During the lifetime of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the density of environmental pollution and natural resources depletion were not so serious than what it is today. His mission was not only political liberty from British Rule but also freedom from poverty and anthropogenic impact of environmental pollution.
He was an apostle of ecological movement if one looks at his basic approach in respect to Nature. Gandhi's attitude was that one should not take even a single thing from nature when it is not actually required.
Gandhi placed before humanity a lifestyle which was in tune with the environment. The application of Gandhian principles allows human beings to satisfy their basic needs without harming interests of fellow beings. His dictum of ‘conservationism’ and not ‘consumerism’ reminds us that man cannot infinitely exploit nature to satisfy his unlimited greed. Gandhi’s philosophy of life provides a sustainable development paradigm which is symbiotic with nature and ecosystem.
In Gandhian frame of reference economy, ecology and spirituality are interrelated. That is why Gandhian economy is often referred to as ‘economy of environment’.
The New Urban Agenda was adopted in Quito, Ecuador at the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) on 20th October 2016. It had a ‘vision for inclusive, resilient and sustainable cities’. Ensuring access to affordable energy and the economic opportunity it brings will be essential for a sustainable, prosperous urban future.
Cities must be able to provide cleaner, affordable, and reliable energy services to ensure environmental sustainability and economic prosperity and to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Gandhi had the same vision a century ago what the New Urban Agenda’s vision stated five years ago.
The principles, enunciated by Mahatma Gandhi, illuminate the path to governance, inclusion, equity, and sustainable society. The problems of urban slums inhabited by about 40 per cent of the population needed to be addressed. The slum-dwellers are mostly service providers-there are domestic helps, carpenters, labourers, construction workers, vendors, and such others. Gandhi was of the view that development of industrial activities is inversely proportional to the environmental degradation.
He identified that the real problem of ecological degradation is industrial civilization in which development takes place at the cost of environment. Right or wrong, this is still is a matter of debate even now. The Human Development Report 2007-08 on climate change realizes that the mode of modern lifestyle is in the path of development which appears to be unsustainable and it needs rectification. It is in this context that one is struck by the approach of Mahatma Gandhi who in the first decade of the twentieth century understood the unsustainability of the modern civilization based on multiplication of wants and desires.
He advocated conservatism in opposition to consumerism and stressed on simplicity of lifestyle. Mahatma Gandhi said, “Nature provides for everybody’s need, but not for everybody’s greed.” He preached and practiced the lifestyle that was need-based and never greed-based. Gandhi encouraged cottage industries as those activities are based on natural bio-resources and are eco-friendly as well as non-polluting. Gandhi was deeply concerned with all problems confronted by humanity, and it was quite natural that he expressed his concern on matters relating to ecology and environment.
Man cannot grow or prosper, get good health and peace in isolation from its environment. When the environment is polluted and degraded man also inescapably degrades and suffers. Atma Nirbhar Bharat would be meaningful if Gandhian ideology and principles are followed while implementing different schemes under this programme. Gandhi believed in advaitabad; it means the essential unity of man and for that matter of all that lives. Gandhian environmental ethics stems from his philosophy of life and his worldview. Eco-consciousness had been deeply embedded in his life.
His philosophy of Sarvodaya is basically based on the principle of well being of all human as well as sentient beings. It gives an opportunity for an individual to repay the debt one owed to the society. Man is there because the nature is there; the vice versa is incorrect and a myth.
(Dr Patro is chief of Orissa Environmental Society)