Adieu Heaney

Seamus Heaney, the internationally recognized as the greatest Irish poet since W.B. Yeats, left this mortal world on 30^th August 2013. Like Yeats, he won the Nobel Prize for literature and, like Yeats, his reputation and influence spread far beyond literary circles. He was a translator, broadcaster and prose writer of distinction, but his poetry was his most remarkable achievement, for its range, its consistent quality and its impact on readers: Love poems, epic poems, poems about memory and the past, poems about conflict and civil strife, poems about the natural world, poems addressed to friends, poems that found significance in the everyday or delighted in the possibilities of the English language.

It is true that in the work of any creative artist the influence of milieu can be felt because his sensibility is the outcome of the perceptions from his society. So, the society plays a pivotal role in the life of an artist. Central to the social life is the family. Family is the matrix where the influence on an artist’s life, soul and work are first. These observations are truer about Heaney than any other. Heaney was also conscious of the largeness of spirit passed on to him by his parents, and the richness of experience which found and sustained him. He was aware of this fact and acknowledged it in his poems by drawing heavily on the memories, associations and knowledge of the world he knew so well.  Born on 13 April, 1939 to Patrick Heaney and Margaret Cathleen McCann on a family farm in the rural heart of County Londonderry, he never forgot the world he came from. He recalled in ‘Personal Helicon’:

 As a child, they could not keep me from wells 
And old pumps with buckets and windlasses. 
I loved the dark drop, the trapped sky, the smells 
Of waterweed, fungus and dank moss. 

In year 1965, his first collection of poems Eleven Poems was published by Faber and Faber and many more successful ventures followed.  He won many prestigious awards: The Somerset Maughum Award for Death of a Naturalist in 1976, the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize in 1975, the W.H.Smith Award for North in 1976, the Whitbread Award for The Haw Lantern, the Sunday Times Award for excellence in writing in 1988 and the greatest of them all – the Noble Prize in 1995, "for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past", in the words of the Nobel citation. These awards and honours conferred upon him speak volumes about success and popularity as a poet.    

In his early collections, Heaney has written about country crafts thatching, butter-churning, and forging. There is a homely, unassuming and reassuring feel to the poetry. It is rooted in rural experience; it celebrates family traditions of silent rural toil and the sturdy strength and restrained speech of labourers and craftsmen. Many readers believe that these country poems are the best.

Heaney was most sensuous poet in English since Keats. His Keatsian sensuousness, his gift for creating the physical actuality of the external world, his trust in the magic of onomatopoeia and the force of simple visual imagery quickly won him many admirers. His readers noticed that the feel of thing comes vividly into his poems that they seem to be written in something thicker than language.

Heaney was a Roman Catholic- a community which was in minority in Ireland and which was considered inferior to the Protestants and English Cultures. The injustices towards Catholics and the politics of polarization exerted pressure on him and forced him to adopt a Catholic stance. Bound by the ‘stigma of heredity’, for a long time he kept faith with his community by imbibing their most characteristic quality- their speechlessness. But he found that their speechlessness is the root cause of their troubles, he threw off the gag of the place; he struggled for a long time to restrain his feelings of race and resentment. When he spoke he was branded by a Belfast newspaper, ‘a well known Papist Propagandist’. He defined himself as a Catholic writer, and wanted to stress the cultural rather than the religious load implicit in that term. He believed that the Catholics and the Protestants might one day learn to accept each other’s culture and tradition and acknowledge the rich diversity. He was right because, by slow degrees, the clash of two seemingly irreconcilable religious and cultural ideologies changed into a colonial struggle between the natives and the invaders. The invaders invaded not only their land but also their language.

           Heaney found the pre Christian mythic material which enabled him to confront and interpret the slaughter of innocence from a mythical and historical perspective and thus provided him with an aesthetic and to release the reader’s mind from the immediacy of experience so that he could restore a sense of the universality of human life. Had he been emotionally involved with his personal troubles he would have become a minor poet. But distancing himself, widening his themes, breaking into new modes and learning to trust his feelings, Heaney became the best poet since Yeats.

He does not endorse Auden’s view that ‘poetry makes nothing happen’, but he believes that ‘poetry is its own special action and that having its own mode of consciousness, its own mode of reality, has its own efficacy gradually’. Like Auden he thinks that poetry is not concerned with telling people what to do, but extending knowledge of good and evil and leaves it to them to make a rational choice.

