It can if all of us work towards it. But while there are so many of
us, busy gathering our gold coins and BagPiper Scotch, it looks like a distant
dream. Many would think I have become fanatical about things concerning the
ecology and Gandhi. Why this combination you might ask – despite my
reservations about Gandhi’s role otherwise, he was a very futuristic economist
– one who thought about sustainability way back 60 years ago, while we talk
about it after most natural resources are either lost or are contaminated. So,
when I speak about the present day situation, that we are still living in a
colonial set-up, only the coloniser is different, and we need to find solutions
from Gandhian economics, someone said, “You seem to be on a crash diet, a
crash-civilization diet”. He was one of the better halves of the modern day India.
He doesn’t have to loose his livelihood, if the city expands, if a
multi-national decides to patent your seeds or decides to destroy your land by
polluting it.
We fail to see that we are being unkind to ourselves – by polluting
and destroying nature like a marauding cowboy. Ultimately it is us, all of us,
who will be paying for it, with our health and our lives. We already are doing
that. We don’t realise it. For now it is not us, those being happy in our
multi-storeyed buildings, or those living in plush bungalows in posh
neighbourhoods, that are suffering that much – but the fellows who are directly
dependent on nature that are paying the price. We see their deaths and suicides
being written about everyday in the papers. But we can’t care, for it is not
us. For it doesn’t affect us today. It will surely affect us tomorrow, but
then, tomorrow is another day.
Last October, I was in Tuni, I was speaking to an NGO consultant
about the displacement of the fisher folk by the Special Economic Zone. He was
not too interested to do anything about it. I had met him recently in the month
of February, he told me that he has decided to bring people together and
campaign against a minor irrigation project in his district (Vizianagaram)
where 12 villages will be displaced. “What to do, it’s my motherland, my home
and my village where I grew up and where I still own the land. I am losing my
own land and house too”, he told me when I asked him how come he is getting
into activism. Well, since it has come to his doorstep, he has taken up issue.
Until then, he was as unconcerned as any.
I used to live in the middle of the twin cities opposite to a big
star hotel. I don’t live there anymore. There are about 96 flats in that
complex of apartments. The present situation is that this Hotelman who has gone
on a buying spree has bought the vacant building adjacent to ours. He began to
demolish it and construct there. Now, he has come to our apartment complex and
is asking the residents to sell it to him. I am not sure, how many will sell
and how many will be able to resist it. And what of those who decide to
continue to live there? After all, today it is impossible to find a similar apartment
right in the middle of the city. What if the man is a real estate mafia, and if
he forces the people out? What will the middle class do, when faced with a
situation that normally our common villager or slum dweller encounters, “eviction
by force”? What can be the solution? Does it solve the purpose by keeping quiet
when things do not concern you or wishing away problems or just simply
pretending that life is all fine?
“Change can happen only when we become the change that we want to
see”. Gandhi had said it and showed us the path too, by being and doing that
which he wanted to see in others. Jesus said it, Do unto others what you want
others to do unto you. The philosophy of karma says that your present
life is a result of your past actions. Similarly, our future life is a result
of our present actions. So, does it serve our purpose to ignore things that are
happening around us, just because they don’t effect our present situation? The
solutions are there. Only we need to look inside us. Some will say we need to
agitate, to protest against the system. That is needed, the problem is that we
are quiet when we should be speaking up or speaking against something that is
not right; because we are afraid. It is fear and inaction which is stopping
change from happening, but that is another story. Even if we all protest, can
there be change, if we do not change ourselves? I went to this organic market – where one can buy directly from the
farmers, but of course not before you are supplied the food in a plastic carry
bag. Can we go about things in a piecemeal fashion? The way things are today,
we most certainly need action that encompasses our entire lifestyle. The change
should begin with me, within us. No regulations or laws can change the world.
Only we can.
The other day, I was in a local NGO to do some work related to our
Uranium Mining Campaign. My friend works there. It was past five in the
evening, and everyone has left except this friend who stayed back to complete
some of her work. As I entered the office, I found most of the lights, fans and
computers switched on, without a soul in those rooms. I switched off all
equipment and commented about it to my friend. ‘Yes, words seldom translate to
action’ she said. I find a similar situation in another NGO’s office, not a
soul in a room, but all electrical appliances run in full flow. They are
genuine people and are supporting adivasi campaigns against large dams and
hydro-electric projects.
Can there be a change? If on one hand we fight against large dams that
submerge villages, destroy environment, oppose Hydro-electric projects and
Mining (including coal which gives maximum electricity in this country) which
displaces people, how come we are not conscious to use that electricity with
reverence, and care and not waste it; for is not this electricity a result of
so many thousands of people’s sacrifices? Is it not important to save power, in
order to reduce the demands for electricity; a demand which is creating havoc
with people’s lives and livelihoods – the very same people whom we represent
and campaign for?
The next day, I was there once again at the same NGO where my friend
worked. My friend had not come yet, so I waited downstairs watching a
documentary about the student revolution of 1975 along with some of the staff.
I was thinking aloud, “Now if you speak of such things, not a single student
would turn up!” The girl sitting next to me remarked, “Yes, and then they will
go and watch Rang de Basanti!”
