Education is deemed necessary for our social and personal development, to evolve as a person. Our very identity as to who we are and what we think locates us in the educational process (Mohanty, 1990). Yet education needs to be critiqued, reconceptualised and transformed if it is to enable people to become conscientious citizens. In this context what needs to be considered is what aspects of value-based education will enable people to be conscientious. Educational philosophers and practitioners like Gandhi (experiential education), Paulo Freire (transformative education), and Gramsci (critical consciousness) talk about the essential ethical values of participative and inclusive pedagogies. Practitioners like Fukuoka have stimulated the self-driven learners of life’s meaning.

However there is an apparent question as to ‘Can education do it alone?’ (Levin &
Kelley, 1997). In the post-war modern world’ formal education is designed as an
investment in human capital that is expected to benefit a person to some extent and the society at large. Mostly these are economic growth-oriented benefits, standing on a capitalist approach to life.

In our contemporary world, such productivities occupy the greatest emphasis and importance thus pushing the meaning and value of education towards more materialism than holistic growth and development. To a certain extent the school curricula is designed to increase human capital and productivities, undervaluing the intrinsic value-based goal of educational practice in our lives. The occasional piecemeal educational reforms still remain distanced from the original purpose of education. As Whitehead (1949) wrote ‘There is only one subject-matter for education, and that is Life in all its manifestations’. Have we, living in the present modern developed world, been able to understand and practice the intrinsic holistic meaning of education? This leads to my question – in what ways are we educated? (Sharma, 2001).

My question assumes some significance here as we face the financialised globe and are dreaming of a global community, giving our children global citizenhood status. What are the values that we would be able to give our children from our‘educated’ positions? Have we been able to learn and live the ‘true’ educational philosophies expressing them in our everyday life practices?

This paper is an attempt to raise a few such questions about our educational contents and processes from an assumed platform that education evolves us towards an integrated development, ultimately equipping us with wisdom, knowledge and experience for self-realisation. Its particular focus is on inviting researchers’ interest in using the concept of ecological literacy. The concept itself emerges from a framework of citizenship literacies that the author is developing in her doctoral work. The aim of the paper is to arrive at the point where we need multiple literacies taught through our education system to make meaning of our lives. It notes some relevant anecdotes and experiences of the researcher from the Indian context to register the pre-modern life-world approaches that are rooted in a holistic understanding and practice, the gaps in our present day applications of our knowledge, and the future possibilities to learn from the ancient life-worlds around the globe.

Firstly an attempt to present the world’s financialised condition. At present I find it impossible to imagine an undivided world. What I see is the continuity of the hegemonic notions of a hybrid global culture. Coming from a third world country I tend to engage my thinking in comparisons of situations and contexts of us, the human beings. In the contemporary world, our industrialised lives are mapped by liberal economic policies and modernisation and there is substantial evidence to suggest that the modern world sits arrogantly upon the remains of early civilisations. Due to the artificial unification policy being practiced to remove the barriers between international capital and the fragile national economics of developing nations, the possibility of social redistribution in these nations is vanishing (Spivak 1995). Most of the hybrids are offshoots of colonialism.

The imposed and adopted faith that progress is brought forth by consumerist economic models is already leaving irreparable damage on the face of the planet including deforestation and vanishing natural resources. It has a slow-poisoning effect on the human world too. The lives of the third world nations’ people are today linked commonly to ecological loss and the disappearance of spiritual values linked to the ecological system. Spirituality expressed through peace, harmony and togetherness is being “tried out” as an alternative to the consumer movement. Ironically the forces of global capital supplement the local development agents; thus the development movement itself has become a global movement, an instrument of globalisation. Social justice that is very much embedded in ecological justice is elusive.

