Was Gandhi a forerunner for the modern-day environmental movement, in particularly addressing 3 criterion for this perspective, namely:

1. A “true” Christian?2. An implicit green philosophy.3. The religious use of politics.

Merlyn PeterDepartment of Religion, University of Wales Lampeter, Ceredigion, SA48 7ED Wales

Abstract:In this reconstructed essay I have disclosed 3 main contentious findings directed towards Mahatma Gandhi during and after his life. These were in particular originated from a Western perspective around the time when India was striving towards independence and a new identity. It is in this light that I want to argue the case for Gandhi holding an implicit environmental message that is a forerunner for the modern-day movement. I surmise that the West through its adherence to the principles of freedom and equality is living in anticipation of a mass movement, one whose pattern was reflected in British-ruled colonial India. Albeit, its very failure to fulfil these ideals democratically and with any totality have allowed its cosmopolitan centres to become breeding grounds for the resurgence of contemporary spiritual values. Rather than segregate each point I wish to cede them in the spirit of Gandhi as an eloquent speaker and a prolific writer. That is, to show how one issue is implicit in the other.

Introduction

In this particular article I have tried to express the religious implications and applications of

the life of Gandhi as practised and observed by the person and his many commentators.

Consequently I do not focus on so much the historical narrative but the ethical, with a view to how

his teaching and understanding of religion suffused his everyday life. I will approach each criterion

independently, bringing in the commentaries of relevant eyewitnesses to his words and deeds. In

these sections I will include connotations to the modern-day activities of organisations and groups

that have special relevance to Gandhian philosophy. I will then conclude by bringing the three

1

main points together, with a post-Gandhian section in this vein as to the on-going influence that

Gandhi has on environmental issues.

Gandhi, Mahatma (1869 –1948), his religious background

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in Gujarat to a merchant caste family. His parents

were Vaishnava Hindus who followed the Vallabhacarya tradition of loving devotion to Lord

Krishna. In particular his mother adhered to the popular Pranami cult in her region, influenced by

Islam. This belief rejected all images of God, and reinforced a direct link with the divine without

the need for priests or rituals.1 Gandhi considered this the norm, as were the frequent visitations of

Jains and Muslims to the household. Amongst the different forms of Christianity that he met in

London from the age of 19 when he studied law included the Theosophists, the Fabian Socialists,

and the visionary followers of Tolstoy, though he was not duly impressed by his early contact with

Christian street evangelists. On the contrary, Gandhi was influenced by the older Neo-Hindu

traditions of Rammohun Roy and Brahmo Samaj of the early 19th century through to Keshub

Chunder Sen, Dayananda Saravati and the Arya Samaj, Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Aurobindo

and various others.2 But it was through his English education that he assimilated the ideas of

liberal democrats, enlightenment rationalism, liberal humanism, socialist ideology, the practice of

parliamentary democracy, as well as the activities of Christian missionaries. He gave up attending

a Wesleyan Church because he felt that most people there were acting out of custom and

recreation, not devoutly at all.3 He found the bible quite boring albeit the New Testament appealed

more greatly, especially the Sermon on the Mount.4

For Gandhi, renunciation was the highest form of religion. He saw in the tradition of

Christianity the life of blood, toil, tears and sweat and extensively permeated his writings with the

idea of metaphorically becoming a son of God, not least that every man could become God

Himself.5 In such a vein, during his period in South Africa, this upbringing conduced to the

2

decision not to become a Christian in the popular sense of the meaning despite a great deal of

pressure to do so. The racialist milieu of South Africa was, in the most, often deeply religious and

held in the name of religion. But for Gandhi salvation lied in Hinduism6 even though Western

spirituality had made a deep impression that encouraged him to seek parallels with the Hindu

tradition. When after he’d experimented with certain ideas in South Africa he moved to India in

order to demonstrate that spiritual life was essential to political life. In so doing he brought the

liberal Westernizers and the radical socialists together with the large landowners, industrialists,

and the rural masses of India into a coalition based on a reformed Neo-Hindu ideology of

satyagraha and ahimsa. (See below) Muslims in South Asia could not identify with this Neo-

Hindu foundation, as such it would ultimately open up a great fissure between Pakistan & India.7

Despite this, the extant of religious writing by Gandhi on the theme of universalism quote him as

accepting all religions to be true, even with the opinion that all had some error in them, but that

which he held dearest to himself was Hinduism. It was these characteristic attitudes that would

ultimately make Gandhi an international spokesperson.

It is at this point that I can make my first departure. Already we can see that the combination

of a British education and early contact with a variety of belief systems had given rise to a

universal consciousness. It could be argued that Hinduism is not a true religion, that in fact it was a

conglomeration of beliefs as perceived by the British.8 Nevertheless, the diversity of, and

willingness to accept, beliefs may have been the “breeding” ground for the assimilation of Western

ideas without recourse to much initial restraint from the natives. Likewise, I would argue that the

reciprocal process was to introduce educated conservative Westerners to a radicalism and

libertarianism that Hindu beliefs could generate where caste systems do not operate. During the

1930’s Britain would still have been suffering from the economic downturn of the Great War.

People felt trapped in the thirties by debt, unemployment and poverty.9 A cartoon of the times

3

illustrates this point succinctly. “But we must keep having ‘em. My wife’s maternity benefit is the

only income I’ve got!” says the father of four children to a passer-by.

The countryside had become an idyllic to be actualised, with its promise of fitness, freedom

and simplicity. The National Trust, founded in 1895, saw its membership increase fourfold

between 1929 and the outbreak of war, to 7100 members.10 The founders of the Trust took

inspiration from the radical ideas of John Ruskin, for the creation of ‘open-air sitting rooms’ to be

appreciated by the inhabitants of the rapidly growing industrial towns of the south. Gone were the

recent memories of farm labour, and in its place the motor car, cyclist and hiker took to its air. By

the end of the thirties 30% of the population could be described as middle class.11 Suburbia was

home to rich and poor alike as council estates grew in abundance. In spite of the early pioneers of

environmentalism it may be seen here the first public measure of the rather conservative attitudes

of the British mind breaking into the threshold of environmental action and the plight of the lower

classes, decades before the environmental movement truly got going.

The decline of British aristocracy, obvious in the thirties, had already begun with the break

up of great estates at the end of the 19 th century. This was due to the imposition of death duties in 1 L. Jones (ed.) Encyclopaedia of Religion 2nd Edition Vol. 5 (USA: Imprint of Thomas Gale, 2005) 32722 G. J. Larson India’s Agony Over Religion (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995) 1933 E. S. Jones Gandhi: Portrayal of a Friend (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1993) 554 The Sermon on the Mount can be found in chapters 5, 6 & 7 of Matthew. It is constituted of five main themes. These include the Beatitudes, the New Laws, the Lord’s Prayer, Money, and Warnings. The message to “resist not evil” and to “turn the other cheek” appealed greatly to Gandhi, who’s passive resistance embodies this ethos. Other practices for which Jesus admonished against ostentation and which correlate almost identically with Gandhi’s view include fasting, alms and prayer. For many Christian followers the Sermon on the Mount had its equivalence in the Old Covenant when Moses gave the Ten Commandments, albeit historically the setting was moved from Mount Sinai. Again, the emphasis to renounce materialism (idolatry) and not to judge before judging oneself is seen here in Gandhi’s attitude.5 For her use and context of the terminology see M. Chatterjee ‘Gandhi and George Fox’, The Gandhi Way, No. 72, Summer 2002 (newsletter of the Gandhi Foundation, London) 10. She related it to “the Upanishadic injunction to tend one’s light in a windy place”.6 E. S. Jones op. cit., 547 For further comment see M. Gandhi ‘The Afghan Alarm’, Young India (Madras: S. Ganesan, 1927) 724-7318 A definition of what is Hinduism or Hindu philosophy cannot be satisfactory. Its superstructure consisted of beliefs that are neither materialist, Buddhist nor Jainist. Only the Vedanta and Mimamsa can be strictly and scripturally interpreted as Hindu alone. The other four ‘orthodox’ systems (darsanas) of traditional Hinduism (Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, and Vaisesika) are only included in the general sense of the understanding of the religion. A. Flew, (ed.) A Dictionary of Philosophy (London: Pan Books in association with The Macmillan Press, 1979) 1379 Yesterday’s Britain: The illustrated story of how we lived, worked, and played (London: The Reader’s Digest Association Limited, 1998) 36-11910 Ibid., 9511 Ibid., 83

