<p>The debate on the ever-alive topic ‘Does God exist?’ between the well-known poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar, an atheist, and the graduate of Islamic studies Mufti Shamail Nadwi, a believer, has drawn much interest and comment. Akhtar is the darling of those who stand with reason, logic and secularism, values that are under attack in India today. He is the first Indian to win a little-known Richard Dawkins Award, which is presented annually to a “distinguished individual... who publicly proclaims the values of secularism and rationalism, upholding scientific truth wherever it may lead.” But we may ask: Where exactly has modernity and value-free science led us? The sting lies in this counter-question that found no place in the Akhtar-Nadwi television-style debate. The march of science and technology, fused into a compact called technoscience, has delivered remarkable progress on the one hand but, on the other hand, has brought exploitation at a scale so stunning that it has also delivered the unfolding climate crisis, brought humanity to the edge of an ecological disaster, and landed us in the age of the Anthropocene.</p>.<p>There is progress at an immediate and material level for a few, but regress at a long-term planetary scale, an essentially Western-style plunder and conquest of “mother nature” that is often traced right back to the 17th century and the dawn of the Age of Reason, and the subsequent Enlightenment movement of the 18th century. The march deep-wired the scientific method and the reductionist approach, which brought the wonders of modern science in discoveries and inventions that continue to this day. But this science also became a religion of sorts that prayed at the altar of objectivity, maximised extraction and so-called efficiency, and somewhere in the process dehumanised the project of humanity living in peace on a fragile planet.</p>.Explained | Controversy on redefining Aravallis.<p>Earth as the “pale blue dot”, the image of our planet as a flicker in the cosmic vastness, brings humility and inspires awe. But that perspective is lost when science becomes a cold and calculated excavation by equipment and equations that dice and slice nature to study its innards but miss the wonder of its systemic connectedness and wholeness.</p>.<p>This diminished understanding of nature is at the root of the crisis across the world, but particularly in India, where rising air and water pollution, biodiversity loss, and concrete or plastic poured into sensitive ecosystems are the visible hot spots in a blind race to growth towards a mythical national greatness. The attempted takeover of the Aravalli mountain range by business groups under the label of progress and growth is only the latest chapter in this long-running game of a nation that has forsaken nature in its quest for mindless extraction. These policies continue to be built on approaches that the advanced economies of Europe have long given up as they moved towards some form of sustainability.</p>.<p>With the sense of the sacred gone, the Aravalli range that forms the oldest fold mountains (so-called because they ‘fold up’ when earth’s tectonic plates collide) on the planet is seen as 800 km of dead rock to be exploited for resources and material assets for consumption here and now, at a cost that will be paid much later and will never be fully comprehended. Yet when what is dismissed as profane is given the status of the sacred, the Aravalli mountain range becomes the god that guides and protects. In the words of an official document of the government, it “gently guides the monsoon clouds eastwards towards Shimla and Nainital, thus helping nurture the sub-Himalayan rivers and feeding the north Indian plains”.</p>.<p><strong>Violence on the sacred</strong></p>.<p>India sits at the bottom of the ranks of countries in the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), which combines a range of indicators such as climate change mitigation, air pollution, waste management, sustainability of fisheries and agriculture, deforestation, and biodiversity protection. The EPI is produced by centres working under Yale and Columbia Universities. The 2024 listing showed India at rank 176 out of 180, ahead of Pakistan (179) but behind Bangladesh (175), China (156), and Sri Lanka (134). The government has dismissed earlier versions of the ranking as unscientific.</p>.<p>Ironically, a government and a system that seeks to reclaim the Indian ethos and the ancient Indian way of life is today working with models that are precisely the opposite. For example, the very first verse of the Isha Upanishad tells us that the entire universe, animate and inanimate, is enveloped by god or Isha (Ishaavasyamidam sarvam), a verse that Gandhi said captured the essence of the entire Hindu philosophy. But instead of nature being worshipped as a form of the Lord, as seen in the Upanishadic understanding, this government has embraced development models that turn the scriptures and all that is held sacred on their head. Coupled with this violence is the attendant violence of crony capitalism, the violence embedded in growing inequality, and the violence in showcasing a growth militarism that counts numbers but forgets people.</p>.<p>None of this is to suggest that India must reject science or progress, but to ask for an ecological intelligence that sees that the tools of science may not always bring progress, particularly when we disregard the subjective experience or forget that small can also be beautiful, as the economist EF Schumacher put it. This is often explained by ecologists as the Gaia hypothesis, named for the primordial Greek goddess of the Earth, which tells us how our planet is a delicately balanced self-regulating system, alive and conscious, the one planet we call home that gives and protects, and deserves to be protected. This is the simple yet profound truth, and if truth is god, this is the god we need in our troubled times.</p>.<p>(The writer is a journalist and faculty member at SPJIMR; Syndicate: The Billion Press)</p><p><em>Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.<br></em></p>
