Book Reviews

Title:  The Alchemist

Subtitle: A magical fable about following your dream

Author: Paulo Coelho

By,

Divyasri, B.A.
Summary:

In the novel “The Alchemist”, the author has brought out innumerable components to the readers. The passion to reach the destiny dreamt is expressed in this novel through the magical story of Santiago, a shepherd from Andalusia. The author has beautifully brought out the essence of personal myth in each person’s life. Coelho states that no human being should go away from achieving his dreams. 

He has specified that reaching and following our destinies in our lives are possible when the person has the courage to follow the path to destiny and dare to listen to his heart. He has magnificently quoted in his novel that, “treasure lies where your heart belongs”. In the entire novel the author has brilliantly come out with lyrics for life and to reach the ultimate destiny of our life.

The novel has thought me the different languages prevailing in the world. As the alchemist himself says, when he appears to Santiago in the form of an old king Coelho states "when you really want something to happen, the whole universe conspires so that your wish comes true". Fear of failure is the greatest obstacle to achieve one’s destiny in life, is clearly explained in this novel.

This novel is applicable in each and everyone’s life, as all of us have dreams and are finding the way to go towards it. The author has skillfully puts forth all the words of love, wisdom, mysticism, language of soul and philosophical thoughts using simple words and paragraphs which ultimately creates a great understanding to the reader. The novel is readable, which accounts to be best novel in words of wisdom by Paul Coelho.

Title:  Indian Muslims

Author: Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
By,

Jagadish S.

VILD

Mysore.


Summary:
Written by  an author who is well versed in both classical Islamic learning and modern science I picked up this book with great interest. There are some positive thoughts and insights from this book but my quest for an understanding of Islam remains. I should check his books on Islam.

This book was published in 1994 immediately after the Babri Masjid demolition. Hence a big chunk of the book revolves around this.

Some interesting points are his views on majority versus the next minority community (in different nations). Where the minority is focused on areas like education, healthcare etc (like Christians in India) he feels there is less friction as compared to where they are focused on political power. He also advises Muslims to leave the past, come to terms with a reality (just as Japan did post World War II) build up strength so that adversaries see them as allies in the progress of the nation who cannot be ignored. He wants Muslims to focus on improving in the educational and economic fields. Historically there has been significant contribution to Science by Muslim astronomers and others which subsequently spread to Europe and progressed while the Muslim world stagnated basking in the past glory. Subsequently the negative attitude against anything Western made them reject Western science as well which he feels was a mistake.

One of the messages which is repeated is that Islam loves peace and not confrontation.

While overall the intentions and message of the author are good I felt that the topic of economic / scientific development which the author advocates (as in the Western countries) while still following one's religion would need an in depth analysis. The two are not isolated. Just as we have seen in the West or Japan and recently in India the focus on economic progress / consumerism can also mean a steady erosion of traditional values culture etc. I feel that is a fear in many Muslim nations as well.  Hence I fear there may not be many takers for his message in his own community itself. 


Title: Plays & Poems 
Author: Swami Sastrananda
By,

Jagadish S.

VILD

Mysore.
Summary:

This book is a collection of Plays & Poems written by Swami Sastrananda over three decades. These are based on personae from India's cultural and vedantic past - Satyakama, Nachiketa, Sri Krishna, Arjuna, Saint Tiruppan Alvar  apart from Sri Ramakrishna & Swami Vivekananda.

Some parts on education and teacher that I particularly feel are relevant even today:

Background: Satyakama spends 4-5 years alone looking after his guru's cattle herd in a forest. He gains wisdom during the course of time and comes back to his guru to get his confirmation on what he has gained. In response the guru says...

...Satyakama! It is your matchless humility and devotion to the guru that have taken you to these heights. Had this happened to some lesser persons, even a fraction of this would have served but to swell their pride. They would not have cared for their own guru or teacher, and ignoring and breaking away from him, would be hankering to start a new gurukula - a new institution and even a new tradition - motivated by self importance. There were such people before - and many more will there be in future too! But let this be noted well: Never will the line and true tradition of Brahman, the Supreme Truth, of Knowledge and learning, progress through such people - Never! All that such people put out as "achievements", and the new "tradition" they seek to establish, will only amount to some lifeless external observances, displays of shallow scholarship, strange practices attracting feeble minds, thirst for popularity, outward pomp and show - only these.