4

1894 where elder sons sold land to pay off their inheritance tax. In the ensuing forty years 8

million acres of land had changed hands and many of the social elite had perished in the Great

War.12 The wars levelled things out to such a degree that, despite the increasing industrialisation of

the West, more people became conscious of the importance of subsistence agriculture. The

accessibility of India and Africa to the world of trade and travel and military presence could have

had a reciprocal, deep underlying effect on the Western mentality by the time of this period of the

great wars with an informal promise that a liberal economic turnaround could always be

eventuated.13

Gandhi was inclined to his native indigenous roots but not without radical reform. By

attaching himself to the poor, the lowly, and the needy he fused together something of true

Hinduism with this encroaching Westernising movement. Political leader, social reformer and

religious visionary, he was to be revered as a representative of universal faith. This salutation was

reflected in Gandhi’s recognition of the need for silent meditation in the company of others, and

held regular daily prayer meetings with members of different faiths.14 Passages of different

scriptures were read out, indicating a common quest for the divine with a window to reinforcing

one’s own faith or gaining insights from other faiths. The Christian evangelist E. Stanley Jones

explains this as experimenting with moral and spiritual laws, even when reading sacred texts.15 At

12 Ibid., 9213 I am not, of course, referring to the political party of the day, but rather the broadening of the mind. Brown makes the observation in his research of spontaneous religion that it is not possible to study the core interpretation of religious precepts if artificial questions are asked or if one cannot make sense of things. As this study was directed at children it showed that most of them (between 7 and 12) asked do not define the abstract relationship of everyday religious life but rather a concrete setting in which there is a capacity to classify, order, or see cause and effect relationships. Abstract material that is memorised is not understood early in life and in fact, may be rejected out right or accepted on the basis of the belief of their parents or peers. L. B. Brown The Psychology of Religious Belief (London: Academic Press, 1987) 192-194. For me, what this enforces is the notion that religious issues of environmental concern that are acted upon move into the abstract only on the basis that they have been given a pre-emptive concrete setting for the basic tools of logic to have allowed their understanding. In my above reasoning, the economic milieu of the British economy during the 1930’s with the approach of war cultivated unrest within the typical conservative attitude of the British mind, in which once a concrete concern for the environment had been measured through experience, allowed for the assimilation of abstract ideas introduced from elsewhere in the British Empire. I am not particularising a case here but am expressing a belief in a generalisation of phenomena that happens anytime trade or war communications and environmental unrest occur simultaneously.14 V. K. Bawa ‘The Quakers and Gandhi: The Start of a Dialogue and an Uncompleted Journey’, The Woodbrooke Journal, No.15, Autumn 2004 (Birmingham: Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre) 4-515 E. S. Jones op. cit., 78

5

first tentatively, and then when he was convinced, with abandonment. Gandhi acted on what he

saw to be truth; at dawn he would reduce the principles to practice. Margaret Chatterjee writing in

The Gandhi Way says that Gandhi advocated the use of vows and fasts in preparation for

fearlessness.16 But it puzzled the Christian community why Gandhi, holding the principle of non-

violence, showed his loyalty and affection to the Bhagavad-Gita, the philosophical basis of which

lies in the use of force.17 In fact Gandhi interprets the battle of the Pandavas and the Kauravas as a

spiritual battle and not as two clans as depicted. Gandhi goes on about the fight within, between

good and evil (cf. the Sermon on the Mount). In respect of this Jones argued that he read back into

the Gita his own non-violence.

Was Gandhi aware of the normalising effect of Christianity on indigenous faiths, carrying

with it the flag of British imperialism from days of old? There can be no doubt about it that the

reciprocal influences of Asia go back thousands of years, before since the times of the classical

period at least. The writers of the Vedas and the Brahman mystics would have conferred great

conceptual insights during a time when the West was still relatively young. The great scientific

minds of the Greeks were to make way for the technologising effects of the Romans and with that,

through the conversion into Christianity, there was born an agricultural revolution (See below) that

travelled first with the monasteries. As for Gandhi, I believe he voiced the opinion of any educated

Indian at the time – that the machine of Western influence was taking the life out of the land. It is

in this light that Gandhi sought to preserve the village economy, since even the great oriental

innovations in the world had themselves, by this time, ceased to expand any further beyond the 15th

century and thus capitulated to the West any pre-dominant influence to the inception of a modern

movement.18

16 In her words fearlessness is linked to the “ability to see”, which correlates very well to Quaker philosophy. M. Chatterjee ‘Gandhi and George Fox’, The Gandhi Way, No.72, Summer 2002 (newsletter of the Gandhi Foundation, London) 8-10. See also V. K. Bava op. cit., 517 E. S. Jones op. cit., 73-74

6

An implicit green philosophy

Gandhi wrote extensively, mainly in the form of letters and short essays, having the dual role

of politician and statesman. But he was not a pacifist in the strict sense of the word. On reading

Ruskin’s Unto This Last, which he translated into Gujarati under the title of Sarvodaya (“the

awakening of all”), he understood that “the good of the individual is contained in the good of all,

that a lawyer’s work has the same value as the barber’s since all must earn their livelihood, and

that the life worth living is one of labour, i.e. the life of the tiller of the soil and the

handicraftsman”.19 He went on to realise that the second and third points are contained in the first.

When Gandhi returned to India in 1914 to join the growing nationalist movement he

established the Sabarmati Ashram. There he expected the members to spin and weave as well as

possess nothing and boycott imported cloth. They would also accept untouchables as their equal. It

18 Up until the 15th century mathematics, the core basic of the scientific approach, had advanced no further than the Indian and Chinese influence inherited by the Arabs. Algebra had developed independently of geometry, the former by the Indians and Chinese and the latter from the Greeks. By the time of Europe in the 16th century the both had amalgamated and the logical deductive geometry of Greece paved the way for the exact sciences. Even though the Chinese had always considered geometrical problems algebraically it was in Europe where calculus developed. It would be centuries later before such innovations reached the East. As such Needham forwards the assumption that Greek mathematics, though more sophisticated, was too weak in algebra, allowing the eastern and western systems to form different strains of approach but that both were limited in development at the isolation of the other. The major characteristic of modern thought is the evolution of elementary mathematics, virtue of its correlative approach to theory and practice. Where Greek mathematics lacked this element, Chinese mathematics lacked any formal logic, i.e. the lack of use of formal proof. Algebra in China had come to a standstill in the 13th century. The system of thought was organic to such an extent that calculations could vanish. (I can personally correlate with this method in the construction of my telephone/address book. Rather than use a categorising alphabetical system I merely add a new number, name or address at the end of the last entry. Consequently some entries are duplicated depending upon their historical milieu, e.g. the same name with a different number gives a history of development allowing for its correlation with other entries and the persons I was meeting or communicating with at the same time. It can be seen to be a mnemonic device for referring to historical events; something that would be lacking if I had used a formal alphabetical listing only. As such, in order to find an entry I have to give it a time frame in which to look.)

