What do rivers mean to us as a society?
SARANDHA
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Riverfront development and its significance in our personal and collective ecologies
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Indians have shared deep-rooted and multi-faceted links with their natural environment. Rivers have been a perennial source of inspiration for creativity, symbols of enlightenment and sights for a plethora of cultural activities. An intrinsic part of all rites of passage, from birth to death, Indian rivers seem to invoke both celebration and sorrow. So much a part of both the mundane and the sublime, they are almost taken for granted, and yet revered deeply.
With ’advancement’, a rupture of well-established and yet vulnerable links between nature and culture has emerged, as the evil twin of development. As India is opening up new avenues for investment, rapid construction of world class cities has become the order of the day. Every part of the country speaks the same story of ‘development’.
Subjugating Nature
This has stirred a massive hunger for natural resources, which now dictates the way we perceive our relationship with our environment — no longer an association of love and respect, but that of control and command, where nature turns from a source of inspiration to a commodity, a resource to be exploited, before anyone else does. The world is now a reservoir of raw material, waiting to be utilised.
With development, Yamuna became a depositary of all things unwanted and marginal — waste, sewage and the poor. River-use has thus changed.
This drastically reduced the visits of people from the city who found other means of recreation, like malls, television and the computer. Fishermen either took to other marginal occupations or migrated out, as no longer could the polluted Yamuna offer them any fish. Finding the filthy river harmful, dhobis too moved out. Besides, who needs traditional dhobis in the world of machine washed clothes?
Development also brought in a spate of infrastructural reforms like bridges to cross the river, along with cars to boost the pace of life. Boats and boatmen were now useless and slow! As for ashrams, these don’t match the stature of a globalised world class city! Small-time temples need to be replaced with architectural wonders. And slums are a big no-no and must be demolished at the first instance.
Market driven culture
The sight of poverty does not suit the idea of a city-beautiful. The riverside is meant for upper-class housing anyway! Not only is there a cultural disconnect with the river, but also a visual disconnect, as most access points to the river have been closed, walls have been built, high railings on the sides of the bridges, embankment after embankment. In order to ‘preserve’ the river, the government has managed to remove the river from the imagination of people’s minds. The little Riverfront Culture that can be found by the Yamuna in Delhi today is also fragmented. Most people’s lands and livelihoods have been snatched away and many have been rendered homeless.
The Yamuna that invited plural ways of interaction with it, in a pluralistic society was to now submit itself to only one reality, the one that the state/market decides. The usage that has taken the state’s fancy is without doubt an anti-people and anti-environment one, given the name of Riverfront Development. In this usage, literally a ’usage’ and nothing more, the river is reduced from being an awe-inspiring entity to an added feature to attract consumers. River quality and health will be improved only to facilitate this. But where is the river in this Riverfront Development?
The state committed blunders by appropriating common property resources of the people, under centralised control and disconnecting people from them. It is committing a second blunder by now transferring this control to the market, instead of giving it back to the people. The essence of this argument is to re-establish people’s relationships with their habitat for a more democratic and sustainable life. Rivers have, in history, belonged to the people, to communities, and not to the state authority. The people, having a sense of belonging and association with the river, took care of it and expressed concern for it.
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