....
what is acceptable is tradition which stems from what is good and true and pass it on, generation after generation to worthy recipients. A really intelligent person is one who, while continuing to function in the framework of traditional society, commands the confidence and respect of people at large, and then makes them willingly accept his own cherished ideas, words and ways of life.
Who is a great teacher, a superior guide? He who, using his own special intelligence, skill and talents can teach people what is really good for them, in a way beneficial and acceptable to them; he who, through his own humility and patience can influence and win them over to his own cherished ideals. And that is his real greatness.


...about starting a gurukula...

whoever the aspirant may be, so long as he is worthy accept him. It is real merit and worth of students that is important, not numbers. Always keep your eyes open for special and unusual students. Regular and prescribed course of group-studies for a certain number of years, fixed schedules and definite methods of teaching - and then formal graduation - all these hold good for the ordinary run of students. But where extraordinary students are concerned, each one of them must be provided with his own individual teaching, training and course of development - suitable and fruitful for each. But whether it is an ordinary student or a special one, in all cases the true essence and purpose of education must not be missed.

...Education is certainly not the pouring of, from outside, a mass of words and ideas into the head of the student. It is not even the attempt to fashion the student according to the wishes of the guru. The task of true education or of a true guru consists in recognizing the perfection and powers in each student and then helping the student to manifest them accordingly to his own genius and thus shape his own life and personality. For the ordinary student, external help, motivation, support and rules are necessary. But extraordinary students must have ample stimulation, encouragement and opportunities for self-reflection, self-study and independent search.

 Title: Hasuru Honnu (Green Wealth) 
Author: B.G.L. Swamy

Classification: K571.8

By,

Jagadish S.

VILD

Mysore.
Summary:

Dr. BGL Swamy is a well known name in Kannada literary circles by his own right (though being a son of the literary heavy weight DVG).

Hasuru Honnu recounts his field trip experiences as a Botany Professor at the Presidency College, Chennai. His vast knowledge and love for the subject stands out in the plant descriptions which are well supported by hand-drawn pictures. He has also drawn from Kannada, Sanskrit and Tamil literary sources to enrich our knowledge of plants. He has mixed it well with humorous episodes of incidents involving his students that happen on the way . The cartoons drawn by the author himself add to the comical nature of these incidents. He also highlights the bureaucratic hurdles that come across his way given that he is functioning in a government setup. The donkey saga is just hilarious.

The value of field study in enriching ones' experience has been well brought out. It is worth pondering about the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical wisdom that the author has highlighted in the 1970s itself.

All in all it makes for a very enjoyable reading. I had never thought reading about plants and trees could be so interesting. Wish we had such text books during our school / college days!

A highly recommended reading for anyone who has the slightest interest in plants or is a teacher.

Title: Village Voices

Subtitle(s): forty years of rural transformation in south India ;
Author: Epstein, Scarlett, T.
ISBN: 0-7619-9265-0
classification: 303.40954 EPS

By,

Jagadish S.

VILD

Mysore  

Summary:
It is a unique book in the sense it documents the changes in two villages of Mandya district over a period of 50 years. The author Scarlett Epstein (whose own story as a Jewish immigrant to UK during WW2 makes for interesting reading) first visited them in 1950s. Subsequently she made a trip in 1970 and 1996. The major share of the writings and observations come from her which is understandable since she is a researcher with a background of development economics and anthropology.
One of the co-authors is Thimmegowda a boy from one of the villages chosen for study who grew up to become an IAS officer. More importantly he has continued his association with the village and used his position to help in its development.
The second co-author is A P Suryanarayana who joined Scarlett during her first trip in 1950s to assist her with the data collection. He continued the association in subsequent trips. While he has no doubt played a key role in the data collection and analysis, his accounts are primarily limited to his own experiences as a research assistant moving from a city (Mysore) to the villages.
The key messages are how the village benefitted by irrigation (Mangala) grew more introverted reinforcing the traditional intra-village social system. Meanwhile the other "dry" village (Kalenahalli) became more and more extroverted looking for opportunities in the surrounding irrigated areas and Mandya town as their own dryland cultivation became less attractive thereby weakening the intra-village social system.