Chinese mathematical statements were mainly written out characters despite the very early appreciation of the zero and the decimal place. Fundamentally, it was not symbolic; the omission of any equality (=) sign was replaced by its implication. Quantities and operations were generalised. Needham uses Nesselmann’s term of being ‘rhetorical’ and not abstract. What made useable the empirical genius of Chinese setting, c.f. Far Eastern traditions, was the need to reconstruct the calendar by mathematicians when it was supposed to be thought incorrect during times of famine or rebellion. But ultimately, any orthodox Confucian elements were tempered with unorthodox Taoist connections. Nature was an unveiling of itself and had a law to itself. As such the absence of a creator deity and hence a supreme lawgiver remains a fundamental distinction between the Christian monotheistic traditions and Eastern thought. J. Needham ‘Mathematics and Science in China and the West’ Science and Society, vol. 20, 1956 (NY: Guilford Publications) 320-32919 D. L. Gosling Religion and Ecology in India and Southeast Asia (London: Routledge, 2001) 45-48

7

was here that a year later he met the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, who identified Gandhi a

mahatma, or “great soul”.

Gandhi strove for a more perfect world in this age of darkness or kaliyuga. Religious practice

combined both social and spiritual elements for instance, spinning cotton he saw as a form of

mediation.20 In Gandhi the new and the old came together. Arising at 4am for his morning

devotions he would carry on religious exercises and discussions whilst spinning with the charkha.

21 Horace Alexander, a leading Quaker thinker of the day and activist said of Gandhi that he had a

genius for friendship, that there was a good deal of the Quaker about him, more concerned to live a

life of Christian service, than in theological speculation.22 His scanty clothing (the dhoti of the

Indian peasant), his insistence on drinking only goat’s milk, his frankness of speech and warmth

towards his enemies, helped make him a centre of attention.23 In his creation of a mass political

movement he was articulate, providing a masterful combination of “Old Indic” and “New Indic”;

as a kind of yogin and sadhu, but also a competent attorney; a devotee of Rama, but also a shrewd

politician.24 He could spend long periods in meditation (Fridays), and relate well with the masses

from the rural peasants and the urban poor to wealthy landowners and the new industrialists. He

was also a mediator of the Indian elite of the new emerging Independence. He taught the value of

work and the sinfulness of waste; his interpretation of swaraj means self-rule and self-restraint,25

not freedom from restraint which “independence” is often meant by. The idea that work fulfils

oneself, and that we should only take what was needed are teachings based on his reading of the

Bhagavad Gita. He retired from politics in 1933 and instead focused on the harijans - the

untouchables, the protection of cows, moral education, and the reconciliation of Muslims and

Hindus. The American Unitarian pastor, John Holmes, canonised Gandhi.

20 L. Jones op. cit., .3272 See also M. Gandhi ‘The duty of spinning’, Swaraj in One Year 2nd Edition (Madras: Ganesh & Co., 1921) 97-99 (first published in Young India 2nd February 1921) 21 E. S. Jones op. cit., 2522 V. K. Bawa op. cit., 2123 Ibid., 1724 G. J. Larson op. cit., 19225 R. Prime Hinduism and Ecology: Seeds of truth (London: Cassell Publishers Limited, 1992) 62

8

It remains to be shown if this altruistic focus of Gandhi is the basis for the modern

environmental movement. We can certainly take reference here to a Protestant work ethic that

ushered in the Industrial Revolution. More analogous is maybe the monastic orders of the

Cistercian monks who, idealised during the Reformation period by the Protestants, had cleared

large tracts of woodland to manage sheep. These pastoralists, to a very great extent, became self-

sufficient despite inhabiting wooded valleys where malaria would have been prevalent. During the

9th century the problem of population expansion was only just making itself apparent although food

shortages and famine, starvation and disease were a way of life. With this sentiment one can relate

to the Christian concept of a suffering servant.

This is not different to a Gandhian view of the village economy, the precepts of which can

be seen in the writings of Schumacher. Writing in the 70’s he made this link with the over-

industrialisation of land when he called for an intermediate technology that did not reduce the land

to complete mechanisation but could release man from drudgery. And Schumacher as a devout

Christian, could see the excesses of a secular society that has lost the call for stewardship as

commentators to Genesis describe. (See later with further references to the New Age Movement)

During 1917 and 1918 Gandhi travelled through the Indian countryside in the districts of

Champaran and Kheda, and it was here that he came face to face with colonial economic

exploitation.26 He saw the impossibility of India to emulate Western patterns of industrial

development. He highlighted the selfishness and competitiveness of modern society and

recognised the bias towards urban industrial development. He favoured the life of the individual as

prioritised within the punchayat system, consisting of voluntary co-operation among members of

self-contained villages based primarily on agriculture and cottage industries. Ruskin showed him

that these village republics are much more sustainable, the solidarity of which originates in the

mechanisation of manual labour. Hind Swaraj (See below), Gandhi’s “Sermon on the Sea”, is a

9

translation of the words ‘Indian Home Rule’.27 Home Rule to the Indians he interpreted as

liberation from modern technology, not just British rule.28 It was the former that concerned him the

most, accusing the Hindus of giving India to the British. Self-government, he said, could not be

had for the nation without self-control; personal morals and ethics were at the root of change.

It may be correct to view the Judaeo-Christian influence of the market economy as indicative

of a procession from the ethical basis of the Jewish tendency to favour the free market. 29 The

punchayat system necessitated solidarity in the face of oppressive forces. But what is striking

about Jewish moral attitudes is its call for individuality. Jonathon Sacks, Chief Rabbi, says that at

the basis of Jewish culture the market economy exists because it is the best system for raising the

living standards of the whole whilst ensuring independence and human dignity.30 As such, poverty

should only be eliminated by providing economic employment to the individual, to the

contribution of Jewish religion as a whole. Even Rabbis have no time to approach their learning

and teaching from a purely leisurely point of view, but must continue to work under the auspices

of an equal membership. Charity is disapproved of, for as with poverty the rabbi would be

removed from the world in which the rest of culture has to participate within.31 There is a genuine

overtone here to Gandhi’s message, humbling himself of any privilege associated to his

educational background. One does see a similarity, between the oppression of the working class of

Indian society and the traditional upbringing of the Israelites who took their command from God

on fleeing Pharaonic rule. One sees an emerging reclamation of identity, for the assertion of

indigenous rights. For the Hebrew, work is more than labour. In biblical Hebrew melakhah is work

as creation, avodah is work as service or servitude. Thus we see a religious heritage, a moral code

26 R. Guha (ed.) Varieties of Environmentalism : Essays North and South (London: Earthscan, 1997) 155-16027 See http://www.mkgandhi.org/swarajya/coverpage.html. See also M. Gandhi ‘Why was India lost? and ‘How can India become free?’, Hind Swaraj (Madras: S. Ganesan, 1921) 23-26 & 51-5428 V. K. Bawa op. cit., 729 J. Sacks The Dignity of Difference: How to avoid the clash of civilisations, (London: Continuum, 2003) 90-103 30 Ibid., 10031 Ibid., 96

10

governing the requisite of work. Jonathon Sacks states that “Work, though not itself a religious act,

is a condition of human dignity.”