In the creative career of six decades, he produced a plethora of works of extraordinary distinctiveness and distinction and became a poet rated highly by critics and academicians yet popular with the common readers. It was Heaney who brought revival of interest in the verse form of Anglo-Saxon poetry. His work had both a meditative lyricism and an airy velocity. His lines could embody a dark, marshy melancholy, but as often as not they also communicated the wild onrushing joy of being alive. Heaney will remain one of the most widely read poets in the world.

Vivekananda: The Seer Poet of “Most Spiritual Nation”

Vivekananda lectured on the Hindu mind and culture, religion and Vedanta, with all the learning of a university professor and artistry of a seasoned orator, the dignity of an archbishop and the grace and winsomeness of a free and natural child. That is why Professor J.H. Wright says, “Here is the man who is more learned than all our learned professors put together.” His poetic output, though limited, is yet the microcosm to the macrocosm of all the gorgeous volumes of his lectures.

In the moments of great ecstasy, he used to compose poems and hymns which rank with the creation of sublime poetic art. His poems present a splendid blend of immense poetic sensibility and spiritual profundity, intellectual balance and indefatigable energy, unselfconscious universal love and the authentic voice of a prophet. His sense of renunciation, devotion, quest, innate mystic effulgence, self realization, and the consequent philosophic offspring –­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ all are there converged in his poetry inseparably fused. His poems may appear diverse, but there is unity in the diversity: a profound sense of divinity runs latent, like a gold wire, through the scattered pearl like fine poems, binding them into the circular whole.

Vivekananda’s poems are a spontaneous sublimation of his inner working and there are ample clues in his poems exposing the graded development of the saint. Years of intimate association with Sri Ramakrishna, in the secluded exchange between Guru and disciple, cause spiritual growth and transformation in the young intellectual: ‘as from a chrysalis, Narinder Nath has emerged as Vivekananda’. He says:

I surrender myself to my Guru, the Man, the God,

 the physician of the melody of this Samsara …….         (A Hymn to Sri Ramkrishna)

He reveals himself as a staunch worshipper of Kali:

Mother Supreme! O may Thy gracious face

 Never be turned away from me, Thy child!

There at those blessed feet, I take refuge!    (A Hymn to the Divine Mother)

And in the bliss of apocalyptic vision he voices:

Who dare misery love,

And hug the form of Death,

Dance in Destruction’s dance 

To him the Mother comes.           (Kali, the Mother)

            Vivekananda has sung hymns in reverence and praise of Siva also. To him, it seems there is no difference among the three – Sri Ramakrishna, Kali, and Siva: they are three in one and one in three. He says that he has led a very hard life in the quest for perfection:

And how many days have I passed on alms!

 Friendless, clad in rags, with no possession,

 Feeding from door to door on what chance would bring,

The frame broken under Tapasya’s weight……..

            In the quest, “Superstitions” and “Misery” and “Sin”, the “Angels Unawares are the holy trio that propelled his spirit to understanding: “Love, Love,- that’s the one thing, the holy treasure”. Consequent on deep meditation, he reveals his self realization:

From dreams awake, from bonds be free!

Be not afraid, this mystery,

My shadow cannot frighten me!

            Know once for all that I am He!

The byproduct of this hard earned spiritual fulfillment is ‘universal love’ that manifests through the three sacred ‘Ss’: Sympathy, Service and Sacrifice. He finds: “every living temple shines Thy face”. So, he disapproves idol worship and passionately advises men to sympathize and to worship the living God:

 Ye fool! Who neglect the living God,

 And His infinite reflections with which the world is full,

 While ye run after imaginary shadows,

 That lead alone to fights and quarrels,

 Him worship, the only visible!

 Break all other idols!     (The Living God)

This principle of service to or worship of living God influenced Tagore. He too frequently expressed the idea in his own ingenious way. There is a song in Gitangali which scoffs at blind worship:

Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads.

Whom dost thou worship in this lonely corner of a temple with doors all shut?

Open thy eyes and see thy God is not before thee. ….

He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and where the path maker is breaking stones….

