While we all get together to become climate activists, especially on this 22 April of each year that we know as “Earth Day”, the truth remains that as the throttle towards climate change is high today, the “play with climate” was always a project of Imperialistic Colonisers who have become preachers of mass that sings carols themed “environment protection.” It took the ugly incidence of Barbara Oil Spills of January-February 1969, that a politician from the west, Gaylord Nelson, to recognise 22 April 1970, as the first “Earth Day.” The fact goes this way, that an oil-well drilled by Union Oil Platform located six miles off the coast of Santa Barbara in California, had blown out. It led to spillage of oil in volume larger than three million gallons, which as per estimates had murdered more than ten thousand seabirds, dolphins, sea lions, and other aquatic beings.  This came to the eyes of Senator Gaylord Nelson after he saw the disaster from the airplane and according to Denis Hayes, the organiser of the first “Earth Day”, this inspired him to create the day that we talk about today. The world of colonisers and imperialists heavily relied on the destruction of the environment. The truth is very well reflected by below words of Eduardo Galeano as below in Mundo: “ Cuatro frases que hacen crecer la nariz de Pinocho” (English Translation): “The invading civilization[s] confused ecology with idolatry. Communion with nature was a sin worthy of punishment (…) Nature was a fierce beast that had to be tamed and punished so that it could work as a machine, placed at our service for ever and ever. Nature, which was eternal, owed us slavery.” The colonisers, wherever they walked in, whether it was Africa or India, they attacked the culture and tradition which to them appeared as absolute idolatry though they contained nuanced concepts that saw grand relationship with complete ecology. This truth is also not hidden that with colonisation apart from ravaging the resources and snubbing indigenous religious practices they were pounding in Christianity with full force. Jomo Kenyatta observed and said as below: “When the Missionaries arrived, the Africans had the land, and the missionaries had the Bible. They taught us how to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land, and we had the Bible.” The root of imperialism and colonialism has deep links to the idea of spread of Christendom. It was the Alexandrine Bulls of 1493 followed by another bull and the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494 that the non-Christian world got divided among the Catholic Monarchs Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon to be occupied with the mission at hand. The Pope Alexander VI had issued the bulls as under:

1. The first bull was called, “Inter Caetera” came on May 3, 1493, AD, which would recognise Spain’s claim to any discovered lands not already held by a Christian prince, and protected Portugal’s previous rights. This was not accepted by either of the parties.
2. The second bull, “ Eximiae devotionis” too came on May 3, 1493, AD, granted to the kings of Castile, and León, and their successors the same privileges in the newly discovered land that had been granted to the kings of Portugal in the regions of Africa, and Guinea.
3. The third bull was also called “ Inter Caetera” and it appeared on May 4, 1493, AD. It clearly asked Spanish Monarchs to spread Christianity westwards from a line considered. It read, “(…) one hundred leagues towards the west and south from any of the islands commonly known as the Azores and Cape Verde.”
4. Finally on September 26, 1493, came another bull known as “ Dudum siquidem” as a supplement to “Inter Caetera” last issued. It was addressed to the Catholic Monarchs Isabella I of Castile, and Ferdinand II of Aragon which purported to grant to them “all islands and mainland whatsoever, found and to be found, discovered and to be discovered, that are or may be or may seem to be in the route of navigation or travel towards the west or south, whether they be in western parts, or in the regions of the south and east and of India.”

These bulls became the ground of negotiation amid the two colonial powers which would bring in the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494. It was ratified by Pope Julius II and divided the non-Christian world between the two powers. With the rise of protestant powers in days to come the core principle of spreading Christendom would yet remain integral. So, it would be a non-scholarly argument to believe that the colonists established colonies only for business. The church of England, despite being protestant in nature, saw utmost importance to Christianise and spread missionary activities in British colonies. The method can be broken down simply as this that the imperialistic powers wanted to earn as well as spread the empire of their lord. Both this needed an attack on the indigenous religious system which was about a pledge to bring no harm to mother nature. As the imperialist west kept expanding colonies into the forests and everywhere, the exploitation of nature had begun relentlessly even in their colonies after they had already done so in their own lands. They had eyes at the abundant minerals, crops, metals, all the flora and fauna which could only be available at the hinterlands. They had to create more territories and dominions. As the statistics reveal, between the 16th to 19th century, around 100 million KGs of silver was extracted from the mines of Latin America to be carried to Europe. This is very well elaborated in book, “ A History of Mining in Latin America,” written by Kendall W. Brown where he also mentions of Spanish author, Alonso de Morgado who had an observation that at the time that enough treasure had arrived on the shores of Seville by the 1580s to pave the entire city’s streets with gold and silver. As the colonists imported sugar, spices, cotton, coffee, etc, it turned mother nature not only as the sculpting clay of prize but also the victim of western exploitation. A report published by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), clearly states as below: “Present development challenges causing high vulnerability are influenced by historical and ongoing patterns of inequity such as colonialism, especially for many Indigenous peoples and local communities, (…) Officials and scientists from around the globe now recognize the significant role colonialism has played in heating our planet and destroying its many gifts.”

