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SEKHAR: THE ŚRAMAŅA RESPONSE TO THE HUMAN PREDICAMENT 39 1.2 The Environmental degradation
Another area of concern is the environmental issue and people who are affected by it directly. Nature and humans are so close to each other for mutual existence and sustenance. To say that man lives from nature means that nature is his body with which he must remain in a continuous interchange in order not to die.4
But the growing menace of pollution of nature is like stripping the mother goddess naked and insulting her. The spoiling of man's water resources like rivers, ponds, lakes and even oceans and the poisoning of the atmosphere with chemicals because of the high concentration of industries and factories, throwing out the garbage and solid wastes anywhere at our convenience, the high level noise specially in urban areas that harms the nervous system of man, the petrol and diesel fumes from vehicles which affect even some sensitive plants like tobacco, potato and some cereal crops and certain flowers etc. are but some of the results of the 'pollution menance'.5 They harm both nature and man.
The environmental destruction had led to the intensification of poverty and destitution of the forest dwellers by way of non-availability of food, fuel, fodder, fertiliser and construction material, non-availability of medical herbs etc. While the 'social cost' in such a despicable condition is very much ignored the material side of the scene is still worse, namely, floods, droughts, sedimentation and other forms of ecological damage like soil erosion, wind and water erosion etc.
1.3 Problem of fundamentalism
India faces today the problem of fundamentalism. Basically it is a 'defect' in attitude. We all live a life of compartmentalisation. We often do not know what the other believes and practices. This type of ignorance sometimes leads us to petty quarrels, fights and other harmful relationships. At other times it takes the form of tolerance or to put it negatively 'touch-me-not' attitude. As long as one does not interfere in the other's business there is no problem. But it is not definitely a 'positive' encounter, which implies seriousness and learning, adapting and modifying and becoming the other in sharing.
As long as one affirms one's own faith or ideology as the only truth there is not much opening to such rare experiences. Fundamentalism is a kind of 'closure'. The eyes are turned introvert and there is a 4. S. Kappan, -Marxian Atheism, Bangalore, 1983, p. 57-58. 5. N. Seshagiri, -Pollution, National Book Trust, India, 1982, p. 6-11.
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