A Talk with Sugathakumari Teacher
Sasikala.A.S
26-05-2010
With prior permission from Sugathakumari teacher I visited her office “Abhaya” on 26th may 2009 with my friend S. Devavrathan who has a keen interest in the environmental Issues . Our aim was to understand the ecofeminist aspects of Silent valley movement in which she was an active participant. In the midst of her busy schedule she gave us one hour to discuss about the movement and to clarify our doubts.
While discussing about the nature -women connection, she told that this is the same stuff they are talking for the last thirty years. In a male centred society women and nature are exploited in the same way. She added that she is pessimistic about the nature of the world, because there is not a ray of hope to overcome these problems. We consider the women and nature as “mother” and “power” and at the same time we exploit them too. She cited the plight of those girls who are forcibly entered in to prostitution. The development in the field of tourism also brought considerable damage to the nature and the women.
Sugathakumari teacher considers the Silent Valley movement as a deep ecology movement. Like John Seed, famous rain forest activist, she argues that it is our right to preserve the forest because by preserving the forest we preserve ourselves. She state that her actions were influenced by Gandhi, but sure that Gandhi has no influence on the present generation. Money and power make the world today. Gandhi is only in the currency or in the photographs. It is a painful thing that modern youth is going away from him and his ideologies. Sunderlal Bahuguna’s life is an example of the failure of Gandhian ideology. She reminds that Bahuguna witnessed his village drown in to the Tehri dam.
Modern Science and Technogy is the catalyst of the environmental destruction. It creates a youth having no emotions and compassion. I remembered the quotes by Sunderlal Bahuguna that “modern technology creates man with big head feeble hands and of no heart”. As a poet she is aware that the role of literature is also low; because there are only a few people have interest in it.
Teacher said those earlier days, religion was linked with spirituality which had a close relation with the nature, but today the definition of religion also changed. Spirituality is taken away from the religion and the competition takes the place. Gandhi considered this as a sin. This competitive mentality of the religions makes the people more aggressive and intolerant to other religions and fellow beings.
Out of my curiosity I asked Teacher whether she think silent valley is safe. The answer was “No”. She cited the example of Plachimada. The court ordered to close the coco cola plant, but the administrators now want to bring back the industrial giants in the name of development. It might be possible in future to take a decision to destroy the entire forest for the so called development. She is also worried about the government’s decision to build proposed 24-km four-lane road, which will lead to serious environmental consequences in the area.
She is also accepting the vegetarianism as an important factor in environmentalism. It is a way to live in harmony with nature and accepting the individuality (may be intrinsic value) of the animals.
NB: This is only a brief summary of the talk.
