ARCHETYPES INDIA

To Kill a Mosquito (Painted Poem)

2012-01-26T11:30:00.007+05:30

To Kill a Mosquito

To Kill s Mosquito (Painted Poem)

Fumigation is on,
on mosquito menace;
instead get immune
to multiply in million,
Like humans in margin
when arrogant men
take Nature's Law in
Their hand, in Mumbai.

Remigius de Souza | Mumbai | 21-01-2012

Environmental Revolution set in mid-20th Century in the West. Science grew in leaps & bounds. Yet environment continued to suffer in equal proportion of progress in science. Global Superpowers continue to splurge energy on world summits.

We hardly learn from Srishti – Mother Nature – and her laws of Ecology, Energy and Environment. We are busy destroying Nature's ecological balance.

Alas! The frenzy to kill insects at Urban Habitats and Rural Farms annihilated benevolent bees and butterflies that helped pollination… and those kept population balance of prey and predator species.
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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Indian Society & Some Crucial Issues: Worm’s Eye view

2011-12-21T11:30:00.214+05:30

Indian Society & Some Crucial Issues: Worm’s Eye view
By Remigius de Souza

Key words: society; institutions; nature-conservation; people-conservation; village-education.

ANY EVENT that I notice /read makes me to introspect, watch what is burning under my feet and what is happening around, as far as my sight can reach... with whatever means available.

THE WHOLE PAST comes to my mind like a movie in a flash ...from the age I came to senses, the Four Worlds of India — the Third World (of peasants), the Fifth World (of the marginalized), the Fourth World (of Adivasis) and the First World (of Industrial Society) — where I lived, moved, worked and gained experience. Following few observations are based on this lifelong journey.

Society
WE generally use word 'society' that refers to all social collectives. However, there are some fine differences among the Indian social & cultural sub-groups. Some are civilized societies; some are aborigine communities and some ethnic communities.


India: Socio-Cultural sub-regions

Restore Languages to restore People’s Autonomy. There are as many languages as the cultural groups.

THE COLLECTIVES of the aborigines or Adivasis are better addressed as 'communities'. Because their social formation is not based on division of labour, caste and class, like civilized societies. Here, every individual is representative of whole community. A notable feature: there is no prostitution among Adivasis!

THERE ARE some ethnic communities. For example, there is matriarchal ethnic community in Kerala. Before Aryans came, there was matriarchal society in Karnataka (Bharatiya Sanskritikosha, editor: Pundit Mahadevashastri Joshi). There are also communities of Laman or Banjara (Romano), Dhangar (shepherd) etc.

Distribution of some major tribes of India

Adivasis come with the wealth of their ancient wisdom. The loss of their Forest habitat means assault on their existence and survival.

INDIA STILL HAS RICH BIODIVERSITY; hence, there is rich cultural diversity. The culture is the gift of Srishti, ‘Mother Nature’, to humans! It is, therefore, necessary in India, to include the subject of anthropology in all branches of higher education. It is necessary for the elite to learn about plural society of India. History of India, introduced by the British, is too narrow, mean and out of right context. It propagates feudalism, which is not good for democratic values, than “People History”.

Institutions
THE COLONIAL RULE brought here industrialization from Europe. It dominated entire educated and illiterate society, before anyone realized. It was not a revolution; it was borrowing; it was imposed. Industrialization came, along came many institutions and complex laws. They took over the private and public life of the collective and an individual. And both lost their autonomy of self-decision and self-reliance.

Social Work
BECAUSE OF INHUMAN SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC INEQUALITY IN INDIA, many institutions, movements, activists… committed to social work started during past 100 years. However, we speak from a public platform; we take for granted what is below the platform, the reality that is constantly changing. We say 'Chalata Hai – This goes on,’. And the work that remains for the experts, professionals, politicians is to find "curative measures" to save their skin.

IS THE WORK of a teacher, doctor, technocrat, engineer, architect, Govt/semi-government-employee, city planner, economist, scientist... police not "social work"? Aren't they the part of society? Of course, in a decadent society — whether Western or Eastern — this may not happen. We, however, caress our ego. That's all!

NGOs
THERE ARE NGOs from UN at global level to countless numbers in the bye-lanes of Delhi-Mumbai... These social institutions are started with noble aims and objectives. Some work within their specialized fields. Some of them face resource crunch; they have to struggle to collect funds to survive. Some disappear in the blue. Some show feudal / bureaucratic traits. Some of those working in rural areas think of illiterate peasants and the tribal as backward and "uneducated", and they have come to educate them. These professional social workers from cities find nothing worth "learning" from them.

Education (Learning)
AT THE BEGINNING OF 20TH CENTURY – the times of Ranade-Gokhale – there were two percent educated (not literate) people. Gokhale then was struggling to bring a bill of 'free and compulsory primary education' for India in the Privy Council. That was hundred years ago!

EDUCATION – Learning and Teaching – is now an occupation, no more a vocation. Educational Institutions prepare the highly educated, professional, specialist etc. candidates for employment- business. But our Public Education Institution has failed to impart literacy to large number of people in the past sixty years. Isn't it the "State-at-misfortune"?

Social commitment
WHAT IS SOCIAL COMMITMENT and whom does it apply? To give the last rites to a dead body, according to that person's faith (if known), may rank at the top on the part of society. Just imagine: if the dead is not disposed off in time, what problem would it cause to the society!

BUT THE SOCIETY, religion or person/s need not worry about it. Srishti is does it by ‘recycling’ a dead body. Millions of worms will be born in the dead body and finish it, and they too die and turn into soil.

An ordinary example of social commitment
IN MUMBAI at our home, an illiterate woman of untouchable caste was our maidservant. Once she brought a dispossessed sick old man about to die, at her home – a hut on the roadside pavement. She nursed him. She also gave him the last rites after a couple of days. Honestly, I couldn't have done this.

Reunion with Mother Nature

Conservation of Nature
VINOBA BHAVE, in his commentary on Gita, spoke of three-fold Yoga Actions, Sacrifices –Yajna, gift and penance – as I recall.
1. Yajna (sacrifice): whatever we take from Nature we must return back, for example, we take food grains from land; therefore, we restore it by putting manure, watering etc. That is Conservation of Nature.
2. Gift: society, parents, guru, kin-kith etc help us in many ways. Give them gift in gratitude and to restore their losses (this is not charity).
3. Penance: we use our body – mind, intelligence, limbs – in daily actions. We must restore the loss of energy and remove impurities etc.
Society and our body are not outside of Nature. Similarly, these three actions are Yajnas, Sacrifices. (Ref: Gita-Pravachane, Chapter 17). This interpretation of “Social Commitment”, on the part of an individual and the collective, may sound non-conventional to the believers of Gita.

A PYRAMID, TAJ MAHAL... To build these artefacts does the money come from a government mint? All the wealth that humans use basically comes from the Earth. We only process it. However, all the living-beings have equal rights to the Earth. The artefacts mentioned above indicate 'feudalism' of persons, caste or class. Unfortunately today this is repeated even by democratic nations.

THE LAND IS NOT ANYONE'S PROPERTY. None, neither the State nor a person, has ethical, moral right to own land. In its history of 5000 years, how the civilized society mutilated this land!

DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT'S OBJECTIVE must be “Janata”, the People: only the People are "Means & Goal". All planning, projects, laws… their making and implementation processes should be guided and materialized through the People. Government and other institutions are only facilitators and accountable to Janata.

GOVERNMENT and other institutions are merely tools, faceless entities. Their primary duty is to the People, to protect their primary autonomous functions — Work, Leisure, Health, Learning and Propagation — and according to changing situation prepare development projects and make them available to the People.

Need for right education
"FOOD-SHELTER-CLOTHING are basic needs", a million times they – expert, planner, politician – must have chewed this old dry bone on the public platform! These celebrities royally forget a fact: Even animals have this knowledge by intuition.

Leisure - Children exercise their autonomy

Peasants and Adivasis don’t Need Entertainment / Leisure Industry.

SRISHTI, MOTHER NATURE, gave all the living beings — plants and animals — an ability and autonomy to fulfil their needs for survival. For this purpose she also provided them with five autonomous functions: Work, Leisure, Health, Learning and Propagation. Srishti, also, does not give any authority to manipulate over these functions to any human or supernatural power or institution.

THERE IS NO NEED TO REPEAT HISTORY time and again. History is before us by its litter everywhere. Question is, is there any remedy to the problems created by the history? Whether we correct root cause/s of mistakes, or find new technology, or carry on status quo policy to make superficial changes, or import a readymade foreign technology? What for creativity / originality then?

People-conservation and Social balance
INDIAN FARMERS continue to commit suicides. About 300 million people are bellow poverty line (BPL). There is no reliable count of how many are living in sub-human conditions in the slums in cities. In the 21st Century of Gregorian calendar, there are 400 million illiterate Indians in the Age of Computer-literacy. How could this 'Janata' face the forthcoming annihilation from 'technocracy'?

Learning by Sharing

The urchins here give a Fundamental Lesson in Learning. By this indigenous method the whole India will be literate in five years. People's Need is Access to Resources.

New Education for Six Lakhs Villages
HOW TO DECIDE WHAT IS RIGHT EDUCATION FOR 900 PLUS MILLION PEASANTS? Who should be given priority, between Industry and Trade (organised sector), and peasants (unorganized sector)? About 90 crore people (not population) live in six lakhs villages. Which institution or media can give reliable facts about their despair in areas of food, water, education, health, agro-produce... and income? For this reason “Decentralization of Power” is an urgent need.

PREVAILING EDUCATION SYSTEM is being run for 60 years by making superficial adjustments time to time. There is no fundamental change. To bring a change following points must be attended and documented in details.

Survey of local conditions in six lakhs villages
THE SURVEY must be carried with villagers' participation at local level. Such a survey, not only becomes a part of people's education, but there is essential transparency. This must not be a sample surveys done by statisticians. The Census Surveys are insufficient.
1. Environment: natural, social, economic, educational, political etc. all aspects of environment;
2. Ecology: local language and vernacular, and their mnemonic knowledge, folk arts, the life-supporting skills in practice, traditional knowledge and tools used for living;
3. Energy: Climate, human-energy, animal-energy, bio-energy, mineral wealth, plant wealth, such as food, plants for oil-insecticide-medicine-aroma-building-colours & dyes-fibres-spices & condiments etc. Plants from land and waters, from algae-grasses to vines to giant trees;
4. Geography: location and regional linkages

Subjects for Rural Education
SUBJECTS AND TOPICS should cover all related areas that influence, affect, help that are relevant in the present situation of villages.
1. Water and land conservation, Farming & related topics, Animal husbandry, Biotechnology: (Remember that rice was domesticated 10,000 years ago, when civilised societies, cities, nations, and the word, biotechnology did not then exist.)
2. Development of Alternative Energy Sources that are used by the peasants, marketing, commerce;
3. Local self-government, land revenue, Land Acquisitions Act(?) etc. related laws;
4. This education should have field orientation;
5. Access to young and adult of all ages, genders, timings & batches suitable for peasants.
Buildings – Schools buildings – should be built in local vernacular technologies, using local materials, maintained and repaired by the locals, and not by the Public Works Departments (PWD) or third party such as contractors.

Epilogue
HOW MANY OF OUR 'CITIZENS', though they may have migrated from rural area in the past, know intimately any 'village' and its ‘Janata’? Many may be well versed in world geography, yet their personal world remains flat – two dimensional. The Sun and the Moon, however, move tirelessly around the Earth and meet each of our godforsaken villages, day and night.

THE VILLAGES must have their rightful share of resources of the nation. Their major stumbling block is education. If this is not restored to the People, the so-called 'progress', praised by others, mostly by the vested interests, may prove merely a 'pseudo-progress'.
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Related Posts
1. Politics of Literacy in India : Challenges of 21st Century
2. Farming: Politics of Education in India
3. Letters and Numbers, plus ‘Things to Make'
4. Work-Leisure-Health-Learning-Propagation

© 2011 Remigius de Souza | Mumbai

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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Universal Holistic Definition of Environment in Five Words

2011-11-10T11:30:00.002+05:30

Universal Holisti Definition in Five Words

Universal Holistic Definition of Environment in Five Words by Saint-Poet Tukaram

Saint-Poet Tukaram (17th century AD), of Maharashtra, India, defines “Environment” without mincing words.

It is unparalleled by any other definittion anywhere anytime. He doesn’t use adjectives or poetic embellishments to prove his point.

The definition combines Environment, Ecology and Energy in one go, in just five words.

It also proves that an environmentalist must be a spiritual person beyond professionalism, or a spiritual person must be an environmentalist; the rest is hypocrisy; there is no other way.

Environment is separated from Ecology and Energy by the technological capitalist society. Each of these is further broken into several compartments.

More advanced a civilised society more are divisions and subdivisions of its castes, classes that lead to fragmentation of society, consolidation of centralized power, but above all, the loss of holistic reality: LIFE is forgotten.

Tukaram reminds us that all living beings are interdependent. Hence there is need for moderation, particularly in ‘work’ to restore ‘leisure’ in daily living, irrespective of anyone’s place in any hierarchy – a president or a prime minister in the world of political environment, or a pauper in urban environment, or a peasant in the desert environment, or the "masses" in the social environmet.

LIFE – call it God of Creation or Nature of Evolution – is ruthlessly indifferent to arrogance, antics and assumptions of humans in general and the technologically advanced societies in particular.

Pollinator (Source: Nature)

NOTE: The relationship between forests, wildlife and pollination-dependant crops is crucial to increase the yield. Four hundred years later science is now developed with external aids/tools to see what Saint Tukaram says.

The recent scientific report finds that “…a pollination-dependent crop surrounded by plantations and natural forests, which comprised the matrix. Our analysis revealed a clear positive effect of the natural forest on the pollinator abundance, but the plantation forest had little effects" (Plantation vs. natural forest: Matrix quality determines pollinator abundance in crop fields | Nature Scientific Reports 28 October 2011)

Remigius de Souza

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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Let A Billion Faiths Bloom

2011-11-07T11:30:00.004+05:30

Let A Billion Faiths Bloom
by Remigius de Souza

Could there ever be a billion faiths, not one?
Could there ever be a billion gods, not one?
Could there ever be a billion incarnations?
Could there ever be one in love of Sovran Good?

Rather than in love of gods or ‘no-god’,
Or could I ever be relieved of loads on my head
Of history that grows with Ages with my growing age?
Let the billion faiths bloom in love of Sovran Good.

I met several cultures in places and among peoples
Like water that takes on colours of soil and skies
Putting my sole possession – my life at stakes
Beyond barriers of time and space, hell and heavens

Breaking loose, my life ether in flowering and fruition
Be a witness of the billion nameless in turmoil.
Let me be inside outside in love of Sovran Good.
Let the billion faiths bloom in love of Sovran Good.

Remigius de Souza | 27.04.2002 | Mumbai, India
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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Hunger of Body and Mind & Sustainable Living

2011-11-01T11:45:00.015+05:30

Hunger of Body and Mind & Sustainable living
by Remigius de Souza

Image - Engineer's Safety Key

(Author of this famous graphic not known; the interpretation is by Remigius de Souza)

We eat food to nourish body and also our mind by default. Hence wholesome food is elementary input to nourish mind.

Learning from books, as is mass education system, makes one dogmatic. It isn't enough also to see the world through media / Internet / books alone all the time.

We need to feed our mind also by watching down-to-earth reality under our feet, to feed and develop our perception, than merely on Virtual Reality.

With our entire senses alert, we put them to use that begins to watch self and around us; never to miss a detail as well as the whole, without bias.

Thus watching dispassionately we may witness reality as is. The Present, which is also the residue of the Past, then becomes all pervasive.

