Paschima Ghatta Reksha Yathra – To save Western Ghats and Kerala Farmers. by Prof.Gopalakrishna Panicker (Kris)
Read the Malayalam version in
1)പശ്ചിമ ഘട്ട രക്ഷായാത്രയും , പരിസ്ഥിതി രാഷ്ട്രീയത്തിന്റെ ദാർശനിക മാനങ്ങളും
2)പശ്ചിമഘട്ട രക്ഷായാത്രയും, സംഘാടനത്തിൽ വേണ്ട തിരുത്തലുകളും!.
3)വല്ലാർ പാടവും പിന്നെ വിഴിഞ്ഞവും വികസനം അല്ല വിനാശമാണ് !
Also read
4) Why I oppose Vizhinjam Port —- Prof.Gopalakrishna Panicker
5)ഹിന്ദു -ഫാസിസവും ജാതി വ്യവസ്ഥയും
- ‘Paschima Ghatta Reksha Yathra’ (PGRY) is an initiative to Save The Western Ghats , kerala climate and farmers!. Started from ‘Vellarikkunde’ near Kerala- Karnataka border on 16/08/2017. Taking nearly 47 days, excluding the Onam Holidays and Gandhi Jayanthi on October 2nd. Reached 137 centres; spread over, all the 14 districts of Kerala, where people’s resistances are in progress. Average four meetings per day; Interacting with nearly 200 people in every meetings!; Total of 200X 4X 47 = 37600 and thousands of others watching us through social media; including you !; Reading this blog!. The concluding session was on October 17th 2017 . Yathra was inaugurated by respected Prafulla Samantara, He was again with us in Trivandrum spending two memorable days!. Our first demand, is ‘implement Prof.Gadgil Commitee Report.
2.We have prepared good number of booklets and articles in Malayalam. Praesidium consists of five state committee members of Paschima Ghatta Samrakshana Ekopana Samithi [PGSES], was entrusted with the job of leading the ‘ ‘Paschima Ghatta Reksha Yathra’. Consensus regarding the meeting arrangements were that PGRY team members, should take only ten to fifteen minutes for addressing the public, briefly describing our mission and vision. Maximum time should be spent in interacting with the leaders of various movements. An introduction and concluding reply by two leaders, in rotation, while others discussing the organisational matters, required SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats)of problems of the movement, required piece meal social engineering with the leaders, preferably over a cup of tea!. In between there can be the street play, music performance by the team lead by Thankachan Karumadi, the presentations by local organisers, describing their problems, relevant questions, challenges, hopes, strengths and weakness. Naturally it was compromised very many times!; the infantile disorders as expected!.
3 This blog is intended to give a deeper epistemological foundation of our Mission and Vision . The English version, with much more details; having it’s continuity with my previous blogs in Malayalam includes detailed analysis with references, contains the essence of feedbacks from hundreds of discussions carried out. We are happy to get strong criticism from the academics and the wise, from diverse disciplines. It is the only way we can make ourself better!
4. Always in History, there were series of continuities and brakes, with unpredictable interludes in between! Realizing the continuity with the ‘Indian renaissance movement’ , during the first few decades of the last century, lead by Great Ayyankali, Sreenarayana Guru ,Dr.B.R Ambadker, Periyor Ramaswami and good many green movements like ‘Save Western Ghats Rally in 1984, Silent valley movement, ‘Paschimagatta samvada yathra’ in 2014 etc.
5.We have organised ‘PGRY’ with some qualitative changes in structure, presentation, strategy and paradigm, reading the ‘text relevant to the context’. Respecting great leaders advocating liberal democracy; Contextualizing their difference; enable us to espouse pluralism in strength and style.
6 The most important single slogan, we uphold is; ‘Impliment Prof.Madha Gadgil committe Report’ as it brilliantly stress the need for decentralisation, democratic principles and concept of ‘Swaraj’. Empowering the local people to have their say in protecting the environment, diversity and harmony among different species and even within each species including the human race and even between individuals with logical sufficiency and moral responsibility.
7. Other liberal democratic socio-political demands like secularism, farmers issue, land for the landless farmers, protection of natural habitat of the marginalised people like Adivasi, Dalits and fisher folks, almost like the demand for protecting the endangered species, got woven in to the very fabric of our foundational principles.
8.As we are entering to the next phase of our ‘historic mission’, it is worth to do some ‘Introspection, consolidation of gains in terms of it’s effect on social thinking, synergy, enthusiasm and hopes created among the leaders and cadres of different movements in different stages of progress and do the required corrections in strategy, method and Paradigm!
