sense of western copybook version of conservatism.

Keywords:Environment, Social Reconstruction, Bulwark.

Introduction The paper on which we shall discuss focuses on the ideas and activities of Sri Sunderlal Bahuguna (1927- till now), a well- known figure to the students of Indian Environmentalism. To put things in the proper perspective I would like to begin by highlighting a few points having bearing on the topic and which would actually help us to understand the basic framework of this research paper. First of all, we should keep in mind a few basic distinctions between the two strands of thought. One is the Western Environmentalism and the Indian paradigm (although it is a divided house without much congruence) in which I have tried to locate environmental activism of Sunderlal Bahuguna.

Secondly, it is also important to appreciate the fact that Indian environmentalism, i.e., the discourse associated with it, started with Bahuguna’s activism. In fact, he was an activist rather than as a well-knit thinker, consciously developing his discourse. Rather, if we stretch our compass, we would definitely discover that before Bahuguna there were a few thinkers like Rabindranath Tagore, Baker, Radhakamal Mukherjee, J C Kumarappa and others who tended to take an intellectual view of the Indian reflection and philosophy woven with culture and nature. Yet the credit goes to Bahuguna for his pioneering initiatives that centre on different aspects and facets of environmental activism in post-independent India. Today he is considered as an iconic figure because his involvement could lift the Chipko movement to the higher level of national and international prominence. Although the movement had already started with the local women of Bishnoi community participating in the protection of the trees, Bahuguna’s role in this movement gave it a pan-Indian orientation. It was not only a turning point of Bahuguna’s life, but it was a veritable turning point of Indian environmentalism also. It was because earlier Indian environmentalism was confined to the elitist concern whereas the contribution of Sunderlal Bahuguna lies in the fact that he could sense the urgency to protect the natural habitat- albeit at a local pocket of Tehri and the nature of his role in this particular regard which according to famous journalist T S Sudhir was of a ‘Gandhian fakir’.

Relevance of the Study It is also very important to understand that environmental activism was not an exclusive aspect of Bahuguna’s realm of ideas, nor his thought process was trained for that. Yet, his willingness and involvement in the local movements from anti-liquor to the protection of trees constituted an integral part in the entire gamut of his social philosophy that emerged in the course of his journey from radical politics to social activism and particularly his upholding of the Gandhian notion that imparted a distinct orientation to his quest for the ideals of peace, harmony, consensus, voluntary action and above all, quest of freedom.

It would not be too much to say that Sunderlal Bahuguna’s thought particularly his broader vision of social reconstruction can be said to fit with the framework of eminent Professor Morris Jones when in his seminal work ‘Govt and Politics in India’ he talked about three idioms to characterize the Indian political scenario. We all knew that these three idioms are- traditional, modern and saintly politics. Needless to say, that Sunderlal Bahuguna’s thought particularly his environmental activism constituted the saintly idiom of Indian politics. That is why the influence of Vinoba Bhave on Sunderlal Bahuguna’s thought has been very important.

106

Although the environmental activities and movement, as led by Bahuguna, has influenced countless other struggles like the protests against large dam projects in India, this work intends mainly to focus on the environmental activism of Sunderlal Bahuguna from historical point of view. In doing so, the present research also seeks to analyse the process through which he sought to fulfill his mission to uphold an alternative model, a Schumacherian model of ‘Small Is Beautiful’ in contrast to existing market-oriented consumerist exploitative capitalist order. This is the hermeneutic to unravel which textual and contextual sources have been interpreted towards reconstruction of Sunderlal Bahuguna’s thought pertaining to various environmental movements since 1970s.

Methodology For the purpose of the present research various sources have been accessed for necessary data. Primary data have been gathered from books, articles, newspaper interviews of Sunderlal Bahuguna himself. Besides, interview with some other important personalities like Bharat Dogra have also been taken into account. Interview method has been applied in which open ended questions were put to facilitate informal conversations with experts to know various aspects of Bahuguna’s life story. This would help to understand the secondary data and also complement the primary data. The secondary data have been culled from the writings on Sunderlal Bahuguna by various scholars and commentators.