The theme of spirituality remains present in almost all his poems where the traits of mysticism and deep meditation can easily be glanced and his mysticism is perhaps the finest one of its own kind. Dr. Anupama Bansal observes: In Indian English poetry Swami Vivekananda, was the first poet who compose mystical poetry. His songs, hymns and poems are the artistic expression of his unfathomed spiritual urge.

He is an advocate of self realization like Swami Paramhansa Yogananda. According to him meditation is only remedy to dissolve the mist of illusion. It is none but God who is behind the ever changing phenomenon of the world which is nothing but a figment of creation. God is supreme reality in the world of unreality. This idea is revealed in his poem ‘Misunderstood’:

 This world of dream

 Though live it seem

 And only truth is He the living!

 This real me is none but He

 And  never never Mother changing. ……

India has always welcomed changes. Change is inevitable and is to be welcomed. But the modern day society should have the wisdom to know where to change and where not to change and move cautiously towards the rightful destination. He sings:

 Change not thy nature, gentle bloom,

 Thou violet, sweet and pure,

 But ever pour thy sweet perfume

 Unasked, unstinted, sure. …

Vivekananda was perhaps the first monk to openly welcome science. But to add that there has to be a synthesis of science and spirituality, ancient wisdom and modern efficiency. He wanted the modern youth to make use of the Vedic Vision of India to strengthen their moral fabric, acquire the right work culture and go through an internal adjustment to guard themselves against the onslaught of modern material culture.

 The word culture is derived from Latin word ‘cultura’ which means ‘to refine’ or ‘to cultivate’. That means civilization is skin–deep whereas culture is much deeper than that. People do mistake civilization for culture. Vivekananda, the great modern seer, tried to uphold culture and devoted his life to establish ancient Vedanta culture of India in the world.

Vivekananda gave the examples of the civilizations like Greek, Roman, etc. but when the civilizations invaded by less cultivated and barbaric hoards of Persia or Mongolia they fell. The civilizations were based on physical strength and power which were easily ruined by the better physicality and barbarism. India survived the attacks because its power lies in its spirituality and culture. Swami Vivekananda tried to demonstrate that it is culture that makes for lasting progress.

Indian culture is based upon Vedanta which believes in the divinity of man- the divine unity of all creation. This culture also advocates the fundamental harmony of all religions. The Vedas say, “Truth is one, sages call it by many names.” This very philosophy needs to be placed before the humanity and Vivekananda did it successfully. He believes that we may able to live like a world fraternity by following the philosophy of Vedanta. He feels that the greatest need of human at present is mutual love, compassion and co-operative action which alone can ensure lasting peace, well being and prosperity to all.

Vivekananda once said, “I have experienced God, I can show Him to you because I know the ‘method’ which can give the experience of the highest and subtlest truth.” This is true significance of Vedanta. It reveals the spiritual truths of the causes of man’s birth, sorrow, misery, evil, death and shows the remedy to go beyond all of them. It destroys all sorrows forever and brings in eternal bliss to the aspirant. It makes us realize that we are immortal, divine beings and not the body and mind in which we dwell temporarily and discard at the time of death.

   The poetic utterances of Vivekananda, our first cultural ambassador to the West, are fine fragments of philosophy; they appear like excerpt from the Vedas and Upanishads, and the Gita rendered in exquisite English. The poet in him finds ecstasy in his meditation and realization. Most of his longer poems are symbolic, with their ‘empyrean of pure connotation’, in their constitute - to borrow Yeats’ words - ‘transparent lamp about a spiritual flame’.

His poetry is also strikingly modern. Unpoetic and obtuse words like -‘blood’, ‘gun’, ‘smoke’, ‘battle’, ‘shell’, ‘atom’, ‘flesh’, ‘nothing’, ‘censure’, ‘’venom’, etc. recur and become astonishingly poetic in his rhythm. He has even painted a vived picture of a battlefield:     

The martial music bursts, the trumpets blow,

The ground shakes under the warriors’ tread;

The roar of connon, the rattle of guns,

Volumes of smoke, the gruesome battlefield, ….