9 We have given priority in visiting centres were people’s resistance against Land Mafia and Mining Mafia are taking shape, where marginalised farmers are facing expulsion from their ancestral abode . Now watch few vedios and photos from the Yathra ->
10. Kite above in the picture below seems to be a symbol , trying to snatch some body , will it succeed? . Answer seems to be Yes ! and it snatched at-least one(or more)! to the opposite camp! supporting Vizhinjam Project.
11 .Respecting decentralisation and pluralism. PGRY is suppose to be lead by a ‘Praesidium’ and in search of more competent leaders from every districts!. Inviting them with due respect to the leadership!. As we know from experience that a single unquestionable leader is prone, to get corrupted , compromised! or even get assassinated!(If the words, deeds and thoughts of the leader is in, harmony with the foundational principles of the organization!) .
12.We have joined hundreds of genuine democratic movements against corruption, the unholy nexus of ruling and opposition parties in Centre and States orchestrated by crony capitalists and Mafia!. In fact these are the common denominators against which the aggrieved common people are fighting. There were systematic attempts from the ruling echelons of power during different régimes to subvert Prof. Gadgil’s report, Rajamanikyam report and sincere attempts made by former environment minister, Jayaram Remesh. Let us see whether alternatives are possible!. For that purpose, one has to go to the root of the problem by learning its Chemistry, Dynamics and Evolution.
13.According to genetic and fossil evidences, Homo sapiens evolved in to anatomically modern humans solely in Africa, between 200,000 and 210,000 years ago, for almost the whole of human history, before the neolithic revolution nearly 10,000 years ago, our ancestors lived as Hunter gatherers . We know that there are still tribes in deep Amazon forests, Africa, Andaman etc. where respectful tribes are living happily in ‘Hunter gatherer stage’. Just listen to the world views of 100 individuals in your own locality, or study the postings and response of all your social media friends!. They espouse different philosophies or world views emerged during the hunter gather stage to the present!; With all those tribal taboos, superstitions, mindset of savagery, animal instincts and few with civility and openness that we are advocating now!. The proud ‘Bush men’ is an iconic example; The Bushmen are the indigenous peoples of southern Africa. Largely hunter-gatherers, their territory spans several ‘NATIONS’!. They have called the region home for tens of thousands of years. The tribes are well-known for the profound connection they have with their land, for their intimate knowledge of the natural world, and the delicate balance they have maintained for millennia with the environment. Unfortunately we can’t undo history and it never repeats!. Mankind has lived by hunting (or fishing) and gathering edible items and scavenging!. Our ancestors, the hunter-gatherers, lived naturally.
14. After the Neolithic Revolution, especially the practice of monoculture; cultivating a single crop in large areas, has done some damage to the harmony and diversity of nature, but was not at all significant then, and our ancestors learned to live with that and always migrated to new places!.
15.The Industrial Revolution with new manufacturing processes in the period from about 1760 to 1840. Gradually brought new economic order, echelons of power , socio -political super structures; Modern mutations of tribal taboos with notions of state nations, linguistic, communal ,caste, and ethnic divisions with help of media to promote business interest. The damage become severe . We are facing now the ‘ecological catastrophe under the effective explosions of industrial civilization’. Just imagine, how with out the help of large scale transportations and communication systems, such big ‘sate-nations’ would be possible?.
16. Almost all available ancient scriptures, have expressed worship of nature!. Saint Francis of Assisi considered all creations – animals, plants, natural forces, Sun, Moon as our brothers and sisters. ‘Pantheism’ evolved as a belief that ‘Nature is God’. Some schools of Pantheists do not even believe in an anthropomorphic God. Three celebrated attributes, Omniscience,Omnipresence and Omnipotence as per monotheistic religion are fitting very well to nature the Supreme!. Pantheism holds broad ranges of doctrines, popularized in western culture, as a Theology, Philosophy or Theosophy based on the work of the 17th-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza, (Ref:His book Ethics published in 1677). Romanticism was the literary counterpart of the same .
17.In “Tintern Abbey” Wordsworth’s expresses his pantheistic views :
…..Of something far more deeply inter fused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man….
18. Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind” and “Mount Blanc” , the Second generation of romantic poets- John Keats,Lord Byron etc, in English and in good many other languages and cultures succeeding or preceding the tradition of romantic aesthetics.