We then loose the shackles of the bygone past, as well as speculation of an unknown Future.

By actually holistic living here and Now, responsibly, we could spare a better tomorrow for the posterity, and enjoy ourselves wholesome Present. This is sustenance and Sustainable Living.

Living beyond the life of hydroponics

Food is considered our Basic Need. But like breathing, we are hardly aware of our action during eating-drinking.

We take Food for granted like Air that we breathe to keep us alive, more than our likes, dislikes and taste. This is a result of our prosperity – surplus economy – made possible by machine and market.
This also makes our thinking, working and thereby living a grand mechanical act, by default?

Are we either capable to produce even one percent of what we eat, or are we intelligent enough to perceive who produce our food? We are too busy to stop and think.

Are we not concerned about a large number of seven billion fellow humans go hungry?

Are we aware of our lifestyle on fast track that splurges resources taken from the earth on trivialities, which are actually 'external aids', particularly, in cities?

All this is in the name of “Our Lifestyle”: Indeed we live a life of hydroponics!

As Wealth and Waste grow in direct proportion, neither the rich nor the poor are spared from problems of heath – physical and mental. The rich suffer, for example, from obesity, while the poor are victims of malnutrition that cause sicknesses… Today’s story on BBC News Magazine, ‘India loses stomach for the pot belly’ gives a comprehensive picture.

Also read more on this issue: Civilization Trap In Our Era
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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Civilization Trap In Our Era

2011-10-26T12:30:00.005+05:30

Civilization Trap In Our Era
by Remigius de Souza

(CIVILIZATION TRAP was originally published in the Fourth World Review (FWR) | Editor John Papworth | Nos. 133 & 134, 2005, UK, p 16. The archives of FWR issues are available on http://www.4thworld.co.uk . This is an updated version.)

Quote:
"…misapplied science has brought to the world's richest virgin lands a desolation compared with which the ravages of all the wars in history are negligible", (Jacks and Whyte, 'The Rape of the Earth').

MIGHTY CIVILIZATION AND EMPIRES have vanished, however, people prevail. Huge species like dinosaurs vanished, bacteria prevail.

But Industrial Civilization, from ‘Jenny’ to ‘Dolly’, monopolizes resources of the earth that belong to all the living beings.

It seems Industrial Civilization is in a great hurry to wipe out all living beings including 'other' humans (who don't subscribe to industrialization).

It takes on a role of God-the-creator to create enormous wealth and enormous waste with tools of science and technology, economy and market.

It, of course, shall vanish by its “over-specialization”, whether in big nations or small nations or societies. It is the lesson of history.

Thankfully, ‘the majority of the world still sustains outside the capitalist /socialist economy’, says Shanin, sociologist, in an interview (Teodor Shanin, How the other half live| New Scientist | 03 August 2002 | issue 2354, p 44). However the industrial civilization, through its puppets, tries hard to bring them into its dragnet.

It has created enormous number of institutions to control almost every aspect of living of an individual and the collective, which causes to end up loosing their autonomy of decision-making and action, therefore, their identity.

'Identity Crisis' is the result of mass type of civil society that reflects in today's worldwide unrest and in various forms of violence.

It is apparent in five autonomous functions of the living: Work 1, Leisure 2, Health 3, Learning 4 and Propagation 5. These functions are given by Mother Nature to all the living beings – from bacteria to plants and animals, including humans – to sustain. Morally there is no authority – an individual or an organization – to control these autonomous functions of living-beings – mosquito or man.

Now Industrial Civilization has taken over these functions, from the collective and an individual, of course, to capitalize for power and profit, through legal means.

Unfortunately, for example, the doses of 24x7 non-stop opium of Entertainment, called Leisure Industry, do not work! (A Great Epoch flies at a Tangent)

Some recent Examples:
WORK: 1. Farmers Strain to Hire American Workers in Place of Migrant Labour,but no takers for brown collar job in the US (Kirk Johnson | New York Times | October 5, 2011)
WORK: 2. UK unemployment total hits 17-year high (BBC NEWS, 16 March 2011)
HEALTH: Trillion-dollar brain drain: Enormous costs of mental health problems in Europe not matched by research investment. (NATURE | 4 October 2011 | Issue 478, 15)

Read More>> Michael Jackson is an epitome of great epoch

These are few recent stories of highly industrialized and wealthy nations. What could be imaginable condition of the Third World Nations?

Religion of science-technology, which is not universal phenomenon, failed to bring promised salvation to entire humanity globally or locally!

And the experts, who work in their boxes of specialization and have blinkered view of the world, find no answer/s.

In such a situation, can I be autonomous? Not until I reflect upon what I eat and wear and patronize, and why; until the end of all rationale beyond the most publicized term ‘Global’. Then there is possibility of creative action/ inaction. That’s what “Local” means.

---------------------------------

Quote:

...the social and finacial development which is called

the industrial revolution. — H. G. Wells,

A Short History of the World. 1922.

(Read: development 'of/in' inequality — my correction )

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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Big Nations, Small Nations or Community Republics

2011-10-06T11:30:00.004+05:30

Big Nations, Small Nations or Community Republics:

Aborigine Republics as Model for a Million Nations

Srishtiyoga means Reunion with Mother Nature

John Papworth often and rightly acclaims the Fourth World of ethnic communities... and small nations: Indeed 'small is beautiful'! That is, the autonomy – self-empowerment – of communities.

He, also, often says large nations will break up (which may include India). We saw break up of the USSR, and, also, coming together of European nations, the formation of EU. Perhaps both have been victims of economy in the present era!

Every region has its own natural, cultural, and prevailing political / economic conditions. The West grew with industrialization. However, the First World India, which often depends upon external aids, cannot be put on the same rank that of the EU or the US. The difference is it has no physical borders.

Even Urban India today cannot be called the First World India, because of the widespread presence of slum dwellers and the squatters, who are displaced and migrated from rural India.

There are more than 600,000 villages in India, where 70% Indians live, even after many have migrated to urban areas; no one knows 'how many'. (The Census Surveys miss the data of squatters in urban areas and along transit lines.) This is where the mainstream India is.

The Fifth World India

In Mumbai, they – the slum dwellers – are about 60 to 70 millions. So also in other metropolitan cities and towns.

The slum dwellers and squatters in urban areas belong to the Fifth World India -- the world of the marginalized, displaced and destitute in their homeland.

In this age of Information Technology, a very few may, or may not, perceive what ‘India’ is beyond the word Nation and the related dogmas. Even the idea of ‘Swaraj’, the self-rule, is fashioned after the British Raj, faces the same dilemma.

India may be better understood by an example of plants. Because plants have fewer needs than even animals.

In a patch of virgin forest several plant species coexist, so also wildlife, but certainly not the humans of advanced civilized societies. For them forest is for ruthless consumption or aesthetics of visual hedonism (tourism industry).

A large banyan spreads over centuries, over a large area and by its adventitious roots supports and balances itself. India is somewhat like that, now, of course, affected by the parasite of mega-cities -- the icons of centralized power in the civilized society.

Plants / forests don’t recognize the notion of 'nation'; so also many Indians. This idea of 'nationhood' cannot be measured by the ‘standards’, set by any authority or the so-called superior cultures. Their superiority, even in this age, is based on power of wealth, science-technology-economy-market and/or military! Isn't it barbarism!

Small nations or big nations! The quality of their citizens' personal and collective life at micro level remains to be assessed. It is impossible even at a town level.

Sample surveys at regional, national or international level are merely eyewash. They only pamper the ego of various vested interests - local or Global.

Nationhood needs to be tested on continued basis at micro-level of every individual's wellbeing in the functioning of the State! Indeed a tall claim! Any of the most efficient technology today is not capable to do this task. It is not as easy as sending a spaceship.

Clearly the Industrial Revolution, through science and technology, has failed to deliver the promised 'Utopia', called social and economic development, to mankind.

May be it has strengthened the powers of a miniscule minority section of Industrial Society. There is nothing to deify them, as the elite tend to do.

The science and technology are still in incubation stage — five thousand years of civilized society is pittance in geological time!

"For they know not what they do." And to know, what kind of and magnitude of calamity should befall upon them?

There is still a way out for the educated ignorant. There still exist numbers of republics of Aborigine Communities that hail from remote ancient times. They still exist in India and rest of world. Their time-tested wisdom helps them to sustain in spite of the onslaught by civilized societies. Their life-line is, in one word, Srishtiyoga, i.e. continued "Reunion with Mother Nature".

Aborigine Republics as Model for a Million Nations

Aborigine communities are "republics". This is not a concept but their millennia old unwritten practice.

These republics do not relate to the civilized concept or notion of 'nation', which is based on "ownership of land" and "centralized power" in civilized societies from beginning, or the start of "Urban Revolution".

The very civilized idea of "ownership of land" is most evil concept and is the "root cause" of all the strife mankind has been going through for 5000 years.

This statement will certainly not be palatable even to the atheist, agnostic or socialist sects, or not even to the so-called religious who believe in any branded God, or not even our friend John Papworth!

The suggestion to give-up "Ownership of Land" would amount to worst sacrilege of all; worst than "Original Sin".

There is lot to learn about a few fundamental things of living in harmony with Nature for us from the aborigines.

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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

These Offspring of Kali

2011-09-30T13:30:00.057+05:30

By Remigius de Souza

Image 1: Ma Kali (Detail), Photo - Poulomee Das

Kali - Goddess of Destruction and Regeneration,

is one of the three expressions of Shakti or Energy.

The other two are Lakshmi - goddess of sustenance

and Sarasvati - Goddess of Learning.

I jump on an incoming evening seven thirteen train
to secure a window seat.
As I open 'Leaves of Grass' the first line noticed,
declares, 'Sing on there in the swamp' in
the 'Memoirs of President Lincoln'.

An urchin occupies the seat next to me
With harmonium on her lap;
Her fingers wide apart, search for a pitch across
on the bars, high low, high low,
from maintain picks to deep seas.

She settles on a pitch appropriate to the crowded train
in motion, plays a pop movie song.
On the threshold of sprouting youth, her dark face
And full eyes glowed divine grace;
She is sound personified.

Her wards, two little sisters, one recites the songlines;
The other with tiny folded hands;
They appeal to the softer edges of weary home-going crowd;
They, not belonging to the mundane, remain
Untouched by hostilities or sympathies.

The Time atomised; there is no yesterday, tomorrow neither.
The concert moves to the next compartment.
They have not lost either their fragrance of innocence
Or dignity of untimely adulthood,
In the energies creative to sustain.

The last straw of hope, yet for the Post-historic
Civilization of exploitation
These offspring of Kali, until they open
The Third Eye imminent
To make way for regeneration.
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Image 2: Ma Kali, Photo by Poulomee Das

(Written, 1980s)
Notes 1: 21st century is witnessing uprisings of the poor at many places. This has been happening in the past, but now it is simultaneously a Global Action, as a result of Global Oppression by invisible tentacles of invisible global Capitalist Powers.
2: Images 1 and 2: Photographs by Poulomee Das show Head (detail) and the full form of the deity – Kali – made by the traditional Bengali artisans.
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© Remigius de Souza. all rights reserved.

Seeds of Hybrid-Cultured Mass Society

2011-09-21T11:30:00.010+05:30

Seeds of Hybrid-Cultured Mass Society

Hybrid seeds of food-grains came much later.

By then industrialization had successfully bred the hybrid culture through the assembly lines of mass education to produce mass society in the First World Nations, now named the (virtual) Global Village.

The result: "hybrid culture of mass society" who have no posterity ― no community, like hybrid seeds that have no second/third generation crop.

Peasants must buy seeds for next crop from the markets.

The culture of mass society characterizes its loss of autonomy to think and act on their own; now it is decided by the visible/invisible rulers.

No wonder, for the likes of the Gandhi, the Schumacher, the Thoreau… there are no takers on the assembly lines: no germination, no posterity.

They rest in peace in the archives, except for occasional ‘quotes’ in discourses by pundits and politicians.

They are already a part of the past, like socialism, radical humanism, modern, post-modern, Art Nouveau… but no action.

"Hybrid Culture of Mass Society" ia a milestone in the five thousand year old history of Civilized Society!

(04.07.05)

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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Why wage Energy Wars?

2011-09-12T12:30:00.022+05:30

Why wage Energy Wars? End the Work of Evil Wants!

Image: Why wage Energy Wars? @Remigius de Souza

Work expends energy.

But to question the two aspects, the Work and the Energy, the logic rarely reaches its inevitable end or to its Death.

If all must die, why should not their logic die first?

Any action or work ― cook, eat, drink, wash, bath, walk, mate, farm, garden, read-write, see TV... make money or artefacts in real or virtual world - consumes energy.

Some works are mental and physical need; some are mere wants, which are transient.

Some actions are constructive.

The destructive acts too are easily called creative!

Why wage Energy Wars? End the Work of Evil Wants!

Mumbai. Wed, 07-09-2011

Related Post: Karma-sannyasi's Self-immersion in Water (Poem)

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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

'Tentacles' of Octopus Remi: Art in Metafiction

2011-07-11T11:30:00.051+05:30

'Tentacles' of Octopus Remi: Art in Metafiction
By Remigius de Souza

"Srishti – Mother Nature – has Plenty to share; Nothing for sell; Nothing to buy. That is 'Reunion with Mother Nature' – Srishtiyoga." (SRISHTIYOGA July 7, 2011)

‘Tentacles’ | Remigius de Souza| 1987 | water colour or paper

Octopus Paul the Predictor one day suddenly came in limelight.

What was the cause? It predicted results of the World Cup 2010. That took the First World Nations by storm.

Twitter was crowded by twits that blocked the site for few hours! Such a craze... blind faith! That too from so-called advance societies! Amazing!

A European nation was even ready to buy that animal.

'Tentacles', Remigius de Souza's self-portrait, was published on Net but none was moved. Not even his friends!

Remi generally doesn't look into mirror. Because he notices 'octopus' in the mirror! What then could be his misery while wandering the streets of Mumbai metropolis?

He notices millions of people (his aborigine and peasant kinfolks) in the glass-clad multi-storied buildings mushrooming in the concrete jungle. But that never stops Mumbai!

Octopus Paul was a baby, lost to its community and natural habitat. After a few months it died. Relieved!

Did anyone ask Octopus Paul the predictor before it died, "When will this modern Industrial Civilization, which has become powerful within few centuries, vanish?" We have not heard.

Oh, what do you ask! The very strength of the powerful is their weakest point. There is a mythological Indian story of Bhasmasur that repeats again and again.

In reality the mighty industrial society has gone — if not dead, decayed — with the octopus.

In this self-portrait, 'Tentacles', Remi notices himself swallowing Natural Environment by his tentacles spreading and reaching across regions far and wide.

Call it his misfortune or his fate of unwanted share, or call it a ruthless criticism on Industrial Civilization. Words, images, movies, myths, scriptures, prophets, avatars... all tools to earn (power and profit) and/or entertainment! Does it make any difference?

Remi, however, laughs at himself at his cost.

NOTE: 1. As we write this post, there comes news about, Shuttle Atlantis docks with space station for last time! What a relief for the hungry masses of the world!! Better late than never!!!
2. Remi doesn’t watch cricket, hokey, football or such events as well as Olympics, World Cup etc. for he believes that any game must be played for leisure, and such mass events consolidate the centralized powers.
3. I have corrected some errors and edited this post. I request the subscribers to please bear with me. Thanks!

Mumbai Metropolis on Google Map

View Larger Map

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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Anyone for brown collar job?

2011-06-18T11:30:00.096+05:30

Is there anyone for brown collar job? (metafiction)

Brown collar job means farming – agriculture etc. – as an art.

Farming is a highest form of art; a compound of art and science; the beginning of biotechnology (current biotechnology, now, is in the safe custody of intellectual property rights); and constant contact with five primal elements – Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space, as some Indians believe.

