Please read the following news carefully..........
Madhya Pradesh clueless as children die of malnutrition
Bhopal: The State government’s efforts to address malnutrition among children appear half-hearted, as severe malnutrition has claimed the lives of over 450 children under six, in at least four districts of Madhya Pradesh since May 2008, according to figures provided by various NGOs.
According to National Family Health Survey-III, malnutrition in the State has increased from 54% to 60%, making MP children the most undernourished in India. Madhya Pradesh also tops the list of States in infant mortality rate (IMR), with 72 deaths per 1,000 live births, according to the Sample Registration Survey 2007-08.
The Women and Child Development Department, however, has no clue about these deaths as it does not record or maintain data about malnutrition deaths(News story from Hindu-1-8-2009.
Malnourished children are from Korku tribe of Khandwa district in Madhya Pradesh
God I am find it difficult in praying,"Give us today our daily bread".
God help me to find the meaning in praying ,"your kingdom come,your will be done,on earth as in heaven",when this is the reality?
How can I celebrate Sharing of the Bread (Holy Communion)tomarrow? God my hands are shivering,my hearts are broken....God who will share bread for them?
God you shared yourself to establish God's Justice in this earth.
We accumulated everything to establish our own empires.
God how can I say,"Peace be with you all" when peace become a myth to majority?
God how can I preach about love and reconcilation to them?
God parden me because I favored violence instead of Justice
God I am unable to look to your face because.....I only grabbed the food of your children..............
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Mylamma.....A Prophetess
Mylamma was an adivasi woman , a resident of Vijayanagar colony in Plachimada village, in Kerala. “Plachimada” struggle is one of the examples of the on-going struggles all over the world, between the grassroot people and MNC's.
The Plachimada protest is against the Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd. , which established its bottling plant in Perumatty Panchayat, in Palakkad District. The story is about the monopolisation of the ground water and pollution of the water and thereby negating the basic need of the local people. But the people's struggle went on under the leadership of Mylamma.
She was in the forefront of the agitation by local tribal people and others against the alleged exploitation of groundwater and environment pollution by the bottling unit of Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd. at Plachimada.
The agitation launched by the Anti-Coca Cola Agitation Committee in April 2002 in front of the company gate demanding its closure is still continuing.
Mayilamma, who was a worker in the company, joined the agitation after a year of its operation, when the local people noticed depletion and pollution of water in their wells.She was a recipient of many awards, including the Speak Out Award of Outlook.
The words of Mylamma, who had been leading the Plachimada protest till she died will help us her vision about the struggle.
She Said,
“They came to our village with glittering offers; that our people would get many job opportunities in the plant; the overall development of our village would be taken care of; the economic growth of the area would be strengthened etc. We waited and waited… nothing miraculous happened. On the contrary, six months went by, slowly we started facing the reverse effects. Except a few, nobody from the locality was given jobs. The water level in the wells of the surrounding colonies showed a sharp depletion. The quality of the water -its odour, taste, hardness- got worsened. It became non-potable. We stopped using it. We were forced to fetch water from a distance of three to five kilometres. Several uncommon diseases started showing their neck out. The farmers around the plant stopped cultivation due to severe shortage of water. This was another thunderbolt on us that took away our daily little earnings. We were forced to migrate to faraway lands, seeking for some work or other to make our living. Suddenly we felt terribly helpless, facing the fact that we were being robbed. Our precious water resource had been stolen… lakhs of liters every day… Where would I get some fresh and pure drinking water any more? How many kilometers should we have to walk to fetch a drop of water? Who will compensate the heavy loss incurred upon us by this giant plant?”(featured in the “Pipal Tree”, on the 15th of May 2009)
She was suffering from psoriasis and many health problems by her continuous hard work in keeping the protest alive, probably aggravated her condition and she was finally defeated by death only(She died in Jan 2009).
A Prohetess of this time.
God of justice we thank you for her lfe.
The Plachimada protest is against the Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd. , which established its bottling plant in Perumatty Panchayat, in Palakkad District. The story is about the monopolisation of the ground water and pollution of the water and thereby negating the basic need of the local people. But the people's struggle went on under the leadership of Mylamma.
She was in the forefront of the agitation by local tribal people and others against the alleged exploitation of groundwater and environment pollution by the bottling unit of Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd. at Plachimada.
The agitation launched by the Anti-Coca Cola Agitation Committee in April 2002 in front of the company gate demanding its closure is still continuing.
Mayilamma, who was a worker in the company, joined the agitation after a year of its operation, when the local people noticed depletion and pollution of water in their wells.She was a recipient of many awards, including the Speak Out Award of Outlook.
The words of Mylamma, who had been leading the Plachimada protest till she died will help us her vision about the struggle.
She Said,
“They came to our village with glittering offers; that our people would get many job opportunities in the plant; the overall development of our village would be taken care of; the economic growth of the area would be strengthened etc. We waited and waited… nothing miraculous happened. On the contrary, six months went by, slowly we started facing the reverse effects. Except a few, nobody from the locality was given jobs. The water level in the wells of the surrounding colonies showed a sharp depletion. The quality of the water -its odour, taste, hardness- got worsened. It became non-potable. We stopped using it. We were forced to fetch water from a distance of three to five kilometres. Several uncommon diseases started showing their neck out. The farmers around the plant stopped cultivation due to severe shortage of water. This was another thunderbolt on us that took away our daily little earnings. We were forced to migrate to faraway lands, seeking for some work or other to make our living. Suddenly we felt terribly helpless, facing the fact that we were being robbed. Our precious water resource had been stolen… lakhs of liters every day… Where would I get some fresh and pure drinking water any more? How many kilometers should we have to walk to fetch a drop of water? Who will compensate the heavy loss incurred upon us by this giant plant?”(featured in the “Pipal Tree”, on the 15th of May 2009)
She was suffering from psoriasis and many health problems by her continuous hard work in keeping the protest alive, probably aggravated her condition and she was finally defeated by death only(She died in Jan 2009).