There can be no doubt that the Jewish Diaspora has influenced modern economic trends

throughout Europe during the Middle Ages. Jonathon Sacks refers to the Jews influence on the

outward form of modern capitalism by giving it an international aspect that it bears today. This

was fundamental in the setting up of trade and Jewish-run businesses for the operation of banks

and lending societies. Ultimately, Judaism promotes globalism, and though it may be said that

independence and creativity through work has contributed to free trade and the tendency to

cultivate constant innovation and growth of industry, asceticism and self-denial have little place in

Jewish spirituality. But Sacks retorts that it is not the free market itself but the degradation

globalisation is incurring through the increasing segregation of rich and poor and the fatal trap of

success that leads one to a lack of responsibility.

This is not likened then, to Gandhi’s want to decommission British power and influence over

industry. Rather the control of produce was to be decentralised and given to optimum-size

communities. When setting up Tolstoy Farm to cater for the satyagrahis and their families his

personal authoritarianism was administered with this sense of anarchy. In fact, in view of his

stance against Western imperialism his earlier admirers label him as an early environmentalist; it is

taken for granted that he anticipated the environmental movement, but without precise

demonstration.32 Bhikhu Parekh saw in Gandhi’s reinterpretation of the Hindu tradition a rejection

of western anthropocentrism in favour of a cosmocentric anthropology – a more balanced and

respectful relationship between him and the natural world.33 It is because of this that his ideas are

cited often in modern environmental politics.34 Hind Swaraj, written in South Africa, is disputable

as to whether it is an alternative work on development and man’s relationship with nature.

32 R. Guha (ed.) op. cit. 15533 D. L. Gosling, op. cit., 4834 Ibid., 14

11

Nevertheless, at this time the core tenets of his life were rooted in the taking of a personal vow of

brahmacarya (celibacy), ahimsa (soul force or non-violence, poverty, and non-possession.) and

satyagraha (laying hold of the truth or reality).35 “I believe in advaita. I believe in the essential

unity of man, and for that matter of all that lives”.36 In here there is an implicit ethic. Gandhi

sometimes described ahimsa – non-injury to all beings as understood by Jains – as soul-force.

Thus mosquitoes, and in certain circumstances even human life, could be destroyed on the basis of

an environmental equality. Yet he is also quoted as saying that a society can be judged by the way

it treats its animals.37 “'It takes the human being beyond his species. The cow to me means the

entire sub-human world. Man through the cow is enjoined to realise his identity with all that

lives… Not only did she give milk, but she also made agriculture possible… The appeal of the

lower order is all the more forcible because it is speechless. Cow protection is the gift of Hinduism

to all the world”.38

Though Gandhi defended a modified form of cast in his article entitled “Why I am a Hindu”

it is still not an alternative model of development for India. In fact, he could not have had time to

systematise an economic or environmental program in detail. That influence was to take fruition in

the likes of Schumacher who, thirty years later as advisor to the British National Coal Board,

designed a non-hierarchical management system that inhibited top-down authority through the

creation of a middle management system.39 It is on the level of the working class that problems are

identified. Only then should a register of complaint be made and passed through to this middle

35 Ibid., 48 See also Negeen Zinovieff ‘Gandhi’s gift’, The Gandhi Way, No. 72, Summer 2002 (newsletter of the Gandhi Foundation, London) 16-1836 M. Gandhi ‘Not even half-mast’, Young India 1924-1926 (Madras: S. Ganesan, 1927) 419-424. This article is about Gandhi’s ongoing rhetoric between the Non-co-operators and the Swajarist No-changers (first published in Young India 4th December 1924)37 R. Prime op. cit., 6738 M. Gandhi ‘Why I am a Hindu’, Young India 1919-1922 2nd Edition (NY: B. W. Huebsch, Inc., 1924) (first published in Young India 6th October 1921) Gandhi is here describing his self-identity as a Sanatani Hindu39 Schumacher has had an increasing influence in modern day economics. As such the Schumacher College in Dartington, Devon has been one of its main proponents. The college (founded in 1991) is an integral part of Dartington Hall Trust whose founders, Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst in 1925, were inspired by the work of the educationalist and reformer Rabindranath Tagore. See also Schumacher, E. F. Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered (London: Sphere Books Ltd. (Penguin Group) for ABACUS, 1974)

12

management. The role of the top is not to interfere with the required measures but rather release

the necessary resources required to rectify these problems. As such the National Coal Board was

made up of a number of autonomous parts. It was to be the solidarity of the workers union to take

responsibility for themselves, and the strength of the Trade Unions as a whole.

We can dwell a little longer on the theme that the modern environmental movement takes its

cause from the inequality of the distribution of wealth and its subsequent creation of class

privilege. Because for Max Weber economic orders are influenced by religious ones, especially to

the view that the protestant ethic, namely Calvinism, gave rise to the spirit of capitalism.40 We

could also take reference to the medieval Hanafite school of Islamic jurisprudence, which

pioneered the development of business contracts. Islam, from the commercial centres of Baghdad

and Basra encouraged trust and trade across its whole empire.

In order to comprehend whether environmentalism has an indirect link to religious orders one

would have to identify common sentiments between the environmental movement and the

religions of its day. New-Age movements such as neo-shamanism throw an interesting parallel

here. In my opinion politics and economics have always been part and parcel of religious and

environmental movements. In The wolf, the Saami and the urban shaman Galina Lindquist

highlights the predator symbolism shared by both neo-shamans of the New-Age movement and the

traditional peoples of the land,41 namely the Saami who inhabit the Scandinavian countries and

number up to 75,000. The issues concern the culling of reindeer, which the government promotes

due to the damage they cause in deforestation. The argument goes that it is illegal to shoot

predators under certain conditions even if these animals are terrorising the herds of deer. The

problem occurs because the Saami have always relied on the deer for a means of economic

income, but feel that they are unjustly competed against because the main wild predator to the deer

40 J. Sacks, op. cit., 9041 G. Lindquist ‘The wolf, the Saami and the urban shaman: Predator symbolism in Sweden’, John Knight (ed.) Natural Enemies: People-Wildlife conflicts in Anthropological Perspective, (London: Routledge, 2000) 170-188

13

are protected species. These, namely, are wolves, wolverines, the lynx, and much less so bears and

the eagle.42 Saami members can face a hefty fine and imprisonment for illegal killing. Neo-

shamans on the other hand don’t necessarily see the same point of view. For them the wolf is a

power symbol – a spiritual guide in their inner worlds.43 For the Saami it is their lifestyle and not

just a job. One representative put it this way. “Lapps and reindeer don’t count in your Swedish

society. When wolves rip off the flesh of our reindeer, the friends of animals and the bureaucrats

say nothing!”44

The neo-shaman is in fact expressing a sentiment widespread in modern Sweden and is

accused by the Saami of being nothing more than compassionate urbanites who’s very distance

from the scene of the action fails them to recognise the importance of traditional society. So, in

reference to Gandhi’s advocacy to maintain traditional values we may have a contradiction here if

neo-shamanism is to epitomise the environmental movement as a whole. But I believe it is not the

case since the neo-shaman has identified a larger rift, which discriminates against any further

support towards their environmental neighbours the Saami. To reiterate, Jonathon Sacks in accord

with David Landes’ The Wealth and Poverty of Nations states that it is culture that is the

determinate of progression and not economic resources,45 as encapsulated by the thinking of the

Saami. It was for this reason that Judaeo-Christian Europe, not China, gave birth to the Industrial

Revolution despite the latter inventing printing, paper, porcelain and explosives. The argument is

thrown towards the Saami who themselves have been labelled as not entirely true to their origins.

