NATURAL HABITAT

NATURAL HABITAT

by Remigius de Souza

THE HABITAT OF MAN has taken several forms through time and places. Villages, towns, cities, squatters, slums, suburban colonies, tribal settlements, metropolis, shelters in cold mountain regions, oasis, igloos shelters in boats at lakeside, riverside, seaside, shelter under bridges, squatters on river banks which get washed off again and again...

Natural habitat is not house alone to live – work –grow – learn... but it also includes its neighbourhood, land and water, landscape and air, the other inhabitants of its surroundings – insects – birds – animals – plants, the day and the night, changing seasons, and the five Elements – Earth, Water, Light (and Heat), Air and Space that we are composed of – praised by Vedas.

With all advances of science at hand, natural habitat instead of harnessing its qualities and life has come under several assaults. At the turn of the last century with scientific inventions, man believed that he obtained the key to the Mystery of Nature. Scientific inventions were employed for mass production and industrialization. Industrialization was not limited to textiles alone; it moved in every possible direction - weapons of warfare, education, agriculture and food, medicine and pesticides, insecticides, water management, housing, communications, transport, entertainment etc. It employed every possible raw material: air, land, stone, water, hill, trees, minerals, animals, industrial waste and industrial by-products. Yet every new scientific invention proved previous invention inadequate. The Mystery of Nature continued to deepen.

The present (20th) century has shown that industrialization has assaulted not only nature and natural resources but also human resources preserved through centuries by tribal and other societies throughout the world without exception – without restraint – the process, which started in the earlier century or two. The last such assault was on Tibetan society. This had preserved through centuries a unique form of living in harmony with nature on a religious (Dharma) base. The natural conditions too are unique here. The assault on Tibetan society was a result of industrialization as much as Marxism; Existentialism etc. were by-products of industrialization. Assault on natural resources was as much a result of industrialization as metropolitan cities are its by-products.

On the one side, industry supported by science goes on degenerating the life of man, animal and plants – all living beings – by polluting economy, ecology, environment, regional and social balance, and exploiting natural resources. And on the other side it goes on developing new medicines, pesticides, insecticides, water supply systems etc to save and serve life, developing so-called lifesaving drugs and machinery to save life which has made not only natural living impossible but even natural dying impossible, the sole purpose of which is profit-making – business. The sole purpose of industry is profit-making out of everything under the sun possible for a person, or a group of persons called a company or a corporation or even a state, tentacles of which reach far beyond social, regional, religious, national frontiers – even beyond global frontiers.

The resources of the globe are being employed – capitalized – for preservation of industry to produce and multiply – for which new disciplines are being invented such as management, specializations etc. to “reduce time, increase speed and more work (output)” to “produce more”. This required streamlined operations – division of labour – standardization – automation – specialization – regimentation – centralization.

Amongst human settlements, city form in the shape of metropolis in the present time is an assault on natural habitat, which could be compared with the effect of nuclear explosion but without Bang. The effect is not instantaneous. In spite of all the advances at hand in technology, communications, transport and sciences, the city – the symbol of feudal power –
has continued to grow. The city in the form of metropolis is not only an assault on nature but also an assault on man himself, and is the enemy of democracy. City form is no more valid except as a means to serve the vested interest of a person or a group of persons in power – enormous centralization of power – whether the city is in the West or the East. The larger the city, the larger are its evils, hazards, crimes, wastes, chaos; the larger are its capacity to exploit; the larger its capacity to pollute and to destroy nature through its tentacles. There is no better comment on this phenomenon than the movie "Modern Times", made by Charlie Chaplin decades ago.

In India we still crave for such a "progress" which is misplaced, outdated, obsolete and at times criminal. The Indian village was unmindful of its exploitation for a century and half or two, and still retains some of its qualities. The progress and development that caused the exploitation was not its own choice. In commercial terms, the Indian village is called the "untapped rural market" of India. The rural population is migrating at a massive rate at the very step – at the feet of the "market seeker" – not just to the city of Bombay but to every town and city in the country. The villager who was a farmer with dignity is now being reduced to a market commodity. His settlement in the city is identified by the term "slum", meaning that it is illegal, unauthorized, and if the town is small, the slum is not identified in the Census Survey of India.

