What Constitutes Nature in South Asia? A Caste-Critical Perspective

"Thakur's Well"

The stove is made of mud,
The mud is from the lake,
The lake belongs to the Thakur.

A hunger for bread,
Bread made of millet,
Millet grown in the fields,
The field belongs to the Thakur.

The Ox belongs to the Thakur,
The plow belongs to the Thakur,
Gripping the tips of the Plow is our palm, but
The harvest belongs to the Thakur.

The well belongs to the Thakur,
The water belongs to the Thakur,
The fields and the barns belong to the Thakur,
The roads and localities belong to the Thakur.

Then what is ours?
The village? The city? The nation?

(Om Prakash Valmiki, November 1981)

Introduction

Om Prakash Valmiki's (a Dalit writer) poem "Thakur's Well" reflects not only historical social and economic inequalities of Indian society but also shows the deeper understanding of Nature from an anti-caste perspective. Caste a rigid salient feature of Hindu society in India have always remained at the core of graded inequalities¹ – flows into the all dimensions of Indian spaces. Om Prakash Valmiki's poem strikingly highlights 'Caste and Nature' relationship accounting the caste as a unit which produce the 'Exploitation' and 'Oppression' embedded in the features of Indian environment (As Valmiki names few through mud, lake, bread, field, ox, plow and water) possessed by an Upper Caste exploiter – Thakur. The domination of occupying natural resources therefore underlines the significance of understanding the Nature in India within the context of Caste system. The access to natural resources here is not limited to a material acquisition but power structure of caste which establish the boundary maintenance of "Aukaat" (social hierarchical position) between touchable and untouchable castes in Indian environment. However, Indian environmental history appears to be a centre of elites in understanding the Nature – not explicating the study of environment with the fundamental superstructure of caste in India. The binary of Indian academicians about Nature in the epoch of climate change and urbanisation leaves major requirement to re-assess the meaning of Nature at the intersection of Caste system in India. Therefore – this essay will attempt to enquire the Nature and Caste into three parts of sets. First - it argues that How the Nature been understood in Indian history and contemporary times is an elite project and fringes the Dalits in the environmental studies. Second – it tracks the ideological basement behind the understanding of Nature in India with respect to context of caste. Finally – it concludes the reimagination of Nature by counting caste as a major factor to deconstruct the existing knowledge and pedagogy within dominated Indian environmentalism.

The Dominant Understanding of Nature in Indian Environmentalism

Colonial history² of environment have played vital role in shaping the trenches of knowledge system about how the Nature in general has been studied and how it has impacted the understanding of Nature in different regions of the globe. Environmental degradation of landscapes in Europe from the exploitive extraction enforced preservation of ecosystems as a byproduct of the colonial environmental studies. Grove's study³ on Natural imperialism highlights how the colonials provided the conventional way of conserving nature compromising the indigenous communities.

The colonial knowledge production has however not fully adhered the essence of fundamental human relations with nature which is why we see the crisis of divide between human and nature in the contemporary environmental discussions. We can agree with Alf⁴ Hornberg's 'Political Ecology' to reconsider the human-centred factors into the ecological dimensions for nuanced understanding of complex relationship between 'Nature and Human'. As many scholarly studies have suggested - It seems highly significant to establish a floor to untangle the socio-economic ties rooted in the traditional ways of examining Nature which Rehman⁵ emphasise to break the binaries of deep ecologies for a comprehensive ecocriticism.

The Indian circle of environmentalism developed wide atlas of environment-based movements in pre and post-independence period to showcase the rights of indigenous communities of their 'natural-world'. Though commendable for its progressive approach – such Indian environmental movements has clearly missed to treat the social insect of 'Caste' which lies at the very base of 'Indian Environment Strata'. As Guha⁶ demonstrates through his study of Chipko Movement remarking the post-colonial India as a liberal state tackling environmental concerns from different directions of philosophy, technology, social and political – isolates it from the visibility of Dalit movements for demand of Land and Water. On the other hand, sociologist Gail Omvedt⁷ reveal the constant anti-caste battles of Dalits and Non-Brahman castes for the basic access of natural resources and livelihood in pre and post-colonial India.