The original Saami have been wiped out by Christianization and urbanisation and what one sees is

a revival that depicts them as no more than social actors competing for limited material and

cultural resources.46 The iconic Other, characterised by the wild wolf and so upheld by modern day

environmentalists, cannot be attributed to the ‘native’ Saami who continue to enmesh themselves

42 Ibid.,17943 Ibid., 18644 Ibid., 182

14

in national and global economies, politics and bureaucracy.47 Rather, modern post-Christian folk

models of the world are the basis of a new spirituality including the need to protect the weak.

Carry forward the plight of native Indians who have been reduced to numbers close to extinction,

this latter group gets the support of environmentalists while unfortunately the Saami appear to

have too much strength of character. For one, they are not idealised icons of the Self, which is an

essential component of New-Age spirituality. The Self here is a source of moral authority and its

symbolism must always be rooted in the authentic Other. Likewise, the Saami cannot even take

refuge in the Christian moral premise of unconditional primacy of the human being over beast,

because as I have alluded to earlier, environmentalism and religion are two cultural progressions

only passively dictated to by economic resources. Weber would not be in accord with this assertion

because my argument here is more conducive to a phenomenon that could allow for the dominance

of economic policy, as versed by Schumacher, that independently allows the social milieus of

environmentalism and religion to operate within. It appears that the idealised icon of the Self, in its

call for authenticity, is moulded around genuine fears of loss of culture, as with protected species

like the wolf, and not what is simply traditional. We can take Gandhi’s teaching here, when

upholding the need of satyagraha he believed that the well-being of the whole world is reinforced

as truth increasingly becomes part of one’s life,48 so that even the meanest of creation is

appreciated. He seemed to be referring to the plight of the Lost Son more over the Suffering

Servant.

The religious use of politics

45 J. Sacks, op. cit., 91-9246 G. Lindquist op. cit., 184-18647 The Saami manage large tracts of land and tend to be made up substantially by those who have taken their education and upbringing elsewhere but want to return to their homeland to start up business. They straddle Norway, Finland, Sweden and Russia and have little sense of their own identity. Educated Saami return after learning of their own culture elsewhere. D. Harrison & M. F. Price (eds.) People and Tourism in Fragile Environments (Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 1996) 1048 D. L. Gosling Religion and Ecology in India and Southeast Asia (London: Routledge, 2001) 47

15

Unsuccessful as a lawyer in India between 1891 –1893, by which time he was married,

Gandhi went to South Africa where he settled, working for a Muslim firm, again as a lawyer but

this time with a lucrative income. There he espoused the rights of Indian labourers and founded the

Natal Indian Congress where G. K. Gokhale introduced him to the plight of the untouchables and

the need for unity.49 During this period there he set up a series of ashrams (Phoenix farm his first),

including Tolstoy Farm, supported by Hermann Kallenbach, an architect with a Jewish

background. It was as a political campaigner that he forged a relationship with his lifelong friend

C. F. Andrews, an Anglican missionary to India but who became an emissary of the Indian

Nationalist leaders.

In a letter to E. Stanley Jones Gandhi called the Christians to be true to their own gospels.

When asked how Christianity could be naturalised in India he suggested that firstly, all Christians

should live more like Jesus Christ. 50 Secondly, that they should practice the religion without

adulterating it or toning it down. Thirdly, to emphasise love and make it one’s working force. And

lastly, to study the non-Christian religions more sympathetically in order to find the good that is

within them and to have a more sympathetic approach to the people. The question I raise here is

whether the principal reading of these declarations can be gathered under some sort of

environmental ethos. Take for instance the life of Jesus Christ. Are we to assume a description that

may have been written in some unknown or lost scripture of a first hand source by witnesses who

knew him personally? Or is one to refer to the life of Jesus as depicted in the Gospels by a popular

movement that had been purged by St. Paul of any heretical Christian teachings? For instance,

Corpus Christi sermons often develop the ‘historic’ theme of Christ administering the sacrament of

the Eucharist based upon a related interest in the Last Supper.51 But the eucharistic meal proper

was almost certainly modelled on the Jewish Pentecostal meal.52 In other words, the bread over

which thanksgiving is administered is a memorial, an anamnesis of a Jewish idea.53

49 Ibid., 46

16

In this vein of thought, whilst not losing my original relevance to the point, is it enough for

Gandhi to have made regular use of the charkha in order to establish it as an anamnesis of

traditional or ‘lost’ Indian life? Because he was very much a practical mystic, the charkha was his

incongruous answer to India’s economic needs, in the same way that the Bread of Life

‘administered’ by Jesus was the basis of the New Covenant for God’s historical economy.

(Reference the Sermon on the Mount) As Christianity became a Gentile religion so we can take

refuge in the idea that the environmental movement crosscuts all cultures that requires of its

recipients the maintenance of their core identities, albeit not necessarily without adaptation. The

bread and the charkha are two iconic forms of this “contract” with God and Life.

In Gandhi’s second point regarding the tendency to tone down one’s beliefs, we have here a

connotation to probably one of the biggest bugbears of modern environmentalism. The

phenomenon of green washing increases as political and economic constraints enforce legal or

speculative approaches to business developments. Back in the 80’s and 90’s in Britain it became

obvious that the popularity of the Green Party burgeoned the major parties to advance green issues

and polemics. The call, two decades later, that not enough is being done in order to offset carbon

emissions and the depletion of earth’s natural resources is a familiar cry levelled at all business.

The British government has left much of the responsibility in the hands of the private sector whilst

not directing enough pressure to force companies to make drastic changes to the benefit of the

environment.54 Despite government forwarding policies of green taxation and the EU’s emissions

trading system, George Monbiot argues that such diluted policies do no more than favour big

50 E. S. Jones op. cit., 5151 M. Rubin Corpus Christi: The Eucharist in late Medieval Culture (Cambridge: University Press, 1991) 298-30252 The Jewish harvest festival and the offering of a cereal grain, on the 50th day after the 2nd day of Passover (Lev. 23:15,16)53 Since the time of Justin the Martyr, 2nd century, the pre-conditions for receiving the Eucharist, namely baptism and faith, has not changed. At this time it was enough to show that the origins of the Eucharist were justified in the command of Jesus “Do this”. As a memorial it is applied to Christian life in its entirety. M. Jourjon ‘Justin’ Matthew J. O’Connell (trans.) The Eucharist of the Early Christians (NY: Pueblo Publishing Company, 1978) 81

17

business. A fairer system requires generating an annual carbon cap, from which is allocated a

personal carbon ration that limits one’s spending power.