<p>The debate on the ever-alive topic ‘Does God exist?’ between the well-known poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar, an atheist, and the graduate of Islamic studies Mufti Shamail Nadwi, a believer, has drawn much interest and comment. Akhtar is the darling of those who stand with reason, logic and secularism, values that are under attack in India today. He is the first Indian to win a little-known Richard Dawkins Award, which is presented annually to a “distinguished individual... who publicly proclaims the values of secularism and rationalism, upholding scientific truth wherever it may lead.” But we may ask: Where exactly has modernity and value-free science led us? The sting lies in this counter-question that found no place in the Akhtar-Nadwi television-style debate. The march of science and technology, fused into a compact called technoscience, has delivered remarkable progress on the one hand but, on the other hand, has brought exploitation at a scale so stunning that it has also delivered the unfolding climate crisis, brought humanity to the edge of an ecological disaster, and landed us in the age of the Anthropocene.</p>.<p>There is progress at an immediate and material level for a few, but regress at a long-term planetary scale, an essentially Western-style plunder and conquest of “mother nature” that is often traced right back to the 17th century and the dawn of the Age of Reason, and the subsequent Enlightenment movement of the 18th century. The march deep-wired the scientific method and the reductionist approach, which brought the wonders of modern science in discoveries and inventions that continue to this day. But this science also became a religion of sorts that prayed at the altar of objectivity, maximised extraction and so-called efficiency, and somewhere in the process dehumanised the project of humanity living in peace on a fragile planet.</p>.Explained | Controversy on redefining Aravallis.<p>Earth as the “pale blue dot”, the image of our planet as a flicker in the cosmic vastness, brings humility and inspires awe. But that perspective is lost when science becomes a cold and calculated excavation by equipment and equations that dice and slice nature to study its innards but miss the wonder of its systemic connectedness and wholeness.</p>.<p>This diminished understanding of nature is at the root of the crisis across the world, but particularly in India, where rising air and water pollution, biodiversity loss, and concrete or plastic poured into sensitive ecosystems are the visible hot spots in a blind race to growth towards a mythical national greatness. The attempted takeover of the Aravalli mountain range by business groups under the label of progress and growth is only the latest chapter in this long-running game of a nation that has forsaken nature in its quest for mindless extraction. These policies continue to be built on approaches that the advanced economies of Europe have long given up as they moved towards some form of sustainability.</p>.<p>With the sense of the sacred gone, the Aravalli range that forms the oldest fold mountains (so-called because they ‘fold up’ when earth’s tectonic plates collide) on the planet is seen as 800 km of dead rock to be exploited for resources and material assets for consumption here and now, at a cost that will be paid much later and will never be fully comprehended. Yet when what is dismissed as profane is given the status of the sacred, the Aravalli mountain range becomes the god that guides and protects. In the words of an official document of the government, it “gently guides the monsoon clouds eastwards towards Shimla and Nainital, thus helping nurture the sub-Himalayan rivers and feeding the north Indian plains”.</p>.<p><strong>Violence on the sacred</strong></p>.<p>India sits at the bottom of the ranks of countries in the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), which combines a range of indicators such as climate change mitigation, air pollution, waste management, sustainability of fisheries and agriculture, deforestation, and biodiversity protection. The EPI is produced by centres working under Yale and Columbia Universities. The 2024 listing showed India at rank 176 out of 180, ahead of Pakistan (179) but behind Bangladesh (175), China (156), and Sri Lanka (134). The government has dismissed earlier versions of the ranking as unscientific.</p>.<p>Ironically, a government and a system that seeks to reclaim the Indian ethos and the ancient Indian way of life is today working with models that are precisely the opposite. For example, the very first verse of the Isha Upanishad tells us that the entire universe, animate and inanimate, is enveloped by god or Isha (Ishaavasyamidam sarvam), a verse that Gandhi said captured the essence of the entire Hindu philosophy. But instead of nature being worshipped as a form of the Lord, as seen in the Upanishadic understanding, this government has embraced development models that turn the scriptures and all that is held sacred on their head. Coupled with this violence is the attendant violence of crony capitalism, the violence embedded in growing inequality, and the violence in showcasing a growth militarism that counts numbers but forgets people.</p>.<p>None of this is to suggest that India must reject science or progress, but to ask for an ecological intelligence that sees that the tools of science may not always bring progress, particularly when we disregard the subjective experience or forget that small can also be beautiful, as the economist EF Schumacher put it. This is often explained by ecologists as the Gaia hypothesis, named for the primordial Greek goddess of the Earth, which tells us how our planet is a delicately balanced self-regulating system, alive and conscious, the one planet we call home that gives and protects, and deserves to be protected. This is the simple yet profound truth, and if truth is god, this is the god we need in our troubled times.</p>.<p>(The writer is a journalist and faculty member at SPJIMR; Syndicate: The Billion Press)</p><p><em>Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.<br></em></p>