However in the Age of ET-IT who would be ready for such a job, in India? Today 'mostpeople' [1] prefer white collar or blue caller job; job that pays cash and perks! Who does need to work that feeds! Haven’t their forefathers made enough estate!

Who does wish to toil in soil-muck, sun-rain-cold? Soil has become ‘untouchable’ in the age of progress and development, and the farmers are non-entities.

"Farming is best, Commerce is medium, Service is low"

When was it we often heard this idiom? Our nation, then, was on the threshold of Independence. What dreams did our toiling peasants may have had seen?

Water Woes –1: Taxing the life of the displaced Indian peasants in Mumbai

Today, however, we notice a different scenario. The farmers are debt-ridden, some chose to commit suicide, they are left without literacy and appropriate education for six decades, their life-line – land – is legally acquired for the benefit of the First World India.

Water Woes –2: Taxing the life of the displaced Indian peasants in Mumbai

They are getting displaced from their ancestral homestead as a price of India’s progress and development. Millions of displaced villagers move to cities, megacities in hordes. You could notice them in towns, cities and mega-cities in the slums and along transit lines.

Field days for commission agents

And now commission agents, pimps of progress, have a field day to make hay, and to reap profits in free trade and globalized market. From the farms to the end-users, the farm-products go through a chain of brokers and sub-brkers.

Now, we hear, it is alleged that even employment in bureaucracy has 'extra' earning according to the status in the hierarchy.

Bureaucracy everywhere

As a result bureaucracy has penetrated from schooling to institutions – not only governmental institutions but also other public and private, social and political organizations. It has entered even in the ancient institution of 'family': it is worth investigating the break up of family, which has been the unit of community (i.e. a cohesive collective), most essential for democracy.

Alienation of the educated

The root cause of 'alienation of the educated' is in the mass education started by the British. Any changes subsequently made in the prevailing education system in the independent India have been superficial by knee-jerk reaction, which do not take account of the culture of plural mass (sic) society.

“Pangira” – Marathi movie exempted from entertainment tax

'Pangira' is a recent movie in regional language, Marathi. It is about the plight of farmers. It is more of a documentary, though it has a story based on a Marathi novel by Mr. Vishvas Patil. Maharashtra government obviously has exempted it from entertainment tax.

The movie ends with a gory event – police firing on agitated farmers, killing several of them. Such violence is a typical in movies and reality.

Unfortunately, the movie ends at an event where it should have started! Firing and killing the farmers is not the end / answer to farmers' plight. This story / movie has missed an opportunity provide creative alternative to the system.

This reminds us of a novel by Sarat Chandra Chatterjee, 'Pather Dabi' (The Demand of the Road, 1926), based on armed uprising for freedom of India. It was banned by the British. The ban was lifted after Independence. The book ends with constructive creative option in precise words. We quote a specific paragraph near the end of novel:
Sarat Chandra Chatterjee wrote about 100 years ago [2]

“... from now onwards to serve village is my only solemn vow. Once there was such a time that village was life of our agrarian country Bharat. Village only was her bone-vein-blood. Today that village is on the way of destruction, the elite leave village and come to a city, from city itself they wield power upon village and from there they do exploit them. If they have any relation it is only this, none other. May they not keep? But until now the farmer who provided them with food for belly and cloth for body, that same farmer today is starving, is illiterate, and is haplessly on the way to death! Now onwards I shall devout myself for their welfare. Bharati also has agreed to help me wholeheartedly in this work. Now we will open school in villages. if need be, she accepted to teach children moving from house to house. My sanyas is for the country - not for myself, doctor."

Every year lakhs of science graduates come out of universities; some of them are biologists or botanists. Most of them end up doing clerical jobs. Their learning in science disciplines does never leave the laboratory and come "down to earth"!
Notes:
1. The term “mostpeople” is used by poet E. E. Cummings referring to people who don’t practice creativity.
2. This quote is translated from Marathi translation titled “Savyasachi” by the late B. V. Varerkar, and not from the original in Bengali (pages 399-400). It is only for information in simple language.

Related to this post

Indian Schooling | 11 April 2007
Politics of Literacy in India: Challenges of 21st Century | 13 January 2007
Farming and the Politics of Education in India: Challenges of 21st Century | 09 January 2007
One Step Quantum Leap in Education | 04 March 2007

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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Indian Farmers' Woes and Joys

2011-05-16T12:30:00.035+05:30

Key Word: Art, Farming (i.e. Agriculture, Aquaculture and Horticulture (forestry) collectively or separate)

Five Elements

Traditional farmers’ lives that depend on monsoon are almost identical in many regions of the world. Hence the following text is inclusive.

Very few would ever believe farmers are artists. Farmers' art is most risky vocation, among all types of occupations, professions and vocations. Even a few may not understand this fact though they may know what is farming.

Haiku by Remigius de Souza

Farmer's art takes place on real field down to earth. Like in words, painting, photography etc. it does not create virtual reality. Farmers take the colours from Mother Nature - Srishti, of five elements, Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space, and on a canvas of small or big plot of land; he works with contemplation. They are never verbose. They are fully in contact with every nook and corner of their farm; likewise the health of all the plants.

Haiku by Remigius de Souza

Farmers are not only artists, they are also planners, but not like town planners, who flatten the lakes and land, and cut it into pieces, make their 2D drawings to build 3D art of cities. Farmers use undulating land for management and conservation of water and land.

Poem by Remigius de Souza

Farmers are management experts, too! They manage land, water, seeds, fodder, weeding, manure, tools, carting, storage, other food crops, rearing animals and birds. And equally important are the repairs, maintenance, examination, improvement and policy planning in every aspect of home and farm, which is part of their homestead. All of these, they do within available resources. Many farmers may be ill-literate but are not 'un-educated' as the elite think.

Poem by Remigius de Souza

Traditional sculptors, for years, make Ganesha, Durga idols in clay. They are aware the deities are to be immersed. Yet they work with devotion, faith, without boredom. Farmers too work with same dedication. Their labour of love, therefore, is elevated to the status of 'vocation', of art. In their karma there is element of contemplation – Dhyan – hence it is 'spiritual' too. Traditional farming also involves action by Community Participation.

Haiku by Remgius de Souza

Politicians are like white clouds.

The educated elite class have an impression that farmers work only four months (during the season) and the rest of year lazy around. Even the experts like Amartya Sen are not exception. What about the governments and bureaucrats?

Haiku by Remigius de Souza | Image by Soojung Cho

More than natural calamities, the real cause of farmers' woes and miseries are the government and bureaucracy, market and industry, and their wrong priorities of progress and development.

Note: There is lot to learn from farmers:
1. Watering the farms: Learning from the people. Governments could learn how to save resources, particularly currency spent for development, and seal its draining at the bureaucratic level - the starting point, which consumes its major part.
2. Cow dung, Rice and Amartya Sen (a critique):Challenges of 21st Century
3. SEE: Soojung Cho’s Artworks of Inner Vision (http://www.soojungcho.com/home.htm )
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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Minimal, Minimalist, Minimalism Defined

2011-04-22T11:30:00.199+05:30

Key Words: Minimal, Minimalist, Minimalism, Environmentally Sustainable, Art, Science

Minimalism started as a trend in art and design in the west. However, minimalist way of living, objects or artefacts have been existing from unknown times. Customarily it refers to art and design, which puts it in a box of a fashion, where a person may not 'walk the talk'.

Minimal is not minimum, but is to go beyond or achieve the best within minimum in living, thought and action. Minimal implies essential; it is not merely simple. It is neither junk or trash nor extravaganza.

Definitions, however, limit the scope of the defined. We, therefore, start with examples, and arrive at our definitions according to our perceptions. There is no formula! However, it may not be out of place here to add Universal Definition of Design by Nature written by Martin Jones, bio-archaeologist.

Let us start with primary and most familiar examples: Water (by Mother Nature) and Food: Roti – 'bread' (home made – by Mom).

Water is one of the minimalist creations by Mother Nature

WATER is fascinating Element: It soft, malleable, takes the shape of a container, always goes down the soil or to meet the sea, in heat vaporizes, moves meekly around obstacles on the way, cuts through rocks, mixes salts-minerals of soils… 70% of our body is water.

But there comes a time, when this taken-for-granted and often ignored element dances Shiva's Tandav of tsunami!

Water in Science

Water (defined as: 'H2O') is one of all the expressions, creations of Mother Nature! As a matter of fact, all her creations – from microbes to mammals, from algae to giant banyan – are minimal events. This sets an example and also a definition of 'minimal'. Mother Nature is our first and the last Guru!

Such tsunamis also happen in civilized societies. Whenever the arrogant and powerful classes / castes exploit and push the lowly – the sea of people – to the brink of subsistence, the waves of tsunami arise. This is the power within 'minimal'!

Roti as food is minimalist act

FOOD: vegetables, roots, tubers, grains, fruits... each of these have their unique taste, flavour and nutrition. They are also revealed by minimal process and in eating them fresh.

But having four meals a day, on full stomach, we can't fancy their tastes and nourishment; we find it ordinary. We become imaginative and add embellishments, decorations, ornaments... new experiments, processes in preparations of food.

There begins a market competition and struggle to make tasty exotic foods. It is just as we try to beautify our body as if... in this extraordinary creation by Mother Nature was incomplete!

Most elementary food is Roti – flat round Indian bread, and its regional variations. It is by now known in many parts of the world. Roti is made of flour of different grains: maize, rice, millet, finger millet, bulrush millet, barley or wheat. Rich Indian biodiversity also offers variety in various grains.

To make Roti all that you need are: Tava - a concave plate of clay or iron to bake, a wooden or metal plate to knead flour, salt, Chulah – hearth – of clay or just three stones, brush wood for fire and, of course, water. I believed Roti is indeed a 'minimal' food, until I tasted baked maize loaf made by Bhill aborigines.

Henry D. Thoreau in 'Walden' (pp 99-101) writes about bread by Red Indians, which may not be different from maize Roti made by Bhill and other aborigines and peasants in India. Thoreau writes by experiments and experience of Indian bread, not by impressions.

Minimalist maize loaf by Bhill aborigines

Bhill Festival at Mahi River, Kadana, Gujarat

It was three day annual fair during spring on Chaitri Poonam (full moon day: this year on 18-04-2011). Bhills from Gujarat, MP and Rajasthan states had gathered on the white sands on bank of Mahi River among hills near village Kadana.

I camped there for three days and nights in the open (no bed, no sleeping bag) among Bhill families. At night all would sleep around campfires. They get up at an early hour. First the women take bath in the river, and then men follow. As I come out of warm water I felt thousand pin pricks. No sooner the Sun appears the water becomes very cold. After bathing it is time for breakfast.

Adivasi women started to prepare breakfast, before daybreak. They made balls of kneaded maize flour, wrapped each in the leaves of a specific plant and put them in the campfire. By the time bathing is over the freshly baked maize loaves are ready for breakfast.

The taste, flavour and nutrition of the maize loaf were extraordinary. It remained in my memory as unique and only experience of lifetime. And also the memory of their warm hospitality, though I was a total stranger.

Ingredients of maize loaf are flour, salt, river water, wooden bowl, leaves and brushwood fire; that's all. This could truly be called ‘minimal’ and 'environmentally sustainable' food and way of living, both.

'It is Walking, not the Way' — Vatsyayana

Hunger is basic to body and mind. Food nourishes both, body and mind. Yet we are only custodians of our body and mind. In transplant operations heart is kept alive outside of body by supplying energy. Why boast it is my heart?

Minimal object is possible when one follows minimal 'way of living', which can't be called 'life-style': No compromises.

Ancient flute of bone 30000 ybp (Credits: NYTimes)

Source: The New York Times

Note: There are number of "minimal" artefacts people use. Bamboo flute is has ancient origine. Archaeologists have discovered 30,000 years old bone flute some time back. I took my lesson on slate. People still take lessons on slate; Rangoli is another ancient example of "minimal" (land) art.Traditional nine yard Sari in India is single piece dress for women, which is a minimal artefact; many do not even wear a blouse. However a bikini, which is displayed on a fashion ramp, is only a minimum object, and must not be mistaken as minimal. In his paintings Raja Ravi Varma uses Sari for his female subjects. Haiku in poetry is indeed minimalist.


Rangoli inscribed on Mumbai's roadside pavement

Swastika in the centre of this image is repeated for ages

a million times by women in India.

It is believed this action draws Cosmic Energies.

Remigius de Souza | Mumbai
22-04-2011

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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Indian Schooling

2011-04-11T11:00:00.027+05:30

In the year 1947 India's population was about 400 millions, and 60% t0 70% persons were illiterate. Presently there are 400 millions illiterate persons. What at the begining of 20th century G. K. Gokhale attempted, to bring 'free and compulsary education to all, is still not fulfilled.

Indian Schooling

By Remigius de Souza

I HAD AN OPPORTUNITY to watch a short play on Door Darshan (DD), India's State TV channel, on 21-09-1989, in the afternoon transmission. It was on the occasion of International Year of Literacy. The play was about schooling. Now I, sort of, admire its main actors, Sulabha Deshpande and A. K. Hangal. I consider them to be respectable artists in the Indian cinema, TV and theatre.

The play is obviously propaganda for the good cause of the spread of education by schooling. In the play an old lady (Sulabha Deshpande) wants the little boy to go to school so that he does not remain stupid like her old man (A. K. Hangal).

The boy looks after the goats and does not want to go to school. At last the old lady sells the goats. But the boy is upset. He refuses to go to school. He even attacks the other boys who come to take him bodily to school.

I wondered if Hangal and Sulabha pondered for a while over the treatment of the theme!
Here the goats are projected as the pets in the affluent families like pedigree dogs, horses, cats etc. For a villager a goat, cow, buffalo or hen is a means of livelihood.

Why then is the old man said to be stupid? Is it because he is poor? He is poor perhaps because he has been exploited first by British rulers and now by the industrialized society in India?

Why is schooling so important that one should give up the very means of livelihood – goats? Why is the rearing of animal so inferior? (Well. Some people consider that the goat is an enemy of forestation. Forestation means left over — whatever that is left after modern man — has eaten away the forest. Otherwise the goat is a sturdy animal which can live in the deserts as well as mountains, in hot as well as cold climate and is most economical to maintain for the poor. Its milk is medicinal.)

I wondered, couldn’t a goat, a tree, a paddy field, the making of an earthen pot, or moving of a plough in the field be part of schooling in India?

Why can’t actual cooking or preparing food, treating the sick, growing a kitchen garden, Milking a goat or a cow (the method of milking is different for each of these animals), making a toilet, urinal, treating garbage in the village, potatoes and onions, water and washing, sand dunes and ravines, cyclones and floods be part of schooling — actually, not merely verbally — not merely on the blackboard — either inside or outside the school building?

But the system the British started is so powerful that there is not much change except in nomenclature and timings.The so-called educationalists are still in the grip of the system started by the British. The play that was shown on DD is typical of the way the educated, the urban elite project schooling and education.

What if 5.57 lakhs of villages in India gave up rearing animals?

What if every family of 557 thousand households brings up graduates, masters and doctorates? Then, perhaps, those sitting in the chairs will lose the power game, of musical chairs; they play with lives of poor people. Finally, what is the relevance of present day English-made schooling in the eyes of these villages where 70% of the population is still illiterate?

This English-made system of education has not much changed since it started in this vast country made up of villages having a variety of landscapes, regions, climates, dresses, tongues, topography.

I take a little time off to ponder meanwhile this ‘natak’ (play or Tamasha) of Door Darshan brings insult and humiliation to realities of living in an Indian village!