A Prohetess of this time.
God of justice we thank you for her lfe.
Plachimada Declaration
PLACHIMADA DECLARATION
Water is the basis of life; it is a gift of nature; it belongs to all living beings on earth.
Water is not private property. It is a common resource for the sustenance of all.
Water is the fundamental right of all people. It has to be conserved,protected and managed. It is our fundamental obligation to prevent water scarcity and pollution and to preserve it for generations.
Water is not a commodity. We should resist all criminal attempts to marketise,privatise and corporatise water. Only through these means can we ensure that the fundamental and inalienable right to water for people all over the world.
The Water Policy should be formulated on the basis of this outlook.The right to conserve, use and manage water is fully vested with the local community. This is the very basis of water democracy. Any attempt to reduce or deny this right is a crime.
The production and marketing of the poisonous products of the Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola corporates lead to total destruction and pollution, which also endangers the very existence of local communities.
The resistance that has came up in Plachimada, Pudussery and in various parts of the world is the symbol of our valiant struggle against the devilish corporate gangs who engage in piracy of our water.
We, who are in the battlefield in full solidarity with the Adivasis who have put up resistance against the tortures of the horrid commercial forces in Plachimada,exhort the people all over the world to boycott the products of Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola.
Coca Cola - Pepsi Cola "quit India".
Water is the basis of life; it is a gift of nature; it belongs to all living beings on earth.
Water is not private property. It is a common resource for the sustenance of all.
Water is the fundamental right of all people. It has to be conserved,protected and managed. It is our fundamental obligation to prevent water scarcity and pollution and to preserve it for generations.
Water is not a commodity. We should resist all criminal attempts to marketise,privatise and corporatise water. Only through these means can we ensure that the fundamental and inalienable right to water for people all over the world.
The Water Policy should be formulated on the basis of this outlook.The right to conserve, use and manage water is fully vested with the local community. This is the very basis of water democracy. Any attempt to reduce or deny this right is a crime.
The production and marketing of the poisonous products of the Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola corporates lead to total destruction and pollution, which also endangers the very existence of local communities.
The resistance that has came up in Plachimada, Pudussery and in various parts of the world is the symbol of our valiant struggle against the devilish corporate gangs who engage in piracy of our water.
We, who are in the battlefield in full solidarity with the Adivasis who have put up resistance against the tortures of the horrid commercial forces in Plachimada,exhort the people all over the world to boycott the products of Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola.
Coca Cola - Pepsi Cola "quit India".
John 15:1-17
Towards a Rainbow Community.
John 15:1-17 poses challenging questions to the contemporary Christian community about its self-identity. What does it means for the church to live as branches of Christ the vine? What would “church” look like if it embraced this model for its corporate life?
1. Individualism Vs Inclusiveness. The image of community that emerges from 15:1-17 is one of interrelationship, mutuality, and indwelling. In a wine, branches are almost completely indistinguishable from one another; it is impossible to determine where one branch stops and another branch starts. All run together as they grow out of the central vine. This vine image questions the individualism and proposes a community where no-free standing individuals. The branches are encircled one another completely (interrelationship). The fruitfulness of each individual branch depends on its relationship to the vine. In Christ we give up individual status to become one of many encircling branches.
The community envisioned in the vine metaphor raises a strong challenge to contemporary models of individual autonomy and parochialism. The act of love means to bear fruit. Live in Christ means have indiscriminate love and corporate fruitfulness. Bearing fruit is also a corporate act.
Here we have to raise the questions of casteism, economic disparity, patriarchy, etc which divides our society. Domination always destroys the nature of the community which talks in this passage.
2. Indiscriminate love challenges the hierarchy. The metaphor of the vine suggests a radically non-hierarchical model for the church. This metaphor challenges the extra privileges of any community or individual in our church and society. Gardener always shapes the branches to enhance the fruitfulness. All branches are same before God. There is neither status nor rank among the branches. Hierarchy among the branches of the vine is challenged here. All branches grow out of the one central vine and are treated equally by the one gardener.
The church is a community where all kind of hierarchy is absent. The very nature of creation is that all are equal in front of God. The creation of hierarchy is against the will of God and it is sin. Men don’t have ‘power’ over women. White do not have upper hand over Black. Upper caste people cannot oppress Dalits by saying that they are inferior.
God’s image talks about a just relationship where the society is not built on power to oppress or subjugate.
This is the community which we have to envision today as a church.
3.A Community with an inbuilt reciprocity. The Johannine metaphor undercuts any celebration of individual gifts. In the true community there is no importance to the personality of particular person, self projection and self expression. When church live as the branches of Christ, individual distinctiveness would give way to the common embodiment of love. The mark of a faithful community is how it loves, not who are its members. There is only gift, to bear fruit, and all other gifts are there to enrich the fruit bearing nature of our life. Reciprocity is an inbuilt nature of a true community.
This has to be discussed in relation with the importance we are giving to particular persons and gifts. Church is a community which grows beyond personal glorification of a particular person or a group. We are supposed live in mutuality with others and this nature. Any ideology or action is against this has to be considered as Satanic. We are called to fight against all these satanic forces.
John 15:1-17 poses challenging questions to the contemporary Christian community about its self-identity. What does it means for the church to live as branches of Christ the vine? What would “church” look like if it embraced this model for its corporate life?
1. Individualism Vs Inclusiveness. The image of community that emerges from 15:1-17 is one of interrelationship, mutuality, and indwelling. In a wine, branches are almost completely indistinguishable from one another; it is impossible to determine where one branch stops and another branch starts. All run together as they grow out of the central vine. This vine image questions the individualism and proposes a community where no-free standing individuals. The branches are encircled one another completely (interrelationship). The fruitfulness of each individual branch depends on its relationship to the vine. In Christ we give up individual status to become one of many encircling branches.
