When Less was Always More
On May 27, an elephant walking down the lanes of Malappuram, Kerala in search of food was offered a pineapple by the locals. She was relieved as the mother elephant could finally satiate the hunger of her little bump. Her faith in humanity was reassured, though being one of the most intelligent species her emotions took over and without an iota of suspicion she consumed that pineapple. She saw this as a ray of hope, an attempt to bridge the fault lines between humans and other species, as of course we all are different and none is a dominant specie.
Soon the utopian cloud got burst as the pineapple she ate was filled with crackers. As she stood in the river, the ray of hope was quickly washed away, the bridge of lies collapsed. She was confronted with a world where her vulnerability was taken as a sign of weakness. She was in pain not because of what happened to her or the little life in her womb but because once again she was deceived by mala fide intentions of the “dominant species”.
“Why did they do that, I wouldn’t have ever done that to any hungry pregnant woman of Malappuram”, the elephant must have pondered. Despite the excruciating pain the elephant quietly drowned in the watery grave with both her baby and the treachery. She possibly didn’t want anyone else to know as yet again she wanted to give humanity another chance but eventually, both succumbed to death- the animal and humanity.This wasn’t an isolated incident of Malappuram, more incidents of animal brutality and man-nature dichotomies have come to the fore.
‘Terrified Residents’, ‘Terrified Neighbours’, ‘The Night of Horror’, ‘Horror Encountered’ were again some hard to miss headlines when the incident of the leopard ambushing the city of Jaipur got air(December 2019). The trespasser was eventually caught by the forest officials and on the same day, another news became the headline, '11k trees to be cut for Jewar airport, Greater Noida' (December 2019). The irony died a thousand deaths. Has the sensitivity taken an introvert corner? Are we developing? Since when development and nature became binaries? Why did the word sustainable development even came into being, shouldn't it be obvious that development ipso facto is sustainable?
The mores, folklores, and traditions passed on by our ancestors were always eco-friendly and close to nature. One need not be an environmental science student or climate activist to be sensitized towards our nature. As part of this rich civilizational legacy, I’ve been indoctrinated to believe, feel, and behave emphatically towards the Prakriti. There has never been Dvaita/duality between the two, it has always been Advaita. From waking up in the morning and praying to the supreme God of light 'sun’, to offering food in the procedure of 'aposan’ where a morsel of one’s meal is taken out before having food, for the sensitive consideration of insects, birds. We even preached Shanti Vanaspatya, peace for shrubs and herbs in our shlokas.
There are numerous examples from our daily lives that substantiate deep man-nature coexistence in our civilization. Our festivals, our food habits all are closely aligned with nature. Our Thalis are plated up based on climate and various seasons. The month of Karthik, Posh, Badhva, all prescribe food based on man- nature synergy.
Our ancestors professed to reduce, reuse, recycle much before we did. As for them 'Less was always more '. For instance, watermelon when once entered the house, couldn’t make an easy exit. It was thoroughly enjoyed as a fruit, afterwards, the seeds were then dried and used in thandai, sweets, which also moderated the body heat. The residual part was the cover of the fruit which was later dried in the sun to make fried chips. Their daily lives kept nature, sustainability at the core, and not an ancillary topic of textbooks. Surprisingly they were never taught the definition of Sustainability by UNESCO, yet they mastered the art. In the present era of so said 'sustainable development' where there is a dying sensitivity towards nature, where the man-nature-environment dichotomy persists such decay of moral consciousness can only occur when society uproots itself from the age-old ancient wisdom of its civilization. The cultural wisdom which always taught us Advaitvaad, co-existence, and harmony.
My grandmother faced the pangs of partition in 1947 and therefore she saw a transformation from being born in affluent family to then becoming a refugee and again standing back on the heels because of her prudence. One day my grandmother received a parcel. I quickly opened the parcel and threw the tangled cover aside, what I saw changed my perspective completely. My grandmother was not interested in the product that I bought instead she was more concerned about untangling its cover only to carefully keep it aside. After noticing the expression of amusement on my face, she smiled and said this can be further reused for multiple purposes. She never read the United Nations Report on Sustainable development but she practices the most sustainable way of living and so did many in her generation. We have been ignorant about such indigenous knowledge sources, we digressed from our indigenous civilizational values, only to let our minds get colonized. We ignored the native anecdotes, traditions, practices to lay gravitas on something foreign. We ignored the native wisdom of our grandparents, of the farmer practicing water conservation in Rajasthan, of the tribal woman conserving forests in the Sundarbans to the more elite, bureaucratized, and intellectualized voices of the west.
An article by Susmita Baral states the proof that prehistoric humans used to recycle. 'Reusing resources meant that these humans did not have to move around to find raw materials to make their tools, a task that could have taken them far away from camp. “they would simply take an artefact abandoned by those groups who previously inhabited the site.” (Baral, 2012).
Now when suddenly one reads a headline that ‘11k trees will be chopped off for development purposes’, it seems brings a little unease. Are we really developing?
Is it possible, for example, to stand in a small clearing in the middle of one of the most heavily developed towns which house areas of the city and barely see signs of habitation? Well, isn't it possible to imagine a place where there are houses, where not only man but even nature lives? Where one takes a deep breath to inhale the scent of roses and mogras and not put masks to avoid carcinogenic particulate matter. Where all coexist not just man, but nature too.
The important point is it's less expensive to develop with sensitivity towards nature than just to ignore it and chop it off. The word development is turning out to be an irony. I hope those days come back again, where the society closely listens to the sound of nature, where society lets the land speak as to where to build and where not to.
Let's rethink the traditional Indian dream where urban settlements can be created without the ugly, land-destroying sprawl that characterizes much of today's development. Where man and nature are dichotomies are broken, where land and nature are so beautifully intertwined that sense of open space morphs into a sense of ownership. Where the individual feels his rights extend beyond his private property and after a while, one starts to feel a responsibility for the entire surrounding.
Let’s rebuild the model for an urban ecology where nature and humanity were not estranged. Because you know It is a wonderful thing to live near a lake with a Moorhen in it. If not the ancestral wisdom than maybe a microbe ridden pandemic will again nudge us to follow our civilizational prudence.