For further reading: 1. Politics of Literacy in India; 2. Farming and the Politics of Education in India; 3. One Step Quantum Jump in Education; 4. Letters and Numbers, plus ‘Things to Make': Restructuring (Indian) Education

Note: After twenty years I find this note is still valid. It has not changed the situation other than few numbers, while the population is growing. I republish it.

[Published in (1) GOGRAS, publishers Akhil Bharat Krishi Goseva Sangh, Vardha, India 442001, March 1990, year 14, issue 5, p. 236-7; (2) FOURTH WORLD REVIEW, Issue 44, p 14, The Close, 26 High Street, Purton, Wiltshire SN5 9AE, UK. 1990]
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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

All Fools’ Day

2011-04-01T11:00:00.006+05:30

All Fools’ Day

Whatever may be, it’s my doing,
by choice or by force, that I forget;
my rush ends it in half-hearted doing
and in endless strife I am caught.

In my fear of loosing my doing
no moment spared to stop and look
from all sides around, inside out,
at all levels, in all dimensions:

much of it I am ignorant.
On the fast track of one dimension
never knew when I lost myself;
never realised I am the means;

and I am the end. A product, an idea,
a thought, an act, or a concept
in time is perishable and transient:
no sooner born belongs to the past.

In stagnant water all actions stink.
But waters of life are always flowing,
condensing, evaporating, raining,
reflecting; that’s the nature of water,

of life born in water, but not my doing.
In looking at doing, the doing ceases.
At the core of ocean prevails
Silence pregnant with new life.

* * *
Remigius de Souza | Mumbai | 26 March 2004
NOTE: 1. Image "The Fool" from Tarot pack is occult system, and has no connection to western custom of "April Fools' Day".
2. Image credits- "The Fool" from the Rider-Waite Tarot deck.
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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

POWERFUL I FALL

2011-03-23T13:30:00.001+05:30

I dedicate this poem, written on 03-03-2005, with deep reverence to the Tsunami that took place on March 11, 2011 at Japan, and the one that had touched India earlier. I wouldn't ever regret if I were hit by any such natural phenomena. ― Remigius de Souza

The Great Wave by the Japanese Master

Fuji off Kanagava

powerful I fall

air water meekly move aside
from any obstacle on their way
yet their presence inside - outside
in my world
I don’t even ever take notice
as much as of my towering ego
take them always for granted or
add some aroma.
it’s pleasure to see them play
and sing photogenic as they seem
leisurely happily dancing together
at sea-shore
until suddenly they appear
in colossal shape size speed
a mighty dragon from the ocean
at my door
ransack everything on their way
as my nice world turns scary grey
I am stunned
in spite of all my might wickedest
of intellect and tools to dominate resist
powerless I fall.
Mumbai | 03-03-2005
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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

India, Bharat or Gondwana

2011-03-19T12:00:00.049+05:30

India, Bharat, Hindustan, Aryavart, Tamilnadu, Malaydesh, Kalinga or Gondwana?

Ill. 1: Bhill children at Holi festival in Satpuda Ranges, Gujarat

Bhill aborigines in India do not use their thumb in archery to this date.

Call this a living memorial of Ekalavya, or unwritten history.

Cult of Tree Worship and Holi Festival are animistic customs from antiquity.

Other societies adopted them with different meanings and/or reference.
Bhill's Holi Festival is unique.

After our Independence there was debate on what should be the name of our nation; I read somewhere. Now I don’t remember particulars. In that discussion, it was impossible for 'Gondwana' to appear, even by accident. However, anyone uses any of the names, India, Bharat or Hindustan, according to one’s convenience/occasion.

Why did the wise citizens, leaders, historians etc. accept two names, India and Bharat? I fail to solve this puzzle, and I don't know what options they had. Perhaps this information is in government vaults under lock and key!

Word ‘India’ comes perhaps from 'Hind'. The Persian word 'Hindu' is derived from River 'Sindhu'. However, 'Bharat' is not a translation of 'India'. But why two names? Is this a sign of two minds or deceptive policy or inferiority complex?

Our neighbour Sri Lanka, a small nation, was also a British colony. But they had no difficulty to push the name 'Ceylon' away. East Bengal pushed aside 'East Pakistan' and by taking 'Bangladesh' preserved their identity.

Why then did we get stuck? In reality, we are very much in need of, and fond of, certificates from others, especially from the white people. And also we are fond of names (hero worship), to change names, also to call names!

However the name 'India' might have been continued as a memorial of our political and intellectual slavery. It is possible, if we see our craving for imported foreign goods that is visible after Independence. What to do? We also do very much love history or the Past!

I was going through a Marathi book on linguistics. Its basis was Marathi is Aryan language and it evolved from Sanskrit to Prakrit to Marathi. (I think the book is based on this hypothesis.)

Ill. 2. Social and Cultural sub-groups in India

However, were there no languages in this country before Aryans came? Were not there other cultures and societies / communities? It is not mentioned in the book. As it is on linguistics of Marathi, there may be some limitations. Even then this missing reference is felt.

Something similar might have happened while deciding the name of our nation! They might have missed the context to the diversity of country's history, geography, society and culture etc. Whole attention may have emotionally been moving around Aryan culture!

Naming a Nation needs dedicated handling. Basically the British brought the scattered States and regions together and gave it a shape of a 'nation'. It should also be kept in mind that by this time the disciplines of archaeology and anthropology were well established.

Ill. 3: India in Vedic times (author unknown)

In Persian the region north of Vindhya ranges was named 'Hindustan.

The word 'Hindu' itself is Persian, derived from name of river Sindhu. Indus Civilization existed around river Sindhu. That civilization vanished, but people survived. Great empires / civilizations vanish, but 'ordinary' people prevail.

This is a simple lesson of history. God may be merciful, but Srishti - Mother Nature - is ruthless. Otherwise where are Aryans and Vedic culture today? Whatever culture is visible around today is probably a parody or adulteration or caricature?

Before Aryans came here there were Indus Civilization, Dravidians, and even long before them there were Aborigine communities. The aborigines had languages and cultures, and they do have even today.

Truly ever since Homo sapiens came in existence they received the gifts of language and culture from Srishti - Mother Nature. And they also received wisdom to change or transform their 'way of living' according to the state of place-time-environment.

All the aborigines of the world have their ‘way of life’ attuned to Nature. In other words: This is ‘religiousness’ imbibed in their body-mind-conscious for millennia; this is vocation (Sahajadharma); this is not a 'religion' or ‘magic’ that civilized societies are used to, or do understand.

Therefore, despite several and different assaults upon the aborigines by civilized societies time to time, those who survived annihilation, they continue to sustain until now. Living in natural environment, they are not in proto-historic state. However, having gone through the test time their 'will to live sanely' is extraordinary and steadfast.

But to deprive Adivasis – aborigines – of their natural habitat and environment by taking away or destroying it means to kill Adivasis; it amounts to annihilation even if they are kept physically alive.

It may be acceptable to the State by the prevailing laws, but it is not 'justice'. To impose civilized 'life-style' is injustice; their conversions to other faiths or dogmas are religious atrocity or blasphemy! There are no superior or inferior cultures.

In the Law of Srishti – Mother Nature – there is no room or regard for civilized orthodoxy. Moreover there is no place at all for any hierarchies created by humans in the realms of Mother Nature. Such civilizations are lost in the past. History is the witness. This is well established by the recent tsunami that hit Japan.

Historians, while writing history, have several subjective and objective constraints / limitations. History, however, by its residue – by-products – of its contemporary cause and effect, means-goals, is always / constantly present before us, and also within us by mimesis. One must have ability to read it with courage and impartiality.

During geological time, there are constant movement /upheaval in the Earth. But they may not necessarily be visible. In the history of Earth a super-continent separated into five pieces and spread out across oceans. They are present South America, Australia, India, Africa and Antarctica. But India then in the super-continent was not the same as is today; it was only the southern part of Deccan Plateau. Himalayas and North India did not exist then.

Ill. 4: Gondwana in the History of Earth (Source: scotese.com)

Eduard Suess [1831-1914], Austrian geologist did put forward the idea of super-continent (1861 A.D.) and named it 'Gondwanaland'.

Gondwana situates in central India, where Gond aborigine tribes live since unknown times. Even now there is (?) thick forest. Eduard Suess had no vested interest in India, Gondwana or Gond people. Indeed he was a world citizen.


Ill. 5: Map of Central Provinces (1903 AD) shows Gondwana

As civilized societies took over their habitat

the Adivasis retreated in the remaining forests.

A known eaxapmle is destruction of Khandav Wana in Mahabharata.

Ill. 6: The British time map shows Gondwana in Central Province

The British Map shows ‘Gondwana, but India/Bharat fails.

However, present Indian maps don't even mention the name of the unique region. Isn't this enough reason to show how mean and racist the present Indian rulers are?

While declaring 'secular state' on one side, how modern India, or 'the first world India', continues their Aryan racism is evident from this example! By ignoring their historical presence, the Govt. has eliminated the presence of entire Adivasi – aborigine – world, The Fourth World India!

In the Constitution of India there are these words, “India, that is Bharat”. (I am an ordinary citizen, and not an authority on constitutional matters.) By now, I understand, there have been about ninety-four amendments to the Constitution. Hundred years ago the British made a draconian law, 'Land Acquisition Act', which had been amended only about ten times. Now, we hear, it is being rewritten, anew?

Indian Republic has now passed 60 years. Though late, at least Supreme Court of India has awakened to acknowledge presences of Adivasis. On January 12, 2011 the SC of India gave an important verdict in reference to Adivasis – aborigines – of India, which reaches the first and decisive step.
(See link: India, largely a country of immigrants says Supreme Court of India
< http://remidesouza.blogspot.com/2011/02/india-largely-country-of-immigrants.html >)

So far, this work is done by the 'Govt-the-Judiciary' of the Govt. of India. Now the work that remains is for the 'Govt-the-Lawmaker' and the 'Govt-the-Executive' to do. This is harder task to do.

It is harder because to remove or to break a 'mind block' is not an easy task. Boundaries of continents change; courses of rivers change; mountains erupt where there are plains; sea shores change; borders of nation change; once a super power USSR gets dissolved. What is in a name?

Beginning with the name, what historical errors Independent India / Bharat has been making? Whatever errors, they must be corrected. Then present errors in making / future errors could be avoided. This action certainly makes long range effects on national and international levels. For example, there may be resistance from the partisan Orthodox / vested interests, as well as new directions to thinking, and the honour of the nation will scale Himalayan heights.

Eduard has already introduced the meaningful historical name 'Gondwana' 150 years ago by naming the super continent. It refers to ancient 'aborigine peoples' and 'forests' on the Earth (Both are vanishing because of assaults and annihilation by the powerful civilized societies). Now only stamps of amendment procedures to the Constitution remain!

Gondwana: 'Gond' stands for, beyond the particular, all aborigines and also wandering – gypsy, Laman, Banjara, Romano, shepherd etc. – communities of the World who hail from ancient times. 'Wana' represents Forests, tree cover, natural / organic 'Agri-Aqua-Horti-culture' farming, but not mechanised-industrial farming.

From here onwards begins the chain of corrections of material and moral errors in the practices and policies. It also must begin with writing (or re-writing?) new textbooks on history, geography, civics, sociology, economics, politics, commerce, and other subjects, for the old and young generations.

Millions Unemployed people – the educated and the literate-illiterate – will get 'work' for this action in all regions; because the primary sources are the People. Hundreds of languages will get “scripts” and bring literacy that has been languishing for ages. This is more down to earth ‘urgent need’ and 'less costly' then sending a spacecraft in the sky.

'Lotus', the national flower, the seat of mythical Sarasvati, will then truly bear a thousand petals. May it symbolize the control over destruction of plants and forests; may the Adivasis and peasants, instead of just hearing words of promises, see in reality the days of 'plenty full water, plenty full fruits' – Sujalam Suphalam – hopefully!

Remigius de Souza | Mumbai | Holi: 19-03-2011.

Note:
1. This post is translation from the original Marathi post published on author's blog Remichi Marathi Boli.
2. Illstration 1. Photograph of Bhill children was clicked 40 years ago by the author.
3. Illustration 2. Social and cultural sub-groups of India, after the cover page of 'Seminar', Issue 226, 1978, New Delhi.
4. Sources of other illustrations: Internet.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Non-practitioners preach Non-violence

2011-03-18T12:20:00.035+05:30

Non-practitioners preach Non-violence
or
Violence by Proxy

Non-Violence – Ahinsa – proclaimed, preached and practiced by Mahavira, Buddha, any others, or M K Gandhi: Does it absolve ruthless 'Violence by Proxy' such as, mass destruction of biodiversity, by a few Powerful, for Industry, Trade, Power, Profit & Energy etc?

Tentacles: Violence by Proxy

Why then non-practitioners i.e. pundits, statesman etc. should preach non-violence to the poor, Rebellion-the-People, who like birds & animals, sustained for ages on Mother Nature's Gift – Biodiversity?

For (day to day) Example:
This web page / Post / email that moves from a PC through transmission – mass storage – satellite - cable - network etc to a PC. It consumes raw materials (mining), processes (industry-trade-transport) and energy, which affect ecology and environment at universal level, though may not be visible globally i.e. The First World Societies. Even if ‘not visible’, yet it affects our Natural Faculties or our natural Intrinsic and Autonomous functions: "Work, Leisure, Health, Learning and Propagation".

For (recent) Example:
How will the recent blasts in the nuclear power plants in Japan affect Climate, Biodiversity, Land, Waters, Air and Living beings on Earth? No. We are not talking of either Economy or Energy!

For (Local) Example:
Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project (JNPP) is in the world known Biodiversity Hotspot, a rice bowl, a Seismic Zone (close to Koyana Dam), in Konkan, Maharashtra, India. Local PEOPLE don't want it.
Accumulated Energy, by any means, in any form is never safe; that include Human Energy.
Human Energy, in individual or Collective, is dynamic entity, if not creatively directed... could wipe out civilized society itself.
People in Konkan Region don't want SEZs, mining, as well as JNPP, as these will affect rich Biodiversity of the region. Yet the State Govt. is adamantly averse to People's wisdom.
Will buffoons in high places learn ever? Hiroshima. Bhopal. Chernobyl. Tokyo... And they talk of Economy and Energy, not the1bn Human Energy?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Tsunami! Tsunami!!

2011-03-12T11:56:00.000+05:30

Up a hill a stream to low lands finds its way down
through the rocks, cliffs, rough land runs down!
Nectar of earth runs down! Dark clouds pour down!
Accumulated knowledge acquired from the banks

of knowledge wants to go up, builds vaults more,
acquires more by refining, by splitting hair,
fragments wholesome life; very little trickles down.
Some water goes up by capillary attraction

in a congenial body, some evaporates to cool,
a lot percolates in lower strata in soil, in a pool,
runs down to rivers, to ocean to sustain life all.

In Tsunami it lashes ashore and cleanses land,
in cosy igloo gives loving warmth and shelter.

Knowledge has to go down to the ignorant;
and the educated who move in their grooves
of expertise ignorant of vital other areas
of their personal and the collective living.

Floods, earthquakes, Tsunami shatter lives,
Yet leave behind vital lessons: To be reborn.

The meek build from the debris. Why harp on
the limitations rather than take charge of self,
when the nature in abundance is there to help?

Leave all the external aids that corrupt.

Or the silent multitude hit back in Tsunami.

There’s a scramble among the learned to go up,
up the economic ladder, keep their knowledge
mummified in the safe custody of the specialist.

Who’s that, who memorizes scriptures by-heart,
has ever received salvation, a liberated soul?
At any point of time – place is a starting point.

When it rains we rarely ‘look’ at it and feel:
It needs some animal sense, vegetable instinct
in the unified holistic life, and some honesty.