While we engage enthusiastically in the discussion of development we are ignoring the reality that we are stealing something from the futures of our children. The American Indian, Chief Seattle, said this Earth does not belong to us. It belongs to our children, and we are only the guardians. It shows that many early civilisations and cultures knew the value of environmental education - they were the real learners from the environment. They experienced and understood the meaning of life through the rhythms of nature and the bonds of the life system in the environment. Every animal and every plant, tree, river and land source was respected and was honoured in the daily practices of people. People
trusted nature and respected its power and force and recognised its control over their lives. A case in point is the ancient Indus Valley civilisation (c.3000 BCE) where the two major cities Harappa and Mohenjo-daro had a perfect harmony between architecture and farming practices with that of climatic conditions leading to the conservation of natural resources. The ancient people in the following centuries practised a balanced ecological framework in terms of the proportionate combination of matter (substance, atomic entities) and energy (variously imaged as the spirit, breath, speech, vibration, anima, pneuma). The attitude was invariably one of mutual respect, reciprocity and caring for other beings of the land (Bilimoria, 1998).

Unfortunately today, words like respect, love and trust are diluted. If I take India as an example; what was once the foundation of quality of life based on such values is now diluted in the name of modern development. The thread of interconnectedness is snapped. The resulting effect is telling on human qualities. The practice of respecting, loving and trusting, mutuality in nature gave the people their spiritual sense of being leading to peace, harmony and sustenance. In India deforestation, loss of respect for nature and destruction of ecological systems started with colonisation. Today it is not only rampant and beyond our imagination but is also seriously affecting the value-based life styles of people throughout the country. With more and more urbanised and fragmented groups the gap between the social and the natural systems widen, thus disintegrating humans and unbalancing their lives. What development has taught us, the
participants in the modern democratic system, is dependency, competition and
consumerism.

In various parts of India at various times in the past two decades efforts to restore this balance have resulted in a number of environmental ‘movements’: Chipko movement by Sunderlal Bahuguna in the Tehri region of the Himalayas; Appiko movement in Karnataka; tribal movements in the eastern parts of India supported by activists like Mahasweta Devi; the ongoing Narmada Bachao Andolan by Medha Patka; and the Silent Valley protection movement by the Kerala Shastreeya Sahitya Parishad. A decade ago the then Chief Conservator of Forests of the Government of Karnataka State in India, Yellappa Reddy, revived the concept of ‘sacred groves’ throughout the State. All he did was ‘restart the chain of love, trust and respect’ in, and with, nature. He looked back at the life styles of Indians in the past centuries to see how their lives integrated with the
natural systems which epitomised interconnectedness. Being a participant of this
movement in the 1990s I was fortunate in being able to interact with hundreds of people to learn and practice the values of life embedded in our environment.

Many people (for example Fukuoka of Japan) have time and again demonstrated how spirituality can be experienced through living in unison.

However the other side of the story is not so motivating. The attractions of the development age are numerous and are more strongly present in people’s lives than the ‘old and the useless ancient’ values of the Indian culture that were woven around interconnectedness. The post-independence decades have witnessed a rise in population levels leading to newer forms of poverty. This includes not only economic, social, political and intellectual poverties but also ecological and spiritual poverties. People have no faith in nature anymore. The life demands and pressures generated by the ‘development’ agents have forced the disappearance of patience and participation. The so called developed nations have generously donated values like plastic is cheap-makes life easy; time is money, perform and perish; life-saving medicines; as well as life-taking chemicals like DDT; and gene technology companies that give abundant crop yield but also spread seed-slavery. Other indirect influences include air and water and land pollution, a rise in the number of prostituted women and children and economic control over education. The urban life style has been a misfit for the country leading to the destruction of spirituality in their lives.

Like most other development programs introduced by the United Nations (UN) the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the primary education (to some extent) and environmental conservation (to a large extent) programs in India are either financially supported or financially loaned. In the 1980s, following the decision and concern of the developed countries, a huge environmental conservation movement was implemented throughout India (following the highlights of International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources [IUCN], United Nations Environment Program [UNEP], United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO, International Environmental Education Program [IEEP] and Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF). The governments both at the central and the state level, and the non-
governmental organisations were given international aid to run conservation programs and also to bring awareness in the society to protect and conserve their environment. Ironically, international agencies and multinational companies succeeded in obtaining contracts to build big dams and generate more electricity in India.