The community envisioned in the vine metaphor raises a strong challenge to contemporary models of individual autonomy and parochialism. The act of love means to bear fruit. Live in Christ means have indiscriminate love and corporate fruitfulness. Bearing fruit is also a corporate act.
Here we have to raise the questions of casteism, economic disparity, patriarchy, etc which divides our society. Domination always destroys the nature of the community which talks in this passage.
2. Indiscriminate love challenges the hierarchy. The metaphor of the vine suggests a radically non-hierarchical model for the church. This metaphor challenges the extra privileges of any community or individual in our church and society. Gardener always shapes the branches to enhance the fruitfulness. All branches are same before God. There is neither status nor rank among the branches. Hierarchy among the branches of the vine is challenged here. All branches grow out of the one central vine and are treated equally by the one gardener.
The church is a community where all kind of hierarchy is absent. The very nature of creation is that all are equal in front of God. The creation of hierarchy is against the will of God and it is sin. Men don’t have ‘power’ over women. White do not have upper hand over Black. Upper caste people cannot oppress Dalits by saying that they are inferior.
God’s image talks about a just relationship where the society is not built on power to oppress or subjugate.
This is the community which we have to envision today as a church.
3.A Community with an inbuilt reciprocity. The Johannine metaphor undercuts any celebration of individual gifts. In the true community there is no importance to the personality of particular person, self projection and self expression. When church live as the branches of Christ, individual distinctiveness would give way to the common embodiment of love. The mark of a faithful community is how it loves, not who are its members. There is only gift, to bear fruit, and all other gifts are there to enrich the fruit bearing nature of our life. Reciprocity is an inbuilt nature of a true community.
This has to be discussed in relation with the importance we are giving to particular persons and gifts. Church is a community which grows beyond personal glorification of a particular person or a group. We are supposed live in mutuality with others and this nature. Any ideology or action is against this has to be considered as Satanic. We are called to fight against all these satanic forces.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Taare Zameen Par
Every Child is Special
TAARE ZAMEEN PAR isn't one of those films that merely entertains, but also enlightens. TAARE ZAMEEN PAR is one film that makes you peep into a child's mind and how some parents, in their pursuit to make them 'stronger' academically, forget that there are untapped talent that needs to be nourished and encouraged.
TAARE ZAMEEN PAR drives home a strong message, making you empathize with the kid, compelling you to draw parallels with your life, making one realize that some of the renowned geniuses were once scoffed at, but the world had to bow down to their intellect later.
TAARE ZAMEEN PAR serves as a wake up call for every parent or parent-to-be.
Ishaan Awasthi [Darsheel Safary] is an eight-year-old whose world is filled with wonders that no one else seems to appreciate; colors, fish, dogs, spaceships, golas, shiny things and kites are just not important in the world of adults, who are much more interested in things like homework, marks and neatness. And Ishaan just cannot seem to get anything right in class.
When he gets into far more trouble than his parents can handle, he is packed off to a boarding school to 'be disciplined'. Things are no different at his new school and Ishaan has to contend with the added trauma of separationfromhisfamily.
One day a new art teacher bursts onto the scene, Ram Shankar Nikumbh [Aamir Khan], who infects the students with joy and optimism. He breaks all the rules of 'how things are done' by asking them to think, dream and imagine, and all the children respond with enthusiasm, all except Ishaan.
Nikumbh soon realizes that Ishaan is very unhappy and he sets out to discover why. With time, patience and care, he ultimately helps Ishaan find himself.
Watch TAARE ZAMEEN PAR with your child. It will change your world. It will also change the way you look at your kids!It will change your perception.
Understand People, Life and Society from below. But you have to struggle a lot. Take sides with excluded, marginalized and persecuted.
We are called to engage ourselves with others so that we find ourselves and we helps others to find themselves.
TAARE ZAMEEN PAR isn't one of those films that merely entertains, but also enlightens. TAARE ZAMEEN PAR is one film that makes you peep into a child's mind and how some parents, in their pursuit to make them 'stronger' academically, forget that there are untapped talent that needs to be nourished and encouraged.
TAARE ZAMEEN PAR drives home a strong message, making you empathize with the kid, compelling you to draw parallels with your life, making one realize that some of the renowned geniuses were once scoffed at, but the world had to bow down to their intellect later.
TAARE ZAMEEN PAR serves as a wake up call for every parent or parent-to-be.
Ishaan Awasthi [Darsheel Safary] is an eight-year-old whose world is filled with wonders that no one else seems to appreciate; colors, fish, dogs, spaceships, golas, shiny things and kites are just not important in the world of adults, who are much more interested in things like homework, marks and neatness. And Ishaan just cannot seem to get anything right in class.
When he gets into far more trouble than his parents can handle, he is packed off to a boarding school to 'be disciplined'. Things are no different at his new school and Ishaan has to contend with the added trauma of separationfromhisfamily.
One day a new art teacher bursts onto the scene, Ram Shankar Nikumbh [Aamir Khan], who infects the students with joy and optimism. He breaks all the rules of 'how things are done' by asking them to think, dream and imagine, and all the children respond with enthusiasm, all except Ishaan.
Nikumbh soon realizes that Ishaan is very unhappy and he sets out to discover why. With time, patience and care, he ultimately helps Ishaan find himself.
Watch TAARE ZAMEEN PAR with your child. It will change your world. It will also change the way you look at your kids!It will change your perception.
Understand People, Life and Society from below. But you have to struggle a lot. Take sides with excluded, marginalized and persecuted.
We are called to engage ourselves with others so that we find ourselves and we helps others to find themselves.
Secret of the beauty........!
One day a small girl happened to meet rainbow on the way to her school.She couldn’t believe that meeting because she was waiting a moment like this for a long time.With her curiosity she asked to rainbow, “you look beautiful and we all like to see you.Your presence makes us happy.What is the secret of your beauty”?.
Rainbow smiled with humility and said, “look child,you could see seven colours in me and that is the secret of my beauty”.
Again girl asked,“how you could be able to maintain this beauty always?”