There are several offshoots of "development" which influence /affect villages. Some of them are the education system, government organisations (GOs) and non-government organizations (NGOs). The numbers of non-government organizations have increased over the last two or three decades. Earlier there were missionaries who came to India. All these have noble intentions for the welfare of the village and to pamper their own sense of superiority. Their orientations are urban (or western / westernized). Their roots are urban. All these (perhaps with some exceptions) fail to see and learn from Indian village; instead they try to inject urban concepts imported from the West. Some exhibited occasionally (like Jawaharlal Nehru) by wearing the turban or traditional shawl and dance with the villagers to camouflage the real difference. In reality GOs and NGOs survive at the cost of the village. India still has the opportunity with 5.6 lakhs villages to save natural habitat and reverse the process of its destructions.


(This paper was presented at the "Conference on Natural Living" hosted by Prakrati – an NGO – at Bordi in Maharashtra, and published by the "FOURTH WORLD REVIEW", Number Forty Nine in 1992.)
PS: After about two decades I feel this note, unfortunately, is still valid, by worsening the environmental conditions on the Earth and its Sphere.

© Remigius de Souza., all rights reserved.
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Building with Earth: a notable Textbook

Building with Earth: a notable Textbook (Book Review)
by Remigius de Souza 
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BUILDING WITH EARTH
Authors: P. Doat, A. Hyys, H. Houben, S. Matuk & F. Vitoux (CRATerre, France),

Translators: Asha Puri with Manu Bhatnagar, Publishers: The Mud Village Society 24, Chitra Vihar (FF), New Delhi 110092Price not mentioned. (PB). 
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TO MY QUERY, which was directed to CRAterre [in 1990], when I received an answer, I had sighed with relief. My question was if I could use compressed mud block for building in the region where there is saline soil. The answer was negative. The cause of my relief was in this part of the world the “machine” – even the manually operated one – will not help to build with mud, and that there shall be little less intervention by the elite class, of architects at least, in the people’s initiative to build their own houses; perhaps temporarily for the present.

For I cannot foresee what may befall upon people – peasants in future, save annihilation, at the hands of more powerful societies with weapons of market economy, information technology, mass media, intellectual property rights, etc. at their disposal.

Because in the food – farming – sector already the hybrid seeds which require more and more water, chemical fertilizers and pesticides and deep ploughing mechanized farm implements have found their way in this region. It is not without causing death of the earth and indigenous seeds which helped the sustainable ecology until now. CRATerre’s answer had described that the only possible method was to build by hands and the manner, which in fact the people of the region had developed and practiced over generations.

THE EARTH TOUCHES every facet of Indian life, from humble lamp burnt with vegetable oil to housing, and from ‘Chulha’ – hearth – and utensils to farm and water management. The universal building material ‘earth’ is now being termed as ‘non – conventional’, thanks to the environmental revolution which started in the modern times in the industrial civilization of the West, and is slowly being accepted by the advanced societies.

CRATerre – International Centre for Research and Application of Earth Construction – is an NGO, works in research, training and implementation. It was established in 1979 by the co–authors of this book. The present work is the historical and technical research, standardization of tests, analysis and trials. CRATerre Peru researches on earthquake – resistant building systems and has a specialized documentation center

‘Building with Earth’ gives sufficient ‘scientific base’ and also ‘industrial footing’ to the subject, which the educated look for. About 300 pages of the book are abundant with tables, graphs, illustrations in diagrams, drawings, details and photographs, and cover several case studies, traditional practices, use of machines, soils and modification of soil characteristics, construction methods, binders and stabilizers, renderings and finishes with much sophistication. It is attached with bibliography, a list of organizations and new research in the field. It is indeed a comprehensive treatise on building with earth and an excellent textbook.

