On India

I was blessed with an inspiring little brother named Lawrence. For the past few months, Lawrence has been living under the shadow of the Taj Mahal in Agra, India working for USAID (http://www.usaid.gov) while teaching English at a local elementary school, blogging about his experiences with the local cuisine, becoming best and lifelong friends everyone he meets (he has that kind of personality,) and working on a photography project in his spare time. His photography project involved asking his new, best, and lifelong friends to show him their favorite place in their neighborhoods. He then photographs them at those places. He says that more often than not people lead him back to their homes and their families.

"Amma" and Grandchildren

Amman and Buffalo

Lawrence's photographs, Killingsworth and Palmer's Ecospeak, and Leopold's A Sand County Almanac are all abuzz in my head. On Leopold, Killingsworth and Palmer write,

"...those who cherish the land most deeply are those who work with its resources directly and daily. Both work and contemplation are characteristically human activities, Leopold argues: 'Wilderness is the raw material out of which man has hammered the artifact called civilization... To the laborer in the sweat of his labor, the raw stuff of his anvil is an adversary to be conquered. So was wilderness an adversary to the pioneer. But to the laborer in repose, able for the moment to cast a philosophical eye on the world, the same raw stuff is something to be loved and cherished, because it gives definition and meaning to life’ (264-65). Leopold uses this characterization as an ethical appeal. […] When the developmentalists, one day hence, rest from work, they will mourn the lost wilderness..." (58-59.)

India is in the midst of its urbanization and industrialization. India is the “developmentalist” Killingsworth and Palmer reference. India represents 15% of the world's population but the country only occupies 2.4% of world's total area. So many people in such limited space strain the nation's natural resources. Land degradation, depleted resources, air and water pollution, and lack of proper sanitation (this is actually what Lawrence studies) are major environmental issues plaguing India. Learning that more than half of the population depends on agriculture for its livelihood and yet 700 million Indians live on $2 per day or less, I doubt it’s the case as Killingsworth and Palmer assert that “those who cherish (in the Western sense of the word) the land most deeply are those who work it its resources directly and daily.” I think land in India is valued for its usefulness alone. Land is a tool. Amman undoubtedly lead my brother to his family’s buffalo not because it is his pet but because the buffalo provides milk and an income to Amman and his family. If you are living from hand to mouth on $2 or less per day you don’t have the privilege of being a “laborer in repose, able for a moment to case a philosophical eye on the world” and mourn the loss of wilderness. Our Western understanding of sustainability wouldn’t be a pressing issue if you have a large family to feed and shelter.

Cited

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3454.htm