While the good part is that one village has prospered economically it also highlights the continued dependency on external sources (irrigation, access to the state government officials) to make it happen. The dream of self sustained villages which generate their own resources and are empowered to use them based on their own priorities remains a dream.
It is interesting to note the proximity to the power centre plays an important role even in a decentralized setup such as Panchayat. This is reflected in the tussle between villages to have the Panchayat office for their group of villages in their own village.

While irrigation has had an impact on the rural economics it is education which has influenced social changes both good (reduced casteism) and bad (less respect for rural culture, lower fitment promoting urban migration). Further the observation the education is viewed as a passport to employment (and not necessarily linked to local development) is striking.
An important observation by Epstein is that macro analysis in pure economic terms cannot offer appropriate solutions to the varied socio-economic problems faced by developing societies.

The multi-dimensional approach covering Social , Economic and Political change factors over the forty year period makes for interesting reading as well as the predictions that went right and those that went wrong.

The last chapter raises a few pertinent questions on what the future holds for these and other similar villages. One important point touched upon is on water shortages. My own thoughts are on the lines of how irrigation turns farmers into consumers without any responsibility / interest / power to conserve since the source is remote / unconnected to their local environs (as opposed to a local water body such as a lake). Lack of such a closed loop feedback system can only exacerbate issues (like the inter state tussles on river water sharing). This might be an interesting topic for further research.

All in all it is a book worth reading targetting reading public interested in rural development and not just researchers.

Title: How much should a person consume

Author: Guha, Ramachandra.

ISBN: 978-05-2024805-2

classification:333.720954GUH

By,

Jagadish S.

VILD

Mysore.

Summary:

This is a comparative history of environmentalism in US and India.

Given Guha’s background the depth of study and ability to present ideas comes as a no surprise.

There have been several concepts / theories which I liked and felt a chord resonate. Further it threw light on several individual of whom I was little aware of previously.

Some excerpts…

History sans Chauvinism:

Industrial revolution was actually four revolutions in one – revolution in the industry, revolution in agriculture, revolution in transport and communication, demographic revolution (improvement in sanitation and health which reduced human mortality. Two others in the political realm which can be added to the list – advent of democratic & socialist ideas and Europe’s conquest of the rest of the world. There was no environmentalism before industrialization only an environmental sensitivity.

Environmentalism rose as a response to the Industrial Revolution.

 Shallow ecology – anthropocentric – based on technocratic solutions

Deep ecology – biocentric – based on ancient ecological wisdom

…where american environmentalists were hypocritical, driving thousands of miles in polluting automobile to enjoy “unspoilt wilderness”, men like Chandi Prasad Bhatt integrated their lives with their work.

Deep ecology tended to ignore inequalities within human society, while the Gandhian Greens (he knew) worked among and for the poor.

 The Indian Road to Sustainability

Indian environmental movement began with Chipko andolan in 1973

Patrick Geddes – town planning – Cities in evolution (1915)

Radhakamal Mukerjee – Professor of Sociology at Lucknow Univ -- social ecology

“Humans have no option but to some extent imitate Nature’s extraordinarily slow methods”

J.C. Kumarappa – Gandhian economist - The economy of permanence

Mark Lindley – American Gandhian – published a book on JC Kumarappa (by Popular Prakashan, Mumbai) – feels Kumarappa holds a significant position in ecological economics

Venu Govindu, Deepak Malghan, Rajesh Kasturirangan – NIAS, IIMB, IISc

 Albert Howard prophet of ecological agriculture

Mira Behn (Madeleine Slade) – far seeing critic of colonial and commercial forestry. Replacement of banj oak by chil pine (by state forest mgmt) because it is more commercially valuable. This had an impact of causing floods.

