The forgotten prophet – Posted By Bittu Sahgal
Ihave a few letters describing some of the dishonest means Congressmen areresorting to in order to further their selfish interest… I do not want tolive to see all this. But if they go on deceiving us, there will be such atremendous upheaval that the golden history of our cherished freedom, wonwithout shedding a drop of blood, will be tarnished…
MohandasKaramchand Gandhi
The anger writ large on the faces of young and old who are stillrecovering from the aftermath of the terror attacks in Mumbai suggest that the lineswritten by Gandhi decades ago have come true with a vengeance. He would havewritten even more bitterly about the Indian leadership of today.
Decades after his death, the virus of naked self-interestcontrives not merely to steal money from the poor but also their only means ofsurvival. By destroying Indias forests, rivers, fertile fields, pristinecoastlines, once-pure rivers such as the Ganga and Brahmaputra and the fragileHimalayan ranges that slake our thirst, those in charge of Indias developmentmachine are indulging in the ultimate crime intergenerational colonisation.
The children of the Ganges have truly drifted far from theteachings of Gandhi, who constantly reminded Indias freedom fighters that: “aworthy heir always adds to the legacy that he receives”. Our generation is busy emptying tomorrow’s larder.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was an environmental prophet. For allthe statues we erect and the platitudes we utter, the father of the nation willhave died in vain if we do not wake to the realisation that the erosion of our valuesystems is now resulting in the erosion of our soils.
“The demands of equality supercede the letter of thelaw,” he chided the British, when they attempted to take shelter behindone-sided legislation. What I wonder would he say to Indian developers who buildhigh dams in the Himalaya (where glacial melt is at such an advanced stage thatthe turbines may not even turn by the time the last dam is built), or to the PrimeMinister who believes that in an era of climate change he can happily enhanceIndias coal-fired thermal plant capacity by 300 per cent? The list is endless, the consequences for India are predictable — climate change-caused biodiversity losses, aggravated floods and droughts, water and food shortages, ill-health, and, ultimately, mass migration of climate refugees from places such as the 24 Parganas, where rising seas and extreme climatic effects are poised to claim innocent lives.
So I ask: Was Gandhi wasted on Indias freedom? Would the forgotten prophet not have saved more human lives were he alive today to deliver the earth itself fromfoul human ambition?