Vivekananda’s tiny poetic output is thus enough to suggest his poetic genius. It gives an inkling of his evolution and the bliss of his “Spiritual Solitude” enshrined in a complex activity of his mission and selfless devotion to humanity. The tradition of expressing Hindu philosophy in English verse, thus started by Vivekananda as the harbinger of Renaissance in India, has gained momentum, effectively influenced Tagore and reached a climax in the works of Sri Aurobindo. 

The dazzling colour of devotional passion apart, there is an atmosphere of universality in the poetry of Vivekananda: to adopt Radhakrishnan’s praise of Tagore, ‘everyone – a Hindu or a Christian, a Mohammeden or a Jew or a Heathen- can find one’s own religion in most of the poems of Vivekananda. Not to exaggerate, his poetry as a whole is an interpretation of God’s way to men.

With its intensity and quality, the poems of Vivekananda indicate that had he courted the Muse, as his mission of life, he would have certainly emerged as one of the greatest poets of the world.

                                                 

   

                                                                                       

            

Book Review of Euphonies of Heart and Soul

                                           Book Review of 

                                   Euphonies of Heart and Soul

                                         A collection of poems  

                                                        By    

                                            Dr. Parneet Jaggi

                                                 Publisher: Cyberwit. Net

                                          ISBN 978-81-8253-369-1, Year 2013 

                                          Pages 78,    Price Rs. 200/-

The book is a very fine exposition of Parneet’s literary tastes and her kindred feeling for society and humanity. Through verse she tries to draw attention towards the various strings that form the web of life. Her treatment of the subjects- which she touches- is characterized by a freshness, originality of approach and linguistic suppleness.

The collection, as she says, begins by contemplating on the reason for any human being to be born and live a life that is no less than a roller coaster ride. The society nurtures and brings up a child and the child learns its primary lessons from this same society. Societal hegemony proves to be both a boon and a bane for him. The imperfections of the societal and parochial set up forces the sensitive individuals to contemplate on its ways.

The very first poem of the anthology ‘A mystery too ironic to know….’ makes the reader sensitive about the futility of life. And ‘Lunatic’ transforms us in a melancholic mood. Her poems make us think that life is like a melodious murmur of a murmuring stream which casts a spell on every conscious observer. Perhaps life is the name of a maiden damsel that veils her flawless beauty from every stranger.

In ‘A Child Once Again’ she yearns to be a child again to pontificate innocence. ‘I was yours…’ is a saga of a woman who plays different roles in man’s life and yet asks for a right to live. ‘A desire with in…’ is an urge to break all the shackles of Id, Ego and Superego. Some of her poems question the pseudo-religious attitudes of society and strike the orthodoxies and narrow-mindedness. Whereas poems like ‘Rare moments’ takes the reader into a mystic trance.  

In poems, like ‘Dancing chrysanthemums…’, Parneet has expressed her tendency of the lyrical cadence and imagination flights in full measures. In this poem we find music in words which flows like a mighty torrent. Poems like ‘Sitting an abode….’. or ‘Lover’s peak…’ suggest that such deep feelings, such a vital radiation of the soul cannot be trammeled by the restrictions of metre or rhythm and they must find expression spontaneously like the rivers in monsoon bursting their banks and overflowing in any direction that pleases them.

It is true that real poetry is the inner voice of entire mankind. ‘It is,” says Carlylie, “not only the criticism of life, it is the very truth of life – very essence of man’s noble quest for reaching the kingdom of eternal bliss.” The poems of Parneet prove this definition true. Euphonies of Heart and Soul touches the chords of heart and provides a tonic that invigorates the withered soul of an individual in his continuous struggle in this materialistic world, as a balm that soothes the nerves. I feel that the attempt of Parneet will receive adequate notice of the perceptive readers as this anthology very well deserves.      

                                                                                   Sanjeev Gandhi

                                                                                   Dept. of English

                                                                                   Govt. College Chhachhrauli (YNR)

Environment and Human Rights

                                                                             Dr. Sanjeev Gandhi

                                                                                                Govt. College

                                                                                                Chhachhrauli (YNR) 

In the long evolution of the human race on this planet, a stage has been reached when, through the rapid acceleration of science and technology, we have acquired the power to transform our environment in countless ways and on an unprecedented scale. Humanity’s capacity to transform its surroundings, if used wisely and with respect to the ways of nature, can bring to all communities the opportunity to enhance the quality of life. Wrongly or heedlessly applied, or applied in iniquitous ways, the same power can do incalculable harm to human beings and their environment.