“each individual villager cannot resist lopping off the banj trees. If I do not someone else will”. The short sighted behavior of the peasants was related to the loss of community control. With the takeover by the state they had no stake in the long term maintenance of forest cover.

 Environmental degradation has greater social costs in a poor country (like India) and generated more intensive social conflicts.

 The source of popular support for the protection of wilderness in the US – nature is no longer restricted to the privileged few but available to all. The upsurge of environmental conflicts in India is related more directly to livelihood and survival.

Old style public sector socialism and new style market liberalization are akin in some crucial respects. Both have intensified social inequalities as well as devastated the natural environment.

 Three Environmental Utopias

As compared to tropical ecologies, temperate  ecosystems are benign and hence more amenable to scientific exploitation for utilitarian ends. At the same time for the ordinary city dweller the temperate forest is good deal more welcoming than the tropical forest. As Aldous Huxley pointed out long ago, the worship of nature came easily to those who lived “beneath a temperate sky and in the age of Henry Ford”.

Wordsworth in the Tropics – Aldous Huxley – Do What You Will, 1929

 Three environmental philosophies of our time are – agrarianism, wilderness thinking, scientific industrialiasm. The latter two are the extremes (human submission to natural processes, conquest of nature). The first tries to seek a golden mean of stewardship and sustainable use.

Utopias / viewpoints	Famous proponents	Tribal	Grain based civilization	Modern industrialized
Agrarianism (Dominant env philosophy in India)	Thomas Jefferson, Mahatma Gandhi	Nasty, brutish, short	Apogee Ideal is the peasant society, human scale technology, strong community bonds	Pursuit of wealth
Widlerness thinking (Dominant env philosophy in US)	Jared Diamond “Collapse” John Muir	The ideal state of hunter, gatherer where man and nature are one.	A fall from the ideal state.	Further distancing of man and nature
Scientific industrialization (universal – held by experts / scientists	Gifford Pinchot (US Forest Service) Jawaharlal Nehru	Illiterate, pre-scientific	Illiterate, pre-scientific	Future thinking. Solve industrializations problems (not look back at the past) with scientific knowledge (Edward Wilson?)

In US it is preservation v/s utilitarianism debate.

In India it is subsistence v/s commerce, local v/s national, peasant v/s industry

 Proposes a new philosophy (Social Ecology) blending the idea of diversity (from tribal), the idea of sustainability (from agrarian) and the idea of equity (from scientific).

Democracy in the Forest

Indian Forest Dept – started in 1864

1878 Indian Forest Act divided forests into

• State or reserved forests that could lend themselves to commercial exploitation
• Protected forests
• Village forests – never came into existence

Jotibau Phule

Verrier Elwin – pioneer of ecological anthropology

Dietrich Brandis – first Inspector General of Forests appreciated the sacred groves or “devara kadus”

Van panchayats of Kumaon and Garhwal (1930s).

A vision of forestry in India

i) benefits sharing and local control are the key incentives to ensuring sustainable management

ii) community controlled forests must work as a complement to a network of more strictly controlled forests

Authoritarianism in the Wild

Five major groups behind the movement for wildlife conservation in the developing world

• City dwellers and foreign tourists who merely season their lives, a week at a time, with the wild
• Ruling elites who view protection of a particular species (eg: tigers) as central to the retention or enhancement of national prestige
• International conservation organizations usch as IUCN, WWF who work with a sense of mission at educating people and politicians about the virtues of biological conservation
• Functionaries of the state forest or wildlife service who majorly are motivated merely the power and spin-off benefits that come with the job
• Biologists who believe in wilderness and species preservation for the sake of science

These five groups are united in their hostility to farmers, herders, swiddeners and hunters who have lived in the wild from well before it became a park or sanctuary

The conservationist wants to protect the tiger or whale for posterity yet expects other people to make the sacrifice.

The fact that conservationists pointing to the destructive potential of millions of adivasis getting forest rights, conveniently hide under their carpet their own destructive life styles – Ashish Kothari

 Historical Social Ecology - Lewis Mumford

Patron saints of American Enviromentalism – naturalist and nature lover John Muir, forester and biologist Aldo Leopold

 Subaltern Social Ecology – Chandi Prasad Bhatt similar to Chico Mendes and Waangari Mathai’s works but has received very little publicity

Represents a spirit of quiet service that once existed freely in Indian politics and activism.