Remigius de Souza

Mumbai (23-02-2005)

~~~~~~~
©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

LUCKY DOG ON VALENTINE DAY

2011-02-15T07:30:00.005+05:30

LUCKY DOG ON VALENTINE DAY

Valentine or Santa, both strangers to me,
in this media-frenzy in this market place,
though I carry European Christian names:
They remain merely non-entities for me.

Certainly the seasons, even in this urban jungle
are close to my heart; so also the sun, moon
and stars, sky and clouds, dawn and dusk; a rare
patch of green and a song of bird. They evoke
emotions, memories, longings and aspirations
though I have no knowledge scholarly of them
to make money or name from these real entities.
I am enriched as I meet them in remote holes
in this urban maze like a stray ferrous flake
meets magnet: what a windfall for a lucky dog!

By Remigius de Souza
Mumbai
12-02-2004
~~~~~~~
©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

A Million Incarnations Now!

2011-02-05T12:10:00.000+05:30

A Million Incarnations Now!:

Tribute to Peoples' Uprisings everywhere

My Enemy Within Me: by Remigius de Souza

A night of million Incarnations NOW
in millions - faces,
eyes, limbs, yonis, phalluses,
tongues out hungry ―
Now a million stars show
The Way to million Incarnations imminent

Wake up O, Ruler!
For this dark night
is of a million uprising
of anonymous multitude
A Million Incarnations Now
A million Incarnations!

2011-02-01T13:30:00.001+05:30

India, largely a country of immigrants says Supreme Court of India (The Hindu: Opinion / Op-Ed, pg 9, 12 Jan 2011)
Link: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article1081343.ece?sms_ss=email&at_xt=4d2de19a9c746509%2C0

On Jan 12, 2011 THE HINDU gave wide -coverage to a land-mark judgement by the Supreme Court ((pg 9 in the OP-ED). This will have far reaching implications: particularly the Ancestral Rights of Adivasis.
A Supreme Court judgment projects the historical thesis that India is largely a country of old immigrants and that pre-Dravidian aborigines, ancestors of the present Adivasis, rather than Dravidians, were the original inhabitants of India.

If North America is predominantly made up of new immigrants, India is largely a country of old immigrants, which explains its tremendous diversity. It follows that tolerance and equal respect for all communities and sects are an absolute imperative if we wish to keep India united. If it was believed at one time that Dravidians were the original inhabitants of India, that view has since been considerably modified. Now the generally accepted belief is that the pre-Dravidian aborigines, that is, the ancestors of the present tribals or Adivasis (Scheduled Tribes), were the original inhabitants. This is the thesis put forward in a judgment delivered on January 5, 2011 by a Supreme Court of India Bench comprising Justice Markandey Katju and Justice Gyan Sudha Misra. This historical disquisition came in Criminal Appeal No. 11 of 2011, arising out of Special Leave Petition No. 10367 of 2010 in Kailas & Others versus State of Maharashtra TR. Taluka P.S.

The appeal was filed against a judgment and order passed by the Aurangabad Bench of Bombay High Court. The Supreme Court Bench saw in the appeal a typical instance of how many Indians treat the Scheduled Tribes, or Adivasis. The case related to Nandabai, 25, belonging to the Bhil tribe, a Scheduled Tribe in Maharashtra. She was beaten, kicked and stripped, and then paraded naked on the village road, over an alleged illicit relationship with a man from an upper caste. The four accused were convicted by the Additional Sessions Judge, Ahmednagar, under different Sections of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for six months, one year and three months in three instances and to pay a fine in each. They were convicted under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for one year and a fine. But the High Court acquitted them of the charges under the SC/ST Act, while confirming the convictions under the IPC provisions. Each was directed to pay Rs. 5,000 to the victim.
Excerpts from the Supreme Court judgment (the full text is at www.thehindu.com).

The Bhils are probably the descendants of some of the original inhabitants of India known as the ‘aborigines' or Scheduled Tribes (Adivasis), who now comprise only about eight per cent of the population of India. The rest, 92 per cent, consists of descendants of immigrants. Thus India is broadly a country of immigrants, like North America.

While North America (USA and Canada) has new immigrants who came mainly from Europe over the last four or five centuries, India is a country of old immigrants in which people have been coming in over the last ten thousand years or so. Probably about 92 per cent of the people living in India today are descendants of immigrants, who came mainly from the North-West, and to a lesser extent from the North-East. Since this is a point of great importance for the understanding of our country, it is necessary to go into it in some detail.

People migrate from uncomfortable areas to comfortable areas. This is natural because everyone wants to live in comfort. Before the coming of modern industry there were agricultural societies everywhere, and India was a paradise for these because agriculture requires level land, fertile soil, plenty of water for irrigation and so on, which were in abundance in India. Why should anybody living in India migrate to, say, Afghanistan, which has a harsh terrain, rocky and mountainous and covered with snow for several months in a year when one cannot grow any crop? Hence almost all immigrations and invasions came from outside into India (except those Indians who were sent out during British rule as indentured labour, and the recent migration of a few million Indians to the developed countries for job opportunities). There is perhaps not a single instance of an invasion from India to outside India.

India was a veritable paradise for pastoral and agricultural societies because it has level and fertile land, with hundreds of rivers, forests, etc., and is rich in natural resources. Hence for thousands of years people kept pouring into India because they found a comfortable life here in a country which was gifted by nature.

As the great Urdu poet Firaq Gorakhpuri wrote: Sar Zamin-e-hind par aqwaam-e-alam ke firaq/ Kafile guzarte gae Hindustan banta gaya (“In the land of Hind, the caravans of the peoples of the world kept coming in and India kept getting formed”).

Who were the original inhabitants of India? At one time it was believed that the Dravidians were the original inhabitants. However, this view has been considerably modified subsequently, and now the generally accepted belief is that the original inhabitants of India were the pre-Dravidian aborigines, that is, the ancestors of the present tribals or Adivasis (Scheduled Tribes).

The Cambridge History of India (Volume I), Ancient India, says:

“It must be remembered, however, that, when the term ‘Dravidian' is thus used ethnographically, it is nothing more than a convenient label. It must not be assumed that the speakers of the Dravidian languages are aborigines. In Southern India, as in the North, the same general distinction exists between the more primitive tribes of the hills and jungles and the civilised inhabitants of the fertile tracts; and some ethnologists hold that the difference is racial and not merely the result of culture…

“It would seem probable, then, that the original speakers of the Dravidian languages were outsiders, and that the ethnographical Dravidians are a mixed race. In the more habitable regions the two elements have fused, while representatives of the aborigines are still in the fastnesses (in hills and forests) to which they retired before the encroachments of the newcomers. If this view be correct, we must suppose that these aborigines have, in the course of long ages, lost their ancient languages and adopted those of their conquerors. The process of linguistic transformation, which may still be observed in other parts of India, would seem to have been carried out more completely in the South than elsewhere.

“The theory that the Dravidian element is the most ancient which we can discover in the population of Northern India, must also be modified by what we now know of the Munda languages, the Indian representatives of the Austric family of speech, and the mixed languages in which their influence has been traced. Here, according to the evidence now available, it would seem that the Austric element is the oldest, and that it has been overlaid in different regions by successive waves of Dravidian and Indo-European on the one hand, and by Tibeto-Chinese on the other…

“At the same time, there can be little doubt that Dravidian languages were actually flourishing in the western regions of Northern India at the period when languages of the Indo-European type were introduced by the Aryan invasions from the north-west. Dravidian characteristics have been traced alike in Vedic and Classical Sanskrit, in the Prakrits, or early popular dialects, and in the modern vernaculars derived from them. The linguistic strata would thus appear to be arranged in the order-Austric, Dravidian, Indo-European.

“There is good ground, then, for supposing that, before the coming of the Indo-Aryans speakers the Dravidian languages predominated both in Northern and in Southern India; but, as we have seen, older elements are discoverable in the populations of both regions, and therefore the assumption that the Dravidians are aboriginal is no longer tenable. Is there any evidence to show whence they came into India?

“No theory of their origin can be maintained which does not account for the existence of Brahui, the large island of Dravidian speech in the mountainous regions of distant Baluchistan which lie near the western routes into India. Is Brahui a surviving trace of the immigration of Dravidian-speaking peoples into India from the West? Or does it mark the limits of an overflow form India into Baluchistan? Both theories have been held; but as all the great movements of peoples have been into India and not out of India, and as a remote mountainous district may be expected to retain the survivals of ancient races while it is not likely to have been colonised, the former view would a priori seem to be by far the more probable.”

Thus the generally accepted view now is that the original inhabitants of India were not the Dravidians but the pre-Dravidian Munda aborigines whose descendants now live in parts of Chotanagpur (Jharkhand), Chhattisgarh, Orissa, West Bengal, etc., the Todas of the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu, the tribals in the Andaman Islands, the Adivasis in various parts of India (especially in the forests and hills), for example the Gonds, Santhals, Bhils, etc.

These facts lend support to the view that about 92 per cent of the people living in India are descendants of immigrants (though more research is required).

It is for this reason that there is such tremendous diversity in India. This diversity is a significant feature of our country, and the only way to explain it is to accept that India is largely a country of immigrants.

There are a large number of religions, castes, languages, ethnic groups, cultures etc., in our country, which is due to the fact that India is a country of immigrants. Somebody is tall, somebody is short, some are dark, some are fair complexioned, with all kinds of shades in between, someone has Caucasian features, someone has Mongoloid features, someone has Negroid features, etc. There are differences in dress, food habits and various other matters.

We may compare India with China, which is larger both in population and in land area than India. China has a population of about 1.3 billion whereas our population is roughly 1.1 billion. Also, China has more than twice our land area. However, all Chinese have Mongoloid features; they have a common written script (Mandarin Chinese), and 95 per cent of them belong to one ethnic group, called the Han Chinese. Hence there is a broad (though not absolute) homogeneity in China.

On the other hand, India has tremendous diversity and this is due to the large-scale migrations and invasions into India over thousands of years. The various immigrants/invaders who came into India brought with them their different cultures, languages, religions, etc., which accounts for the tremendous diversity in India.

Since India is a country of great diversity, it is absolutely essential if we wish to keep our country united to have tolerance and equal respect for all communities and sects. It was due to the wisdom of our founding fathers that we have a Constitution which is secular in character, and which caters to the tremendous diversity in our country.

Thus it is the Constitution of India which is keeping us together despite all our tremendous diversity, because the Constitution gives equal respect to all communities, sects, lingual and ethnic groups, etc. The Constitution guarantees to all citizens freedom of speech (Article 19), freedom of religion (Article 25), equality (Articles 14 to 17), liberty (Article 21), etc.

However, giving formal equality to all groups or communities in India would not result in genuine equality. The historically disadvantaged groups must be given special protection and help so that they can be uplifted from their poverty and low social status. It is for this reason that special provisions have been made in our Constitution in Articles 15(4), 15(5), 16(4), 16(4A), 46, etc., for the uplift of these groups. Among these disadvantaged groups, the most disadvantaged and marginalised in India are the Adivasis (STs), who, as already mentioned, are the descendants of the original inhabitants of India, and are the most marginalised and living in terrible poverty with high rates of illiteracy, disease, early mortality etc. Their plight has been described by this Court in Samatha vs. State of Andhra Pradesh and Ors. (AIR 1997 SC 3297, Para 12 to 15). Hence, it is the duty of all people who love our country to see that no harm is done to the Scheduled Tribes and that they are given all help to bring them up in their economic and social status, since they have been victimised for thousands of years by terrible oppression and atrocities. The mentality of our countrymen towards these tribals must change, and they must be given the respect they deserve as the original inhabitants of India.

The bravery of the Bhils was accepted by that great Indian warrior Rana Pratap, who held a high opinion of Bhils as part of his army.

The injustice done to the tribal people of India is a shameful chapter in our country's history. The tribals were called ‘rakshas' (demons), ‘asuras', and what not. They were slaughtered in large numbers, and the survivors and their descendants were degraded, humiliated, and all kinds of atrocities inflicted on them for centuries. They were deprived of their lands, and pushed into forests and hills where they eke out a miserable existence of poverty, illiteracy, disease, etc. And now efforts are being made by some people to deprive them even of their forest and hill land where they are living, and the forest produce on which they survive.

The well-known example of injustice to tribals is the story of Eklavya in the Adiparva of the Mahabharata. Eklavya wanted to learn archery, but Dronacharya refused to teach him, regarding him as lowborn. Eklavya then built a statue of Dronacharya and practised archery before the statue. He would have perhaps become a better archer than Arjun, but since Arjun was Dronacharya's favourite pupil Dronacharya told Eklavya to cut off his right thumb and give it to him as guru dakshina (gift to the teacher given traditionally by the student after his study is complete). In his simplicity Eklavya did what he was told.

This was a shameful act on the part of Dronacharya. He had not even taught Eklavya, so what right had he to demand guru dakshina, and that too of the right thumb of Eklavya so that the latter may not become a better archer than his favourite pupil Arjun?

Despite this horrible oppression on them, the tribals of India have generally (though not invariably) retained a higher level of ethics than the non-tribals. They normally do not cheat or tell lies, or commit other misdeeds, which many non-tribals do. They are generally superior in character to non-tribals.

It is time now to undo the historical injustice to them.

Instances like the one with which we are concerned in this case deserve total condemnation and harsh punishment.
* * *

Courtesy : The HINDU

~ ~ ~ ~
Remigius de Souza
243, S. B. Marg, Mumbai 400 028, India

Warli House and Habitat -1

2011-01-29T12:30:00.110+05:30

TRIBAL HOUSING

BUDDHA AND THE ART AND SCIENCE OF KARVI HUT

Vaghdev - Tiger god - of Warli Tribe,

Dahanu, Maharashtra, India

(The Paper presented at the Congress of Traditional Sciences and Technologies of India, at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Povai, Bombay, 28 Nov. - 3 Dec. 1993. Edited version of this paper (in part) was published by The Journal of Indian Institute of Architects, Vol. 60 | No 1| January 1995. Some of the forty illustrations used during the presentation of this paper are reproduced below.)

Gautama Buddha, when attained enlightenment, it is said, observed 'Mauna' – silence – for seven days. He did not speak to anyone about whatever happened to him, or whatever he did discover. He was considering whether to tell or not to tell. When Einstein, Pasteur, Newton made discoveries, they announced. It was departmental occupation. They, perhaps, had not realized the implications. What law would Newton have discovered When "Kanishka" plane fell into the sea? Who pays for the discoveries and disasters? For one whose rationale and vision do not go beyond his eyelid, his field of specialization or profession, the answer is too predictable. Whether Hiroshima-Nagasaki or Kanishka plane (hijack), the answer may be an insurance policy, perhaps an inquiry commission, perhaps one more law, perhaps the science of probability, another compartment of specialization.

Now we are slowly becoming aware of the after-effects of science and technology employed by the privileged few i.e. Industrial societies, has caused considerable degradation of environment and ecology, besides centralization of power and profiteering, military supremacy and warfare…

The Buddha observed silence for seven days. He belonged to a civilized society. Whatever he achieved by his telling his discovery to the humankind is not at all debatable. However, the tribal observed silence for more than seven thousand years.

So at last, the civilized society decided to observe the year 1993 as the "Year of the Indigenous People". Though the indigenous cultures have been mutilated over a long period of time, worst during last few centuries, it is not too late for us to understand and learn with humility their language of silence before we decide to teach them or force upon them, "…our degenerate and self-disgusted, materialist, power-drunk and sex-crazed civilization needs"(Nicholson, 1972).[1]

There are great many anthropologists with great credibility. Now, there are also, educated tribal in India. But we have not heard of a tribal-turned-anthropologist to have us know of authentic inner life of the tribal. Because by the time a tribal boy is educated through the prevailing system, he has lost his identity and perhaps culture too. We read tribal as we read ancient remains, scripts, frescoes, and carvings… This paper is a humble effort to look into tribal housing to have a glimpse, in our limited 'time'. A lot more could be done in this field.

