-
Introduction
- State University of New York Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Introduction The person about whom this book is written is by no means a household name in the West. Even the pronunciation of his name presents a challenge to native readers of English. Yet the issues with which his life has been engaged are familiar. Today, in the West, the condition of the environment is drawing increasing public attention. Environmental issues are also widely recognized as global in scope. What remains largely unknown in the West is the struggle for the environment in non-Western countries, sometimes in areas of those countries little known to their urban dwellers. This book is the story of the activism and the environmental philosophy of a man whose work has focused on the Western Himalayas of India. Yet the concerns for which he has fought transcend the location in which he first expressed them. They include the depletion of the planet’s forests cover, the just distribution of water, and the rights of the poor and disenfranchised to an equitable share of the earth’s resources. The environmental philosophy that developed in the crucible of the struggles for which he is known represents the vision of a sustainable relationship between human beings and the natural world that is globally significant. The title I chose for this book is the quotation and slogan for which he is perhaps best known. That ecology is permanent economy is his reply to those of all countries who believe that environmental concerns have to be weighed against the demands of our economic well-being. Both words have the same root which refers to the oikos or the home in which we all live. It expresses in capsule form the heart of his environmental philosophy. This story, though it is set in the Western Himalayas of India, is relevant to an understanding of environmental struggles everywhere. Born in 1927 in the practically unknown village of Marora, in what was then the United Provinces of British India, his parents named him Sunderlal. In Hindi, “Sundar” means beautiful, and “Lal” means child (particularly boy child). The equivalent of his names in English might be something like “Fairchild.” At the age of thirteen under the guidance 1 2 Ecology is Permanent Economy of a prominent Gandhian activist, Sunderlal Bahuguna (pronounced Bahoo -gun-a) joined the struggle for India’s self-rule. For his involvement with this movement he was jailed for the first time at the age of seventeen . After India achieved independence Bahuguna became involved in Gandhi’s program for the development of independent and self-reliant villages. His concern for the villages of the hills drew his attention to the degradation of the environmental upon which they relied. Bahuguna’s environmental activism became internationally visible in his role in the famous Chipko Movement in the 1970’s. Chipko (to hug) was a grassroots movement committed to saving the Himalayan forests by hugging the trees to shield them from the axe. Bahuguna supported and underlined the non-violent principles of this movement with foot marches, fasts, and speeches to village people concerning the economic, social, ecological, and religious significance of the forests. The success of the Chipko Movement engendered movements of a similar nature in the south of India, in Sri Lanka, and elsewhere. Bahuguna has lent much support to these movements. In 1981, Bahuguna began a foot march of 4870 kilometers (3026 miles) through the foothills of the Himalayas raising awareness of the exploitation to which their forests and their people were exposed. Today, at age eighty-six, his career in public life has spanned almost seven decades, in which he has been and remains a strong advocate for the environment, and especially for an integrated government policy concerning the Himalayas. His environmental philosophy is rooted in the soil of Indian philosophy, informed by the insights of contemporary ecology, and inspired by the vision of Gandhi. This book is based largely upon interviews I conducted with Sunderlal Bahuguna over the course of several years. They began when I was undertaking a study of environmental movements in India at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study in 1998 and continued during the summer months through 2005, when, after a bout of dengue fever, I was advised to restrict my travels in India to the winter months. The first interviews were conducted at Tehri, a town in the Western Himalayas roughly 250 km (155 miles) North of Delhi. They were conducted at his kuti (hut) on the banks of the Bhagirathi River less than...