Rainbow replied, “Each colour has it's own role to play in my identity.They accept, recognise and celebrate the difference within themselves.Not only that it is a just relationship. They accept each other,love each other,respect each other,share each other, nourish each other forgive and reconcile each other and rainbow added, keep this values in your life ,that make you more beautiful.Don't try to dominate other or see other as inferior”.
One could experience true communion or community in true relationship that comes out of acceptance,forgiveness,reconciliation,love,justice,which are the ingredients of true communication.
Rainbow smiled with humility and said, “look child,you could see seven colours in me and that is the secret of my beauty”.
Again girl asked,“how you could be able to maintain this beauty always?”
Rainbow replied, “Each colour has it's own role to play in my identity.They accept, recognise and celebrate the difference within themselves.Not only that it is a just relationship. They accept each other,love each other,respect each other,share each other, nourish each other forgive and reconcile each other and rainbow added, keep this values in your life ,that make you more beautiful.Don't try to dominate other or see other as inferior”.
One could experience true communion or community in true relationship that comes out of acceptance,forgiveness,reconciliation,love,justice,which are the ingredients of true communication.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Knowledge and Enlightenment
The poet Kabir says:
What good is it if the scholar pores over words and points of this and that but his/her chest is not soaked dark with love?
What good is it if the ascetic clothes himself/herself in saffron robes but is colourless within?
What good is it if you scrub your ethical behaviour till it shines,but there is no music inside?
Disciple: What's the difference between knowledge and enlightenment?
Teacher:When you have knowledge you use a torch to show the way.When you are enlightened you become a torch
What good is it if the scholar pores over words and points of this and that but his/her chest is not soaked dark with love?
What good is it if the ascetic clothes himself/herself in saffron robes but is colourless within?
What good is it if you scrub your ethical behaviour till it shines,but there is no music inside?
Disciple: What's the difference between knowledge and enlightenment?
Teacher:When you have knowledge you use a torch to show the way.When you are enlightened you become a torch
God and Church - A story
People Decided to make a statue of God and it was lodged in a Church.It was there until one day a mighty storm brought the Church down.Then for many years the statue stood exposed to sun and rain and wind and the changes of the weather.
When a priest began to raise funds to rebuild the church,the statue appeared to him in a dream and said,"That church was a prison,not a home.Leave me exposed to the ravages of life.That's where I belong."
When a priest began to raise funds to rebuild the church,the statue appeared to him in a dream and said,"That church was a prison,not a home.Leave me exposed to the ravages of life.That's where I belong."
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Parish....What does it mean?
Parish as a Safe Space
An extension of mother's womb.
A place where people find themselves in community.
A place where there is no hierarchy.
Parish as a Public Sphere.
Discourses in the parish should be from subaltern perspective.
This space encourages interaction and respect each other's voice.
It should be in democratic in nature.
Parish as a Movement.
It always challenges the consciousness of market.
It always energise people to move forward even though there are struggles.
It will be dynamic in nature
An extension of mother's womb.
A place where people find themselves in community.
A place where there is no hierarchy.
Parish as a Public Sphere.
Discourses in the parish should be from subaltern perspective.
This space encourages interaction and respect each other's voice.
It should be in democratic in nature.
Parish as a Movement.
It always challenges the consciousness of market.
It always energise people to move forward even though there are struggles.
It will be dynamic in nature
A Re- reading on the concept 'Pidiyari' ( a handful rice)
In Marthoma Church there was a tradition called "pidiyari"(a handful rice) which started long back.This tradition developed from a agrarian society.Surprisingly this was led by the women and the consequences also faced by them.
Once upon a time Church was poor.Nobody was there to support the church materially.The members of the church was also poor.Church was in it's infancy time.
It badly need material support.
The members of the church decided that we will support the church with whatever we have(At that time people solely depended on the agriculture.And also they don't had enough food to eat.More than that members was more.In a traditional family women always eat at the end after all members were fed. Sometimes women may not have anything to eat.Society "taught them" how they have to show smile in their faces even though they work in the kitchen and agriculture field without food).
During the discussion one woman from a poor family opined that,"I will set apart a handful of rice every day for my church".It was a revelation to all(revelation from God may not be like what we expect.Do we have the eyes to see the revelation? is the problem).All the women and the members of the church joined with the poor woman and said we all will do the same. Church appointed a person to collect the share of each family.
They used to collect the pidiyari at the end of every month. They used to auction the rice at the church(multi coloured rice-a symbol of polyphonic society).But the pain and suffering behind this offering may not be ignored. When the women put rice for lunch or dinner they used to set apart a handful of rice that caused them sleep in the night without having food(nothing was left out after all others were fed especially male members).
Later Church became rich. Many opined that "why we collect the rice from us? we will sponsor the Church" Leaders including the Priest went with the new suggestion.But I could be able to hear the cry of the poor women and men because they were not in the list of the sponsors of the Church.
From that time onwards church is in search of sponsors. But we lost a good tradition which includes all(rich and poor)
When we will regain this tradition? One sad thing is that these sponsors became the spoke persons and decision makers. In their perception subaltern communities are "worthless and unwanted".
Once upon a time Church was poor.Nobody was there to support the church materially.The members of the church was also poor.Church was in it's infancy time.
It badly need material support.
The members of the church decided that we will support the church with whatever we have(At that time people solely depended on the agriculture.And also they don't had enough food to eat.More than that members was more.In a traditional family women always eat at the end after all members were fed. Sometimes women may not have anything to eat.Society "taught them" how they have to show smile in their faces even though they work in the kitchen and agriculture field without food).
During the discussion one woman from a poor family opined that,"I will set apart a handful of rice every day for my church".It was a revelation to all(revelation from God may not be like what we expect.Do we have the eyes to see the revelation? is the problem).All the women and the members of the church joined with the poor woman and said we all will do the same. Church appointed a person to collect the share of each family.