Now that this up–to–date manual on earth technology, imported from the West, is made available in India, it should give enough credibility to “earth” as a building material. The earth, not merely a matter but Mother Earth, is used by the majority of Indians to build a house.

It could now safely be recognized by and introduced in the organized sector of technical education of the architects, engineers and technicians/artisans by the Indian universities, IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology), ITIs (Industrial Training Institutes), polytechnics, boards of technical education at the state and national level, Council of Architecture, Indian Institute of Architects, Institute of Engineers, SSCE and HSCE Boards, Shramik Vidyapiths and other autonomous organizations engaged in housing, education and funding etc. besides NGOs (Non-Government Organizations) active in the rural and urban areas in development work.

Though earth as building material remained outside the educational curriculum in India, it was, however, given a due place in the famous “P.W.D. Handbook (1950, Rs. 7.62, First Edition 1876) of former Bombay Presidency during the British Rule.

There are other building materials, namely thatch and Bamboo, which are also ignored in the technical education in India. Thatch certainly has a place in the materials, specifications and practices in the West. Bamboo grows abundantly in India. It is absent in the western textbooks because it does not grow in that region.

What are the possibilities of applications of this treatise on earth in the Indian Context? Cities have their own constraints where earth to build upon and to build with is under great pressure. Nearly 50% population of Bombay (now Mumbai) lives in the slums and squatters. In these settlements, however, earth is a major component in spite of variety of rags being used. At the countryside the majority people continue to use earth in spite of urban influence to use high fossil energy consuming materials such as reinforced cement concrete (RCC).

The Indian countryside is full of diversity of land characteristics, climate, languages, food, dresses… which is beyond generalizations. It is obvious that soils and their characteristics change with localities. Various regions have their indigenous ways of using earth for building: plains of river Ganga, Jamuna, Brahmaputra etc. (flood-prone); desert areas of Gujarat – Rajasthan (scanty rain fall – now earthquake-prone); Deccan plateau (now earthquake-prone); tropical rain forest region of coast (cyclone-prone) and many other regions.

One must not expect to find all the answers to all the conditions in this book. The professionals, therefore, could trust a little more the traditions – the traditions of the so-called illiterates, uneducated, and ignorant rural folks, their wisdom and skills – and do not depend fully on such manuals while practicing at local levels.

Ironically folks from various parts of the country also could be found in the cities and towns after the massive migration that has been taking place during the last few decades. What is more? A major part of the labour force – unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled – in the building construction industry could be found in the slums and squatters, for example, in Bombay (now Mumbai).

As has been said earlier, the book has educative value as a textbook. Traditionally, however, science and technology were available free of cost to the people and learning has been experiential and holistic. It was not the department of education, but the people had autonomy in education. So also Epics and Puranas, which were passed on by mnemonic method from generation to generation over centuries and have become intrinsic part of life of people. When teaching became authoritative and totalitarian, Sant Jnaneshwar (saint-poet of Maharashtra state) had to ask a buffalo to recite Vedas to put the pundits in their right context. Sant Tukaram (saint-poet of Maharashtra state) challenged, “Only we understand meaning of Vedas; other carry burden on their heads.” We need to understand the mindset of the people. Today with printing technology and mass production, the education has gone into the safe custody of the privileged few and has become inaccessible to the ‘masses’.

The publisher’s note mentions that the book shall be available at 50% discount to the students of architecture and engineering. But the price is not mentioned – a popular gimmick. Taking into account the aids, supports and the price of the forest at the cost of people (not merely price of paper) the book should not cost more than Rupees 30/- to 40/- to make it truly global! Besides, the publicity given in the book to the commercially available machinery in the West should further bring down the price. Taking into account the huge demand for housing the price could be further slashed down to make it truly utilitarian book. Better still if the book is translated in the regional languages. All those who advocate sustainability, alternative – appropriate – intermediate etc. technologies should begin to apply energy costs rather than the currency costs while pricing any work – a book or a mud house.

