UNIT 16 GANDHI’S VIEWS ON NATURE AND ENVIRONMENT Structure 16.1 Introduction Aims and Objectives 16.2 Gandhi on Environment 16.2.1 Environmental Crisis 16.2.2 Spiritual Basis of Environmentalism 16.3 Gandhi’s Critique of Modern Civilisation 16.4 Man-Nature Relationship 16.5 Voluntary Simplicity 16.6 Village vs Urban Life 16.7 Importance of Nature Cure 16.8 Post-Gandhian Era 16.9 Summary 16.10Terminal Questions Suggested Readings 16.1 INTRODUCTION “The Earth has enough resources for our need but not for our greed.” This most often quoted phrase by Gandhi depicts his concern for nature and environment. Much before the convening of any of the international conferences like the Stockholm Conference of 1972 or the Rio Earth Summit of 1992 and almost a hundred years ago, Gandhi has voiced his concern for environment. The concern was evident in his speeches, writings and his messages to the workers. It is apt to note that he was the “World’s early environmentalist in vision and practice” (Pravin Sheth, The Eco-Gandhi and Ecological movements (http://www.mkgandhi.org/environment/environment.htm). Much before any modern environmentalist, writes A. Mukherjee, Gandhi had cautioned the world about the problems of large-scale industrialisation, which we are confronting today. His seminal work, Hind Swaraj, written a hundred years ago in 1909 warned of the dangers the world is facing today in the form of environmental destruction and the threat to the planet. It is interesting to note that ‘the British who turned Hind Swaraj as seditious are also party to the conventions and treaties concerning environment. ‘Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj was a warning against growing consumption, materialism and wrong model of development’ (Ramjee Singh, p.129), about which the world is concerned in our contemporary times. 156 Gandhi’s Social Thought Aims and Objectives After reading this unit, you would be able to understand: Gandhi’s views on the ills of modern civilisation. His views on man-nature peaceful relationship. His concept of simple life and reduction of wants. The developments in the post-Gandhian era. 16.2 GANDHI ON ENVIRONMENT 16.2.1 Environmental Crisis Before we study Gandhi’s views at length, it is necessary to note the background that serves as the catalyst for understanding Gandhi’s views. The Industrial Revolution has greatly changed the face of European civilisation including heavy industrialisation, pursuit of capitalist pattern of economy, exploitation of labour and injudicious use of natural resources. It has given to human society tremendous material pleasure and prosperity that was eventually pursued by other nations. At the same time, it has also imperceptibly done irreparable loss to mankind. Reckless and limitless pursuit of industrialisation by all nations is now posing serious problems for very existence of not only man but also for all living creatures and all kinds of species on our Planet (S. K. Jha, see Mahatma Gandhi- An environmentalist with a Difference (http://www.mkgandhi.org/environment/environment.htm). Population explosion, mass poverty, over-utilisation of renewable resources, overuse of fertilizers leading to water pollution, rapid industrialisation, global warming, desert formation, deforestation, emission of harmful substances into air causing air pollution, industrial and synthetic wastes, nuclear hazards that are more man-made in nature are all causing irreparable damages to our planet. As the environmental consciousness spread worldwide, there were meetings including the Stockholm Conference, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development and so on that recognised the need to use the natural resources judiciously so as to ensure a safe future for the coming generations. The ‘Union of Concerned Scientists’ stated that the human beings and the natural world are on a collision course. Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment and on the critical resources. It calls for a great stewardship to halt further damage and mutilation of the planet and also called for reducing the over-consumption to reduce the pressure on global environmental resources (Ramjee Singh, pp.129-130). Gandhi precisely called for the same measures in a prophetic tone. 16.2.2 Spiritual Basis of Environmentalism Gandhi’s views on environment consist of moral, spiritual and non-violent dimensions. To him, the hallmark of development of man consisted not in materialism or consumerism but in spiritual self-realisation, a character heavily loaded with morality and non-violence. The craving for materialistic wants was alien to him for it hindered the path to one’s realisation. His simple living and high thinking reiterated his love for all living beings, which is the very manifestation of God’s creation. His concept of non-violence thus encompassed all living beings and