Now, throughout his life Gandhi rejected both the capitalist and communist models. Instead,

economic development and political power would be centred on the village with a subsequent

decentralisation of national society.55 In 1937 whilst living in Wardha he wrote in Harijan about

the ideal village life – cottages built from locally-sourced materials; homesteads with own food

gardens and to house cattle; homes and streets free of all avoidable dust; sufficient wells for all;

houses of worship for all; common meeting places; a village common for grazing cattle; a co-

operative dairy; schools with vocational education as central; punchayats for settling disputes; and

producing one’s own grains, fruits etc.56 He would substitute traditional toothpicks made from

twigs with the very unhygienic factory-made toothbrush. City-made toothpowder is naturally

replaced with equal parts of clean, finely ground wood-charcoal and clean salt, mill-cloth with

village-spun khadi, mill-husked rice with hand-husked, unpolished rice, and white sugar with gur

(unrefined molasses).57 His admonishing of India was to free it of British culture lest it runs to ruin,

the theme of which became a regular issue in Gandhi’s numerous writings. The only affairs that

central government were required for are those beyond the capacity of the village. Limits would be

placed on the size of a regional group. In this vein his ideas underlying basic education was that

one practices what they learn. It is education for life, in which the students are to be self-

maintaining in food, clothing, cooking, sanitation, and community service. While they study it was

conducive to be self-sustaining, and this is the context of an undiluted religious way of life.

54 This has led to extensive growth and the continuing building program of more roads in order to cater for greater transportation needs. The road-building and widening program will cost the economy £11.4bn. The government stipulates a figure of just £545m a year to “spending policies that tackle climate change”. George Monbiot advocates for the redistribution of wealth and the improvement of coach and rail travel. In his book Heat, he calls for an immediate carbon rationing system where each individual is granted a quota based upon keeping carbon emissions below the level that will prevent global temperatures rising by 2oC over pre-industrial levels, i.e. a 90% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. George Monbiot ‘Drastic action on climate change is needed now – and here’s the plan’, The Guardian, Tuesday October 31, 200655 R. Prime op. cit., 62-6756 R. Guha (ed.) op. cit. 155-16057 See also comments in M. Gandhi ‘Swadeshi’ The economics of village industries (Ahmedabad: Navajivani Press, 1938) 13-18 (first published in Harijan: A Journal of Applied Gandhiism, 28th September 1934)

18

Gandhi’s autobiography had thus begun to explore the ethical teaching of the Gita from the

perspective of his legal training.58 “My regard for jurisprudence increased, I discovered in it

religion. I understood the Gita teaching of non-possession to mean that those who desired salvation

should act like a trustee who, though having control over great possessions, regards not an iota of

them as his own… non-possession and equability pre-supposed a change of heart, a change of

attitude”.59 This is essentially the doctrine of niskama karma, the basis of Vivekananda’s

interpretation of karma-yoga.60 The Gita is a syncretic discourse, illustrating the Indic tradition’s

profound appreciation of diversity and its accommodation, the text of which Gandhi could

politically comment upon in the Indian Nationalist Movement. As such Gandhi’s ideas are firmly

rooted in the Indian religious tradition.61

1. Satya (“truth”) – equated to God, that morality and spirituality are ultimately the same – the

grounding of his approach to conflict, satyagraha.

2. Ahimsa (“nonviolence”) – physical violence is prohibited as well as coercion and denigration.

3. Tapsya (“renunciation”) – the traditional requirements of simplicity and purity in personal

habits, as well as the willingness of a fighter to shoulder the burden of suffering in a conflict.

4. Swaraj (“self-rule”) – a term, used during India’s struggle to mean freedom from the British,

but Gandhi used it to refer to an ideal of personal integrity, linking it to the notion of finding

one’s inner self.

58 D. L. Gosling op. cit.,4659 Gandhi, M. K. An Autobiography: The Story of my Experiments with Truth (Ahmedabad: Navajivan, 1927) 19860 Gandhi took a modified version of Jain ahimsa to express a positive well-being of all living beings, and an advaitic insistence on their ultimate unity. In order to ensure its integrity and continuity with the past, that unity needs to be organic and participative, hence the need for sarvodaya (“the awakening of all”) and swaraj (“participatory democracy”). Satyagraha is the vehicle for ahimsa, interpreted as the irresistible force of love, the both embracing all life. Satyagraha builds on Vivekananda’s exposition of karma-yoga. This then incorporates the Gita’s insistence on non-attachment – niskama karma, in order to become the planet’s responsible custodians and trustees (Gandhi’s legal term). Thus he had no real interest in the Hindu deities and its Brahmanic priests, rather his Hinduism encumbers a social ethic, making it distinct, using the concept of truth as a basis for moral and political action. It was embodied through non-violence with the Christian notion of selfless love. The concept of karma-yoga was broadened to include social service and political action, refining what is meant by untouchabililty, and the elevation of the untouchable’s tasks. D. L. Gosling. op. cit., 4861 L. Jones op. cit., 3272

19

In his reply to E. Stanley Jones, it was essential that love, for the Christian, should be one’s

working force, the lynchpin of Gandhi’s whole philosophy. By this he meant adopting it as a total

way of life, politically, economically and religiously. (Reference satyagraha above) Gandhi is well

quoted in his devotion to Truth and its submergence into the field of politics, for he understood

that religion and politics are inseparable. Nehru, the would-be future prime Minister, makes the

comment that Gandhi uses the words ‘the Law of Truth’ and ‘Love’ interchangeably.

Most Western environmental campaigns today tend to avoid any religious criteria. But, in the

spirit of Gandhi we have already heard of the plight of the Saami and the national use of the power

symbol of the wolf by neo-shamans and environmental groups. Another such environmental group

is Earth First! This militant based organisation justify their actions from a purely biocentric belief

system but which is fundamentally grounded in religious sentiment.62 The basis of this ethos is

that evolution does not give primacy to human beings. Consequently all systems are equally valued

and respected. A lot of their sentiments take an eclectic background from Taoism, Buddhism,

Paganism, even Christian nature mysticism. They consider themselves as protectors of the wild

and uphold a primal spirituality akin to the indigenous, more commonly the Amerindian, way of

life. With an ethos rooted in Deep Ecology63 their rituals have a shamanic tone to them as they

engage in nature and imagine being possessed by the spirits of non-human creatures, even rocks

and rivers. They subsequently orate this as an environmental cry of unfair treatment. Their fight, as

in the satyagrahi, is for the right of freedom of self, for whatever being. As such they commit civil

disobedience, a practice they call “ecotage” or “monkeywrenching”, where bulldozers are

sabotaged, trees are spiked in order to damage chainsaws, surveying equipment removed etc. They

get followed by government agents, are occasionally imprisoned and threatened; they undoubtedly 62 Bron Taylor ‘The Religion and Politics of Earth First!’ The Ecologist, Vol. 21, No.6, 1991 (London: Ecosystems Ltd.) 258-266 63 The ecological philosophy of seeing oneself as part of nature and not abridged from it. Its founder philosopher was Arne Naess. Again, like many before and after, the timeless notions of Gandhi’s wisdom were lectured upon, in this case by Naess at the University of Oslo.

20

share much of the same feelings as the satyagrahi whose families were looked after at the ashrams

whilst the protestors went to jail.