We see around us growing evidence of human-caused harm in many regions of the earth:

• Dangerous levels of pollution in water, air, earth and living beings;

• Destruction and depletion of irreplaceable life forms and natural resources;

• Major and undesirable disturbances in the earth’s climate and protective layers;

• Gross deficiencies, harmful to physical, mental and social health, in the living                                          and working   environments of humans, especially in cities and industrial complexes.

In the above context, it is important to recognize our dependence on the earth’s natural resources. Natural resources such as air, water, and land are fundamental to all life forms: they are, much more than money and economic infrastructure, the base of our survival. To large numbers of humanity, especially communities that have been termed ‘ecosystem people’ (people depending on the natural environments of their own locality to meet most of their material needs).

Natural resources are the base of survival and livelihoods. Their material and economic sustenance largely depends on these. In India alone, around 70% of the population directly depends on land-based occupations, forests, wetlands and marine habitats, for basic subsistence requirements with  regard to water, food, fuel, housing, fodder and medicine as also for ecological livelihoods & cultural sustenance. Given this close interdependence of humans and their environment, it is not surprising that the culture of societies is so greatly influenced by their environment. They seek inspiration, knowledge, spirituality and aesthetics within their natural surroundings.

Life, livelihoods, culture and society, are fundamental aspects of human existence –hence their maintenance and enhancement is a fundamental human right. Destruction of environment and thereby of the natural resources, is therefore, a violation or leads to the violation of human rights – directly by undermining the above aspects of human existence, or indirectly by leading to other violations of human rights, for example through social disruption, conflicts and even war. Conversely, human rights violations of other kinds can lead to environmental destruction, for instance, displacement by social strife/war can cause environmental damage in areas of relocation; or breakdown in sustainable common property management. The manifestations of such violations present themselves through a loss of access to clean air and water; loss of access to productive land; loss of energy sources and biomass; loss of food and health security; social and economic marginalization; and physical displacement.

Several hundred million people have been increasingly forced to live far below the minimum levels required for a decent human existence, deprived of adequate water, food, clothing, shelter and education, health and sanitation. Development, which was supposed to alleviate such problems, has often increased them, especially by allowing the powerful sections of society to appropriate the natural resources of poor and resource-dependent people. Communities, once proudly self-reliant, have been pushed literally or figuratively into begging for existence, their forests and water and lands taken away for ‘economic progress.’

          The following human rights are often affected by environmental harms. 
Right to Life The right to life has extensive environmental links. It could be linked to any environmental disruption that directly contributed to the loss of lives including to the mentioned air pollution causing 2.4 million deaths per year.
Right to Health This right, closely linked to the right to life, is often violated in cases of pollution of air, land or water.
Right to Water Although not specifically codified in an international treaty, (access to) water is more frequently invoked and accepted as a human right. It’s obviously linked to life and health.
Right to Food Due to the environmental disruption, the right to physical and economic access to adequate food, is progressively under pressure.
Right to Development Sustainable development recognizes that environmentally destructive economic progress does not produce long-term societal progress.
Right to Property With sea levels rising, more and more people living on islands and in coastal areas, have and will be deprived of (parts of) their property.
Right to Shelter and Housing When environmental degradation displaces individuals and communities or compels them to live in unhealthy, hazardous conditions.
Right to Work Along with environmental disruption often deprecates of the right to work. An example would be industrial overfishing putting small local fishermen out of work.
Right to Culture, Family life and Rights of Indigenous People The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, for the first time recognizes the conservation and protection of the environment and resources as a human right.
Rights and Equity, non-discrimination Where they have least contributed to the problems, impacts of climate change and other environmental harms are expected to be bigger on the poorer parts than in the more wealthier parts of the world.
Women and Children’s Rights Women and children are even more impacted by environmental disruption than men and because their immune systems have not fully been developed, children are vulnerable to toxics, bacterial and viral contamination. 