They used to collect the pidiyari at the end of every month. They used to auction the rice at the church(multi coloured rice-a symbol of polyphonic society).But the pain and suffering behind this offering may not be ignored. When the women put rice for lunch or dinner they used to set apart a handful of rice that caused them sleep in the night without having food(nothing was left out after all others were fed especially male members).
Later Church became rich. Many opined that "why we collect the rice from us? we will sponsor the Church" Leaders including the Priest went with the new suggestion.But I could be able to hear the cry of the poor women and men because they were not in the list of the sponsors of the Church.
From that time onwards church is in search of sponsors. But we lost a good tradition which includes all(rich and poor)
When we will regain this tradition? One sad thing is that these sponsors became the spoke persons and decision makers. In their perception subaltern communities are "worthless and unwanted".
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Silence in the midst of violence.....?
Niemöller's poem tells the story of Europe's refusal to stand up to the Nazis while they still had time:
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.
When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.
(Martin Niemoller, a Lutheran pastor from Nazi Germany)
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.
When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.
(Martin Niemoller, a Lutheran pastor from Nazi Germany)
One Prayer
Lord,protect our doubts,because Doubt is a way of praying. It is Doubt that makes us to grow because it forces us to look fearlessly at the many answers that exist to one question. And in order for this to be possible....
Lord, Protect our decisions, because making decisions is a way of praying. Give us the courage,after our doubts to be able to choose between one road and another. May our YES always be a Yes, and our No always be a No. Once we have chosen our road,may we never look back nor allow our soul to be eaten away by remorse. And in order for this possible...
Lord, protect our actions, beacause Action is a way of praying. May our daily bread be the result of the very best that we carry within us. May we, through work action,
share a little of the love we receive. And in order for this to be possible...
Lord, Protect our decisions, because making decisions is a way of praying. Give us the courage,after our doubts to be able to choose between one road and another. May our YES always be a Yes, and our No always be a No. Once we have chosen our road,may we never look back nor allow our soul to be eaten away by remorse. And in order for this possible...
Lord, protect our actions, beacause Action is a way of praying. May our daily bread be the result of the very best that we carry within us. May we, through work action,
share a little of the love we receive. And in order for this to be possible...
Friday, July 24, 2009
The Moment of Dawn.
A Rabbi gathered together his students and asked them:
'How do we know the exact moment when night ends and day begins?'
'When it's light enough to tell a sheep from a dog',said one boy.
Another student said:'No,when it's light enough to tell an olive tree from a fig tree'.
'No, that' s not a good definition either'.
'Well , what's the right answer?' asked the boys.
And the Rabbi said:
'When a stranger approaches, and we think he is our brother, and all conflicts disappear, that is the moment when night ends and day begins.'
Acknowledgement.
Like the flowing River by Paulo Coelho
'How do we know the exact moment when night ends and day begins?'
'When it's light enough to tell a sheep from a dog',said one boy.
Another student said:'No,when it's light enough to tell an olive tree from a fig tree'.
'No, that' s not a good definition either'.
'Well , what's the right answer?' asked the boys.
And the Rabbi said:
'When a stranger approaches, and we think he is our brother, and all conflicts disappear, that is the moment when night ends and day begins.'
Acknowledgement.
Like the flowing River by Paulo Coelho
An Ecological Autobiography
Oikos and my life – Finding myself in Nature
1.Introduction. My identity is constructed with nature and fellow beings. My engagements with this nature and fellow beings designs the existence of myself and future generation. It is very important to understand the Nature to find myself and others. Experience and engagement with nature helps us to read ourselves and find out the way we have to go. This small autobiographical sketch describes my relationship with nature and how this earth and its natural resources related with my faith, understanding of God and my theological and ministerial engagements.
2.Myself and Beautiful Nature-Early years. My relationship with this nature starts with my birth in a small village called Chungathara, northern part of the Kerala State, a place surrounded by natural forests, rivers and streams. My parents called me Sajeev Thomas. My engagement with the nature starts from my parents’ relationship with the nature. I have seen that for any thing and every thing they were depending the nature. My grand parents told me that when they lack food to eat they will go to forest to collect bamboo seeds. Fertility of the land made our life a better one. Land has given good harvests which we never expects. I have the experience that if we touch the land with respect it will produce whatever we need. But at the same time I have the experience that earth could turn its face away from us when we starts to exploit the generosity of it. My relationship with the nature cannot be explained in a few words. But I realize that this nature is all to me. I could experience the healing, consolation, anger, warning, from this earth. This nature is my mother, teacher, friend, healer and my kin and kith so on.
2.1.Nature – My Mother- It is not an exaggeration to say that this nature is my mother in a wider sense. Because it provided everything for my growth. This mother used to feed me with variety of foods. This mother used to sing beautiful songs so that I may get sound sleep. Shades of the trees and the breeze made my rest so nice. She made me cool with rain when I feel too hot. She has given many friends to me like birds, butterflies, and other small innocent and loving friends. I used to share my joy and sorrows with my mother. She consoled, encouraged, strengthened and corrected me silently.
2.2.Nature - My Teacher. She taught me about the very nature of my being. In my childhood I always had a doubt that why this much fruits, vegetables, grains and so on? And also I realized that the plants and trees produces all these things not for themselves but for others. The meaning of life will be found only in sharing not in accumulation. In my early days I used to draw water from well. But I realized that if I will take one bucket of water it will be filled soon. Same thing about the oxygen , the basic thing for our existence. But later I realized that earth will not do that when we exploit the nature. I learned that natural resources should be used for our need not for our greed. One day my teacher Miss. Nature told me that “look this air, light, water and realize the nature of my creator. Nobody can monopolise , accumulate or could not able to say this is only for us”. It taught me about the inclusive nature of the creator God. One day teacher took me to a valley and shown me a rainbow and said, “ see the beauty of the diversity”, I wondered and glorified the creator of the earth. Once in a casual conversation Nature asked me to look into my body and asked “ what you see?” I replied, “ parts of my body”. Nature asked, “ have you ever noticed the positions of your body parts?”. “No”, I replied. But she said each part has its own positions and purposes like wise my body is this earth and my body parts are the things you see around you. Each part has its own role to play. Don’t destroy or exploit anything for your vested interests. There I learned the lesson of bio-diversity. And she added that you should understand the very nature of God by looking the beauty of mine. She said to me that listen the different voices of mine you could be able to hear the voice of God. That was an eye opening lesson to me and I could be able to experience the presence and fragrance of God through my relationship with nature.