These militants are inclined to reject organised religion, viz. Christianity and Judaism, and

though this may be an unfair assumption of religion’s anti-nature qualities, there is no doubt that

Earth First!ers have an undying spiritual cause in their motives. Their cosmogony is non-

hierarchical, exactly the equality that the Satyagrahis of colonial India were demanding. The

“monkeywrencher’s” call for the wild echoes Gandhi who challenged the western anthropocentric

view that human beings possess the right of unrestrained domination of the natural world,

addressing social and political issues from within a spiritual framework. For instance in 1931

Gandhi led a salt march to Dandi protesting against the taxation of salt. This coincided with the

many incidents of forest burning in Kumaun.64 The Forest Act of 1927 had reduced access to fuel

and fodder for survival, while increasing timber productivity. Relations between the government

and the villagers eventually improved though, with the reorganisation of the reserved forest areas

to include temple trees and sacred groves of oaks. Thus, forests with little commercial value were

made under the control of the village punchayats. Despite the national movement playing an

insignificant role, Gandhi’s charismatic, if distant, activities had awoken a responsive echo.

On Gandhi’s last point to Jones, making all religions the focus of one’s sypathetic studies, I

do believe we can make a departure here. For rarely do I know of environmental groups that make

religions the study of their sympathies. Even pro-Palestinian organisations that work the co-

operatives in the wake of Jewish threats for the exigent production of olive oil, even they work

from purely an environmental and social justice standpoint. More likely, I will have to encounter

sympathetic environmental groups who are themselves primarily religious organisations, for

instance Christian Aid. Also, one cannot doubt the contribution of the WCC (World Council of

Churches), they being present since the 70’s at most of the major environmental conferences

64 D. L. Gosling op. cit., 61

21

including the Earth Summits. Hallman makes an interesting remark that the north-south divide is

wholly apparent within the ecumenical movement.65 Where the northern Church may be reluctant

to admit to their participation in the global capitalist economy, the southern, with all its variety and

centuries of exploitation and poverty have comes to term with the environmental issues with much

more clarity. This to the extent that its liberation theology is better equipped to articulate a theory

and praxis for a just creation.

But regarding Jones’ question to Gandhi, this reply would not be true to the analogy, for

surely if one were looking for an environmental sentiment in Gandhi’s response then he would be

asking that all environmental groups make a study of their fellow compatriots in the movement. It

is in this vein that we close this essay by suggesting, just tentatively, that if environmentalism is a

modern form of religious institution i.e. an approach to dealing with environmental phenomenon,

then it is a lot more acceding of others’ motives than institutionalised religion has been in history.

In fact, it takes on the attire of Gandhi’s universalism. But the general compliance between global

institutions today is probably no more than the modern result of the phenomenon of democracy.

Conclusion

Of course, the political use of religion is not the same as the religious use of politics. Political

use of religion is a widespread phenomenon. What Gandhi, and likewise many mystical traditions

of the past like the Gnostics had, was a prophetic element. Gandhi’s primary objective was to

influence people’s philosophy of life. W. Norman Brown considered Gandhi a failure, saying that

rather than making religious use of politics as purported by Gandhi himself, to reiterate he made

political use of religion.66 Politicians had no faith in the ultimate value of his religious purpose, as

he had none for purely secular ends. Nehru also comments that Gandhi refused to narrow his

cultural inheritance, trying to give Hinduism a universal attire to include all religions. As such,

65 D. G. Hallman (ed.) Ecotheology: Voices from South and North (NY: World Council of Churches, 1994) 566 G. J. Larson op cit., 192-197

22

Gandhi was opposed to the establishment of any traditional religion, which would clearly

undermine his universal views. But Nehru does say that the doctrine of non-violence was

something that attracted him more and more; the spiritualization of politics seemed a good idea,

even whilst making reference to his own agnosticism.

The India Conciliation Group, made up largely of members from a religious background,

including priests of different churches and former missionaries in India managed to persuade the

then Prime Minister Ramsay Macdonald, with doing away with separate communal electorates for

members of scheduled castes, the Dalits. Gandhi vigorously opposed the move of separate

electorates for the so-called “untouchables, renamed by Gandhi as harijans or “children of God”.

His fast-unto-death made Ambedkar reach a compromise in 1932. Some viewed this as Gandhi’s

larger vision of emancipation for the “untouchables”. Gandhi also deeply opposed Jinah’s call for

partition and a two-nation theory in 1940 and said that partition meant a patent untruth, and that

also the majority of Muslims of India are converts or descendants of converts to Islam. In March,

1940 the Lahore Resolution which formed the official basis for the creation of Pakistan, was

adopted.67 In response to this Gandhi wrote, “For I believe with my whole soul that the God of the

Koran is also the God of the Gita, and that we are all, no matter what name designated, children of

the same God”68

It is hard to conceive that religion is responsible for so much worldly conflict, neither

contrarily as an “opium of the masses”. But there can be no denying that conflict of sorts is explicit

in any movement, whether political, religious or environmental. Most conflict happens through the

sheer dynamic of popular movements to keep changing their forms and boundaries. The multitude

of religious worship today is probably incalculable when one considers the encroaching

homogenisation of the world. I found it relevant reading Vladimir Solovyov’s War, Progress and

67 See Dr. Khan Dawood writing his opinion in ‘Partition Players’ Politics – II’ (http://www.pakistanlink.com/Opinion/2005/Sep05/16/07.HTM)68 Quoted in D. E. Smith India as a Secular State (London: Oxford University Press, 1963) 140

23

the End of History. Solovyov, philosopher, had a deep attachment to the Orthodox Church though

he had an undoubted ecumenical concern for Christian unity. The interesting point here is that he

was also anti-Tolstoyon, the aforementioned book being a polemic against him. Solovyov

anticipated the continuous evolution of humanity towards a lifestyle that became increasingly

benign.69 Because of this he had an optimistic tone, the belief in the victory of good, and an

underestimation of evil. On the other hand, Tolstoy rationalised with the Gospels, dismissing the

incarnated God. His view of non-resistance to evil is accused by Solovyov, whilst showing no

recourse to name calling, as a “purely horizontal religion reduced to ethics, without a vertical

dimension”, hence the lack of the divine. Of course, Gandhi was very influenced by Tolstoy and

one can see the correlation with him when he saw that one could take on oneself suffering, and not

give it, and thus conquer the heart of another. Yet Jones also argues here that Gandhi could not see

the Christ as reconciling the world through bearing the sins of humanity on the Cross. This, one

now realises, would probably have been too much to accept from a purely ethical standpoint.

Nevertheless he saw in Gandhi a “true” Christian, putting into practice what the Christian put into

doctrine. Solovyov’s preface to his book is a haranguing of this (sham) Christian religion, which

he analogises to a religion of hole worshippers, one been drilled in a beam of wood, as opposed to

a complete living tree.70 This religion, without the Christ and the Gospel, i.e. the good news, in

absence of the fullness of living through the resurrection, is likened to this hollow space. In an

interesting parallel of the psychoanalytical study of myth and ritual Joseph Campbell states that

despite the behaviour of its priests, the Saviour’s cross should (sic) be the democratic symbol that

the hero must pass within, beyond the flag, the totem and the tribal mentalities.71

Is this where environmentalism and religion make their departure in the increasing lack of

global homogeneity in one, and increasing loss of tribalism in the other? Judi Bari, an activist for

69 M. Czeslaw (Introduction) to V. Solovyov War, Progress and the End of History (NY: Lindisfarne Press, 1990) 10-1270 V. Solovyov War, Progress and the End of History (NY: Lindisfarne Press, 1990) 16-1771 J. Campbell The Hero with a Thousand Faces (London: Fontana Press, 1993) 159

24

Earth First!, had her car bombed by a fundamentalist who, in writing a letter, quoted the

“dominion” story of Genesis 1:26

“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have

dominion over the fish in the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over…”

Apparently, Judi Bari had upset this particular person because she had previously referred to trees

as gods themselves and not God’s gift to man, and it would thus be a sin to cut them down. 72 The

letter is not known to be either fake or true, but it concluded with threats to other demon tree

worshippers by the Lord’s avenger. On the one hand we find a sort of tribal mentality, whilst on

the other a fanatical worshipper of a major religion. The one is asserting identity on equality of all

living things, the other on the inequality of the universe. In both cases the cosmogony seems to

justify the ends, a long way from Gandhi’s “the means are the ends.”

