Mahatma Gandhi Forum: July 2015

Gandhi Journal Article-III (July 2015) : Ecology and Lifestyle: A Gandhian Perspective

By M. P. Mathai

The ecological crisis we confront today has been analysed from various angles and scientific data on the state of our environment made available. Humanity has come out of its foolish self-complacency and has awakened to the realisation that over-exploitation of nature has led to a very severe degradation and devastation of our environment. Scholars, through several studies, have brought out the direct connection between consumption and environmental degradation.

The climate change experienced today has convinced many that unless we take urgent remedial measures life might be wiped out of the face of the Earth. There have been several international summits and important conventions have been signed. But to our great dismay, most of the provisions of these covenants have been blatantly violated, rather than scrupulously honoured and implemented. Awareness of the issues involved has become almost universal, but the determination to take corrective steps is sorely missing.

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Gandhi Journal Article-II (July 2015) : Half-naked Fakir

By Emmo Tarlo

Of course, one can never fully know Gandhi’s ‘intention’ in wearing a loin-cloth, for what he actually wrote and declared in his speeches may have differed to some extent from his personal reflections. Yet through analyzing content of his expressed intention, one can gain considerable insight into how he tried to construct the meaning of his loincloth publicly. It is suggested here that Gandhi wrote and spoke so much about his dress because he wanted people to understand it and because he realized that it could easily be misinterpreted. Misinterpreted it was, but this does not mean that the misinterpretations were necessarily detrimental to Gandhi, or that Gandhi did not to some extent enjoy the ambiguity of his own sartorial gesture.

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