Criticisms of western civilization are commonplace today, but Gandhi was a critic long before others. That was what made him the forerunner of the environmentalist and ecological movements of modern times. Those concerns and the words themselves came into currency much later. In the late 19th century, and in the early years of the 20th century, the general climate of opinion in the world at large was that of a belief in ‘progress’ and the conquest of nature through Science and Technology. Those ways of thinking had come into India through colonial rule, and there was a general belief that the future of India lay in discarding tradition (regarded as obscurantism and superstition), marching towards modernity through western education, embracing science and technology, and emulating western progress. Most eminent Indians of the time took that proposition for granted as self-evident. In that ambience, it was an astonishing performance for anyone to reject that current wisdom, to question the colonial imposition of western civilization on India, to subject that ‘civilization’ itself to fundamental criticism, and to undertake a rediscovery of the lost Indian ways of thinking and living.

-- Ramaswamy R. Iyer on Gandhi and Ecology

Address at Mathrubhumi Publications Function at Palakkad on 13 July 2010

(click here for slides and text of sharing session by Walter Mendoza)

Coordinator for Knowledge In Civil Society (KICS)

KICS is looking for a Coordinator, to be based in Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh. The successful candidate would hold a good Master’s degree and possess aptitude to work with civil society organizations and their networks, for sourcing their knowledge and to set agenda for their future work.  Facilitating skills are essential apart from in-depth knowledge in a specific development sector.  Documentation and computer skills and ability to get work done by the KICS team and KICS partners, as also advocacy skills are important in the Coordinator, who would be guided by a core group of KICS Advisors.