Swami Vivekanada’s exerted a strong influence on Gandhi in terms of his views of the

solidarity of the whole universe. But prior to the independence of India the Congress Movement

projected a secular ideology, representing a society divided along caste and community. It had the

unfortunate effect of alienating Muslim community. Gandhi had held that all religions are equal, so

that to convert one from another is wrong. In apparent contradiction, as far back as 1930, in a

letter to Lord Irwin he talked about converting the British Empire through non-violence and thus

make them see the wrong they have done to India. Yet he opposed the conversion of the depressed

classes to no other than the one they were brought up in. This was because mass conversions could

be used to sway the balance of power in the system of communal representation. He only approved

of conversion if there were no conditions of denationalisation attached to it, and that the Christian

community would not become a separate political entity.

On the whole though, the Indian constitution does not favour any religious tradition,

guaranteeing social and economic justice and equality of status and security. Gandhi’s alternative

72 Bron Taylor op. cit.,

25

model of Punchayat raj (village republics and subsistence farming) has been bypassed by

government over the last 50 years and has largely been glossed over in the constitution.73 The

Gandhian spirit continues though in the plight of forest working communities. His explicit

influence of the environmental movement in India began in 1973, thirty years after his death, with

the Chipko Andolan who acknowledged him as a patron saint. He also stimulated the Narmada

Movement (Narmada Bachao Andolan) of present time. Their techniques are Gandhian, inspiring

modern day environmentalists as Chandi Prasad Bhatt and Sunderlal Bahugana. Vinoba, a

Gandhian, echoed him like this, “The proper economy is this: Let the owner of a field get hold of a

spinning wheel and turn it, until his cotton field has clothed him, his family and the whole of his

village.”74 On the contrary, modern sceptics like Ramachandra Guha are reluctant to attribute too

much Gandhian influence on post-Independence movements like Chipko and the Uttarakhand

Sarvodaya Mandal, saying that external ideology plays small role in responding to forest rights.

The latter of these groups also promote the organisation of women, the abolition of alcohol

consumption and the establishment of forest-based small industries, all of which are fundamentally

part of a relatively recent wave of environmental concern. It could be argued that the secular

ideology has taken away the religious social context for the understanding and mitigating of these

issues.

So in answer to my original question I would agree that Gandhi was a forerunner for the

modern environmental movement. But it is not through ethics alone, neither religious practice, nor

solely from some deep-rooted spirituality. Neither would I consider his actions as particularly

influential when taken in isolation. There is no doubt that passive resistance showed the world that

one could get results, and with a following of 500million people and being at the forefront of the

Independence movement the law of probability was on his side. But somewhere in all of his

combined mannerisms was the real reason of what Gandhi resonated - hope. He represented his

73 D. L. Gosling op. cit.,45-4874 P. R. Cassell op. cit.,62-67

26

people in their entirety. He was a prophet and he responded like one when the land called for his

leadership. Yet even when his people were divided this too is reflected in the paradoxical nature of

all great men. Such men embody the qualities of the opposites, male and female, ego and non-ego.

As Stanley E. Jones rhetorically asserts, the presence of Gandhi negated caste, for he simply

transcends all differences.75 In reiteration of Tolstoy, Gandhi said that we must conceive of life as

horizontal – all are equal before God, but that certain qualities carried over from birth provide for

different functions. As such, the discovery of the law of varnashrama (the caste system) is a

magnificent result of a ceaseless search for truth.76

It would be unjustified in accrediting Gandhi with a prediction of the technological

evolution of today, but ultimately those who search for truth always make the right decisions. This

is my opinion. The partition of Pakistan may have been an inevitable circumstance in light of the

Muslim conflicts of today. Gandhi may well have understood something of the global energy

requirements that could ultimately make Islamic nations very rich, and even anticipated new forms

of energy creation. In view of the need to reduce our waste and minimise energy requirements the

local sustainable model seems best able to deliver a future. In a recent study of Gandhi’s village

concept in Clean Slate, the quarterly newsletter of the Centre of Alternative Technology (CAT) in

Wales, it has been calculated that a typical Indian village produces about 2,364 tons of rural

wastes, in the form of crop residues, animal manure and human excreta, from a population of about

510.77 77% of that waste would be used for domestic fuel, animal fodder and organic fertiliser. The

rest is left out on the fields to be naturally assimilated by soil fauna. Even though such villages are

highly efficient, estimated to produce 82% of their own domestic energy requirements through

anaerobic digestion of manure, the removal of non-renewable energy sources could make such

villages 100% self sufficient. Fuel crops would necessitate plantations of eucalyptus and

75 E. S. Jones op. cit.,.5876 See extensive article on varnashrama in M. Gandhi Harijan, 28th September 1934 (Ahmedabad: Poona) 260-26277 Jaise Kuriakose ‘Earth Spirituality’ Clean Slate, No.66, Winter 2007, (Machynlleth: Centre for Alternative Technology Publications)

27

euphorbia. Ground water can be lifted mechanically, and traditional Chulha stoves can be

improved even further. The careful management of the landscape, allowing for the self-

replenishment of its biodiversity, i.e. its liberation, is axiomatic to this vision. This is effectively

the root of the modern environmental movement; a deeper ecology.

Gandhi’s epitaph

E. Stanley Jones credited Gandhi as holding together the opposite qualities of passive and

militant.78 Passive, in this original form, means to suffer quietly, patiently; taking suffering onto

oneself; an active resistance from a higher level; the dying on the cross. He was an ascetic and a

servant; a new combination for Indians. The Vedantic philosophy states that the Ultimate Reality,

Brahma, is non-serving, that to sit and meditate, to realise one’s unity with Brahma is to get out of

the wheel of existence – maya or illusion. It was this, that the Hindu sees in him the flowering of

Hinduism79 and Jones, that Christians are shamed and inspired by him as an illustration of the spirit

of Christ. He quotes Gandhi as saying, “I am taking good care of my body. I feel as responsible as

a pregnant woman. God in his infinite wisdom has chosen, it seems to me, that I be instrumental in

bringing forth India’s freedom. I, therefore, cannot afford to die as yet”. In a continuation of his

acclaim of Gandhi, Jones says that his martyrdom was a witness, converting millions everywhere,

a willing sacrifice. In life and death he was the same; he lived and died a martyr.

But it is also fair to say that most modern Gandhians, including C. P. Bhatt, show more

optimism than Gandhi about implementing the potential of science for social reform. Gandhi died

78 E. S. Jones op. cit.,10579 Ibid., 28

28

a disappointed man. Even the new Prime Minister, Nehru, one of his closest followers thought

Gandhi’s ideas about modern civilisation were utopian and largely inapplicable. Vinoba was

acknowledged as his spiritual successor, carrying forward Gandhi’s vision for the villages with the

Sarvodaya Samaj, the Society for the Service of the People.

Over the last 40 years India has become the leading industrial and military power in

Southeast Asia. Populations have doubled as so its poor; the land and the village are being laid to

waste.

Notes

29