The organisational set-ups of Indian environmentalists remain to be the hub of Brahminical hegemony which does not confront its own caste privilege in the social engineering. Perceiving Urban nature simply as a mode of beautification for the leisure or master planning of designated and undesignated spaces for the allocation of city's residential and landfill areas overshadows the very reality of caste. This Spatial distribution of topography assigns the caste locations in nature of how one community of particular religion accord with high elevations while others places at lower heights. The process of dominating the Nature at top holding power of environment is what we can call 'Eco-Brahminism' rather than Mukul Sharma's 'Eco-Casteism'. Sharma's scholarship⁸ is however an exceptional investigation of 'Caste and Nature' in India. It has comprehensively documented the elite Indian environmental movements which has functioned on the integral Hindu beliefs subsuming the environmental problems of Dalits under the Brahminical cloak.

As Brahminical definition of Nature has been seeped deeply in the Indian society – it has certainly not left the contemporary debate of climate change. Many researchers have painstakingly scrutinized the greenhouse gas emissions and it's technocratic impact on the nature, however, rare studies like Shah⁹ (et al.) profound the linkages of intense heat waves exposure to the inherent caste-based labor. Similarly, water as an essential component of nature and human life – has been reduced to the binaries of quantity and availability of engineering paradigms. In recent times – the researchers have unpacked the occurrence of violence¹⁰ in accessing public water sources against Dalits.

Moreover, Elite research projects around river rejuvenation for the 'holistic' approach of reviving natural streams does not account the issues of Dalit community who have been displaced or evicted. Studies carried by Agarwal¹¹ reveals greater crisis of river pollution of Yamuna in Delhi but did not highlight the resettlement of slums in the discussion of what is 'public'.

Caste accompanied by 'Class' could also tell us more about Nature in India. The comparative study by New York Times¹² of how gated and slum community children live in unequal worlds of Nature where elite have access to survival being vulnerable while real vulnerable could survive despite exposed to the degraded environment. In Dana¹³ Alston's words – "The environment, for us, is where we live, where we work, and where we play". The understanding of nature therefore has to be looked from the bottom of social base rather than up to bottom.

The Ideologies that Shaped Nature in India

If one has paid the attention to the impact of colonial legacies shaping the Indian environmentalism – we cannot solely dependent on single historical factor to examine the fundamental understanding of Nature in India. As discussed in previous part of the essay – the dominant understanding of nature has little to offer in covering the ecological concerns of Dalits. Hence one has to ask why such dominant understanding of Nature continues to thrive in Indian environmental discourse and what are the factors which prevents the views of historically marginalised communities from central understanding of nature?

In order to answer such set of questions – one has to investigate the ideological stands of historical figures jotting down the key processes of handling the matter of environment. Post-colonial India witnessed major leaderships M. Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru who appears to be the heroic players in portraying anti-imperialism and national development. Gandhi himself was an upholder of 'non-violence' movement who believed to establish an equal society for all irrespective of caste, gender and religion. His political actions for untouchable castes in the form of 'Harijan Movement' denotes his reformist attitude toward the subject matter of 'Environment of Dalits'. Rather considering 'Caste' as a whole structure to deal the problem of oppression – he preferred to adapt morally redefined religious customs which preserved the Hindu ideology at the core of defining Nature and People in Indian sphere. The rejection of caste for Gandhi formed a Hindu based system to locate nature in the political domain. His critique of Industrialisation on the similar lines of urbanisation propagated the preservation of Caste and built the dominant base for Indian environment. This has been reflected in his own founded 'Harijan Sevak Sangh' to eradicate the untouchability and uplifting the untouchables to equip with education and livelihood. However, his limited methodology of execution in the name of Nature did not show the exact picture of Environment as Dalits of India – according to Omvedt still find themselves in the cruel caste atrocities while fetching drinking water and poor landless conditions.