2.3.Nature- My Friend. From my childhood onwards my best friend is this nature and it still continues. We used to play together in streams, rivers, valleys, forests and so on. While play we may destroy something my friend tells that if you destroy any thing that destroy my body and she asked me to nurture the relationship by caring. When I swim in the rivers she watch me with an innocent smile. She conveyed many things through that, her love, concern and her intimacy. My friend never left me alone. When I go to school she comes with me and make my study very easy with her light and cooling. Once we were going to the church and on the way she asked me “why your church people not loves me?”. “Why you are asking this question”, I asked. “Look church people are cutting down the trees around the church and constructing big concrete commercial buildings,” She said to me. But that challenged me and once I bought a tree sapling which I got from my school to plant in the church. But everybody teased me and I am about to cry. But my great friend consoled me with her sweet kiss and said don’t be silly be courageous and strong enough. I still remember that incident because she has given me a sweet mango to console me.
2.4.Nature- My Healer. This is wonderful experience I have with nature. Whenever I got hurt my parents or elders may put juice of some leaves and it helps in curing the wound of mine. And I taught that the water of the rivers have medicinal value because it starts from the streams of the forests where there are lot of medicinal plants. My Grand Parents always use natural medicinal plants for most of the diseases because medicinal plants were at hand. If you study the plants and fruits of the nature everything have the medicinal value it has to be used properly.
3.My Later Years with Nature. My relationship with the nature broken in my teenage and nobody asked me to be serious with nature. But when I was a college student I got the opportunity to be a member of SCM. Ecological issues like ozone layer depletion, extinction of different species and loosing of the bio - diversity were heard in my early 20’s and I used to share these things in my church and at home. But unfortunately my church members and my parents declared all these things are not spiritual and branded me as an anti-church person. And even one Priest of my church denied the pulpit to me and denied the opportunity to go to the theological studies and that even cost me to wait one more year to go to the theological studies. During my Degree studies I got a great opportunity to be a part of Chilika Bachao Andolan (Save the Chilika Movement) with my SCM friends from Kerala. This was a movement in Orissa by the people, mostly fishermen, who posed a successful resistance in the early 90's to the Integrated Shrimp Farm Project (ISFP)- a joint venture agreed upon by the Tata Iron and Steel Company and Government of Orissa for intensive prawn cultivation and export. The project was a direct threat to the livelihood of fishing communities living around the lake. The fishermen were supported in their struggle by the non-fishermen (mostly farmers but some of them also engaged in fishing), students, intellectuals, and human rights activists.
I also got the opportunity to get involved in the various ecological and social movements in relation with the Kerala SCM involvements. But my formal theological search developed in Leonard Theological College, Jabalpur. B.D studies helped me to concretize my theological search in relation with nature. During my Jabalpur life I could be able to visit Medha Patkar, leader of Narmada Bachao Andolan. This is a movement which I have a strong passion and supporting it indirectly now and then. This was a time which I pruned by theological pursuit and could be able to have a clarity in my vision regarding God the creator and human beings as stewards of this nature. My theological engagements challenged my traditional understanding regarding the ministry of the church which was merely anthropocentric. I got the vision of a mission which is cosmic in dimension means Kingdom of God is for all including the nature.
4.Nature and My Theological and Ministerial Formation. My relation with Nature helped me to widen my perspectives and understandings about God, My Responsibility towards creation, Salvation and so on. My engagements with nature opened my eyes to see God as an inclusive God who created everything and sustains everything and nurtures everything. My entity is related with God, Nature and fellow beings. God has given this nature to till it and keep it. All the resources have given for our need not for our need and we need to share the resources to all so that everybody irrespective of class, caste, colour, gender, ethnicity and so on. Nobody have the authority over the nature other than God. Human beings are the stewards of this creation. Now I strongly believe that salvation which I am seeking is not individualistic but it is cosmic and so that by forgetting and destroying the nature and its resources I couldn’t experience the salvation in its fullness. I believe that taking care God’s creation is my mission towards the extension of the Kingdom of God. And at the same time wounds created by human beings to the nature proclaims that still Jesus Christ is persecuted by the agents of Satanic forces. Exploiting the natural resources for profit motives and luxurious life is a violence and it destroys the very image of God. By negating the right to live of the millions we are against the will of God.
5.Church and Ecological Crisis-Challenges and Responsibilities. Why we are discussing the ecological issues and wasting the time ? There may be many such questions raised by the “spiritual people” and may ask what you are doing other than talking. This is a kind of over simplifying the realities of today. While we discuss the things we are edifying and equipping ourselves and others and pointing towards a movement which includes all sections of the people. We need a group effort to face the ecological crisis of today. Here the church’s role comes. We need to break the traditional nature of the ministry of the church. Let me highlight some of the issues which comes before the church in my context.
1.Problems of the Farmers. Since majority of my Parish members Farmers they are facing the failure in their cultivation? Is climate change a reason? Why lands become barren even though farmers use high yielding seeds and ferilisers? Why the crops failures due to the various diseases even then we apply strong pesticides?
2.In Kerala every rainy reason brings widespread diseases which are difficult to control, Why? Water pollution and mishandling the wastes could be the reasons. Do church has a role to play in waste management? What are the responsibilities church has to control the water and air pollution?
3.Why diseases like cancer is increasing? Any ecological reasons?
4. Scarcity of water. Do we able to encourage the parish to use rain water harvesting at church and surrounding? How this scarcity of water affects the farmers and the agriculture field in a large context?
