Legends in Gandhian Social Activism: Mira Behn and Sarala Behn: Addressing Environmental Issues By Dissolving Gender And Colonial Barriers (Ecology and Ethics)

"This book is about Madeleine Slade (1892-1982) and Catherine Mary Heilemann (1901-1982), two English associates of Mohandas K. (Mahatma) Gandhi (1869-1948), known in India as Mira Behn and Sarala Behn. The odysseys of these women present a counternarrative to the forces of imperialism, colonialism, capitalism, and globalized development. The book examines their extraordinary journey to India to work with Gandhi and their roles in Indias independence movement, their spiritual strivings, their independent work in the Himalayas, and most importantly, their contribution to the evolution of Gandhian philosophy of socio-economic reconstruction and environmental conservation in the present Indian state of Uttarakhand. The author shows that these women developed ideas and practices that drew from an extensive intellectual terrain that cannot be limited to Gandhis work. She delineates directions in which Gandhian thought and experiments in rural development work and visions of a new society evolved through the lives, activism, and written contributions of these two women. Their thought and practice generated a new cultural consciousness on sustainability that had a key influence in environmental debates in India and beyond and were responsible for two of the most important environmental movements of India and the world: the Chipko Movement or the movement against commercial green felling of trees by hugging them, and the protest against the Tehri high dam on the Bhagirathi River. To this day, their teachings and philosophies constitute a useful and significant contribution to the search for and implementation of global ideas of ecological conservation and human development"--Page 4 of cover Foreword Foreword by Rozzi et al. Acknowledgments Contents Chapter 1: General Introduction: Becoming Weavers: Worldviews, Society, and Ecology 1.1 Mira Behn, Sarala Behn, and “Gandhi’s Ghost” 1.2 People’s Movements in Uttarakhand Himalaya: The Missing “Spiritual Link” 1.3 Gandhi and Western Women: Daughters or Disciples? 1.4 Europeans in Colonial India: Race, Gender, and Culture Tropes 1.5 Worldviews and Sustainability 1.6 How This Book Came to Be 1.7 Telling the Story References Part I: Introduction to Part I: The Road Taken : Early Life and Work in India with Gandhi References Chapter 2: Mira Behn: When the Spirit Becomes the Guide 2.1 Early Spiritual Stirrings 2.2 Beethoven and “The Enigma” 2.3 From Rolland to Gandhi: “Beyond the Realm of Reasoned Thought” 2.4 A Stride Beyond East or West 2.5 Ashram Life 2.6 The Gandhi–Mira Behn Relationship 2.7 Colonial Repression and the Fight for Freedom 2.8 Defying Borders: Cross-Cultural Conversations 2.9 The Sevagram Ashram 2.10 Back to the Roots: Constructive Work and the Struggle for Inner Peace 2.11 Quit India Movement 2.12 The Final Years with Gandhi 2.13 The Return to Beethoven References Chapter 3: Sarala Behn: She Who Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways 3.1 Early Life and Struggles 3.2 A Turning Point 3.3 The Dawn of a New Life 3.4 A Momentous Meeting 3.5 Life in the Hill Country 3.6 Combating Colonial Repression with Missionary Zeal 3.7 Lakshmi Ashram: New Values of Life 3.8 Feminism, Identity, and Spirituality 3.9 Mother of Sarvodaya Movements References Part II: Introduction to Part II: Gandhian Sarvodaya and the Challenge to Development Reference Chapter 4: Gandhi and Science? Rethinking Science, Technology, and Development the Gandhian Way 4.1 The Gandhi of the Spinning Wheel, Loin Cloth, and Bullock Cart 4.2 Gandhi’s Views on Science, Technology, and Development 4.3 The Constructive Program—Science and Education for All 4.4 The Gandhian “Utopia”: Challenges and Relevance 4.5 Gandhi vs. Nehru: Nation-State and Development 4.6 Gandhian Democracy and Development: Swaraj and Sarvodaya 4.7 Winds of Change: The Last Will and Testament of Gandhi References Chapter 5: Off the Beaten Path: Mira Behn and Himalayan Environment