19.Later ‘Elegies on Mother Earth and Nature’ appeared, world wide. In my own language ‘Malayalam’, good number of such poems were widely read and appreciated . During our ‘Reksha Yathra’ (PGRY) itself, poems of great O.N.V Kurup and Injakkadu Balachandran were recited, repeatedly and quoted in public speeches.
20. While appreciating the emotional content, intellectual honesty, effectiveness and poetic sensibility, just like any other form of art or literature, we can’t refrain from pointing out that ,”It is not sufficient even though necessary”. We also need rational and logical arguments to build the socio-political alternative to protect diversity and harmony of nature and humanity. It needs deeper frames of Natural Science, Social Sciences, Knowledge and Epistemology available during every epoch with the required prudence!. Data–>Information–>Knowledge–>Wisdom, is the trajectory to become wise, in due course to arrive at meaning full problem solving end, to give the best results at least partially in every epoch, providing matured and ‘civilised’ better world view!.
21.In that frame, great contribution from Chief of Seattle with his two letters addressed to the President of the United States, Mr Franklin Pierce, in1852 is remarkable and Inspiring!. It has the required emotional content, deep agony against the threat of getting displaced from their habitat!; and logical sufficiency and continues to inspire generations to come.
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22.Few Quotes from Chief Seattle/
“The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. But how can you buy or sell the sky? The land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you sell them? Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every humming insect. All are holy in the memory and experience of my people……..
We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters. The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the juices in the meadow, the body heat of a pony, and man, all belong to the same family…..
This we know: The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself…..
When the last red man has vanished with his wilderness and his memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, will these shores and forests still be here? Will there be any of the spirit of my people left?….
…We love this earth as a newborn loves its mother’s heartbeat. So if we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it. ….
As we are a part of the land, you too are part of the land. This earth is precious to us. It is also precious to you. One thing we know: There is only one God. No man, be Red Man or White Man, can be apart. We are all brothers.”
23.”Native American isn’t blood. It is what is in the heart. The love for the land, the respect for it, those who inhabit it, and the respect and acknowledgement of the spirits and elders. That is what it is to be Indian.”…
“We are all one Tribe, the Human Tribe… ” “Yonder sky that has wept tears of compassion upon my people for centuries untold, and which to us appears changeless and eternal, may change. Today is fair, tomorrow it may be overcast with clouds. My words are like the stars that never change. …..White Men, these shores will swarm with the invisible dead of my tribe, and when your children’s children think themselves alone in the field, the store, the shop, upon the highway, or in the silence of the pathless woods, they will not be alone. In all the earth there is no place dedicated to solitude. At night when the streets of your cities and villages are silent and you think them deserted, they will throng with the returning hosts that once filled them and still love this beautiful land. The White Man will never be alone.
Let him be just, and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not powerless. Dead, did I say? There is no death, only a change of worlds.”
/End quotes. Read the full text of Chief Seattle’s letter…>
http://www.ascensionnow.co.uk/chief-seattles-letter-to-the-american-president-1852.html
24 .Next phase of systematic and scientific approach came from Rachel Louise Carson, an American marine biologist, author, and conservationist whose book ‘Silent Spring’ and other writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement.
As an aquatic biologist and nature writer in the 1950s. ‘The Sea Around Us’ won her a U.S. National Book Award, The Edge of the Sea, and the reissued version of her first book, Under the Sea Wind, This sea trilogy explores the whole of ocean life from the shores to the depths.
Late in the 1950s, Carson turned her attention to conservation, especially some problems that she believed were caused by synthetic pesticides. The result was the book Silent Spring (1962), which brought environmental concerns to an unprecedented share!. and appreciation . Although Silent Spring was met with fierce opposition by chemical companies, it spurred a reversal in national pesticide policy, which led to a nationwide ban on DDT and other pesticides. It also inspired a grass-root environmental movement world wide. Carson was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom
..Image (below) — Rachel Louise Carson (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964)
25.Another remarkable attempt to protect environment with logical sufficiency, passion and wisdom came from Swamy Nithychaithanya Yathi , disciple of Sri Narayayana Guru, a stalwart of ‘Kerala renaissance movement’. He has raised voice against the ‘Quarry mining ‘ way back in 1975!. We have visited his native place, Kalanjoor in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala. Ironically the whole area is a hell now with hundreds of quarries!. A former minister of Kerala is said to be the owner of those quarries.