5.Energy Problem. Do we encourage people to use public transport system as much they can? Do we encourage people to share our vehicles? At what extent we use the solar energy?
6.Exploiting the sand bed of the river that causes different kinds of ecological problems.
6.Conclusion. My journey with nature will continue till my last breath. This journey till today taught me that I don’t have peaceful existence in this earth until and unless I will lead a just and reconciled life with this nature. My faith has to be expressed in relation to this earth. Some time I feel strong pain when this mother earth is raped by the greedy people. This mother allowed us to drink milk but we are sucking life blood of the mother even though we had enough milk. Majority of the people are not realizing that Mother earth is dying or we pretend that we are unaware about it. When we can afford many things like pure water majority of the people could not afford the same. In this journey I decided to protect this earth through my deeds and words because my faith in Christ compels me to do so. June 5th was the international environmental day and in NDTV 24x7 news channel reported about an ‘uneducated’ old village woman who started planting trees for the last 50 years and still continuing in her village especially at the sides of the roads when ‘educated’ people destroys the nature. There are people who loves and cares this nature with great stewardship so I will join with them because a creative minority still believes that There Are alternatives and Another World Is Possible.
1.Introduction. My identity is constructed with nature and fellow beings. My engagements with this nature and fellow beings designs the existence of myself and future generation. It is very important to understand the Nature to find myself and others. Experience and engagement with nature helps us to read ourselves and find out the way we have to go. This small autobiographical sketch describes my relationship with nature and how this earth and its natural resources related with my faith, understanding of God and my theological and ministerial engagements.
2.Myself and Beautiful Nature-Early years. My relationship with this nature starts with my birth in a small village called Chungathara, northern part of the Kerala State, a place surrounded by natural forests, rivers and streams. My parents called me Sajeev Thomas. My engagement with the nature starts from my parents’ relationship with the nature. I have seen that for any thing and every thing they were depending the nature. My grand parents told me that when they lack food to eat they will go to forest to collect bamboo seeds. Fertility of the land made our life a better one. Land has given good harvests which we never expects. I have the experience that if we touch the land with respect it will produce whatever we need. But at the same time I have the experience that earth could turn its face away from us when we starts to exploit the generosity of it. My relationship with the nature cannot be explained in a few words. But I realize that this nature is all to me. I could experience the healing, consolation, anger, warning, from this earth. This nature is my mother, teacher, friend, healer and my kin and kith so on.
2.1.Nature – My Mother- It is not an exaggeration to say that this nature is my mother in a wider sense. Because it provided everything for my growth. This mother used to feed me with variety of foods. This mother used to sing beautiful songs so that I may get sound sleep. Shades of the trees and the breeze made my rest so nice. She made me cool with rain when I feel too hot. She has given many friends to me like birds, butterflies, and other small innocent and loving friends. I used to share my joy and sorrows with my mother. She consoled, encouraged, strengthened and corrected me silently.
2.2.Nature - My Teacher. She taught me about the very nature of my being. In my childhood I always had a doubt that why this much fruits, vegetables, grains and so on? And also I realized that the plants and trees produces all these things not for themselves but for others. The meaning of life will be found only in sharing not in accumulation. In my early days I used to draw water from well. But I realized that if I will take one bucket of water it will be filled soon. Same thing about the oxygen , the basic thing for our existence. But later I realized that earth will not do that when we exploit the nature. I learned that natural resources should be used for our need not for our greed. One day my teacher Miss. Nature told me that “look this air, light, water and realize the nature of my creator. Nobody can monopolise , accumulate or could not able to say this is only for us”. It taught me about the inclusive nature of the creator God. One day teacher took me to a valley and shown me a rainbow and said, “ see the beauty of the diversity”, I wondered and glorified the creator of the earth. Once in a casual conversation Nature asked me to look into my body and asked “ what you see?” I replied, “ parts of my body”. Nature asked, “ have you ever noticed the positions of your body parts?”. “No”, I replied. But she said each part has its own positions and purposes like wise my body is this earth and my body parts are the things you see around you. Each part has its own role to play. Don’t destroy or exploit anything for your vested interests. There I learned the lesson of bio-diversity. And she added that you should understand the very nature of God by looking the beauty of mine. She said to me that listen the different voices of mine you could be able to hear the voice of God. That was an eye opening lesson to me and I could be able to experience the presence and fragrance of God through my relationship with nature.
2.3.Nature- My Friend. From my childhood onwards my best friend is this nature and it still continues. We used to play together in streams, rivers, valleys, forests and so on. While play we may destroy something my friend tells that if you destroy any thing that destroy my body and she asked me to nurture the relationship by caring. When I swim in the rivers she watch me with an innocent smile. She conveyed many things through that, her love, concern and her intimacy. My friend never left me alone. When I go to school she comes with me and make my study very easy with her light and cooling. Once we were going to the church and on the way she asked me “why your church people not loves me?”. “Why you are asking this question”, I asked. “Look church people are cutting down the trees around the church and constructing big concrete commercial buildings,” She said to me. But that challenged me and once I bought a tree sapling which I got from my school to plant in the church. But everybody teased me and I am about to cry. But my great friend consoled me with her sweet kiss and said don’t be silly be courageous and strong enough. I still remember that incident because she has given me a sweet mango to console me.
2.4.Nature- My Healer. This is wonderful experience I have with nature. Whenever I got hurt my parents or elders may put juice of some leaves and it helps in curing the wound of mine. And I taught that the water of the rivers have medicinal value because it starts from the streams of the forests where there are lot of medicinal plants. My Grand Parents always use natural medicinal plants for most of the diseases because medicinal plants were at hand. If you study the plants and fruits of the nature everything have the medicinal value it has to be used properly.