and Development 5.1 The Rural-Minded Constructive Worker 5.2 Mountain Environment and Development 5.2.1 The Beginnings: Agriculture and Cattle Economy at Kisan Ashram 5.2.2 Pashulok: Problems of Land, Animals, and the Himalayan Economy 5.2.2.1 Problems of a Holy City 5.2.2.2 Fighting the Food Problem 5.2.3 The Forest Problem 5.2.4 Movements for Land and Equity: Bapu Raj vs. the Bhoodan 5.3 Mountain Environment and Development: The Bhilangana Community Development Project 5.4 New Pastures: Sustainable Cattle Development in the Mountains 5.5 Conclusion References Chapter 6: From Reform to Revolution: Sarala Behn, Nai Talim, and the Rise of Local Women’s Power 6.1 Rethinking Education and Social Change 6.2 Science, Development, and Modern Institutional Education 6.3 The Educational Philosophy of Sarala Behn 6.4 An Experiment in Transforming Subjectivities: Basic Education and the Bhoodan Movement 6.5 The Movement Against Alcohol Abuse 6.6 Broadening Spheres Beyond the Hills References Part III: Introduction to Part III: The Battle for the Hill Environment: The Behns in Gandhian Activism References Chapter 7: Saving the Forests: Ecology in Sarvodaya 7.1 Hugging Trees: A Relationship with Nature 7.2 History of Development of the Himalayan Economy and Growth of Natural Resource Conflicts 7.2.1 Socioeconomic and Ecological Transformations in the Indian Himalayas 7.2.2 The Rise of Resource Conflict in the Mountains 7.3 Revisiting the Chipko: Overview and Review of Past Studies 7.3.1 The Chipko Movement in Brief 7.3.2 Common Perceptions and Evaluations of the Chipko: A Brief Review 7.4 The Ecological Foundations of the Chipko Movement: Contributions of Mira Behn and Sarala Behn 7.4.1 Mira Behn and Himalayan Deforestation: Early Consciousness About Ecological Sustainability and Rise of the Chipko Movement 7.4.2 Early Organization and Emergence of the Chipko Movement 7.4.3 Sarala Behn and the Emergence and Growth of Sustainability Consciousness in the Chipko Movement 7.4.3.1 Sarala Behn and the Evolving Philosophical Ground of the Chipko 7.4.3.2 The Beginning of a Conservation Ethic: The Early Organization and Protests (1972–1977) 7.4.3.3 The Advani Protests and March for the Conservation Ethic 7.4.3.4 Changes in Forest Policy and the Role of Mira Behn and Sarala Behn 7.4.3.5 Widening of Chipko and the Global Connections 7.4.4 Rift Within Chipko and Organizational Breakdown 7.4.5 The Significance of the Role of Mira Behn and Sarala Behn in Chipko References Chapter 8: Protesting the Dam: Vision of a Permanent Economy 8.1 A Movement and New Thoughts on Mountain Sustainability 8.2 Revisiting the Tehri Dam Debate 8.3 The Behns and Bahuguna: The Anti-Tehri Dam Movement and Permanent Economy 8.3.1 Sarala Behn: Ecological Consciousness in the Anti-Tehri Dam Movement 8.3.2 Mira Behn on Large Dams, Development, and Nature of the “Permanent Economy” 8.4 Recovering the Behns’ Narrative on the Anti-Tehri Dam Debate 8.5 Toward New Horizons References Part IV: Introduction to Part IV: The Bridge Builders: The Integrative Worldviews of Mira Behn and Sarala Behn References Chapter 9: Beauty, Wonder, and Sustainability: Reconnecting Humans to Nature for “Durable Harmony” 9.1 A “Pragmatic Turn” in Environmental Ethics 9.2 Aesthetic Spirituality and Its Role in Nature and Society 9.2.1 Musical Encounter and Its Transformations 9.2.2 Closing the Ethics-Aesthetics Gap: A Moral-Spiritual Aesthetics of Art, Ecology, and Community 9.3 Ecology, Community, and Aesthetics: Living in Joy and Harmony with Nature 9.4 An Integral Ecological Aesthetics References Chapter 10: Holistic Education and Practical Spirituality for Human-Nature Harmony 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Transforming the Self and Society: Integrated Education and Women’s Empowerment 10.3 “Practical Spirituality” and Human-Nature Harmony 10.4 Conservation Through Cooperation and Synthesis References Chapter 11: Bridging Divides: The Living Legends of the Behns 11.1 Sustainability: The Behns’ Way 11.2 Cosmopolitanism in a Divided World 11.3 Whither Uttarakhand? References Index