[, 18 November 1994, Arts & Ideas, p.2.] CALL FOR THE WILD [Book Review] By Samantak Das, Review of SOCIAL ECOLOGY. Ed. by Ramchandra Guha. Oxford. (Rs. 425) They are stealing the green from our national flag!" is how the environmental movement led by the rubber tappers of Brazil summed up the relationship between national wellbeing and the environment. Anil Agarwal, in his contribution to Social Ecology, puts it thus, "The environment is an idea whose time has come in India." Yes indeed. And SOCIAL ECOLOGY, part of a new series entitled "Oxford in India: Readings in Sociology and Social Anthropology", puts environment at the centre of the emerging agenda. It is not always recognized the problems of the environment are as much the concern of the social scientist as they are of the natural scientist and\or specialist in environmental science. For, as Guha points out in his introduction,"both the causes and consequences of environmental degradation are...research problems well within the purview of the social sciences." Yet the social science community has "contributed little to the environment debate in India" unlike natural scientists, activists and journalists who have "contributed significantly to our understanding of the social implications of environmental degradation." SOCIAL ECOLOGY is a book that seeks to redress this imbalance. Its 16 essays not only provide an insight into the work already done but also point the way to possible future research problems that social and natural scientists, jointly or severally, might consider tackling. And, unlike in many other areas of academic endeavour, such research is likely to have an immediate bearing on why and how we lead our lives the way we do. The essays, in the best traditions of social ecology, illustrate the interdependence of environmental and social phenomena. The contributors include the pioneers - some, like Radhakamal Mukherjee, almost forgotten by latter day environmentalists and others, like Verrier Elwin, who are not always recognized as such. Also present are the more readily recognized movers and shakers Anil Agarwal, Guha himself and Madhav Gadgil, to name just three. The essays are divided into four sections - "Nature and Culture", "The Sociology of Resource Use and Abuse", "Competing Claims over Nature", and "Towards Environmental Renewal". Each section has a brief introductory essay by Guha and a concluding list of suggested further readings. These give the book the necessary connection to larger structures of thinking about and working with environment. The first section has a pioneering essay by the oft unacknowledged father of Indian ecology, Radhakamal Mukherjee. Writing as long ago as 1930, Mukherjee lays is essentially the methodological groundwork for social ecology. His brief essay is also memorable for its concluding lines which read like an excerpt from a present day environmentalist's credo. "Though man often tears asunder the fabric through ignorance of selfishness, social progress no doubt consists in consciously weaving the forces of nature and society into finer and finer patterns of correlation and solidarity. It is the knowledge of and respect or the intricacy of the web of life which will guide man to his highest destiny." A pity that 64 years later Mukherjee's plea still sounds like the proverbial voice in the wilderness. The second section has Varun Vidyarthi's thought provoking essay on "Energy and the Poor in an Indian Village". This essay touches on several issues which are raised whenever the tricky question of environmental protection vis a vis India's poor is raised. A finding that seems obvious but is often ignored when plans are drawn up to "regenerate the rural environment with people's participation." Yet Vidyarthi is not entirely pessimistic. He asserts that it is possible to ensure access to energy for poor villagers provided measures are taken to "strengthen their social and economic position". The third section begins with an excerpt from Verrier Elwin's 1939 book, THE BAIGA, a deeply moving account of the interrelatedness of the lifestyle of the Baiga tribe of central India and the forests they inhabited. I use the past tense because those forests have now all but disappeared. The Baigas believe they were introduced to shifting cultivation - known to them as bewar and more familiar to us as jhum - by bhagwan himself. He is said to have given his blessing to the Baigas in these words, "All the kingdoms of the world may fall to pieces, but he who is made of earth and is Bhumiaraja, lord of the earth, shall never forsake it. You will make your living from the earth. You will dig roots and eat them. You will cut wood and carry it on your shoulders. Your wife will prick leaves and sell them. You must not tear the breasts of your Mother Earth with the plough like the Gond and the Hindu. You will cut down trees and burn them and sow your seed in the ashes. But you will never become rich, for if you did you would forsake the earth, and there would be no one to guard it and keep its nails in place". When the practice of bewar was stopped, the Baigas sang, "From village to village go the Raja's men,/ They make roads, but not for us: the roads are for the Raja./ He steals the Baiga bewar./ We are all dying of hunger in this Raja's reign." The importance of the symbiotic link between nature and society, not merely in the physical sense but at a higher spiritual level, was never more poignantly expressed. The final section includes Anil Agarwal's "An Indian Environmentalist's Credo" - a magisterial survey of the ills afflicting India's environment and a plea to take urgent steps before it is too late. This essay, written 56 years after Radhakamal Mukherjee's opening piece, is both an affirmation of the tradition of caring for our natural resources and a timely reminder that much still needs to be done. SOCIAL ECOLOGY is a book that will be a worthwhile addition to any environmentalist's library - provided he or she can afford the rather steep asking price. A consummation devoutly to be wished is that a paperback edition is published soon. ==END==[Samantak Das. , 18 November 1994, Arts & Ideas, p. 2]=