Swamy Nithychaithanya Yathi->
26 Greatest contribution and sincere effort later came from Pope Francis. His second encyclical ‘Laudato si’ (“Praise be to you”) with a sub title “On Care For Our Common Home”. Is the ‘ Magna Carta’ to Lovers of nature and Humanity. The Pope criticises consumerism and irresponsible development, laments environmental degradation and global warming, and calls all people of the world to take “swift and unified global action”.The encyclical, dated 24 May 2015, published on 18 June 2015 accompanied by a news conference. The Vatican released the document in Italian, German, English, Spanish, French, Polish, Portuguese and Arabic alongside the original Latin.
Please read Laudatosi at –>https://laudatosi.com/watch
27.In spite of all these honest, logical and humanitarian attempts, why the authorities are still carrying on with this unethical, suicidal attempts to destroy our home , great habitat of billions of wonderful specious .
To understand this curious fact, we have to turn back the pages of History, Even though ‘our civilization is still in its infancy’ (Ref; Karl Popper) , We have learned much, Let us forget the dark pages of savagery, tribal wars, cannibalism, slavery , caste-ism and very many primitive taboos of which we are ashamed off (some variations of this, still continues, sadly in different parts of the world including in our own country ). Our Democracy from the very early period of Pericles (B.C. 495 – 429 BC) itself has survived with much compromises and infantile disorders. Dirty tricks advocated by Machiavelli (Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli; His book ‘ The Prince’ published in 1513, Chanakya of India (4th century BCE, Also known as Kauṭilya or Vishnugupta, with his ‘text’, Artha Shastra,) are getting operated with much propensity, sometimes with few mutations!.
28. The modern version of Machiavellian politics with unholy nexus of political parties ,industrialists , pseudo intellectuals ,orchestrated by crony capitalists, started after the World War II. Billions of dollars were spent to make the ‘Little Boy and Fat -man’ the Atom bombs, that changed the course of History. Best brains available, from Science, Technology, Industry, Politics , Bureaucracy and Military joined ‘the Manhattan project ‘ to finish the enemy; to discover the most effective way to do the mass killing within minutes!. But after the tragic disaster, the world consciousness, got shocked like anything!. There was tremendous pressure, even from the inner consciousness of individuals involved!. To decommission the multi billion infrastructures which produced the ‘Greatest Killer’ which made a ‘hell on earth’as reported by leading media, world-wide. But after producing just two prototypes, how can they afford to decommission the mega project! (The impossibility of decommissioning, an atomic power plant is not known at that time !). What type of business model it would be? ; A new nexus of ‘ Big pillars of the society’ with media and ‘opinion makes’ emerged!. 21st Millennium counter part of the same is the ‘Post Truth’!. Nuclear power plants appeared word wide with a pretext of producing electricity!. Using the hell of heat generated while Uranium 235 is undergoing chain reaction and few neutrons among the three each from every U235, during fission ,is captured by some U236, available nearby, some of the neutrons escape through the surface, this is the reason for ‘critical mass of U235 to trigger chain reaction! (Enriched Uranium contains nearly 17% of U235 and the rest U236), on absorbing neutrons U236 eventually get converted to fissionable Plutonium!(Pu239 has a higher probability for fission than U-235 and a larger number of neutrons produced per fission event, so it has a smaller ‘Critical Mass’). Pure Pu-239 also has a reasonably low rate of neutron emission due to spontaneous fission(10 fission/s-kg), making it feasible to assemble a mass that is highly supercritical before a detonation ‘Chain reaction’begins; Pu-239 is the stuff behind the modern Atom Bombs !. Enrichment of Uranium process become the job of Nuclear power reactor!; Atomic power plant to produce electric power is a lie ! using the huge amount of heat in the form of radiation and K.E of moving particles is used to produce steam and then electricity is just a by-product! And the advertisement of this invention is for getting public sanction to carry on with the sinister design of the greatest evil technology, ever produced! The huge expenses, disastrous environmental destruction, pollution and the impossibility of decommissioning the plant even after thousands of years are classified secrets kept under the carpet! It is the present day model of the so called ‘Development’. The Narmada, Koodamkulam , Vizhinjam are all living examples of this conspiracy against Nature and all living organisms!.
29.Every ‘Thesis’ gradually gives propensity to its ‘Antithesis’! Thanks to Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770 -1831). I am dropping the Synthesis part! As it would just be another ‘Thesis’ relevant to the next phase of Continuities and Brakes! Anti-Thesis of this ‘Post Truth’ is ‘ Demand for transparency’ decentralisation and the ‘Right to information’ ! ‘Laudato si’ and ‘The Nobel Peace Prize 2017 declaration’ are the silver lines in that right direction towards progress of Human Civilization!.