Simultaneously to corroborate the findings of the field my procedure has been to study published accounts of Bahuguna’s activism as well as essays he has written on a variety of environmental issues during 1970s and 1980s. In a nutshell, it provides us with a brief estimate of his complex of ideas, diverse activities, their limitations and also which disclosed his sense of modest, sometimes significant victories, such as the legislation that improved a ban on the felling of trees for commercial purposes in the then state of Uttar Pradesh. I have discussed specific historical events that occurred in the course of his public career, and the philosophical insights that have motivated him.

‘’In the beginning of his career he was carefree and political ups and downs hadn’t yet touched him. Then he met Sri Dev Suman, a radical Congress leader and this meeting changed his life. He gave him two books. First was ‘An appeal to the young’ by a Russian author Peter Croptokin and the other was the famous book written by Gandhi called ‘Hind Swaraj’. He was slowly attached with these ideas and under Dev Suman’s influence Bahuguna became interested in the freedom movement. When Dev Suman was arrested and incarcerated in the Tehri Jail, Bahuguna began to question the government of the state. At the age of seventeen he was arrested and it brought about a sea change in Sunderlal Bahuguna’s life and activities. In the beginning of his career, he was a leading revolutionary, he left the path of violence and adopted the line of nonviolence and three A’s i.e, Austerity, Alternatives, Afforestation imparted a distinct orientation to his mode of engagement. ‘’ (George Alfred James)

While contact with the Indian freedom fighter Sri Dev Suman revealed to Bahuguna the essence of Gandhi’s Satyagraha or nonviolent resistance against injustice, the real philosophical message of Gandhi’s rural constructive programme came through Mira Behn. It was through this association with Mira Behn that Bahuguna came to understand Gandhi’s philosophy which he realized “was quite different from what he had known [before]”. Further, Mira Behn initiated Bahuguna to ecology, inspired him to work for the hilly villages, and developed his understanding of the “relationship between the life of the villages and the life of nature”. The second major influence on Bahuguna, particularly his activism, was Sarala Behn (Catherine Mary Heilemann), another British woman who dedicated her life to the education and empowerment of hill women of Uttarakhand. This influence came mainly through Bahuguna’s wife, Vimla Nautiyal, one of Sarala Behn’s first students at her educational center, Lakshmi Ashram. Vimla Nautiyal was instrumental in shaping and directing Bahuguna’s course of life first by making him give up a career in politics and second, by founding an ashram in the remote hills for the uplift of people. The ashram eventually became the powerhouse of many of Bahuguna’s future activism. It addresses a question of paramount significance today.

For instance, the Stop Alcohol movement in the hills was a result of Sarala Behn’s teachings and organizational efforts; Vinoba Bhave had little role to play in this initiative. Yet, James is emphatic about Bhave’s influence on Bahuguna in this movement. Moreover, James argues that Bahuguna’s “emerging emphasis upon ecology” in the Chipko Movement is indebted to E.F. Schumacher’s book Small is Beautiful and to Richard St. Barbe Baker. This claim is not convincing since Sarala Behn through her writings, speeches, and letters had been emphasizing the role of ecology in village economy of Uttarakhand as well as popularizing the work of several Western scholars including Schumacher for more than two decades. Bahuguna himself acknowledges her as the “Mother of the Sarvodaya activists” and her influence even on the slogan that is the title of James’s book.