            It is not only humans that are affected, but all other life forms too. The concept of environment as a basic human right must also encompass a respect for the right of other species to survive on this planet. There are anywhere between 5 and 50 million species of plants, animals, and microorganisms sharing the earth with us, and each has a value of its own, a role to play in a vast, complex web of interdependent connections. This range of species, the habitats they live in, and the internal genetic diversity they display, is called biological diversity or biodiversity. Such diversity is part of our daily lives and livelihoods, constituting resources upon which families, communities, nations and future generations depend. Biodiversity has numerous uses in agriculture, medicine, food and industry. It helps to maintain ecological balance and evolutionary processes, and has spiritual, cultural, aesthetic and recreational values. Its loss is, therefore, a part of the erosion of environmental human rights.

            The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, Stockholm 1972 stated the common conviction that: “Humans have the fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being, and a solemn responsibility to protect and improve the environment for present and future generations”.

A special mention must be made here of the indigenous and tribal people of the world, virtually all of whom are faced with a serious crisis of survival. Their identity as independent communities and peoples is threatened because the economic, social, cultural, and natural resource base which enabled them to thrive as distinct peoples is being trampled upon. This intrusion is very prominent in their economy. The traditional economy of the indigenous peoples rested on their concept of and relationship with nature. For most such communities, land, water and forest belong to Mother Earth; human beings enjoy only usufructuary rights over them, nobody can own them; they ought not to be bought and sold, appropriated or otherwise privatized. Land, therefore, is an important ingredient of the indigenous peoples’ identity not only for its economic usage but also for its spiritual and emotional quality.

The present crisis of the indigenous peoples consists precisely in the weakening and damaging of the ultimate base of their sustenance, namely land. Since the dawn of independence the Indian ruling class, effectively using the government machinery, has been alienating tribal land in the name of ‘national interests’. The biggest threat to the tribal people is the large-scale alienation of their land through mega projects such as mines, industries, wildlife reserves, townships, highways, military establishments, and other projects in the name of ‘national development’ and ‘national interests’

 The environmental conditions have deteriorated and worsened all over the country due to a variety of aggravating factors. The overall situation is certainly a matter of grave concern, more specially because it is affecting adversely the quality of life of the people and eroding the very foundations of the national economy and national security. As mentioned earlier, the worst affected are the poorer sections of society. The situation is compounded by slack and inadequate enforcement of laws and legislations. In this scenario, the importance of strengthening the constitutional safeguards for environment protection and nature conservation cannot be underscored. There can be no doubt that it is only by ensuring ecological security that the goal of sustainable development and national well-being will become feasible.

 66 years after Independence, while the country has achieved great gains in industry and commercial agriculture, it has generally failed on the poverty eradication, livelihood security and environment protection fronts. The Constitution of India, 1950, did not include any specific provision relating to environment protection or nature conservation. Presumably, the acute environmental problems being faced now in the country were not visualized by the framers of the Constitution.

The Indian Forest Act, 1927: An Act to consolidate the law relating to forests, the transit of forest-produce and the duty leviable on timber and other forest produce. Created various categories of forests for different management and regulatory regimes.

            The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960: An Act to prevent the infliction of unnecessary pain or suffering on animals.

The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, amended 1988: An Act to provide for the prevention and control of water pollution and the maintaining or restoring of wholesomeness of water.

Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, amended 1988: An Act to provide for the conservation of forests and for matters connected therewith or ancillary or incidental thereto.

The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1981 amended 1987: An Act to provide for the prevention, control and abatement of air pollution.

The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, amended 1991: An Act to provide for the protection and improvement of environment and for matters connected therewith with the following key rules/notifications:

• Declaration of Coastal Stretches as Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ), 1991, amended 2001

• The Scheme on Labeling of Environment Friendly Products (ECOMARK), 1991

• Eco-sensitive Zone (a series of notifications declaring specific sites)

• Environment Impact Assessment Notification, 1994, amended 2002

• The Rules for the Manufacture, Use, Import, Export and Storage of Hazardous micro-organisms genetically engineered organisms or cells, 1989

• Hazardous Substances Management (a series of Rules dealing with municipal solid wastes,     batteries, recycled plastics, chemical accidents, hazardous micro-organisms and genetically engineered organisms/cells, hazardous chemicals, biomedical wastes, and other hazardous wastes).

• Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000

The Forest Policy, 1988: A policy that emphasizes the twin objectives of ecological stability and social justice. Highlighting the need for stronger conservation measures, it points to symbiotic relationship between tribal and other poor people and forests. It recommends treating local needs as ‘the first charge’ on forest produce, and creates space for the participation of forest-dependent communities in the management of forests.