I had been to watch this film “Rang de Basanti”. The film had become
very, very popular. Even three months since its release, it was running to
packed houses. Patriotism is a big thing in India, we are all arm-chair
patriots, which is what the film talks about, asking young people to take
action and not just sit around complaining about the way things are all the
time. A very valuable message indeed! But come to think of it, if words come to
action, will the filmmaker take it upon himself and do the dirty work of
involving in the day to day issues of the country? I am not sure. Will Aamir
Khan, the main protagonist who gave his life for his country in Rang De Basanti
and fought for his village in “Lagaan”, stop endorsing Coca Cola, which is
snatching away precious water resources of rural communities and affecting
children’s health?
Coming back to this girl who was watching the documentary on student
revolution with me; a while later my friend arrived and I finished my work. As
I left, I invited the women from that office to join us in the poster exhibition
cum demonstration on uranium mining which we planned to do that evening. A
couple of them promised to come. Or, at least made noises to that effect, the
girl who talked about the attitude of the youth in the country a few minutes
earlier was not one of them. It is a different issue that no one from that
office bothered to turn up for the demonstration.
Recently, we had a meeting of the Forum for sustainable development.
Many people, well-heeled thinkers, sociologists, activists came and spoke about
the need to stop this destructive kind of development which is putting the majority
of the people’s lives in peril – be it mining, large dams, large-scale
urbanisation; it is the poor and the marginalised who are paying the price.
There were some people from the adivasi and rural communities. But most
speakers were from the well-to-do half of the society – people like me. I asked
one question, ‘all of us who are feeling sad about the mining and other such
issues, expressing our solidarity to the people who are sacrificing for this
“development”; will we be ready to give up our plush cars and our comforts?
For, these very cars and comforts are a result of so much mining and
manufacturing and displacement?’ Since, it was a one way talk; I did not expect
any reply. But I am wondering if there would have been one, even if we had the
chance.
As a documentary filmmaker, I made very little money. There was
always one question that was paramount to my inner conflict – that is, can I
make my pots of money, highlighting the misery of the people? (Like any normal
human being, even I wish to make money for my own reasons). This bothered me
because; it is another thing to be able to make a living, but another one
altogether to be minting money out of the misery of the people. It is somewhat
like a doctor who wishes to get more patients, so that he can make a lot of
money. In that sense, as documentary filmmakers we keep wishing to make films
that are hard-hitting, issue-based films, which kick up controversy, win many
awards abroad and bring us lots of moolah. I say this, because there are so
many of us, who feel excited when there is a big issue, who make films
precisely for this purpose. So, as a livelihood seeker, would a documentary
filmmaker really wish that problems should get solved? What will happen if all
the problems were solved and we did not have work?
A similar situation plagues the NGO world too. Many amongst the
NGO’s make a lot of money by way of their salaries, with additional perks like
frequent trips abroad etc. I always wondered why is it that they never educated
the grassroots people– i.e., the rural and forest dwelling folks, never made
them aware on the various issues that concern them, their environment and their
situation. A few NGO’s did do that. But not all of them, then I began to
understand, if the people’s awareness grows and if they begin to do things on
their own, solve their problems on their own initiative, then there will be no
work for the NGO set-up either, then like us documentary makers, they too will
be out of work. Most importantly, they may not have an upper hand in
negotiating with governments on behalf of the people, be it rehabilitation or
development initiatives. Many among the NGO activists come for the protest
meetings, against all large scale development works. But will they give up on
their plush offices, big cars, five-star lifestyle which is a result of the
sacrifice of the underprivileged?
A few weeks back, I was at a meeting opposing a large dam and a
hydro electric project. At the tea break, the tea was served in plastic cups. I
find it strange that in almost all environmental meetings, we are served tea in
plastic cups. When I ask people, why are we allowing this to happen; they say,
well, “life goes on, you cannot avoid the cups.” We may not avoid the cups, but
as a principle, can we not stop drinking tea for that day and insist on the
seller changing the cups next time?
It was broad day light, we
could have done without the tube lights, as the hall had many windows with
light pouring in, but the lights were on all through the day. Many of the
adivasi representatives were there with their cell phones. I suggested that we
sit down under the trees to have our meeting, one of them said, “when we come
to town we should behave like the townspeople”. At the meeting everyone was
speaking of how adivasi culture is being lost due to developmental projects.
Which is a fact, but come to think of it, I was reminded of somebody’s words.
This man was part of the Pesticide Action Network of Asia Pacific. They were
travelling in a bus all over Asia, and came to address an adivasi meeting in the
forest area of East Godavari. The local
adivasi activists staged a play about the loss of traditions, traditional crops
etc.
This is what our visiting invitee said, “My question is to all my
activist friends. It is fine that we tell the farmer to go back to plant
traditional crops, but will we be ready to eat them? We speak of loss of
tradition, but will we be able to go back to our traditional lifestyle, wearing
khadi instead of jeans (most of the adivasi activists were in their jeans and
t-shirts) and live without electrical appliances, motorcycles and all that? If
we can do that, then certainly, we should be saying it, or else let us not
mislead the public”. He continued, “I never admired Gandhi, (our speaker was a
communist) but when I went to see his ashram in Sevagram, then I realised the
greatness of this man. The house was stark empty, except for his mat and study
table and his charkha. Here was this man, the most popular person in the
country at that time, he could have had what ever he wanted on the earth, yet
he lived his life in the simplest possible way, the way he told others to do.
He lived his ideology, that if we can do even to a small extent, change can
happen”.
