Power And Responsibility

There is an urgent need for organisations in India to warm up to the idea of sustainability.

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HISTORICALLY, INDIA HAS BEEN a country where waste was mostly taboo and living in harmony with nature, a cherished cultural norm. The ancient scriptures looked upon life as a gift to be celebrated and the earth was seen as something to be praised and worshipped. The Isha Upanishad, a sixth-century Sanskrit text has talked about all life forms living in harmony with the earth system without encroaching upon each other’s rights. Ancient wisdom also frowned upon waste and everything in the Indian cities and villages had to be reused and recycled, leading to a highly evolved system of waste collection and disposal. Over the centuries, this philosophy of conservation and love for nature was strengthened further through art, music, scriptures, and traditions. In fact, the first recorded measures of conservation anywhere in the world were the edicts issued by Emperor Ashoka in 269 BCE. These edicts carved on stone and iron pillars prohibited the destruction of forests and the killing of animals. Over the years, many tribes and villages began to celebrate certain trees, animals, rivers, and ponds as sacred. This environmental thinking became part of the rich cultural heritage of India.

These ancient tenets were, however, forgotten when India decided to move towards an industrialized system, falling in line with modern-day economics. As companies scaled, supply chains became bigger and more complex. The commons, such as forests, rivers, and hills, lost their ‘sacredness’, with large companies viewing them merely as resources that had to be modified and used as inputs. Economic performance was prioritized irrespective of the social cost. Industries could dump sewage in rivers as only their cost of production mattered and treating waste would only add to these costs. Cutting forests was okay to make paper but replanting trees was a cost that the company did not want to bear.