How West (Colonisers) impacted Nature?

The mass of wasted lands, massive mines, defiled rivers, and massive deforestation tell us the sad story of how mother nature was continually ruined by the colonisers. They continually cleared grasslands, rainforests, wetlands, and mangroves etc for sprawling their quarries, commercial plantations, etc. In the colonial way, overuse (aka exploitation) & deforestation were the absolute normal. To understand this one should go through the book, “ Nature’s Government: Science, Imperial Britain, and the ‘Improvement’ of the World” by Richard Drayton. The Christian world kept occupying new territories. With the fiction of negation and discovery, they justified the clearance of native habitats and inhabitants. Being “squatters” was the new fate of Long-term residents on their own land and their traditions which essentially were called pagan saw outright assault. The colonialists uprooted all vernacular agricultural traditions, for example, peasants were stripped of their milpa lands in Mexico while in Madagascar, the tavy system was outlawed. The tale of how the Western world conceptualised those destructions that today looks upon us as by the name of “climate change” is long and I’ll take it up in detail in the next part of this essay. In this part, I bring back focus to ancient Indians who saw Mother nature as. British attack on ecosystem and nature-worshipping Indians The Hindu traditions have strongly circled around Ṛta. And Ṛta has been explained as the principle of natural order and the action (karma) to abide by the same has been known as ‘Dharma’. As the massive diversity in geography existed, so did in observance of Dharma. We were unified by the notion to observe Ṛta and cater to diversity. The moment you cater geography and geology as per the context you go in accord to the Ṛta and everything naturally fell under the bracket of what we would popularly call an environment-conscious sustainable approach. Sampradayas had their traditions, right from the method of building houses to eating habits and clothing sense based on context, which I call appropriate technology or approach and hence was an adherence to Ṛta. The biodiversity remained protected because every gram (village) had a devata, and so did the regions of forests. Recent film Kantara has captured this emotion of practising sustainability through worshiping a devata so beautifully. In fact, it is great first material to begin to understand how our traditions were so deeply rooted in practicing sustainability to core. When Britishers walked in, through their policies of expansion within all types of lands, it was the green flag to the rail of ecological disasters for India. The villages often had forests sprinkled broadly within them. For the British the patches of villages superimposed with forests meant nothing except being wastelands as they weren’t a source of revenue. The imperialists from the temperate zone had absolutely no understanding of how ecology worked in the tropical belt. Although, those forests were the source of fodder as well as fuelwood, along with being a provider of medicinal plants on which small nomadic cultivators and villagers relied on for their survival. The imperialists had no idea of how in tropical zone forests played a vital role in maintaining the productivity of the land which was helping small time cultivators to get good yields. In 1864, the British Government appointed Dietrich Brandis as the Inspector General of Forests and the Indian Forest Department was born. Brandis got introduced the Imperial Forest Service in the same year of his appointment as IGF. Based on Lord Dalhousie’s memorandum of August 3, 1855, Indian Forest Act of 1865 was brought in place. The draconian memorandum of Dalhousie proposed complete regulation of teak and it became the government property. This act had empowered the British government to declare any land covered with trees as a government forest and make rules to manage it. The government mainly used the woods for manufacturing sleepers in railways. The act of 1865 was amended in 1878 by virtue of which British classified the forests in below three categories:

1. Reserved
2. Protected
3. Village Forests

The best and thickest forests were the “Reserved Forest.” The 1878 amendment had brought the cultural as well as ecological shift in what would transpire in Bharat in days to come. The communities had been taking care of those forests, seeing divinity through the manifestation of “Forest Deity” as while the expert caretakers were now shown a way out while those who knew nothing about these forests had the control of it. The villagers could now only get into the last two categories of forests that too to merely collect wood for their own consumption. The next amendment of act  in 1927 made the situation further problematic for ecology of Bharat & communities who actually depended on the forests. The penalties were laid such that the government could control forests more aggressively and with added police powers it had turned way more draconian. The problem with the likes of Brandis was that they had learnt all about forestry with experiences from Europe which lacked the diversity which is a highlight feature of tropical forests. In each acre of forest footprint, around a dozen species existed and the hundreds of thousands of microbes and other organisms had a terrific food web that sustained the ecology strongly. If one goes into details of this aspect, one will understand how it qualifies as the spine of livelihood of the rural Bharat. The forests had now become exploits of the British and deforestation was in spree for covering their industrial needs. In the process, they had introduced exotic trees in the region to gain more timber which led to heavy destruction of the water table, which would further make abundant flora-fauna become extinct. According to a paper published in 2018 by researchers from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru, the University of Leeds, UK, and Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, there were the hoodwinked decisions of the British Empire that led to large-scale damage of the local ecosystem, especially in the western ghats. The story of how the British destroyed the ecology of Bharat is going to be very long which I would like to address separately in a series of essays in days to come though I believe that the above brief introduction about the issue would at least induct an idea that how Bharat would have been had the Britishers didn’t began to tamper with the ecology. Not to forget that the evangelicals who always had eye on the dwellers around the forest whom they would convert and slowly the tradition of nature worshiping shall begin to be thinner with time. India always had the tradition of taking good care of nature and most of the rituals derived notions from the sustainable practices themselves. A practice which one would see still very predominantly is “Bhumi Pujan.” The ritual is all about begging a pardon from Mother Earth (Bhumi) for causing harm to her for the process of construction. While west lived and grew with the thought of laying, “foundation stone” or “corner stone” where the building becomes the main subject and not the “Mother Earth” which actually is the case for the Bhartiyas. The Prithvi Sukta of Atharva Veda is all about being obliged to “Mother Earth” and worshiping her besides taking care of her as the Dharmik Principle. While the Vedas did speak of worshiping “Mother-Earth”, ithasas like Mahabharat & Ramayan reflect the practicality of those theories. To reflect upon that below I quote one verses from each itihasa along with the verse of Prithvi Sukta which they appear to be related: What of thee, O earth (bhū́mi), I dig out, let that quickly grow over; let me not hit (arpay) thy vitals nor thy heart, O cleansing one. (AV, 12.1.35) One should act like a garland-maker who collects each and every flower very carefully, but should not act like a coal-maker who cuts the tree from the roots. (Viduraniti of Mahabharata of Vyasa, 2.18). I’ll conclude this essay on this note that with the fall of paganism in western world, the connectivity with nature had begun to cease. Through their march in various times, right from the dark ages to the period of enlightenment and so on, western world only chose methods which would bring ecological turbulence. They carried this legacy as to their colonies and the script of the film of climate change began to get thicker and thicker. Truth is that when the west slept over, Bharat already practiced sustainability as rituals. We just celebrated “Earth Day” a couple of days back which in reality is nothing more than how the West woke to century-old disasters being inculcated by them. Not that things have changed. Still Greta is pushed as an icon for the cause who has been nothing more than a childhood wasted in selling hypocrisy all around even though Bharat still sets an example through Saalumarada Thimmakka ji, who had led by setting a great example. If one truly cares for the environment & climate, they should begin celebrating the Indic Traditions which have been taking care of mother earth and nature for millennia. It indeed has become oxymoronic visuals to see corporates, of MNCs holding up symbolic plants in their hands celebrating “Earth Day” within the air-conditioned, highly unsustainable buildings wearing suits with temperature touching forty degrees Celsius. Perhaps, introducing Indian Sustainable attires, can be the first step the corporates can take up to be doer in the world of sustainability instead of becoming merely photo-op clowns. In the next part of the essay, I would show historical examples of how Bharat had the strongest of policies to preserve the ecosystem. The writer is an architect and an author. Views expressed are personal. Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.