Gandhi and deep ecology : experiencing the nonhuman environment

The present study concentrates on the experience ofnature in the life of Mohandas K. Gandhi. This detailedenvironmental biography of Gandhi follows him from theearly years in India, through his years in England as ayoung man and on to South Africa where his beliefs abouthumanity's proper relationship with the nonhuman world wereshaped. There is also a detailed examination of hisdietary and nature-cure experiments which date from hisyears in England, 1888 - 1891, with a discussion of theoriginal works that he cites in his own writings. Dietinvolves a most intimate relationship with the nonhumanenvironment. Gandhi sought a diet which involved the leastunavoidable violence and which the poor could afford.Health for Gandhi was a state of total well-being - social,physical and spiritual.Gandhi established communities of workers dedicated toservice, first in South Africa at Phoenix Settlement andTolstoy Farm, and then in India at Sabarmati Ashram andSevagram. Here his respect for the integrity of otherliving beings was tested by experience. Rabid dogs, thethreat of venomous snakes to both livestock and humans, andthe nuisance of monkeys pilfering from the ashram's fruittrees and vegetables were situations that had to beresolved.Since its inception in 1972 the Deep Ecology movementhas been linked with the name of the Norwegianecophilosopher Arne Naess, who has also devoted many yearsto an analysis of Gandhi's philosophy. The experience ofnature and reflection on humanity's right relationship withthe nonhuman environment is brought up to the present-dayvia a consideration of some of the individuals andindigenous people that deep ecology acknowledges as part ofits background, such as Henry Thoreau, John Muir, MaryAustin, Aldo Leopold and Richard St. Barbe Baker