Democratic Social Ecology – Madhav Gadgil ecology for the people document in nov 1989

 Project Lifescape

 Bamboo was supplied by state to paper mills at a subsidized rate of Rs 1 / tonne. Basket weavers had to pay market rate of Rs 5000 / tonne !

Save the Western Ghats march of 1987

 The last chapter on which the book title is based on however comes as an anti-climax.

If you are expecting some answers then you are bound to be disappointed. Perhaps one should not expect it given that Guha’s forte is history and not future prediction.

 Wendell Berry – conservation is going to prove increasingly futile and increasingly meaningless if its proscriptions and forbiddings are not positively answered by an economy that rewards and enforces good use. He was convinced that wildernessses cannot survive if economy does not change.

The growing popular interest in the wild and the beautiful not merely accepted the parameters of the affluent society but tended to see nature itself as merely one more good to be consumed.

 The economic imperialism of a single tiny island kingdom (England) is today keeping the world in chains. If an entire nation of 300 million took to similar economic exploitation, it would strip the world bare like locusts – Mahatma Gandhi, 1928.

One of the key contributions of the Indian environmental movement has been to point to inequalities of consumption within a society or nation.

Analytical Social Ecology framework: omnivores and ecosystem people

Omnivores: Rich farmers, industrialists, state officials and the growing middle class based in the cities – have the capability of drawing upon the natural resources from the whole of India to maintain their lifestyles.

Ecosystem people: Roughly 2/3rds of the population rely for the most part on resources within their local vicinity. These are small and marginal farmers on rain-fed tracts, landless laborers, hunter-gatherers, swidden agriculturists, animal herders, artisans..

Development is the channelizing of ever increasing volume of natural resources via the state apparatus and at the cost of the exchequer  to serve the interests of rural and urban omnivores.

1. The concentration of political power/ decision making in the hands of ominvores

2. The use of state machinery to divert natural resource to islands of omnivore prosperity especially through the use of subsidies. Eg: wood for paper mills, fertilizers for rich farmers, water & power for urban dwellers.

3. The culture of subsidies has fostered indifference among omnivores to the environmental degradation caused by them. This has been compounded by their ability to pass on most costs to ecosystem people and to society at large.

4. Projects based on capture of wood, water and minerals such as eucalyptus plantations, large dams and open cast mining have tended to disposess eco-system people who previously enjoyed ready access to these resources.

5. “Development” has created a third class of people – ecological refugees who are permanently displaced in large numbers from their homes and end up in slums and temporary shelters in the towns and cities.

Romantic economist, Romantic environmentalist (agrarian, primitivist) – fallacies

Ecosystem people want to be omnivores L

Not only do the rich and powerful consume more than their fair share of the world’s resources they are also usually better protected from the consequences of environmental degradation.

Wuppertal Institute report: Greening the North 1998.

Title: Rural development   

Subtitle(s): putting the last first;

Author: Chambers, Robert

ISBN: 81-297-0255-X

classification:307.14 CHA

By,

Jagadish S.

VILD

Mysore

Summary:

This is primarily aimed at researchers (outsiders) who are concerned with rural poverty but are not rural or poor themselves. This group includes people from govt. depts. NGOs, political parties, commercial organizations, academic institutions. I feel this is a "must read" for people who are concerned with rural poverty in some way or the other.

Chapter 1 starts off with the biases which the outsiders bring in due to their being urban based, literate, and relatively well off. These are categorized as

1. Spatial biases: research visits are pre-conditioned by the availability of roads and proximity to the urban centers.

2. Project bias: Focus is on places where already projects are running and are successful.

3. Person biases: People who are already "progressive" trying out new initiatives, who are local elites, who are more communicative are preferred.