The Public Liability Insurance Act, 1991, amended 1992: An Act to provide for public liability insurance for the purpose of providing immediate relief to the persons affected by accident occurring while handling any hazardous substance and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act 1992: An Act to empower panchayat bodies to manage local affairs, including environmental resources such as water, land, agriculture, animal husbandry, social/farm forestry, minor forest produce, and fisheries.

National Conservation Strategy and Policy Statement on Environment and

Development, 1992: with guidelines for integrating environmental considerations into development.

The National Environment Tribunal Act, 1995: An Act to provide for strict liability for damages arising out of any accident occurring while handling any hazardous substance and for the establishment of a National Environment Tribunal for effective and expeditious disposal of cases arising from such accident, with a view to giving relief and compensation for damages to persons, property and the environment and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

The National Environment Tribunal Act, 1995An Act to extend the 73^rd Constitutional Amendment to Scheduled (predominantly tribal) areas, providing ownership or control over some natural resources such as minor (non-timber) forest produce.

The National Environment Appellate Authority Act, 1997: An Act to provide for the establishment of a National Environment Appellate Authority to hear appeals with respect to restriction of areas in which any industries, operations or processes or class of industries, operations or processes shall not be carried out or shall be carried out subject to certain safeguards under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

The Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act, 2002: An Act to provide for the protection of wild animals, birds and plants and for matters connected therewith or ancillary or incidental thereto with a view to ensuring the ecological and environmental security of the country.

The Biological Diversity Act, 2002: An Act to provide for conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of its components and fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the use of biological resources, knowledge and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

The Right to Information Act 2005: An Act to provide the right to information to all citizens (useful in accessing information regarding environmental matters, including projects/processes that affect the environment).

Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill 2005: A bill to recognize and vest the forest rights and occupation in forest land in forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes who have been residing in such forests for generations but whose rights could not be recorded; to provide for a framework for recording the forest rights so vested and the nature of evidence required for such recognition and vesting in respect of forest land.

Humans are an integral part of nature and whatever happens to nature happens to humans, most often with an immediacy that is not captured in the crisis of global warming or ocean pollution. Indeed, natural calamities in many instances have not remained entirely ‘natural’ either in their occurrence or the devastation they cause. They have, in fact, become accentuated by, and sometimes even created by, human actions. The indirect effects of mass degradation and over exploitation of natural resources, which are also playing an important role in maintaining a harmonious balance on earth, show up in more destructive forms such as ‘natural calamities’. Floods, landslides, cyclones, famines, earthquakes are known to stimulated or catalyzed some of the ‘developmental’ projects such as desilting, deforestation and soil erosion; reclaiming lands from shorelines; mismanagement and over exploitation of water resources; building of large dams, hydel power plants etc., respectively. There are numerous examples of such occurrences and their exaggerated consequences

What kind of solutions and alternatives are being tried out, what are the elements of hope? There are at least the following six:

1. Resistance (to ‘development’ projects and processes that are destructive)

2. Revival (of traditions that are still relevant, in the same or modified manner)

3. Reconstruction (synthesizing traditions and modern processes/knowledge into          

     New-combinations)                                                                                                                            

4. Redefinition (of some key terms and paradigms of development)

5. Reorientation (of attitudes towards nature and fellow humans)

6. Restitution (handing back of territories, resource rights, and knowledge ownership)

  Relationship between Literature and the Physical Environment

                    Ted Hughes: An Ecocritical Study

                               By: Pawan Kumar Sharma

                      Sarup Book Publishers Pvt. Ltd New Delhi

                                  Pages 235+14,      Rs. 750/-

                                    IBSN-978-81-7625-793-0

                                               Year 2012

                       Book review by Dr. Sanjeev Gandhi  

Eco-criticism is the study of literature and environment from an interdisciplinary point of view where all sciences come together to analyze the environment and brainstorm possible solutions for the correction of the contemporary environmental situation. Eco-criticism is an intentionally broad genre that is known by a number of names: "green cultural studies", "eco-poetics", and "environmental literary criticism" are also popular monikers for this relatively new branch of literary criticism. This approach offers a deeper cultural critique of the postmodern industrial and technological age that unfolds before us as an inescapable reality fraught with immense consequences. The present book is Pawan Kumar Sharma’s attempt to look the poems of Ted Hughes as eco-critical point of view.