We cannot, perhaps, ignore more than two hundred million people are living below poverty line, and as many are without shelter in India. In Indian sense, environmental concerns encompass matter, mind and Soul.
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Remigius de Souza

21-10-1995 (28-03-2008)
[This review was published in the Journal of Indian Institute of Architects, Dec.95/Jan.96.]
© Remigius de Souza., all rights reserved.
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Archetypes India: Parable of 20th Century Blacksmith

Parable of 20th Century Blacksmith of Bhal*

by Remigius de Souza


ONCE UPON A TIME there lived a blacksmith in a village. He belonged to the Indic Civilisation in the second half of 20th century of Christian Calendar. He lived in a region called Bhal in Saurashtra of Gujarat State in India. In the same region nearby is the place called Lothal; there existed the Indus Civilization in Bronze Age. ‘Bhal’ meant desert in Gujarati language. In Sanskrit it meant forehead. In Indian tongues forehead also indicated ‘fate’.

The caste of blacksmith, untouchable though, had been part of ecology of the Indic civilisation for centuries. They made things (weapons) for the state, and (implements – tools – equipments) for the households, houses, farms and transport. Perhaps the story of smithy goes beyond, even before, the Indo-European race – the Aryans – invaded India.

The people of India were very proud of their past heritage. However in the lasts decades of 20th century, the mining corporation in Damodar Valley almost destroyed the archaeological evidence that an Iron Age perhaps existed in India before the Bronze Age in Indus Civilization. The mining operations partially destroyed the cave and the cave paintings, and whatever remained was left to further destruction due to ‘exposure’ and ‘tremors’ caused by mining.

The blacksmith in the village in Bhal region had no work, for the villagers had resorted to the mechanised farming. They were also using hybrid seeds, chemical fertilisers, insecticides and pesticides. By the end of 20th Century the people of Bhal had successfully destroyed the soil, insects in the soil – water – air. By using imported advance technology of farming, they had successfully stopped further regeneration of flora and fauna which depended on, and helped each other, and accelerated the rate of desertification of their region.

Thus perhaps the region got its name Bhal – desert – in the modernisation process; they also destroyed the indigenous seeds which could grow in the prevailing hot dry climate and topography of the region. They were facing a severe water crisis. When all over India the rural – urban population ratio was 76.7:23.3, in Bhal the rural population was 28.2 percent in the beginning of the 1980s.

Moneylenders called the World Bank from Western Civilisation came forward to give a loan to build a mighty dam over River Narmada. It was to enable water supply to Bhal region by irrigation canals. By this action two things were certain: (1) whatever useful top soil was left in the Bhal region would finally turn saline, and the process of desertification would be completed; and (2) the destruction of the tribal culture and the forest – rich in flora and fauna – in the catchments of Narmada valley.

Tribal cultures – whatever was left, not only in India but all over the world – were some of the would be most valuable aspects of the “World Heritage” though not recognised by the then so-called superior societies. They were the last hope for the surviving civilised societies to provide the cues to the sustainable living in harmony with nature – the real life nature, not the nature-in-laboratory.

In spite of words of wisdom from Buddha, Mahavir, Jesus, and such other divine persons, the superior societies continued to make weapons of mass destructions not only to kill each other, but also the animals, insects, plants, soil… even the atmosphere. Some wise man had said, “Wherever civilisations stepped, it left desert behind it.”

The tribal lived in harmony with nature for millennia. They had no problems of accumulation of wealth and split personality that are faced by the moderns. The Buddhas or no-Buddhas, the tribal were the last hope of salvation for the civilised world. BUT THE PARADOX WAS THAT THE TRIBAL DO NOT PREACH.

Civilised, superior societies, in earlier times, had killed – annihilated local, ethnic and tribal communities wherever they reached, or take them as slaves, or as service class ― or Shudras (untouchable caste) ― as in Indic civilisation. Our blacksmith belonged to the untouchable caste.

There is a story in the epic Mahabharata: Arjuna and Krishna were prospecting a place for Pandava’s capital. They chose Khanadavan (Khandav Forest) and burnt entire forest and the Nag tribe that lived there, and cleared the forest for the new capital – Indraprastha. (One of them escaped though, and in revenge killed the last of the Pandavas – King Pariskhit.)

