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Nature, Technology and Society:
Canada & India

With the growth of our urban, industrial society we have become in­creasingly estranged from a day to day awareness of our relationship to Nature and the physical environment. The cumulative effect of what we are doing on and to the earth has brought us to the brink of an unprecedented environmental crisis. By intervening in the many natural cycles that permit the life-cycle to continue through renewal and replen­ishment, we are seriously compromising the life support capacity of our environment. Moreover, an increasing number of people are making more and more demands on a world with fixed resources and the world is beginning to show sings of having reached the limits of its ability to satisfy those demands. The crucial question is whether we will become aware of what we are doing to the environment and be willing to change, before we end by destroying ourselves.

Every country or culture has a single unifying and informing symbol at its core. Possibly the symbol for America is the ‘Frontier� - it suggests a place that is new where the old order can be discarded, a line that is a always expanding, taking in or conquering ever fresh virgin territory, it holds out a hope, never fulfilled but always promised of Utopia, the perfect human society. The corresponding symbol for England is perhaps the ‘Island� - a safe and secure place whereas for Canada the central symbol is Survival (La Survivance), like the ‘Frontier� and the ‘Island�, it is a multi-faceted and adaptable idea. According to Margaret Atwood for early explorers and settlers it meant bare survival in the face of hostile elements and or natives - carving out a place and a way of keeping alive. Though the word survival can be interpreted in many ways the main idea is that of ‘hanging on� or ‘staying alive� - an almost intolerable anxiety. The image of man struggling against Nature is, therefore, far more common in Canadian Literature, Art and Culture than the image of a joint venture between the two. The central symbol of India through the ages has been Renunciation and Service. It strongly feel that our philosophy which teaches us the value of contentment and service to others can help us greatly in conserving our environment and in the maintenance of a proper balance between Man & Nature.

The concept of Nature in Canadian Literature is markedly different from our own. Canadian writers, as a whole, do not trust Nature. They are always suspecting some dirty trick. An often encountered sentiment is that Nature has betrayed expectation � it was supposed to be different. In ‘Roughing it in the Bush� Mrs. Moodie’s determination to preserve her Wordsworthain faith collides with the difficulty she has in doing so when Nature fails time and again to come through for her. Death by Nature is an event of startling frequency in Canadian Literature. The Canadian author’s two favourite methods for despatching their victims are drowning and freezing. In Canadian Literature Nature has been portrayed as ‘Goliath� - the evil giant or giantess, a monster whereas in our Indian Literature it has been depicted as the gentle mother. Northrop Frye in ‘The Bush Garden� comments, “I have long been impressed in Canadian Poetry by a love of deep terror in regard to Nature. Nature has been shown to be hostile in its attitude towards Man. Alice Munro in ‘Lives of Girls and Women� says, “nature is just a lot of waste and cruelty, may be not from Nature’s point of view but from a human point of view but from a human point of view cruelty is the law of Nature.� Canadian authors depict a Nature that is often dead and unanswering or actively hostile to man or seen in its gentler spring or summer aspect, unreal.
On the other hand, in Indian culture there is a constantly flowing stream of love for Nature and natural objects another conservation. This love is so much ingrained in our ancient culture that we can not even imagine our existence without Nature. The great saints and seers of India saw in Nature and all great natural forces the existence of God. The sun, the unlimited source of energy was given the status of a God in our mythology, without the existence of sun we can not conceive of any kind of life - Plant, animal or human. Therefore, the Vedic seer wished that he should never be separated from the sun because sun is the life force and soul behind all the animate and inanimate beings. Our culture teaches us that whatever is there is this world is the abode of the great God. Let us, therefore, first try to visualize the presence of the great God in all the great and beautiful objects of Nature, e.g., Let us take the case of ‘Usha� � the harbinger of the dawn. Our ancient Rishis have sung stotras in her praise hailing her as the divine messenger of the great God who comes to us bathed in celestial light and symbolizing immortality. The sun, the moon, the stars, the rivers, the mountains and the splashing sea are all the embodiment of the great God. The air has also been associated with divine and medicinal properties in our scriptures. The rivers have been called life-givers in our ancient culture, Vedic Rishi hails the great rivers thus ‘O� Goddess, you bring sacred and sweet water like Milk and resemble the cows in many respects. Just as the cows can not remain in the forests similarly you too can not confine yourself to the mountain ranges. You come running to meet your beloved children? The discharge of the waste material in the rivers, tanks and ponds etc. could not be thought of in our ancient culture. Our �Manu Smriti� clearly states that urine, stool, blood, poison and other polluted objects should never be thrown in the water. What a tragedy of our techno-culture which has resulted in the pollution of all our rivers including the Ganga. The crucial question before us today is ‘Development at what cost�.

Our culture teaches us not only to love all human beings but also other creatures. The real essence of Rama and his greatness lies in the fact that he made friendship with the creatures of the animal world - birds, monkeys etc. and not only in providing the model code of conduct and behaviour. Similarly we find Lord Krishna’s love and attachment for the cows. In the epic �Mahabharata we find that after the day’s battle Krishna used to love and caress, give food and apply ointment on the wounds of the horses which teaches us the lesson as to how we should behave with the animals. Thus our ancient culture teaches us not only to love all human beings living on this planet earth but also other creatures and it also tells us as to how we should conserve and protect the animal and plant life. Many of our Indian women do not take anything without offering water to �Tulsi� - a manifestation of their love for the plant life. Our sages salute the trees which bear the burden of flowers, leaves and fruits and face the rigours of the seasons - wind, heat and cold and sacrifice themselves for the sake of others. In �Matsya Purana� ten sons have been equated with a tree. Such a love for trees is difficult to find elsewhere. But today values have changed and it is due to this that there is a mad race going on for destroying Nature - its flora and fauna. Let us, therefore, not forget our heritage in this pollution troubled twentieth century.

It is certain that if we continue on our present course, we are going to have a future characertized by catastrophe, Scientists projections and scenarios based on current trends, all point to a future in which life would be ‘nasty�, brutish and short. The task before us, then, is to plan an alternative future and for this we must be prepared to make basic changes in our attitude towards nature and the material world. Moreover, there is a great need for a massive public education effort. People in general must know the facts about the state of the environment, how it got that way and what can be expected to occur if we continue on our present course. Principally they must learn that the resources of the earth are not limitless but finite. This entails a dual attack on our materialist and growth valuing attitudes. If there are limits to the amount of goods we can produce, then we must get rid of the concept that ‘more is better� because at some point there can be no ‘more�. Our education should teach us the philosophy which views people as belonging to the world rather than it belonging to them. It should encourage students to concern themselves less with material acquisition and more with the quality of life as reflected in the individuals ability to live harmoniously with the environment. In our ancient system of education students used to live in ‘Gurukuls� - far away from the cities and in complete harmony with their natural surroundings. This was the first lesson that they used to learn - to live harmoniously with the environment. The alternative future we have been describing - an alternative to the creation of a septic world characterized by environ­mental crisis can only come into being if enough people want it and work for it strongly. The essential question remains to be resolved, however, ‘can we change our living habits and our social institutions before the harm we are doing to our environment and to ourselves becomes irreversible.

In the end I would like to make a fervent plea to all of us to conserve the natural resources of this earth of ours so that the green and verdant earth may survive and the coming generations may live happily on this planet earth.