embodied the eternal values of life in his thought and actions. As Gandhi said, ‘My ethics not only permits me to claim but requires me to own kinship with not merely the ape but the horse and the sheep, the lion and the leopard, the snake and the scorpion…’ (M.K.Gandhi, Truth, Navajivan, Ahmedabad, 1952, p.10). He insisted Gandhi’s View on Nature and Environment 157 on the eternal sacredness of life that included a tree, plant or a cow. ‘Indeed his love towards all life constitutes his attempt to realize the Vaishnava ideal ‘Vasudevam Sarvamidam’ (Everything is HE) (Benoy Gopal Ray, Gandhian Ethics, Ahmedabad, 1950, p.8) Gandhi was greatly influenced by Adolph Just’s book ‘Return to Nature’ that further strengthened his conviction that if a man desires to live a wholesome life, he will have to share his life with not only humans but all living beings - birds, animals, plants and the whole ecosystem. Man must return to nature what he takes from her. He abhorred violence, in any form, towards animals or other living beings. Gandhi thus expressed his sense of the unity of all life. He wrote in Harijan in 1937, “I do believe that all God’s creatures have the right to live as much as we have.” Gandhi was a great believer in advaita (non-duality) and in the essential unity of man and all lives (Young India, 1924). Thomas Weber brings an interesting perspective on how Arne Naess, who was thoroughly influenced by Gandhian philosophy, interprets the link between self-realisation and non-violence. Weber’s interpretation is as follows: 1. Self-realisation presupposes a search for truth. 2. All living beings are one 3. Himsa (violence) against oneself makes complete self-realisation impossible 4. Himsa against a living being is Himsa against oneself and. 5. Himsa against a living being makes complete self-realisation impossible (T. Weber, Gandhi and Deep Ecology, Journal of Peace Research, vol.36, No.3, May 1999). The ancient Indian religious philosophy, thought and action and practices point out to a harmonious relation between man and other living beings. Gandhi was an ardent believer of this philosophy of Vedanta, a combination of spiritual faith and scientific thought. 16.3 GANDHI’S CRITIQUE OF MODERN CIVILISATION Gandhi was undoubtedly a visionary who could foresee the ills of industrialisation and modernisation. He was ‘an early critic of the dehumanising character of modern industrial civilisation. It is in the context of new value orientation and the quest for human survival threatened by environmental and ecological crisis that the re-discovering of Gandhi’s warning of ‘industrialise and perish’ has to be seen’ (Savita Singh, pp.58-59). His Hind Swaraj depicts his understanding of the chaos the modern civilisation would usher in. Having witnessed the human devastation that industrialisation had caused in England, he warned us of the impending dangers of an urban industrial society. He was baffled at the thought of India being heavily industrialised and its culture eroded through dehumanising. He wrote in Young India (20-12-1928, p.422), ‘God forbid that India should ever take to industrialism after the manner of the West. The economic imperialism of a single tiny Kingdom (England) is today keeping the world in chains. If an entire nation of 300 millions (India’s population in 1928) took to similar economic exploitation, it would strip the world like locusts’. He further elaborates, that ‘to make India like England and America is to find some other races and places on earth for exploitation. So far it appears that the western nations have divided all the known races outside Europe for exploitation and that there are no new world to discover, what can be the fate of India trying to ape the west?’ 158 Gandhi’s Social Thought Gandhi firmly believed that India lives in its villages. And to erode its village’s culture and civilisation via technology, machinery and industrialisation, to him, amounts to sin. He warned the youth not to be carried away by the glitter of the modern civilisation because ‘its defects are well known but not one of them is irremediable’. He advocated village life as the goal, as India is an inheritor of rural civilisation. Therefore, the intentions of the youth may be ill founded if they were ‘to uproot it and substitute for it an urban civilisation’ (Young India, 7-11-1929). He was also against the use of machinery that is meant to displace people from their livelihood means. He was thoroughly in favour of promoting Charkha, hand machinery as against “the machinery that displaces the labour of those who cannot otherwise be employed. What we must dread is huge machinery run not by hand but by non-human power such as steam, electricity, etc’ (4-10-1929 in a letter to Shri Giriraj). Regarding the urbanisation, Gandhi expressed his views as follows: ‘it is a process of double drain from the villages.