Bahuguna’s ecological turn, indicating his evolution from an activist who expressed his explicit support for the felling of trees for local forest-based industries by organizing a ritual worship of local woodcutting machines to a conservationist supporting a comprehensive ban on felling of trees is an interesting cognitive transformation that has been accorded greater attention. James

107

ISSN:2277-7881; IMPACT FACTOR :7.816(2021); IC VALUE:5.16; ISI VALUE:2.286 Peer Reviewed and Refereed Journal: VOLUME:10, ISSUE:5(1), May:2021 Online Copy of Article Publication Available: www.ijmer.in Digital certificate of publication:http://ijmer.in/pdf/e-Certificate%20of%20Publication-IJMER.pdf Cover Page DOI: http://ijmer.in.doi./2021/10.05.110 Scopus Review ID: A2B96D3ACF3FEA2A Article Received: 10th May- Publication Date:30th May 2021 reiterates Bahuguna’s version that there were no opposition between ecological and economic interests of the movement adding later that a realization that forests need to be protected first led Bahuguna and other activists to move “from an economic approach to an approach to conservation for a stable and permanent economy”. (James) Suggestions and findings In Bahuguna’s views we also find not only a cogent voice of protest against mainstream development discourse which follows the path of ‘Big Capital’, ‘Big market’,’Mega Dam’ but also, he was convinced that the quest for harmony between life and nature seeks to resolve the artificial conflict often imposed by the western notion of development. That is why course correction is of imperative necessity. So, what emerges from Bahuguna’s vision is a resilient line of comprehensive approach that rest on its benign deepen understanding of local context, participatory at the micro level and therefore sustainable instead of big industrialization, pollution and displacement.

Reference 1. Bahuguna, Sunderlal. "Development redefined." Indian Journal of Public Administration 39.3 (1993): 229-236. 2. James, George Alfred. Ecology is permanent economy: the activism and environmental philosophy of Sunderlal Bahuguna. SUNY Press, 2013. 3. Pirta, R. S. "Voice of the Mountains: Looking for an alternative paradigm." Accessed on 5 (2011). 4. Mukherjee, Susmita. "Hugging the Trees: Chipko Movement (1973-1981)." 5. Rangan, Haripriya. "From Chipko to Uttaranchal." Liberation ecologies: Environment, development, social movements (1996): 205-226. 6. Bahuguna, Sunderlal. "Tehri dam and high dams in Himalaya." Seminar on Environmental Concerns in South Asia, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Vol. 10. 1995. 7. Bahuguna, Sunderlal. "Tehri dam and high dams in Himalaya." Seminar on Environmental Concerns in South Asia, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Vol. 10. 1995. 8. Kumar, Gajendra. "Alternatives." Summerhill 8.2 (2020): 43-44. 9. Bahuguna, Sunderlal. "The crisis of civilisation and the message of culture in the context of environment." Gandhi Marg 9.8 (1987): 451-468. 10. Swarajya, Gram. "66 ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENTS IN ASIA." Environmental Movements in Asia 4 (1998): 65. 11. Guha, Ramachandra, and Juan Martinez-Alier. "Mahatma Gandhi and the environmental movement." (1997): 153-168. 12. Sonawane, Akash S. "Topic: 2. Main environment Movements." (2020). 13. Rangan, Haripriya. "The environment of protest and development in the Indian Himalaya." Liberation Ecologies: Environment, Development and Social Movements 338 (2004). 14. Jackson, Cecile. "Doing what comes naturally? Women and environment in development." World Development 21.12 (1993): 1947-1963. 15. Pirta, Raghubir Singh, and Chetan Singh. "The search for sustainable development in the Himalayas." Mountain Research and Development 21.1 (2001): 30-33.

108

Filename: 20 Directory: C:\Users\DELL\Documents Template: C:\Users\DELL\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates\Normal.dotm Title: Subject: Author: Windows User Keywords: Comments: Creation Date: 5/15/2021 12:19:00 PM Change Number: 5 Last Saved On: 5/28/2021 6:20:00 PM Last Saved By: Murali Korada Total Editing Time: 20 Minutes Last Printed On: 6/2/2021 5:27:00 PM As of Last Complete Printing Number of Pages: 3 Number of Words: 1,957 (approx.) Number of Characters: 11,157 (approx.)