Here comes the question of the stakeholders’ participation in matters that affect them and relate to their children. In what ways they can identify with these programs that are so much representative of a cause and effect process? While more and more focus is put on the development of all aspects of the nation’s progress through the five year plans and the implementation of programs funded by external agencies, the slow effect on the indigenous systems, home industries, self-sustenance practised in the rural regions, every other ancient source of knowledge and practice is very telling. The very root of this changed life style and dependency originates from the influence and the impact of modern development. The colonial rulers, who came with their bags of sophistication, civilisation, modern culture and industrial development destroyed the natural life styles of the native people and modernised the urbanites.

Given the fact that one-sixth of India’s population is tribal and about 70 per cent is still made up of villagers, the damage done by the colonial rulers and the misunderstandings of post-independence democratic governance have given birth to more and more deformed life-worlds. The bonded labour system, child labour system, prostituted children, emergence of slums, land divisions and land grabbing, high rise development in the urban cities, the creation of new value- system based on competence not cooperation, destruction of forests for luxuries not conservation for our life systems – these are all linked to colonisation of land, life and soul. It is ironic that the newer form of colonisation - globalisation - is taking control of people’s lives throughout the world.

So who needs environmental education and what is the relevance of such programs? Is it merely present in the school curriculum or is it adopted and interwoven in our lives? The villagers in India ask these and other related questions if development workers and NGOs try to explain to them the importance and significance of environment protection, conservation and education. They ask the activists – of course yes, we know all this. But do you think we can practice these preachings? Look at the demands of our present day
lives. We don’t need to pay any extra attention to this environmental education. We are the children of this nature. But it is the outside demand and greed of the urbanites that is impacting upon our environment. You want all the comforts of the city and you ask us, the country folk to be the caretakers. We want our children to learn English, to get jobs in the cities and be comfortable like you. Is there a life in these villages any more? What is left here with us? Hardly any rains, expensive irrigation system facilities, small pieces of agricultural land that do not give us any yield, no access to forests.... How do you expect us to live with even minimum basic standard of life?

People are now faced with their immediate survival and sustenance problems rather than being concerned with environmental conservation. When most of the goods and products are no more produced at the community level, but come from the cities, their thoughts are to move to the cities. Thoughts and plans like these are the first steps in the collapsing of the integrated life system. With their lifestyles more and more controlled by the external powers, people have come to understand environmental education as a school curriculum subject; not passing it on to their children as a value of interconnection, integrity, and spirituality. Gayatri Spivak, following Mahasweta Devi, says ‘.. we must learn to learn from
the original practical ecological philosophies of the world, through the slow, attentive, mind-changing, ethical singularity that deserves the name of “love”-to supplement necessary collective efforts to change laws, modes of production, systems of education and health care’ (1995, pp.200-201). To this end, as Mahasweta Devi notes, ‘Our double task is to resist ‘development’ actively and to learn to love’ (1995, p.xxii). Commenting upon the values of ancient civilisations, Gandhi says the best among such values was ‘love’ (1998, p.182).

Presently, the curricula taught in the schools throughout India include environmental studies. Children are exposed to the concepts of natural history and conservation and so on. However it all remains as an academic learning; not as a practically applicable life value. As Joy Palmer (1998) says ‘there exist extensive contradictions between environmental education and accepted classroom practices’ (p.159).

On the other hand, the efforts made by the grassroots groups and movements to invoke traditional wisdoms based on ancient knowledge are seen as a great threat to the technocratic interests of the upper classes, industries, multinational companies and business class whose only motto is “we are here for money”; they demonstrate very little tolerance for the traditional and local conditions, practices, beliefs, and values. Against this money and political power, the big efforts of the small NGOs, students, Gandhians, and progressive citizens make very little impact. The lure of cheap plastic is more powerful than weak environmental currency!

