This blog post might give the impression of a déjà vu as I wrote on the subject before also.
Never did I realise that a lecture on Disaster Management can be so interesting and rewarding. When a friend of mine asked me to join him in the lecture at Academic Staff College, Gauhati University, which was to be delivered by an Assam Civil Service officer from NDMA Mrs Nandita Hazarika, willy-nilly I agreed to come as I was expecting a slide show of facts and statistics from a somnolent civil servant. But to my utter surprise , it turned out to be a lecture that enriched my perception
manifold about the subject. Besides the lecture was organised at the most opportune time as India’s biggest natural disaster has badly mangled our collective unconscious. The lecture was basically about how we can mitigate the impact of a disaster (both natural and man-made)with preparedness and planning . Here was an officer with considerable oomph and zeal who knows what job is cut out for her.
The lecture set my mind in motion as nature and environment are two important issues that occupy a sizable portion of my mindscape. I searched for the etymological root of the word ‘disaster’ and found that it is a word of Italian origin of 16th century. From Italian ‘disastro’-ill-starred event,from’dis’(expressing negation)+’astro’ meaning ‘star’(From Latin ‘astrum’.) ( Oxford Dictioary of English,Second Edition,Revised)
Being an ill-starred event, no nation can avoid natural disaster. But is there no element of human intervention in natural disaster?
To my mind all the natural disasters are nothing but an extension of age-old man versus nature conflict. Western literary productions have constructed a concept of nature which was subsequently put into practice in material culture. For instance the ideas of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke suggest that nature was valueless and should be treated as man’s private property. For them the ‘state of nature’ was a primitive one. Rousseau was an exception who believed that nature was ‘purest’.
During Industrial Revolution which was considered to be the beginning of ‘modernism’, Man’s relation with nature became more exploitative as progress and development came to be regarded as man’s control over nature and environment. With that man’s attempt to subjugate nature received momentum. It may be recalled that Francis Bacon who presided over the trials of witches used the same language( that he used in the trials) when it came to subjugating nature. ‘Hound her’, ‘bind her’…these were the exact words that he used with regard to nature. Since then man’s attempt to dominate nature with complete conquest has been continuing unabated.
But this is a litany as even school children are also being told that we are living in a world that is being lost to pollution, environmental degradation and so on and therefore Time magazine can start off an article stating ‘how everyone knows the planet is in bad shape’.( The Skeptical Environmentalist by Bjorn Lomborg).
There has hardly been any attempt –which is life-affirming-to effect a reconciliation between the human and non-human world. The relation has always been exploitative. As a result nature, at times ,hits back at us with all the fury .
All told, my first statement has to be qualified as Bhupen Hazarika long back showed us in his song as to what constitutes an ideal relation between man and nature or for that matter between human and non-human world in his song(which is purported to be sung by a farmer): O mur dhoritri aai /soronote diba thai(my translation)…( O’my mother earth I prostrate myself in thine feet….I am orphan…I plead, be my mother). All other nature songs (in Assamese) are nothing but a description of beautiful nature as the subject is enthralled and spell bound. Mark the lyrics of Bishnu Rabha’s( translations are mine) :’ bilote halise dhunia podume’ (lithe lotus move and bend gracefully in water)or Jyoti Prasad’s ‘Gose gose pati dile phulore xorai(all trees are in bloom) or Nirmolprabha Bordoloi’s:’phulore mela te pokhi e geet gai…( Birds sing in this flower fair). All these songs describe nature and says nothing about our relationship with her. Bhupen Hazarika’s aforementioned song has blazed the trail.
Let our relationship with nature be like what Bhupen Hazarika’s song outlines. This relationship is life-affirming and not exploitative.
Once we cultivate this relationship I am sure there will be no man-made disaster to deal with.
Never did I realise that a lecture on Disaster Management can be so interesting and rewarding. When a friend of mine asked me to join him in the lecture at Academic Staff College, Gauhati University, which was to be delivered by an Assam Civil Service officer from NDMA Mrs Nandita Hazarika, willy-nilly I agreed to come as I was expecting a slide show of facts and statistics from a somnolent civil servant. But to my utter surprise , it turned out to be a lecture that enriched my perception
manifold about the subject. Besides the lecture was organised at the most opportune time as India’s biggest natural disaster has badly mangled our collective unconscious. The lecture was basically about how we can mitigate the impact of a disaster (both natural and man-made)with preparedness and planning . Here was an officer with considerable oomph and zeal who knows what job is cut out for her.
The lecture set my mind in motion as nature and environment are two important issues that occupy a sizable portion of my mindscape. I searched for the etymological root of the word ‘disaster’ and found that it is a word of Italian origin of 16th century. From Italian ‘disastro’-ill-starred event,from’dis’(expressing negation)+’astro’ meaning ‘star’(From Latin ‘astrum’.) ( Oxford Dictioary of English,Second Edition,Revised)
Being an ill-starred event, no nation can avoid natural disaster. But is there no element of human intervention in natural disaster?
To my mind all the natural disasters are nothing but an extension of age-old man versus nature conflict. Western literary productions have constructed a concept of nature which was subsequently put into practice in material culture. For instance the ideas of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke suggest that nature was valueless and should be treated as man’s private property. For them the ‘state of nature’ was a primitive one. Rousseau was an exception who believed that nature was ‘purest’.
During Industrial Revolution which was considered to be the beginning of ‘modernism’, Man’s relation with nature became more exploitative as progress and development came to be regarded as man’s control over nature and environment. With that man’s attempt to subjugate nature received momentum. It may be recalled that Francis Bacon who presided over the trials of witches used the same language( that he used in the trials) when it came to subjugating nature. ‘Hound her’, ‘bind her’…these were the exact words that he used with regard to nature. Since then man’s attempt to dominate nature with complete conquest has been continuing unabated.
But this is a litany as even school children are also being told that we are living in a world that is being lost to pollution, environmental degradation and so on and therefore Time magazine can start off an article stating ‘how everyone knows the planet is in bad shape’.( The Skeptical Environmentalist by Bjorn Lomborg).
There has hardly been any attempt –which is life-affirming-to effect a reconciliation between the human and non-human world. The relation has always been exploitative. As a result nature, at times ,hits back at us with all the fury .
All told, my first statement has to be qualified as Bhupen Hazarika long back showed us in his song as to what constitutes an ideal relation between man and nature or for that matter between human and non-human world in his song(which is purported to be sung by a farmer): O mur dhoritri aai /soronote diba thai(my translation)…( O’my mother earth I prostrate myself in thine feet….I am orphan…I plead, be my mother). All other nature songs (in Assamese) are nothing but a description of beautiful nature as the subject is enthralled and spell bound. Mark the lyrics of Bishnu Rabha’s( translations are mine) :’ bilote halise dhunia podume’ (lithe lotus move and bend gracefully in water)or Jyoti Prasad’s ‘Gose gose pati dile phulore xorai(all trees are in bloom) or Nirmolprabha Bordoloi’s:’phulore mela te pokhi e geet gai…( Birds sing in this flower fair). All these songs describe nature and says nothing about our relationship with her. Bhupen Hazarika’s aforementioned song has blazed the trail.
Let our relationship with nature be like what Bhupen Hazarika’s song outlines. This relationship is life-affirming and not exploitative.
Once we cultivate this relationship I am sure there will be no man-made disaster to deal with.