Ideological influence have played a key role in structuring the knowledge production of Indian Environmentalism. We can see the ideologies of Gandhi, Marx and even of Nehru in the academicians research work which consist of the roadway to nationalism and broader development of the country. For instance – Guha's work 'Speaking with Nature' draws upon the ideas of Gandhi's to showcase the roots of colonial environmentalism in the Indian environmental domain.

Unfortunately, like Guha many other Environmentalists fail to engage with caste so does to bring the thoughts of Ambedkar. Ambedkar – a leader of downtrodden who opposed the Hindutva ideologies and paved the Dalit movements for anti-caste battles in pre and post-colonial India – have not given the space in Indian environment by Gandhian and Marxists academicians. Neither Ambedkar's Mahad agitation nor his opposition to landlord system in the Indian environmental studies been discussed thoroughly.

Moreover, Ambedkar's contribution in Indian environmental field stands in greater position as he did establish the key government institutes like Central Water Commission¹⁴ (CWC), development of irrigation waterway policies, and River Valley projects. The institutes studied by Guha in his scholarship has certainly not incorporated the noteworthy organisations founded by the father of Indian Constitution – Babasaheb Ambedkar. The negligence of scholars towards such historical figure is not simply act of ignoring an individual history but the ignorance of the history of environment itself which is moreover a collective anti-caste history.

What then Ambedkarite Environmentalism can offer us to learn about the Nature in India? The historically been subjugated – a Dalit community have spent more time than upper castes in toiling the agricultural fields, constructing the labor for food production and working in the industries – make their major share of blood and sweat by living with Nature. The economical structure of country shouldered on the relationship of Dalits and Nature has to be accounted and revisited of how Ambedkar did. One has to take a stand of what Ambedkar stood for fighting the caste oppression which were interwoven culturally and politically. Ambedkar's radical approach of handling caste in the Mahad agitation in colonial period of 1927 sets the datum line for Indian Environmentalists to re-look the relationship of Caste and Water. After careful examination and reading – he collectively burnt the Manusmriti – a heinous Hindu scripture which degrades the human society as nature. The fight for water in Mahad agitation under the leadership of Ambedkar is considered as a historical movement for Dalits to secure their water rights with all human dignity and self-respect. Therefore, the ideologies will have to destroy the authority of Shastras and Vedas to deconstruct the dominated understanding of Nature and build the new way forward to reimagine the environment as a whole rather than apart.

Conclusion

Re-Imagining the Pedagogy of Nature in Indian Environmentalism

The power of knowledge bestows human beings in the capability to make sharp decisions in any society struggling with crisis of human development. As this essay has presented the complex interconnection of 'Caste and Nature' – where understanding of Nature in Indian caste society has been a home of Brahminical hegemony. Dominant understanding of Nature among Indian environmentalists has not achieved the actual meaning of Nature excluding the 'Caste' element from their volumes of environmental studies. On the other side – the 'Caste' has framed explicitly in the environmental dictionary of Ambedkar to oppose it with anti-caste collective forces. Nonetheless – the ideologies behind producing the knowledge of Nature either have collapsed on the colonial system or found their shelter under Brahminical roof where knowledge which is inculcated in the mind of general people received dominating understanding of Nature from the side of Hinduism. Hence – to deconstruct the existing knowledge and practices new knowledge with ideologies like Ambedkar has to be originated and disseminate it from bottom to up in the social hierarchical order of caste system. It would be wise to recall the thoughts of Jotiba Phule given below:

"Without knowledge, wisdom was lost; without wisdom morals were lost; without morals development was lost; without development wealth was lost; without wealth Shudras are ruined; all these disasters are due to lack of knowledge"

The environmental discourse has to be also challenged consistently on the fronts of disciplinary studies like Aiyadurai¹⁵ as she recommends 'Environmental Humanities as a way forward' to deconstruct the Brahiminical knowledge system and refurbish the very meaning of 'Nature'.

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