How are we to understand the concept of environment education today? Is it being looked at as another subject in the school curriculum? Does it need to be understood and absorbed into our inner worlds? How do we practice it? While trying to answer these questions I will also try to demonstrate the importance of ecological literacy being essential for our full conscious awareness of our being in the system.

After sitting through environmental education courses of different levels myself and after practically participating in the environmental conservation movements I discovered my own values, my own life and its connection to the universe rather than learning about the subject for any academic purpose. I say academic purposes here because I am acutely aware of the economised nature of the present educational programs that recognise human capital, advocating technocracy and meritocracy. To a large extent the study of society and environment, or environmental education courses, attempt to equip the person with some knowledge of the social and natural systems. To a large extent, these
programs undermine the potential of developing ecological literacy among the learners enhancing their spirituality, giving them ecological qualities. As we learn from the nature the values of love, patience, humility, Oneness, sharing, interdependence, respect, simplicity, awareness and integrity, we become into ‘being’. We become conscious of our location, our integrated existence in the holistic system. Spirituality expressed through peace, harmony and love becomes our life quality. These two literacies - ecological and spiritual l- lead our conscientised lives supplemented by social, political, economic, cultural and language literacies. Various researchers have attempted to develop an ecological
paradigm for education (for example Fox, 1986; Gough, 1987; Palmer, 1998). It is my intention here to stress once again what they have spoken about already-the value of ecological living and thereby the enhanced spiritual consciousness; the integrated living and experiencing of the meaning of life through such practices as ‘being’ together in and with the environment. To this end the philosophy and practice of any environmental education curriculum should be integrated and interwoven with the quality of life and the world view of all.

As educators and educationists, or researchers, we need to question the application of education in people’s lives in the general global predicament today. It may not suffice to teach our children in the schools about a water source, a tree or about birds and animals. It is very necessary to give them the true nature and meaning of development, civilisation, values and beliefs and the interconnectedness of life. It is the urgent need of the day that we know what happened to the pre-existing knowledge of all the indigenous people, and compare it to what is happening currently to the Earth. It is also essential to learn what is available from each other with mutual respect of culture and
history. It is very necessary that we also pass on the ancient ecological knowledge and practical awareness that the previous generations internalised. This will help in mobilising an ecological mind-set for global sustenance and survival. We need creative, sustaining, integrated, and spiritual human beings to protect the life systems with an inner consciousness of the well-being of all. This is an ecological literacy that is needed now!

References:
Bilimoria, P. (1998) Indian religious traditions. In D.Cooper & J. Palmer (Eds.) Spirit of the Environment, Routledge, New York

Devi, M. (1995) Imaginary Maps: Three Stories. Translated and introduced by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Routledge, New York

Fox, W. (1986) Towards a deeper ecology? Habitat Australia, 13, 4. pp.26-28

Gandhi, M.K. (1998) Chapter 11. In F.Dallmayr & G.N. Devy (Eds.). Between tradition and modernity: India's search for identity. AltaMira Press/Sage Publications, New Delhi

Gough, N. (1987) Learning with environments: Towards an ecological paradigm for education. In I.Robottom (Ed.) Environmental Education: Practice and possibility. Deakin University Press, Geelong

Levin, M.H. & Kelley, C. (1997) Education: Culture, economy, and society. (Eds.). Halsey A.H., Lander H., Brown P., Wells A.S., Oxford University Press, New York:

Mohanty, C.T. (1990) On race and voice: Challenges for liberal education in the 1990s. Cultural Critique, 5(3), pp.179-208

Palmer, J. (1998) Spiritual ideas, environmental concerns and educational practice. In D.Cooper & J. Palmer (Eds.) Spirit of the Environment. Routledge, New York

Sharma, V. (2001) Gender inequalities in India: Need for emancipatory education. Unpublished Masters dissertation. University of Wollongong

Spivak, G.C. (1995) Imaginary Maps: Three Stories. Translated and introduced by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Routledge, New York

Whitehead, A.N. (1949) The aims of education and other essays. Mentor Books, New York