Our blacksmith was jobless while industries of mass production got tax concessions, subsidies, financial aid, services, etc. All that this petite bourgeoisie had: his simple hand tools, his rickety hut, his poverty and his skill. He was excellent craftsman in making guns – as well as for museum pieces. He was a master craftsman.

So he would make a gum. The police – the Law – would pounce on him, catch him for the crime of making a gun, and put him in a jail. When released he would start again to make a gun (perhaps he had customers from the affluent elite Indian society). He was caught again by the law. He was put again in the jail… And this continued until he died rotting in poverty, privation, between the jails and his rickety hut.

This may have been a prelude to the riots, terrorists’ attacks, proliferation of goons and illegal possessions of guns – not only in Gujarat State, but also all over the country; even the Parliament of India was not spared from terrorist attack. Why should any state/ nation force, face, or fear the threat of war or terrorism from inside or outside if it had cared for the poor and the afflicted due to the capitalist antics, and took right action to rehabilitate them in the changing environment, not theoretically or verbally but actually? On the contrary it should have had friends everywhere.

The Indian State governed the nation by mimetic imitation of their (past) colonial master and (present) neo-colonial masters. The politicians enacted mimesis of melodrama common in Bollywood movies and Tellywood mega soaps, under the garbs of patriotism and nationalism, to sway the citizens. However, the large majority – the illiterate, backward, underdeveloped and the people living below poverty line – in their repeated verdicts led them to face hung parliaments. Predictably they brought their various colours and brands together into alliances ‘to hold power’ but consistently failed ‘to learn from the people.’

One, Bertold Brecht, from the Western Civilisation in the contemporary times (in 1953), wondered with mock innocence:

Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?*

Perhaps this was then a worldwide phenomenon in the era of Industrial Civilisation.

Neither the Indian State, nor the Constitution of India, nor the great Indian Democracy had any instrument, any tool, or could evolve any, which could help and rehabilitate our Blacksmith of Bhal to live with dignity, leave aside to shower on him the state honours for his craft. They had Acts of Law but NO ACTION to maintain equality.

Until recent times the blacksmiths made arrowheads. The Blacksmith of Bhal changed over to making guns with changing times. But like farming and other traditional crafts, his craft also had no official recognition. Similarly the tribal lost their millennia-old skill in archery being illegal; the blockhead bureaucrats thinking in box had no imagination to convert it into sports, hence Indians hardly represented archery at the Olympics.

The Blacksmith was a freedom fighter for his right to work and survival; qualitatively no less than Gandhi’s protest in South Africa earlier. But he did not belong to the elite class or high caste. He struggled, fought alone, held his head high in self-respect: He stood taller than any celebrated writers of Constitutions and Laws of any States.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Remigius de Souza
69/ 243, S. B. Marg, Mumbai 400028, India
16-10-1992

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Notes

· This story was told by the author on the concluding day of the workshop on “Environment, People and Law” organized by the “Centre for Science and Environment” (CSE), New Delhi during 12-16 October 1992.
· The story was published in the “Development network”, CDSA, Pune, Jan-March 1994.
· This story is of a real person told to the author by a social worker who was working with the farmers in Dholaka – Dhandhuka area in the Gujarat State.

* Quote "Bertold Brecht" is by Michael Wood, ‘At the Movies’, London Review of Books, Vol. 29 No. 6, 22 March 2007.

LINK (Via ARCHETYPES INDIA)

© Remigius de Souza., all rights reserved.
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Indian schooling

Indian schooling
By Remigius de Souza

I had an opportunity to watch a short play on Door Darshan, 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 theater. The play is obviously propaganda for the good cause of the spread of education by schooling. In the play an old lady (Sulabha) wants the little boy to go to school so that he does not remain stupid like her old man (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 D.D. 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? Perhaps those sitting in the chairs will lose the power game 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) of Door Darshan brings insult and humiliation to realities of living in an Indian village!

[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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© Remgius de Souza 1990
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