Making friends with Gandhi, the environmentalist
Ananya Pathak and Vikash Sharma
In the contemporary world, one of the most pressing challenges before us is related to the environment and how over the last few decades we have seen its degradation and exploitation in pursuit of relentless development. It would not be wrong to say that environmental issues have only begun to capture our attention in a significant manner in recent years, as large-scale and indiscriminate industrial practices have exposed heightened destruction of natural resources.
The environment was important to Gandhi’s vision of the world and he advocated for a strong and reciprocal relationship between human beings and Nature, a relationship that was far from being exploitative or merely utilitarian. In fact, he vehemently opposed the advent of modernity on the pretext of its relentless exploitation of Nature for short-term gains.
It is not difficult for a keen reader to find a deep-felt concern across many of his writings regarding the need for exercising some sort of restraint with respect to how we relate to the environment or make use of its resources. In fact, many environmentalists, activists, and sensitive human beings across the planet are today echoing these concerns and advocating for mechanisms to generate awareness of environmental issues and emphasizing the need to redefine our relationship with it. Gandhi’s ideas about the environment have gained a renewed importance within the discourse on environmental conservation and indeed we have many lessons to learn from it.
This article discusses some engaging and thought-provoking activities that we did with young learners (between the age groups of 13-17 years) at Shiksha Swaraj Centre, so that we could help them understand the importance of building an ‘environmental conscience’.

Greed vs. need: can there be satisfaction without exploitation?
Gandhi was troubled by industrialization and its pursuit of mindless exploitation. He feared that if not stopped, we will soon witness a time when we would have exploited all of Earth’s resources and there will still not be enough to meet people’s endless demands. Taking the discourse further, Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj talks about sustainable environment-friendly practices including those that can help us revise farming/agricultural practices. Gandhi insists that we must devise ways to think of a society that is ‘harmonious’ with Nature, does not practice any sort of violence against Nature and develops a kind of self-reliance that allows one to live a life free of poverty without exploiting Nature.
At Shiksha Swaraj Centre, the children have been learning to grow plants keeping in mind the ethics of organic farming. This has involved learning to use minimally invasive farming practices, growing chemical-pesticide free fruits and vegetables, developing natural manure using vegetable and plant waste, harvesting rainwater and encouraging the growth of a natural ecosystem around the campus that helps several plant, insect, and animal species flourish. The campus pond is home to several fish, tadpoles, frogs, water-borne insects and attracts seasonal birds and other animals contributing, in a humble yet significant manner, to a thriving biodiversity. The children have made a biodiversity museum where they keep dead species, research them, and write down the information they have collected, so that visitors or fellow students may gain from it.
Carpentry, farming, and food: harmonizing the mind and body

We have had several discussions on ‘conscious’ eating, reducing wastage, and developing a healthy mind-body relationship that is in tune with Nature. The Gandhian insistence on integrating the intellectual and the manual throughout his educational philosophy has also been incorporated into our curriculum. Thus, along with regular academics, children have learnt various manual skills like the art of weaving bamboo baskets, making pen stands, bookshelves, tables with discarded wood, etc. While these may look like simple exercises in carpentry, they require mathematical skills like measurement, understanding of angles and proportions, and knowledge of physics principles like weight, balance, and pressure among others.
Similarly, living in tune with Nature also implies being aware of how and what one eats. Gandhi often talked about the land and the soil. He advocated an economy based on artisan skills such as spinning of cotton cloth, repairing of agricultural tools, art, and craft. For him, this was a way of relieving agricultural populations of any form of dependence on machine based economies. In line with his views on Nature, Gandhi talked about ‘conscious eating’, which is being practiced on the campus, where we learn to eat in balance – healthy, simple, environmentally sustainable food shared with each other with a sense of love and gratitude. What’s more, the kids have also begun to nurture a small garden full of medicinal plants including neem, tulsi, aloevera, hibiscus, and eucalyptus.
Over the last couple of months, the children have also conducted research on and developed their own understanding about the several environmental movements that have taken inspiration from Gandhi, including the Chipko Movement. At the Centre, we have repeatedly held heartfelt discussions on sensitive issues like development, economic growth, sustainability, sustenance, etc. Together, we have begun to realize how Gandhi’s ideas on the environment are intertwined with his ideas about other things, including politics, economy, health, and development. That is why, when we approach him from one perspective, we are encouraged to incorporate and delve deeper into his views on other fronts. Our engagement with him has brought about differences, disagreements, and diverse perspectives too and perhaps it is this democratic, non-judgemental and open-ended way of approaching Gandhi that is the need of our times. We must, after all, agree to disagree!
But what cannot perhaps be overlooked is the fact that over the last few months, our experiments with Gandhi have paved innumerable new ideas for exploration and inspiration for rethinking how we look at life. It has given us an opportunity to engage meaningfully with his vision of the world.
Ananya Pathak and Vikash Sharma are co-founders of Shiksha Swaraj Creative Learning Centre, Patna, Bihar. They work on developing innovative and sustainable curricular programs for young learners. They can be reached atananyapathaak@gmail.com.