The paper generally refers to the habitat of the tribal in Western India, Thane and Raigad districts of Maharashtra and part of south Gujarat and in particular the Warli tribe in Thane District close to Bombay. It may extend to the houses of non-tribe, where there is little variation in form and materials in the region. The term “tribal housing” used here refers to the habitat rather than merely to a “house”.

Karvi Hut

The Tribal's indigenous “Vastu” – house or habitat – grows out of the “Dharatari”– the mother earth. It is an expression of their culture with time-tested knowledge and wisdom of life acquired over thousands of years behind them. We call it “Karvi Hut” because one of the humble building materials used in the line of mud and thatch. The plant, “Karvi” (Strobilantes callosus Nees) , available in Western Ghats and part of Gujarat State is used in their houses.

The elements in housing, whether in urban, rural or forest areas, are common to all. It needs land to build upon, foundation, plinth, enclosure as walls and roof; openings, environment and resources. To have our perceptions clear we may have to compare the state of tribal housing with that of the contemporary urban situation.

Housing as Action
The urban perception of housing is that, it is a product, ready for occupation. It is built in a great mass, called ‘mass housing’ for the ‘mass type of society’; built by third party: builders, contractors, investors, architects, engineers, financiers, industrial or commercial establishments, Government Organizations (GOs) or NGOs. It may be so, perhaps, for the land, or even the house may not ‘belong’ to the occupants. Housing and land, therefore, to the urbanite are market commodities and assets for investment.

It is questionable how far the urban mass housing helps, or violets, or ignores the human potential to grow, and (cultural) values to foster. The urban mass housing rarely considers, or has no time to consider, the needs and demands of occupant of a unit, i.e. an individual or a family. It is also questionable if it helps to turn the ‘masses’ of people into a homogeneous ‘community’.

Contrary to the notion of housing as a ‘finished product’ of the urbanite, the tribal housing is ‘action’, a ‘process’. It goes through planning, construction, maintenance, expansion and reconstruction or dissolution. Because housing as an action is the sole jurisdiction of tribal left to their own decision, initiative, education, economy, needs and management of available resources. The resources come from the land, forest, water, education, tradition, animal-power and manpower, supported by the community participation. ‘Community participation’ or ‘public participation’ is a new concept for the urbanite and the developed societies. For a tribal it is an ancient tradition. It is school for the younger generation where the knowledge of the earth, materials, technology, management and values that are imparted at every stage of this action, from generation to generation.

Contrary to the urban situation, the housing action helps the growth of the ‘self’, linked to the house, as well culture and community. In the cities, it helps growth of ‘economy’ and ‘market’. It is in the nature of materials used in the house, which come from and go back to the earth, underlies the ethos of tribal housing. In the contemporary urban housing, the materials come from the ‘market’ and when obsolete cause environmental degradation and waste.

The government action to provide housing for the tribal by erecting prototype houses of 21 Sq. M per family, through GOs and NGOs, howsoever altruistic may be the intentions, has moved towards the destruction of right to decision, initiative, traditional skills of the so-called ‘beneficiaries’ and their culture because of imposition of urban methods and concepts, namely mass housing.

Prof. Patrick Geddes, while preparing plans for the city of Baroda (now Vadodara), way back in 1916, warned on the public housing, “while of course clearly recognizing good intentions and also superiority of new chawls to the old ones and of model villages to too many existing ones, we should be suppressing what we are convinced is truth ...we regard the whole collection [of 'standard plans'] as too little better than one of the model pig sties, women sties, and child kennels are what they far neatly amount to. In that way the progress does not lie, and these various neat and orderly designs ... or in ones of more pretension, we regard as probably the most serious mistake and evil yet imported from west to the detriment of Indian Civilization" (Geddes).[2] The warning has gone unheeded.

Land as Ancestral Right

Land is crucial factor in all housing in the urban, rural and forest areas. Land to a tribal is 'Dharatari' - mother earth. It is a much larger reality than the urban ideas as an area, a market commodity. The root of belief in mother earth is in the remote antiquity. The tribes live with it until this day. Only at the fag end of 20th Century, a handful of environmental scholars and philosophers from west, Sigmar Groenvela, Lee Hoinacky, Ivan Illich and others, issued "HEBENSHAUSEN: DECLARATION ON SOIL" [Oldenburg, Germany, 6 December 1990],[3] which the tribal believed in and lived accordingly for millennia. Besides Mother Earth there are other goddesses: 'Kansari' - grain goddess, 'Gavtari' – cow goddess, 'Palghat' – goddess of trees and fertility who are most revered by the Warli. We may recognize their 'Vaghdev' – as the keeper of the forest. If anything, the so-called 'development' is directly proportionate to the destruction of the forest.

Unlike industrial culture (We do not prefer to call it western culture any more), among tribal the land belongs to all: individual, community, and all other living beings. He does not accumulate. All the efforts of industrial culture, however, are directed towards how to pull the tribal and rural population, popularly known as 'untapped rural market' into the dragnet of consumer society and to encourage greater accumulation and, of course, greater waste.

Land is a crucial issue for a tribal community also in a different context. For example, in the northern part of Konkan region of western Maharashtra, the governments ignored the Adivasi's – aborigine’s – ownership of the forest, ever since the British made the forest laws. Whereas in south Konkan, where there is no tribal population, the forests are private non-tribe properties. Authorities consider the Tribal as "encroachers" in the forest. "[I]n 1962 India had ratified the International Labour Organization convention no. 107 of 1957 which ensures the collective and individual rights of the tribal over the lands which they traditionally occupy. ...In our country, these provisions have not been seriously implemented" [Jagnath Pathy, 1987] [4].

The dispossession, displacement and, eviction and marginalization of the tribal due to several reasons have caused ecological disaster to their community. On the other hand, the tree cover of their ancestral forest having been depleted their sustenance and skills too are affected. Ever since the inception of industrial culture in India, and with increased pace of 'development' since independence, the trees are vanishing, as argued by Dr. Chhatrapati Singh during the workshop on "Environment, People and the Law" held at New Delhi in October 1992.

It is necessary to recognize the Adivasi’s - aborigine's - right to their ancestral forest, land, water and other natural resources, traditionally occupied and used by them, in a special way, may it be necessary to abolish certain laws affecting their rights. It is not enough to pay them cash compensation or rehabilitate them by giving them a house in exchange of their habitat, their homestead. It is neither enough to give them assurance of jobs in the 'development projects' for which they are not equipped. Nor it will meet the demand in the situation of soaring unemployment in any case.

In the true spirit of democracy they should be paid royalty in proportion to the implementation and operative costs of the development project, whether public or private undertakings, besides compensation and rehabilitation. Without land and the resources of land, the rehabilitation of the affected tribal is not complete. In the present context without considering the issue of land any amount of deliberations on the tribal housing are not complete. The term ‘landless tribal’ is absurd in the context of history, tradition and culture. If so, then there is something seriously wrong with the land records or the laws of land.

It is necessary to understand that the forest, hill, river, ravine, animals… are all intrinsic parts of the tribe’s house, homestead, habitat and culture. The stream is a bathing place, the brushwood screens the toilet, streams – land – plants give food and medicine, farm – forest – river are work places, which give sustenance. The river, lake, forest and land by virtue of being workplace are an extended house of the tribal. In this context the urban perception of progress means to supply tap water and electricity for light, is an absurdity.

The Council asked us a pertinent question for Advancement of People’s Action and Rural Technology (CAPART), New Delhi, while working on a housing project for the Tribal under Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme (RLEGP) assistance: “what is the size of a plot for each beneficiary?” Traditionally and typically, there are no plots among the tribal; most of the land is a common property. It is amazing that after four decades of independence we should not be aware of ethos of the tribal culture in India!

Perhaps the policy-makers are not the people themselves. The standard solutions and the formulae rarely understand that each place, a village, and community have their features, character, problems, language… etc. That even the shades of local language vary at every ten miles; that there are also people’s unwritten-laws, which are existing for centuries; that there cannot be regimental application of alien laws adopted from the western countries; that the centralized power cannot deal with unique local situations with regimental solutions. For, it demands, not mechanical work, not imitation of alien models, but creative thinking, attitude and approach. Creativity in planning and implementation is only possible if people themselves are policymakers at a village level, community level and micro level. What is our legacy? Is it to create a monoculture?

Tribal House
A typical tribal house consists of: ‘Angan’ – an open court – in front of the house, a ‘Mandapa’ – purgola of bamboo and bullies on wooden posts, and enclosed kitchen garden, a shed with lean-to-roof for firewood and a large room divided by partition which is a house itself. The inner part of the room is a kitchen and for confinement. Outer part of the room is a living room, and animals – goats, bullocks etc. share a part. During summer the ‘Mandapa’ is place for haystack, and during monsoon support for vegetable creepers.

The houses cluster or are at a distance from each other in the individual farms. At times, the distance is about a quarter kilometers. A lonely house in a farm or a forest does not cause agoraphobia to a tribal.

The areas of houses vary. Area of Warli houses is about 400 to 700 sq ft. The Katkari house is 200 to 400 sq ft. The Thakars, who keep animals, have houses that extend to 600 sq ft area. The Houses of Bhills are much larger, up to 1500 sq. ft. area. Occasionally one may find an abandoned house in a Katkari settlement, just as a bird abandons its nest, as one moves in search of work and food (forest)!

However humble a tribal hut may be, one cannot be equate it with the hutments in the urban slums. In the latter case, a city turns into a concrete jungle, with automobile beasts, which is an alienated phenomenon, unlike forest, for the displaced and migrated poor in the slums. The city cannot become an extended house of a slum dweller, as the relationship is that of hostility, besides lack of sense of community. This is particularly visible in a city like Bombay, which is evident from the cases of large-scale fires by the people with stakes in the land occupied by the slum dwellers, and demolitions by authorities consider slums are illegal settlements. We have observed that the tribal reach cities in search of work during off–seasons and lives on the pavement, only to return.

Warli House

Warli house is stylized and well organized, and has reached to a technical excellence. However, originally a thatch roof house, because being stylized, it could easily adopt to Mangalore type roofing tiles in recent times. It is a frame structure, and has a core around with a curtain wall of ‘Karvi’ to enclose the house. The core typically measures 7 hands by 9 hands to 9 hands by 11 hands (one hand equals 1’– 6”). It consists of nine wooden posts having one –‘Dharan’ – in the centre. The central pillar that supports the ridge of size, which is usually 11/2 to 2 hands long. The house expands around the core to about 6 ft. distance whereby it accommodates a veranda, kitchen and areas for animals.

The height of the core is usually five hands (7’–6”), on the top is an attic used for storage. As the house expands on the sides of the core, adding a frame of wooden beams and short posts raises the height of the core. The two posts over a beam that spans across the central post of the core carry the ridge.

The house faces preferably east, west or north. People consider South is inauspicious direction for house to face or enter. It is interesting to note that north is inauspicious in Himachal Pradesh.

The house is sacred. They worship it at different times during the construction: at the time of foundation, the corner pillar of the kitchen; the ‘Chaukhat’ – the door-frame – at the entrance, and then the ridge when it is placed in position.
There is one door to the house, which is front door. If animals remain in the house, there is an additional door. Occasionally there is third door, called rear door.

Within this framework of structural system, a Warli exercises his freedom in planning the interior and exterior spaces with innumerable variations, which is spontaneous. Due to the building materials, the economic status of a household, however, is subdued.

Now due to various external forces: market, political, mass education, and the contact with the urbanite, the Warli disposition is slowly showing a change. They still follow organic farming, though hybrid seeds, chemical fertilizers and with these, the crop diseases are finding their way into their settlements. Aluminium utensils, synthetic clothes, nylon threads for fishing nets etc. are some of the other things. Say Shri. Lahanu Sutar, “Mangalore tiles imported from Morvi town in Gujarat, usually of substandard and third grade quality have penetrated even into interior areas. 70% houses have changed roofing to the tiles”. Warli people are politically aware. One has to acknowledge the awakening brought among them by Smt. Godawari Parulekar against the system of bonded labour.
The Warli are now afraid of new landlords who might take over their land with money power. Yet the Warli culture prevails.

Building Materials

All building materials are organic, which are either replenished by the, or are reusable, or recycled, or go back to earth as nutrients. They do not use non-renewable high fossil energy materials in the building. The major building materials are paddy straw, thatch grasses, fibres of Sisal or Ambadi (Hibicus canibinus Kenaf), bamboo, Karvi, wood, mud, cow dung, stones etc.

The recent experience, however, of various housing projects and programmes initiated by instruments such as, RLEGP, Jawahar Yojana, Indiara Awas Yojana, foreign aids etc. through GOs and NGOs show that the building materials are brought from the city markets which are forest products for example, wood and bamboo, as well as industrial products.. One wonders if there is hidden agenda to “plough back money” through these projects, meant for tribal and the rural poor. The laws, which entitle tribal to take timber from forest for, their houses usually remain on the paper.

Wood

The tribal use selected wood from matured trees. The preferred species are teak, Ain (Terminalia tomentosa), Khair (Acasia catechu), Hed (Adine cordofolia) etc. The cut wood and bamboo during waning period of moon in month of Bhadrapada, i.e. around September, and are kept in water for a few weeks. Some people add sea salt or rock salt to the water. The wood and bamboo thus seasoned could last for generations. Traditionally they use wood in a lump form, or log form, after naturally seasoning and drying. They take this action in advance for years for the future house. This planning for house is part of tribal culture. The married young couple separates from the parents and builds a new house.

The tribal do not use any chemical preservatives, paints or industrial process except treating wood naturally. Due to its log form the rings are least disturbed and hence its natural strength is preserved. The urbanite view of such wood is uneconomic use.

The modern methods of chemical treatment of wood, or wood preservatives, especially and typically pent–chloro-phenol or indene containing products can cause lever damage, bone marrow atrophy, skin diseases, and allergies.[5] While various wood-dust have range of toxic, immunological and carcinogenic properties, installed and in lump timber presents no problem to health.[6] The lead based paints are most important factor in severe lead poisoning in children. On external agricultural surroundings, flaking lead paint is also a hazard to the livestock.[7]

The urbanite that look for quick profits and the fast results that fall pray to the modern technologies, which advocate, for example, chemically treated small timbers from immature trees for mass housing for the poor. Such short-term gains are not only detrimental to the forestation programme but prove environmentally disastrous, if not checked in time.

It is not that the tribal are aware of the health hazards in the modern building materials and household equipment; even the urban elite may be equally ignorant. The major hazard the tribal should be aware of, however, comes from looking up to the urbanite for their urban life–style as a model or ideal to be imitated, particularly the do-gooder urbanite who bring their life-style to the tribal areas, and who exert their influence because of their goodwill for the people. One learns from example for the delight of do-gooders.

Mud

Mud is major material used for plinth, flooring, mortar, plaster, handmade country roofing tiles, bunds, hearth, built-in seats etc. They select soils carefully. It is usually yellow, red, clay or Murum. They avoid black soil. Depending upon the soil’s quality, particularly to increase its plasticity, a heap of soil, called Gara, is kept wet with water for about two to seven days. To improve its plasticity they sometimes add finely cut paddy straw. While using it for the plaster, addition of fine sand modifies soil plasticity.

Mud is the universal building material; its applications are unlimited in human life. Gandhiji used to apply it on the stomach as naturopathy treatment. Warli uses certain type of mud from underground to wash hair. They do not use shampoo.