30.Thanks to Papa! (Pope Francis ) and his encyclical ‘Laudato si’ ,in moulding the the social thinking to counter the ‘Post Truth conspiracy’ . The Nobel Peace Prize 2017 was rightly awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)“for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons”, is an indication of change in social thinking! . Thank you Pappa! . Let me quote few wise words from His historical ‘Laudato si’
quote /
……“ecological catastrophe under the effective explosion of industrial civilization”,..…..Saint John Paul II became increasingly concerned about this issue. In his first Encyclical he warned that human beings frequently seems “to see no other meaning in their natural environment than what serves for immediate use and consumption”. Subsequently, he would call for a global ecological conversion…. Outside the Catholic Church, other Churches and Christian communities – and other religions as well – have expressed deep concern and offered valuable reflections on issues which all of us find disturbing. To give just one striking example, I would mention the statements made by the beloved Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, with whom we share the hope of full ecclesiastic communion. Patriarch Bartholomew has drawn attention to the ethical and spiritual roots of environmental problems, which require that we look for solutions not only in technology but in a change of humanity; otherwise we would be dealing merely with symptoms. He asks us to replace consumption with sacrifice, greed with generosity, wastefulness with a spirit of sharing, an asceticism which “entails learning to give, and not simply to give up. It is a way of loving, of moving gradually away from what I want to what God’s world needs. It is liberation from fear, greed and compulsion”…….More than fifty years ago, with the world teetering on the brink of nuclear crisis, Pope Saint John X XIII wrote an Encyclical which not only rejected war but offered a proposal for peace. He addressed his message Pacem in Terris to the entire “Catholic world” and indeed “to all men and women of good will”. Now, faced as we are with global environmental deterioration, I wish to address every person living on this planet. In my Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, I wrote to all the members of the Church with the aim of encouraging ongoing missionary renewal. In this Encyclical, I would like to enter into dialogue with all people about our common home…..he also pointed out that this should not lead to “indiscriminate genetic manipulation”…….
(Encyclical paragraph 47- reads ) ….Furthermore, when media and the digital world become omnipresent, their influence can stop people from learning how to live wisely, to think deep going unheard amid the noise and distractions of an information overload………Efforts need to be made to help these media become sources of new cultural progress for humanity and not a threat to our deepest riches. True wisdom, as the fruit of self-examination, dialogue and generous encounter between persons, is not acquired by a mere accumulation of data which eventually leads to overload and confusion, a sort of mental pollution. /unquote
31. Thank you! Papa!. Yes!. We know the glorified extravaganza of ‘Post truth’ . It is an oxymoron – opposite to the meaning of truth we learned . “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”‘-John 8:32- Kings James Bible version. As they are interested in keeping us in chain of lies and they need ‘untruth ‘ and its ornamented version!. The ‘post truth’. The truth about this conspiracy will be exposed in due course of History as we know “Conspirators rarely consummate their conspiracy.” (Ref; Karl Popper in Open society and its Enemies-Page 307). Since number of stakeholders with antagonistic interests are usually involved in such conspiracies!. Science and technology are not that much neutral; from the beginning to the end of the process; Only logical consolation ,we can have is that our ‘civilization is still in its infancy’ – hope to become better rational and open as it get matured. Up to that it is our moral responsibility to have faith in our democratic pursuits – Encourage democratic movements ,respecting rule of law. Otherwise total anarchy will spoil our dreams!. So our moral responsibility (Just like the dictum of “Legal positivism is our moral responsibility”-Immanual Kant ) is to oppose and expose , all mutations of terrorism including Fascism, Maoism , ISIS etc . We to do the required Social Engineering to enhance Knowledge and Wisdom .
Sir Karl Raimund Popper(28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994) 20th century’s greatest Philosopher of Science.
Immanuel Kant (22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) the central figure in modern philosophy argued that reason is the source of morality, the aesthetics arises from a faculty of disinterested judgement, space and time are forms of human sensibility, and that the world as it is “in-itself” is independent of man’s concepts of it. Kant took himself to have effected a “Copernican revolution” in philosophy, Has given a ‘paradigm shift ‘ in our understanding of metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political theory, and aesthetics.