4. Dry season bias: Preference to dry (non monsoon) season for visits

5. Diplomatic biases: Politeness and Timidity

6. Professional biases: Due to the person's own background which creates narrow specialized boundaries.

Chapter 2: Talks of two categories of outsiders

The first is the negative academic culture mainly of social scientists engaged in unhurried analysis and criticism

and secondly the positive culture of practitioners engaged in time bound action. The author stresses on the need for a balance between the two diverse views.

Chapter 3: Gets into the mechanisms adopted by outsiders to learn about the rural conditions. These are categorized into two - appraisals which are less formal and brief and research which is more formal and takes longer. The author tries to seek a middle ground for cost effective learning.

 There is a good section detailing the pitfalls of questionnaire surveys which would be of value to anyone taking up this activity especially students.

 There are examples of alternate approaches which are inventive, adaptable and open to information other than what is directly sought. They also spanned the two extremes - addressing practical problems and the academic world.

The next chapter on knowledge puts the focus on the knowledge innate with the rural people themselves. There is a valuable observation that most of the useful rural  knowledge seems to be in the area of agriculture while the harmful beliefs are found more in health and nutrition. This could be that the scope for observation and experimentation is higher in the former. Also the emotional engagement in the latter could seek out social and spiritual reasons than physical explanation as in the former.

Chapter 5 talks about the deprivation trap which links poverty, physical weakness, isolation, vulnerability and powerlessness to each other.

The next chapter talks about seeing what to do to tackle the challenge of deprivation trap on all its dimensions.

An interesting  is how acceptability of different approaches changes across the dimensions in Table 6.2

Dimension                  Examples of direct approaches                     Acceptability

Physical Deprivation     Eye camps, feeding programs                         High

Isolation                      Roads, Education,                         

Vulnerability                Seasonal public works, seasonal credit

                                  crop insurance, preventive health

Poverty                       Distribution of new assets

                                  Re distribution of old assets

Powerlessness            Legal aid, enforcement of liberal laws                         Low

                                  trade union, non violent political change

                                  violent political change                                                                                                    

Table 6.1 is also useful in terms how benefits of different approaches tend to impact the rural poor and elite (and hence determine the acceptability of the approaches).

Chapter 7 talks about "putting the last first" - basically reversing the biases mentioned in Chapter 1 and put the rural poor and their priorities first.

Chapter 8 talks about Practical Action

Some interesting approaches for reversing the learning process are - sitting, asking and listening, learning  from the poorest, learning indigenous technical knowledge,  joint R&D, learning by working and simulation games.  They encourage and enable those being trained or educated to learn from the many below and not just from the few above.

On the whole the book makes for an interesting reading pushing one to introspect while looking at rural development.

 

Title: Advanced coal technologies for power generation in India

Author: Kolar, Ajit Kumar
Published by : National Institute of Advanced Studies
Pages:   106 p. , 21 cm.
ISBN: 81-901089-8-0
classification:553.21 KOL
By, 
Jagadish S.
VILD
Mysore.
 Summary:
This is an advanced book written by IIT professors for technologist/engineers working in this field. For non specialists the only part of any interest is the first chapter (about 30 pages).
Executive Summary
Has some data on electrical power generation 5000 MWe in 1947 growing to 86000 MWe in 1997. 70% of it is coal based thermal power.
The authors argue for a judicious mix of various sources renewable or otherwise while coal remains the mainstay.
Primary environmental issues with coal based technology  - Greenhouse effects of carbon di oxide and nitrous oxide. Acid rain effect due to sulfur dioxide and nitric oxide. Harmful effects on life due to noxious gases.
Indian coal is high in ash but low in sulfur. The technologies of the advanced countries may not be suitable as they are geared for low ash and high sulfur content coal.  The idea is to adapt suitable technology to satisy the four Es - Efficiency, Environment, Economics and Employment generation.
A four way strategy of - new technologies to use conventional sources more effectively (and in an environment friendly fashion), complementary technologies based on renewable sources, development of energy conserving techniques & energy saving devices, better energy management.
The introduction also gives national ambient air quality standards prescribed plus international emission standards for thermal power plants.
Given the narrow focus of the book it is only to be expected that the environment issues are not dealt in great detail.