In the country of 844 million people, a large majority continues to use mud as a major building material. Yet mud has not found its way to the curriculum of graduate studies of architecture. It may be worth a while to find ‘direct and indirect’ cost of architect’s education and its returns and benefits to the society beyond the privileged few. We are aware that the policies and programmes of planning, developments, and governance need periodical evaluation. The same is true of education.

Cow dung

Some time ago the Indian Petro-Chemicals Limited (IPCL), Baroda came out with a chemical for waterproofing treatment of mud walls. The offer came through CAPART, Delhi to use it on experimental basis, at 90% subsidy on its cost, on the first 50 houses built for the tribal, under RLEGP. Being skeptical about such industrial products about its cost, economy, and the after-effects etc. we declined. Instead, we suggested using traditional cow dung wash on the walls. The chemical was highly toxic. Thankfully, IPCL had a good sense of withdrawing entire stock from the market, perhaps in good time.

Traditionally the tribal and villagers use cow dung for finishing the mud floors and mud walls. They also use it for the grain silos made of mud, or apply it on bamboo silos. People must have observed that pest does not affect the grain stored in such a condition. From the Vedic times, ‘Agnihotra’ – a ritual with fire – uses cow dung, which is believed to purify environment. Are these superstitions? Perhaps IITs and IPCLs could divert some of their resources to understand cow dung. We should not be surprised, though, with use of chemical fertilizes and pesticides even the cow dung may found to be ‘fouled’!

Karvi (Strobilantes callosus Ness)

Karvi belongs to the family of Adulasa (Adhatoda vasika Nees). It grows two to three meters height. It has a straight stalk of 25 to 35 mm thickness. It is fibrous and light in weight. It is a medicinal plant. Its leaves are medicine on malaria. It flowers once in five years, and gives plenty of honey – a favourite of honeybees. It could also be cultivated in the plains.[8] If contact with water is avoided it could last for more than 10 years. Internal and external walls use Karvi panels, and as battens in the lofts and roof. Karvi is protected from moisture by applying cow dung plaster.

It is a most used plant as building material in the Western Ghats and south Gujarat by the tribal and other villagers. It now finds market in the slums of north Bombay as the displaced and the jobless migrate to the city. There is also a major market in Nashik City from where Karvi goes to the vineyards. Now that it has reached a city, a time may not come when the tribal may have to buy it from ‘Dalal’ – commission agent – in the city market. Karvi is a bush and not a tree by definition like bamboo is not a tree but a ‘giant grass’. If a bright boy in the ‘department’ gets an idea to issue an ordinance, whereby the tribal may not forfeit his access to the plant, which may find its legal way to the market, as other forest–products: water, bamboo, timber, electricity etc.

After years of persuasion, the author failed to motivate some of the NGOs to propagate this plant on their own. Perhaps Karvi, being a bush, cannot be part of their forestation programme. Perhaps there is no funding for Karvi for not being a tree?

Bamboo

Bamboo – the most familiar plant – has known to be ‘poor man’s timber’, is now becoming scarce and expensive for housing. City people may recognize it as a decorative garden plant, but its major consumer is paper. Just imagine if remaining 65% illiterate out of 1000 million people become literate and educated! Then, perhaps, a strict rationing may have to come into force. Will it be in the interest of the elite class, which has been major obstacle in eradicating illiteracy in this country not to go beyond populist slogans? A five-year consistent programme of planting and growing bamboo will ease housing problem in rural and slum areas in the cities.

We have heard: A certain NGO in the rural area used bamboo for all of their buildings. In less than ten years, the dry rot affected entire bamboo. They therefore replaced bamboo with concrete. This is not a parable. It has many dimensions though. It is still economical to throw away or replace bamboo every ten years, as it is a fastest growing plant. The tribal do plant bamboo on their own without motivation from the GOs or NGOs, or without waiting for decades to collect bamboo seeds.

Natural Fibres

Adivasis – the tribal or aborigines – use organic fibres as building material extracted from Sisal and Ambadi (Hibiscus cannabinus kenaf) using their traditional technology, which is labour intensive. They also plant Ambadi for their consumption.

Gujarat government has happily carried out a large-scale plantation of Sisal and bamboo on the barren hills besides teak. Here again we notice ‘mass-mono-culture’ coming up. Contrary to this, whether farming or kitchen garden or hedges, the tribal go for mixed crop. It also helps wild life to sustain. Synthetic fibres are in use more and more in the cities, cause health hazards. Synthetic clothing, furnishings and especially rugs can cause high voltage electrostatic charging closer to our bodies. Detrimental effects of man–made fibres have been detected mainly on the nervous system, endocrine (ductless glands), cardio–vascular and haematological (blood building) systems and immune systems [9].

Enclosure:

Thatch roof

They commonly use paddy straw for thatch roof. There is a layer of teak leaves over bamboo or Karvi battens, over which they spread and tie 6” to 9” thick thatch. The slope of the roof is at 30 degrees angle. At higher altitude, where wind velocity is high, the eaves are as low as 4ft. to 5 ft. above the plinth. They replace paddy straw every year. The old thatch goes to farm as manure.

The roof does not leak in spite of heavy monsoon. It gives good thermal insulation. As the roof ‘breaths’, the comfort value increases compared to other roofing materials. Though it is not fireproof, we have not heard of any disaster due to fire. Now the electricity – a symbol of progress and modernization – has reached to some of the tribal settlements. However, are not given to the houses with thatch roof are not provided with electricity for chances of fire by short circuits [10].

Would one call thatch roof, a sign of poverty? Its counterpart in Europe is found to be owned by the wealthy. The cost of thatch roof in England, for example, is two and a half times than that of reinforced cement concrete roof.[11] It may be because the West respects manual labour by monetary compensation.

During the cyclone on July 1989 in Raigad district of Maharashtra State, even at higher altitude, the houses of Katkari and Thakar tribes were safe. Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), Roorakee, has developed a technology of waterproofing a thatch roof by applying plaster of mud–tar–kerosene, and claimed to last for five years. We, however, do not see its application by people. Rural people do not get kerosene regularly even for cooking. Some of questions – affordability, recycling, and the effects on the environment after its destruction, etc., remain.

Gandhiji went to the extent of advising people to use vegetable oil for lighting instead of kerosene. Now the studies reveal that the use of electrical and electromagnetic appliances and gadgets creates ‘electro-smog’. “Evidence is beginning to emerge that high exposure to radar, radiation from television masts television sets, VDUs, Computers, and even the kitchen microwave is causing metabolic malfunctions, skin cancers and even miscarriages”.[12] The use of electricity produced even by benign wind energy is possible threat to health. Now the tribal sell grass to buy the Mangalore roofing tiles. The unseen tentacle of market economy spreads across the globe. It does not even spare half-naked tribal in the hills.

Country Roofing Tiles

Besides thatch, the tribal use half-round-country roofing tiles. These are universally used. The Chinese practice is to fix country-roofing tiles over a layer of mud over the roof scantlings.[13] Among the tribal in Gujarat State it is a homemade product. The entire household knows how to make it as much as they know how to farm, cook, make a flute, bow and arrow, and build house… They use simple hand tools; bamboo strips, a string, a wooden plank and a mould; a simple method of firing: a trench in the ground and grass leaves, brushwood; and work of eight person-days shared by the entire household – men, women and children. Just as the thatch roof, the country tile roof also ‘breaths’. (For more see: Tribal Skills)

Government intervention

To have a roof over the head is vital. The government authorities consider the thatch or country tile roof ‘Kachcha’ or temporary. Governments may be are concerned about such temporary roofing systems, and about the waste of ‘time’ and ‘labour’ after their maintenance by the poor and jobless householders in the forests and villages. We find that in some places ‘Mangalore type roofing tiles’ manufactured by industry initially were supplied free, then at subsidized price to the tribal. No efforts, however, made to give them the skills, or to set up the tile making industry on cooperative basis. We have witnessed in Gujarat, Jesuit Missionary the late Fr. Samada S.J. trained the tribal in diamond polishing trade, on cooperative basis.

However, while supplying the tiles to replace thatch roof and country tile roofing, the authorities did not pay attention to various relevant aspects. Among them are: the need to replace the scantling, the relative cost of the product, the people’s self-sufficiency and self-reliance, and sustainability, traditional skills and education, consumption of energy in manufacture and transport, besides the tribe’s management of time and resources… to say the least. Above all, they ignored the tribal’s concept of ‘time’, which is linked to their culture.

It is interesting to note, now, ‘the financial budget of 1992’ of the Government of India wants to dump ‘Asbestos Cement Roofing Sheets’ and other asbestos products for cheap housing and give boost to the industry. Asbestos products stand atop the list of most hazardous building materials. People of many western countries have discarded this material. However, they have not stopped the production. It may continue, perhaps, until the mineral is fully excavated and exhausted; such is the wisdom of Industrial Culture!

Enclosure:

Walls

The house has a frame structure of wooden posts firmly placed in the ground, and wooden beams, and curtain walls of Karvi panels. The wooden frame supports the roof, attic, and wall panels.

Panel walls are made of Karvi, bamboo mat or stalks of wild Jovar - millet. Mud–cow dung plaster covers the panel walls. The curtain walls are made of bamboo mats where it is available in plenty. When Karvi is not available, they use stalks of Jovar. It grows to 2.0 to 2.5 m. height. True to the saying, ‘house is man’s third skin’, the roof and walls here breathe just as our skin breaths.

The modern building technology progressively tends to produce and supply harder materials, and encourages sealing interior spaces in building designs. To study the effects of modern materials and technology on the physical, mental and social levels of an individual and the society are in itself a huge task, and remains to be investigated. The people, however, have started slowly realizing effects, after-effects and side effects of modern medicine, processed foods, mechanized farming, and now the "sick building syndrome" (SBS) and New Town Neurosis. Architecture and planning, as always, is last to wake up.

Openings

As mentioned earlier, the Warli house has one, two or three doors. There are no windows in urban sense. There are fenestration in the walls in the cooking area: a slit of 2” x 12” or 12” x 12”, by removing alternative stalks from the wall, and the area is without plaster. At top level of the wall, a clear space 6” to 10” near the eaves is without plaster. It brings in the filtered and reflected light from the tropical sun. It provide cross ventilation even while wind direction changes during the day and night, and during different seasons. It also prevents direct drought of cold or hot winds at a body level. In the area for the animals, a hole in the wall at floor level for the disposal urine and washed out dung that drains either to kitchen garden or to a compost pit. The door shutters are made of wood and bamboo with wooden pivots made out of styles of the shutter.

Floor, Plinth and Foundation

The mud floor is a labour intensive product, executed by self-help. It is made of selected soil from fields, screened, added with water, pulverized, spread on the stone bed, compacted and smoothed with simple wooden implements called ‘chopane’. A cow dung wash either by hand or by broom covers the finished floor. It leaves grey-green pattern of curvilinear lines on the floor. It absorbs spilled water without leaving the floor soggy. The hard core of stones below the mud floor prevents from dampness during monsoon.
In the area for the animals, the floor has a slope of 1:7 for drainage.

The raised plinth a height of 12” to 18” above the ground, and is projected beyond the Karvi wall panel by about a foot as an apron. It protects the Karvi from dampness rising from the ground as well as from the splashing water that falls from the roof.

The house has no foundation trenches except the pits for the posts. The foundation of the posts is about 5ft. deep. While repairing or rebuilding the house, they reuse the posts by removing their rotten part that was lying in the ground.

On the slopes of the hill, they raise the plinths to a required height by stepping, rather than leveling by digging the ground. The high plinths have dry rubble masonry retaining wall, which allow drainage of ground / subsoil water during monsoon.

Indeed, they use very little soil in the entire production of the house. Rarely there is any effort to change the elevation of the ground; it is minimum required. In the hilly area, the earth is scarce and precious. Earth is sacred.

Interior

As one enters the house, the interior is dark. After some time one adjusts to the light inside and the interior becomes visible. Paintings and objects on the walls, pillars and beams emerge as in the ancient caves. The interior seems darker, particularly to the urbanite that continuously live and work during the day and night in bright light.

The Adivasi – aborigine – spends the day in the scorching heat and glaring tropical sun. The house is not merely a shelter to him. It is sacred too. It is where one grows, gets educated. I wonder if in the dark interior of his abode, the Warli has a sense of returning to womb. Does the outer world and the inner world symbolize day and night, light and darkness, “and the door in between as symbol of death and final desolation into the source of being… but also the exit into life”?[14] Among the Warli tribe there is worship of Fertility goddess. They carve the sun and the moon on the statue of Vaghdev – tiger god –, which reminds day and night, of cyclic nature of time, and of regeneration.

Perhaps there is another dimension besides such metaphysical concepts. We have not seen a Warli wearing eyeglasses. The so-called dark interior facilitates exercise of the iris. The brightly lit interiors of the modern houses hardly think of this part of the health. They are more oriented to aesthetic of visuals than health of vision, whether architecture or urban design.

How could a Warli walk in the dark of a night in the wilderness! Dr. Deepak Chopra prescribes certain exercises to recover eyesight: sunlight exercises and long and short distance reading are some of them. The tribal prescribe the same with little difference: to look at early morning sun through a fine sieve used for flour.

Warli House and Art

“The concept of social art culminated in due course in the ugly Bauhaus movement, than in demonic Soviet realism and nearer home the Brutalist school of architecture in Europe, the United States and elsewhere, the omnipresent monument to the machine age at the service of ever-efficient capitalist economy”[15].

Due to their wall paintings, the attention of the urban elite has recently turned to the Warli recently. There is some documentation also. All these remain currently at information level in fashion. Some have started selling their art in the city market to boost Warli tribe’s economy. Some lament on the imitation of Warli paintings by art graduates. One finds their art imitated and reproduced in stationary, greeting cards, calendars, textile, packaging papers in the name of ethnic designs, or as a crude imitation on the tourist buses, or in the ugly display organised by the ruling class on the floats to entertain the crowds, during Republic Day [26th January] display parade of arms and armed forces on the boulevards of power.

Warli painting is the domain of women. The urbanite, however, have brought in, initiated, and encouraged the males to make so-called Warli paintings for the urban market. This is eventually going to develop male chauvinism of the civilized world, which is out to destroy the tribal culture in India.

Art, to a Warli alike other tribes is not for the sake of art, for trade, investment, auction, connoisseurship… as treated by the urban elite. Art is intrinsic part of life of individual, community, habitat, and as ritual in culture. In different regions different mediums flourished such as, bamboo, terracotta, metalwork, painting, dance, singing, music, archery, farming, house building etc. For every child house – home – is a school of art. Every household emerges as an entity in unity of the collective with character or ethics, yet unique.

A painting on a wall, ‘Rangoli – Alpana – Kolam’[16] on the floor fade away in time. The house too goes back to earth. In Holi festival people burn a tree. This concept is also there in their ‘Vaghdev’ – tiger god. As generations pass away, they remove the older statue of the pair and throw out of its place, and a new one takes the place. The last one takes the place of the discarded statue. It is the cycle of death and birth.

Painting, Rangoli, house, tree, Vaghdev’s statue… will regenerate in the cycles of death and birth. In the destruction, there is beginning of new life – regeneration. The mud then is the potentiality of being lotus [Acharya Rajanish].

The art is the part of their religion, culture and person. The tribal lives the religion not by preaching, institutionalizing and scriptures, neither by any following. S/he has assimilated them in his person, that in her/his being s/he is part of the cosmos…Truth – ‘Sat’. S/he does not need to collect and accumulate [wealth]. S/he has awakened conscience, which s/he has achieved through living in harmony with nature. By living in communion with nature, s/he has reached heightened consciousness – ‘Cit’. Their painting, Rangoli, dance, singing, music, house, is prayer, thanksgiving, and celebration – Joy (Invulnerable Happiness) – ‘Anand’. Her/his religion is not merely a ritual or magic, as is popularly interpreted by the scholars.