32.Quoting Karl Popper from ‘Open society and its Enemies /
“….civilization which might be perhaps described as aiming at
humaneness and reasonableness, at equality and freedom; a
civilization which is still in its infancy, as it were, and which
continues to grow in spite of the fact that it has been so often
betrayed by so many of the intellectual leaders of mankind. It
attempts to show that this civilization has not yet fully recovered
from the shock of its birth—the transition from the tribal or ‘closed
society’, with its submission to magical forces, to the ‘open
society’ which sets free the critical powers of man. It attempts to show that the shock of this transition is one of the factors that have made possible the rise of those reactionary movements which have
tried, and still try, to overthrow civilization and to return to
tribalism. And it suggests that what we call nowadays
totalitarianism belongs to a tradition which is just as old or just as young as our civilization itself.”/
Unquote. [ Introduction to his ‘Magnum opus’ ‘The Open Society And Its Enemies Karl R. Popper -1962]
33.H.G. Wells in ‘The Outline of History: Prehistory to the Roman Republic’ Page 326 reads –>
quote /
“The last twenty-three centuries of history are like the efforts of some impulsive, hasty immortal to think clearly and live rightly. Blunder follows blunder; promising beginnings end in grotesque disappointments; streams of living water are poisoned by the cup that conveys them to the thirsty lips of mankind. But the hope of men rises again at last after every disaster”/unquote .
Alexis de Tocqueville who wrote in mid 1800 ,about the French Revolution ,”Began with a push towards decentralization…[but became,]in the end, an extension of centralization.” It seems to be true in the whole ‘HiStory’!.
/Unquote
34. The ‘PGRY ’ was inaugurated by Social activist Adv.Prafulla Samantra, the winner of prestigious, Goldman Environmental Prize, for his “…Historic 12-year legal battle that affirmed the indigenous Dongria Kondh’s land rights and protected the Niyamgiri Hills from a massive, open-pit aluminium ore mine.”. Sri. Prafulla Samantara has also given the keynote address on 15/10/2015, at Trivandrum. Next picture is that of respected Prof.Madhave Gadgil.
35. In this ‘Post truth Era’ organising movements respecting pluralism, decentralisation and inclusiveness is not an easy task we know!. We are also facing dichotomy as the natural reflection of extreme diversity and socio- political ,religious and caste undercurrents with tribal taboos , Fascists and totalitarian bad tricks . ‘Our civilization is still in its infancy’ -(ibid ) is the only consolation and optimistic tint , but trying to convert our weakness as challenge and our disadvantage in to advantage. It seems to be productive , would be happy to get strong criticisms as it is the only way to get ourself corrected, which again recognises the fact that our ignorance is infinite and our knowledge is finite- the basic paradigm underlining pluralism and inclusiveness .
36.We have visited hundreds of places where people’s resistance to protect their fertile land is in progress !. Also interacted effectively with ‘Endosulfan ‘ victims in Kasergode district and their leader Ambalatthara Kunjikrishnan and Plachimada movement leader ‘Mr. Vilayodi Venugopal accompanied us in two districts and were actively with us during the closing days of our Yathra as well . We were much interested in joining Kisan Mukthi Yathra Lead by Prof Yogendra Yadav ,at Thrissur , but due to time and other constrains, it has not happened!. But on 21st September 2017 few of us including Mr. Vilayodi Venugopal have reached the Kerala- Tamil Nadu boarder to receive the ‘Kisan Mukthi Yathra’and returned to Cochin to join back the Paschimagatta Reksha Yathra .
This is my photo doing ‘Jalasanam’ (floating freely on deep water) in a lake near Madayippara, Kasergode ,Keralam, South India—>
Kris -(Prof. Gopalakrishna Panicker), author of the blog doing ‘jalasanam’ (floating freely on deep water) in a lake in Madayippara ,in Kasergod the northern most district of Keralam, my native state in India. It is important to me, as I used to practice the same for years but I can’t do it anywhere now in the river Manimala or Pampa – and the four rivers flowing through my native place Kuttanadu – nearly 2 meters below the sea level is now the dumping yard of rubbish, pesticides , human excreta running down from the entire breadth of my state Kerala . I used to watch these rivers from its banks , with tears running down!. I have born and brought up near these two rivers, now it has got polluted like anything and I can’t practice the same there, and has not done this for the last five years!. Earlier I use to do this for hours in Manimala river at Neerattupurem in ‘Kuttanadu’, Alleppy district where I have lived for nearly 50 years!. Now in Changanacherry, Kottayam district and I can’t swim in in nearby polluted rivers now a days! Watch the video taken and edited by Reveendran Master from Kasergod.
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