Sharma finds that the poetry of Ted Hughes has brought mankind closer to the nature and its complete working. Throughout the vast panorama of his poetry there is only one story – a single vision. Standing apart from both nature and man, the poet experiences intense realties of mortality, social enlargement and violent and threatening world where the collapse of civilization seems an immediate reality. This estrangement and alienation become the obsessive concern and gradually broadens the cultural concerns of Hughes’ ‘measured verse’.

Ted Hughes constantly deplores modern man’s broken bond with nature and strives to assimilate them to each other. But his poetic vision places him on the other side of the Romantic- modern consciousness in poetry. In his case nature is neither moral nor benevolent, but it is malevolent and demonic. For Hughes this malevolent is merely nature’s otherness and must be welcomed, not fought against. Thus, in man – nature dichotomy Hughes’ poetry marks a major shift by tipping the balance in favour of nature in the relentless war of attrition and supremacy between the two.

What Sharma points out is that for Hughes the humankind has broken the umbilical cord with Mother Nature and it is the suicidal act of man emanating from his ignorance and arrogance and that has brought spiraling violence and destruction in the universe. Hughes fully justifies the claim of nature to regain the lost space and perhaps to displace man. His poetic journey unhesitatingly reflects this dilemma in the form of a congruence of environmental themes and apocalyptic rhetoric. His deep ecological sense sees man as part of an organic universe, living best by acknowledging its wonder and rejecting the temptation to force his will upon it.

In the chapter “Encountering the Egocentric Ethics” Sharma discusses Ted Hughes’ first three collections, The Hawk in the Rain, Lupercal and Wodwo. Here the effort has been made to present the primary contention that Ted Hughes is opposed to the fundamental character of anthropocentric and egocentric ethics of modern civilization. The dichotomy between the instinctual and rational mode of existence presented throughout these collections is mainly an expression of poet’s firm conviction that man in the industrialized world is completely devoid of vitality and vigour of a genuine life force which, in the present day world, is typified in the world of animals. The writer underlines various tactics used by Hughes to serve admirably his eco-critical perspective to relegate the civilized human world to a level of insignificance in comparison with the grace and self assurance of the primitive world of animals. The anthropocentric and egocentric self here comes face to face with those forces in the nature which are outside the range of moral choice and rational control, forces man has to live and die with.

The chapter “Confronting the Demonic in Nature” has been focused on single volume Crow. While high-lighting the poet’s strategy of subverting the Enlightenment heritage of the Christian world by putting aside the entire positives of his immediate cultural surroundings, the chapter focuses on Hughes’ attempt to foreground the existential dichotomy of the Heideggerian eco-philosophy through the tortuous journey of crow’s struggle and survival. Hughes, according to Sharma, here succeeds in establishing the centrality of the demonic will of nature as the basis of everything in existence.

Chapter “Locating Alternative Horizons” mainly deals with Gaudete. Ted Hughes by adopting the mode of an eco-feminist offers alternative existence through a transformation of the state of consciousness. The poet makes an egocentric male consciousness go through a ritualistic process of transformation, finally to change into a superior and sacred egocentric feminine consciousness.

“Rediscovering Ecological Spirituality” is focused on the protagonist’s psychological journey towards transformation and regeneration. Here Sharma finds Ted Hughes finally achieving reconciliation and reintegration with nature. This he does by threading the path shown by eco-friendly Oriental philosophies which profess the essential oneness and sacredness of life as reflected in various forms of life.

Through this book Sharma provokes readers to explore: Do man and nature form a continuum, echoing each other? Does consciousness heightened by Cartesian presumption estrange man from nature? Is history – man shaped and shaping man – a disruption of nature? Is not the version of Eden myth a yearning for an impossible reintegration with nature? Is not the contemplation of nature by turning away from history an intensification of subjectivity which can never anyway heal the intrinsic breach between man and nature?   

The book is an attempt to make an assessment of the poetry of Ted Hughes from eco-critical perspective centered in the dynamics and dialectics of man’s relationship with nature in the contemporary form of life.