Warli’s ‘poverty’- by popular definition – is [was?] not a residue of industrialization. Her/his community is not that of communism, nor is it a by-product of industrial revolution. We do not find gurus, prophets, scriptures, gospels, and temples, or even prostitution, among them. Their ‘Vaghdev’ stands in the open landscape under the canopy of the sky. The tribal is in the state of Bliss. His first and the last guru is nature.

Why Warli is Warli?

Warli is so close to mega-city of Bombay [now Mumbai], yet why so remote?
This will always be beyond the perception of the ‘Post-historic man’, unless he changes his way of life.
In Warli house, as in her painting there is no permanence like the advance societies. Civilization struggled to create monuments of permanent nature. Someone has truly said, “Wherever civilization walked, it left a desert behind.” This situation has reached to a peak during the epoch of industrial civilization in the 20th century to leave behind monuments greater than pyramids, to leave behind permanent debris of secular architecture. In contrast, the Warli’s ‘Vaghdev’ stands in the open awaiting regeneration.

The civilizations have created great religions, great libraries, great wars, and population in great numbers. However, we have also seen two of the human species – the rulers and the tribal have not grown in numbers, because the rulers kill each other, and the tribal live in the state of Bliss. Basic needs of the civilized have grown to limitless numbers of items of consumption, where matters of soul – spirituality – is another item of consumption, through books, films, audio-video cassettes of discourse by the gurus.

There are no criteria to measure the spiritual attainment of any person; nor spirituality be institutionalized. We have known that in spiritual attainment the arts – poetry, music, dance, sculpture, architecture etc. too are elevated; that even hunger attains higher level by fasting. However, ‘silence’ is supreme among all spiritual expressions (!) or attainment that is where Warli is.

The Warli’s house and art, which present a whole range of metaphor of their silent culture, is comparable with Buddha-hood. Adivasi has been living in the Present – NOW – for millennia in union with Nature. The Karvi hut of the Warli has that quality of timelessness, which we find in the poetry of saint-poets Kabir and Tukaram.

Housing and Culture

“Nothing of artistic importance has been recovered for a period lasting for more than thousand years, between the end of Indus Civilization around 1750 B.C. and the beginning of Mauryan Empire in the third century B.C. In this crucial gap occurred Aryan conquest, composition of Vedas, Upanishads, the Epics, the teaching Buddha and Indo-Aryan culture (Lennoy).[17] This of course is a western view of art as aesthetic artefact. Besides Harrapan culture, there were indigenous people. As is understood by scholars, the conquerors, the Aryans, were influenced by the tribal culture and it is said that they adopted tribal customs. “Hindu mythology, the Krishna cult, Yoga, and Tantra are replete with magical lore and symbolism of tribal origin.”[18] Anand Coomarswamy asserts in his ‘Essays in Early Indian Architecture’ that the cult of Tree Worship is of tribal origin.

Whatever de-tribalisation may have taken place by way of ‘Verna’ – caste system – during the period mentioned, the polarization of tribal and non-tribal also took place, which has lasted for thousands of years, until now. The tribal were pushed by the militarily powerful civilized people, or perhaps they retreated to the forest.

There is a definite difference in the way of life, beyond economic system, in the polarization. “The most important difference between tribe and castes is non-specialization of the former,” Richard Lennoy quotes, “Geza Rohen once described primitive man as ‘free, untrammeled and truly self-reliant’ in comparison with the member of more organized societies. ‘The outstanding characteristic of primitive economies is the absence of a true differentiation of labour… This means that every individual is technically a master of the whole culture, or where culture, or where certain modest qualifications are necessary, of almost the whole culture. In other words, each individual is really self-reliant and grown up”[19]. The tribal of course are not living in a proto-historic or primitive state. He has accumulated knowledge and wisdom of life of thousands of years passed over from generation to generation, in practice, just as people preserved Vedas mnemonic method. It is not easy however, for the intellectual – scientific mind to understand the tribal, because the scientific mind dissects, divides, deducts, classifies, analyzes, resulting in abstraction, and thinks in a linear way. He analyzes a flower, but in his laboratory there is no taste tube carrying a label – ‘beauty’, ‘soul’, ‘self’, ‘life’ [Rajanish]. Essentially the tribal is holistic, synthesizer; paradoxical… he worships the tree and burns it too in the fire of Holi!

While looking at his house in terms of science and technology, the theme of this congress, we cannot afford to separate it as an element from his culture and person who has attained spirituality. That would be too dangerous. Says John C. Eccles, “I maintain that human mystery incredibly demeaned by scientific reductionism, with its claim in promissory materialism to account eventuality for all of the spiritual world in terms of patterns of neuronal activity. This must be classed as superstition” (Evolution Of The Brain : Creation Of The Self 1989).[20]

When an urbanite through day and night lives life divorced from physical presence of nature, in all four aspects of life: Work, Leisure, Education and Health, all the time in the world of artefacts created by human, the spirituality remains only a verbal acrobatic, and Nature as aesthetics of hedonism by visual experience.

Yet, now the recent genetic studies reveal that while the non-tribal Indian are mixture of all those invading races in the history, the tribal have remained isolated genetically from the mainstream, not only culturally. “It is believed that all the similar tribes of Western India are subdivisions of the Bhills who are one of the largest tribe in India. A clear dichotomy of tribal and non-tribal population of Gujarat was observed. It has been also known that three tribes of Maharashtra namely, Bhill, Pawara and Katkari cluster separately from caste Hindus of the same state. All these results indicate that the tribes in general segregate from non-tribes. The main factor responsible for genetic differentiation of tribes from non-tribes is isolation”[21].

In the independent India, the cultural subjugation of the tribal has reached to heights unparalleled in the past through various means: education, religion, development projects, and displacement from their homestead, deforestation, laws, state violence, and housing imposed through aid programmes etc. forcing them to be part of the mainstream, without understanding the significance of their being tribal.

Relevance of Indigenous Tribal Housing Today

We have coined many words and phrases: public participation, environmental awareness, ecological balance, decentralization of power, sustainable development etc. while we continue to live in a way, which violates these concepts. While we speak of democracy, our policies continue to strengthen cities, the very symbol of centralized power.

While the world is facing the environmental, ecological and energy crisis, it is building mass form of society with unceasing craze for accumulation of wealth and creation of waste. Modern technology progressively continues to produce built environment, which is in the grip of sick-building syndrome (SBS) with cocktail effect on health caused by their health- hazardous building materials, synthetic furnishings, electric/electromagnetic equipments and appliances resulting in number of deceases, unexplainable allergies, and organic disorders due to chemical effects on environment, electromagnetic and electrostatic impairments and environmental degradation. This is only one of many issues in the business of living, where society has no power to think and decide what it wants.

While tropical monsoon forest is vanishing, some are spending millions of dollars to study biosphere under the artificial conditions in a glass cage. To rectify ozone layer some think of remedies, which are ecologically disastrous. In the name of appropriate technology to produce mud blocks, they bring automation, which would consume more energy. It is evident that modern society follows double standards.
Yet we pretend to look for model of sustainable development, as if it is a goal to achieve, rather than a process, a way of living.

The tribes present such a model even today, just as thousands of years ago the Aryans – the conquerors were conquered by the culture of the aborigines – the conquered. But the tribal have neither double standards nor the split personality of the advanced societies. Tribal’s way is not that of ‘sustainable development’ but that of ‘sustainable habitat’. Their way is not that of human numbers but human persons. Their way is not of the ‘curative’ remedies, but that of ‘preventive’ measures. Their way also is not of accumulation of wealth and creation of waste but to lead sustainable life, life of poverty, not the poverty which is now imposed upon them by the militarily (economically) superior societies, not the poverty as a residue, a by-product of industrialization, modern science and technology.

The difference must be understood. Tribe’s housing is a way of life, and not a model for mass production through legislation, policy papers, or a specialized university course.

The tribal culture has survived through millennia, while empires and civilizations (not the people) have passed away. Modern man claims progress and development in Industrial Civilization – the last one on the earth. However, the future is merely matter of speculation. Nature is transient.

While we progress and speak of democratic values, we must be careful and be responsible not to push the tribes to be ‘Shudras’(untouchable castes) in the modern industrial society, as did Aryans do, and those followed them. Tribal culture is a living world heritage too precious to be lost. Tribal habitat embodies deep principle of how to live in balance and in harmony with biotic and abiotic nature for the guidance of the future human habitat.

Karvi hut – the tribe’s habitat in its indigenous state – is an expression of culture of tribal who is deeply spiritual person and environmentalist: the two are not separate; without one, there is not the other.

The end piece: Cleansing

Tribal do not treat the house as merely a shelter. They personify house and village, just as earth and river are mothers. Warli and Katkari tribes have a tradition of observing a day in a year: On that day, all the members of village community go out of the village across it s border. That day on one cooks at home neither remains at home. They carry their utensils, foodstuff, water, and firewood for cooking meals. They perform a religious rite and sacrifice a goat at the place where there are sacred masts erected by the tribal. It is the sacred site on the border of the village. A woman heads and conducts the ceremony. She stands in trance for nearly two hours, and then conducts the ritual. Outside the border of the village, the families cook their own meals, eat and return home in the evening. Prakash Sutar, a teenage Warli, explains the custom without mincing the words, “Brother, it is not a picnic. It is like fasting”.

One can imagine this act with elaborate preparations to patch the holes in the sky caused by depletion of ozone by modern science and technology. Hand in hand, science and technology have turned everything on earth to economics and matter, and human into commodity. And the United Nations celebrates an international ritual of ‘The Year of Shelter for the Homeless’.?

Illustrations

Illustration 1: Major Tribal Settlements in India

Katkari Tribe, Western Maharashtra, India

Illustration 2: Location of the Study Area

Warli Tribe Study Area, Thane Dist. Maharashtra

Illustration 3: Typical Warli Settlement

Layout of Warli Settlement, Thane District, Maharashtra

Illustration 4: Stylized Structural System of Warli House

Stylized Structural System Warli House, Thane Dist. Maharashtra

Illustration 5: Warli House

Cow dung wash is applied to walls and floor at regular intervals.

Illustration 6: Warli House and Wall Painting

Warli Wall Painting with the artist and her family

Illustration 7: Warli House

Warli Tribe like all other Adivasi tribes and other villagers periodically wash bamboo bins, baskets,

silos and other bamboo implements with cow dung for maintenance.

Illustration 8: Warli is singing in tune with his single string instrument.

Warli singing with his string instrument

Illustration 9: Warli is dancing while playing his wind-instrument - Tarapa.

Warli playing Tarapa, a wind instrument.

Remigius de Souza
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

References

[1] Nicholson, Max. ‘Environmental Revolution’ (Penguin 1972)
[2] Geddes, Patrick. ‘A Report on Development and Expansion of City of Baroda’ (Baroda State, 1916.
[3] Fourth World Review, UK.
[4] Pathy Jagnath. ‘Land Problems of Tribals’, The Times of India 10-9-1987.
[5] Mackey, Anthony. ‘Organic Building’, Fourth World Review No. 40/41, 1990.
[6] Curwell S. R. March C. G. ‘Hazardous Building Materials’ 1989
[7] Ibid
[8] Dr. Apte V. M. ‘Vanashrisishti part II’, Maharashtra State 1972.
[9] Mackey Anthony, ‘Organic Building’, Fourth World Review No. 40-41 UK, 1990.
[10] Pereira, Winin. ‘The King of the Jungle’, Mumba, 1989/90, Private paper.
[11] Harrison, Dex. ‘Specifications’, 1974, UK.
[12] Holdsworth, Bill and Sealey, Anthony. ‘Healthy Buildings’, Longman 1992.
[13] Foyle, Arthur M. ‘A Report of Conference on Tropical Architecture’, University College, London, 1953.
[14] Sahi, Jyoti. ‘The Child and the Serpent’.
[15] Papworth, Marcelle. ‘Book Review of ‘Against Art and Artists’ by Jean Gimpel, Fourth World Review,
No. 50, 1992, UK.
[16] Rangoli: A line drawing/painting with pumis stone powder or rice powder, drawn in front the entrance.
The stone powder is sometimes mixed with colour. Rangoli is also known as Alpana in Bengal, and
Kolam in Tamilnadu.
[17] Lennoy, Richard. ‘Speaking Tree’, OUP, 1971, p. 10.
[18] Ibid. p. 189.
[19] Ibid p. 180-181
[20] Eccles, John C. ‘Development of Brain: Creation of Self’ 1989, Routledge.
[21] Roychoudhary, A. K. “Diff’rent Stocks” 2001 and Science Today, March 1989.

Note: My students Mahesh Shelke, Trupti Jadhav, Sonali Joshi, Mahendra Panaganty, Prasanjit Debashis and Sagar Shipurkar, from Academy of Architecture, Bombay, assisted in the documentation of a Warli tribal settlement at Sutarpada, Dahanu Taluka of Thane district, Maharashtra State(1993)..

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© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Slums, cities and the web of development - 4 The basis for rehabilitation

2011-01-15T11:30:00.001+05:30


My address: At Mumbai, Post India

Slums, cities and the web of development:

4- The basis for rehabilitation

(A word of caution: During 1950s and 1960s, it was alleged; thousands of acres of land were purchased by people in high places – politicians, business people, executives, etc. in various (bogus) names in rural areas. The recent Special Economic Zones (SEZs), if executed, could spell hell to the peasants, tribal and forest dwellers, which are treated as second class citizens. The social, economic, political, educational... disparities have pushed a large majority to the brink, which stinks of hidden agenda of annihilation.)

Rehabilitation should provide land for farming, housing, local institutions such as schools, colleges, training institutions for alternative agro-technology, banking, public transport, and health care faculties.

Squatters' water woes in Mumbai (2011)

Just as minimum shelter of 21 sq. m. is recommended / given to a slum dweller in cities, so also a landless labourer in rural areas should be rehabilitated with one acre of land.

All the land needed for rehabilitation of the displaced should be taken from reconstitution of the entire land holdings of the region. This formula demands corrective measures in the existing structure of laws and applications. But it also demands courage, integrity and transparency on the part of the society and Administration.

If such an application is brought into force, with effect from, say, 25-1-1952, there shall be massive exodus from the cities to rural areas. People who are rotting in the slums shall return to their homestead.

The culture and tradition of the country is essentially agrarian. The resources required for industrialization shall not last forever; neither the borrowed know-how, nor imported clever ideas of development that may work forever.

Customarily the compensation and rehabilitation is decided in proportion to, on the basis of degree of consumption and access and power to devour the resources in comparison with urban elite and not on the basis of sustenance. The direct benefit due to the acquisition for development must reach to the people on equitable basis. As is, it is questionable whether the benefits of direct taxes reach them.

Does science, or applied sciences, have answers to these problems? Perhaps partially. When ‘science’ loses its dimension of ‘people’ it becomes a ‘ghetto of information’ and eventually gets buried. Technology does not build the pyramids anymore in imitation of the past; its form, however, has changed but the context continues. When centralized power inflates and loses its vision of eternity, it disintegrates.

What memories of Mumbai these children will carry if they survive?

Incarnations and prophets born in different times spoke the language of people rather than the monopolized language of the elite. But now the times have changed. But peoples’ language is lost in the anonymity.

To look for the answers to the contemporary problems the real place is the people and not the polytechnics or parliaments or planning agencies, or theories and discourses by pundits that are not responsible. Perhaps it is now time for billion incarnations.

The first task is to restore human dignity: Dignity to all living beings; Dignity to Life.

Author: Remigius de Souza
[Published in the Journal of Indian Institute of Architects, Vol. 61, No. 9, Dec.1996, p23-25. This is edited version.]
(Revised on: 23-05-2010)

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