3.My Later Years with Nature. My relationship with the nature broken in my teenage and nobody asked me to be serious with nature. But when I was a college student I got the opportunity to be a member of SCM. Ecological issues like ozone layer depletion, extinction of different species and loosing of the bio - diversity were heard in my early 20’s and I used to share these things in my church and at home. But unfortunately my church members and my parents declared all these things are not spiritual and branded me as an anti-church person. And even one Priest of my church denied the pulpit to me and denied the opportunity to go to the theological studies and that even cost me to wait one more year to go to the theological studies. During my Degree studies I got a great opportunity to be a part of Chilika Bachao Andolan (Save the Chilika Movement) with my SCM friends from Kerala. This was a movement in Orissa by the people, mostly fishermen, who posed a successful resistance in the early 90's to the Integrated Shrimp Farm Project (ISFP)- a joint venture agreed upon by the Tata Iron and Steel Company and Government of Orissa for intensive prawn cultivation and export. The project was a direct threat to the livelihood of fishing communities living around the lake. The fishermen were supported in their struggle by the non-fishermen (mostly farmers but some of them also engaged in fishing), students, intellectuals, and human rights activists.
I also got the opportunity to get involved in the various ecological and social movements in relation with the Kerala SCM involvements. But my formal theological search developed in Leonard Theological College, Jabalpur. B.D studies helped me to concretize my theological search in relation with nature. During my Jabalpur life I could be able to visit Medha Patkar, leader of Narmada Bachao Andolan. This is a movement which I have a strong passion and supporting it indirectly now and then. This was a time which I pruned by theological pursuit and could be able to have a clarity in my vision regarding God the creator and human beings as stewards of this nature. My theological engagements challenged my traditional understanding regarding the ministry of the church which was merely anthropocentric. I got the vision of a mission which is cosmic in dimension means Kingdom of God is for all including the nature.
4.Nature and My Theological and Ministerial Formation. My relation with Nature helped me to widen my perspectives and understandings about God, My Responsibility towards creation, Salvation and so on. My engagements with nature opened my eyes to see God as an inclusive God who created everything and sustains everything and nurtures everything. My entity is related with God, Nature and fellow beings. God has given this nature to till it and keep it. All the resources have given for our need not for our need and we need to share the resources to all so that everybody irrespective of class, caste, colour, gender, ethnicity and so on. Nobody have the authority over the nature other than God. Human beings are the stewards of this creation. Now I strongly believe that salvation which I am seeking is not individualistic but it is cosmic and so that by forgetting and destroying the nature and its resources I couldn’t experience the salvation in its fullness. I believe that taking care God’s creation is my mission towards the extension of the Kingdom of God. And at the same time wounds created by human beings to the nature proclaims that still Jesus Christ is persecuted by the agents of Satanic forces. Exploiting the natural resources for profit motives and luxurious life is a violence and it destroys the very image of God. By negating the right to live of the millions we are against the will of God.
5.Church and Ecological Crisis-Challenges and Responsibilities. Why we are discussing the ecological issues and wasting the time ? There may be many such questions raised by the “spiritual people” and may ask what you are doing other than talking. This is a kind of over simplifying the realities of today. While we discuss the things we are edifying and equipping ourselves and others and pointing towards a movement which includes all sections of the people. We need a group effort to face the ecological crisis of today. Here the church’s role comes. We need to break the traditional nature of the ministry of the church. Let me highlight some of the issues which comes before the church in my context.
1.Problems of the Farmers. Since majority of my Parish members Farmers they are facing the failure in their cultivation? Is climate change a reason? Why lands become barren even though farmers use high yielding seeds and ferilisers? Why the crops failures due to the various diseases even then we apply strong pesticides?
2.In Kerala every rainy reason brings widespread diseases which are difficult to control, Why? Water pollution and mishandling the wastes could be the reasons. Do church has a role to play in waste management? What are the responsibilities church has to control the water and air pollution?
3.Why diseases like cancer is increasing? Any ecological reasons?
4. Scarcity of water. Do we able to encourage the parish to use rain water harvesting at church and surrounding? How this scarcity of water affects the farmers and the agriculture field in a large context?
5.Energy Problem. Do we encourage people to use public transport system as much they can? Do we encourage people to share our vehicles? At what extent we use the solar energy?
6.Exploiting the sand bed of the river that causes different kinds of ecological problems.
6.Conclusion. My journey with nature will continue till my last breath. This journey till today taught me that I don’t have peaceful existence in this earth until and unless I will lead a just and reconciled life with this nature. My faith has to be expressed in relation to this earth. Some time I feel strong pain when this mother earth is raped by the greedy people. This mother allowed us to drink milk but we are sucking life blood of the mother even though we had enough milk. Majority of the people are not realizing that Mother earth is dying or we pretend that we are unaware about it. When we can afford many things like pure water majority of the people could not afford the same. In this journey I decided to protect this earth through my deeds and words because my faith in Christ compels me to do so. June 5th was the international environmental day and in NDTV 24x7 news channel reported about an ‘uneducated’ old village woman who started planting trees for the last 50 years and still continuing in her village especially at the sides of the roads when ‘educated’ people destroys the nature. There are people who loves and cares this nature with great stewardship so I will join with them because a creative minority still believes that There Are alternatives and Another World Is Possible.
Marks of a Communicative Church
The Marks of the Communicative Church
The dignity of every human being is respected.
People listen and ask.
Interaction is encouraged.
Diversity is appreciated.
Fellowship is built up.
People communicate with consideration for other party.
People communicate their convictions clearly and intelligibly.
People are bold in expressing their opinions.
People are prepared to change
People take the initiative and react.
Information is provided openly and in advance.
People encounter the church in the media they use.
The dignity of every human being is respected.
People listen and ask.
Interaction is encouraged.
Diversity is appreciated.
Fellowship is built up.
People communicate with consideration for other party.
People communicate their convictions clearly and intelligibly.
People are bold in expressing their opinions.
People are prepared to change
People take the initiative and react.
Information is provided openly and in advance.
People encounter the church in the media they use.
First Sunday After Easter - A Reflection
Jesus’ Appearance to Apostle Thomas.
St. John. 20:19-29.
I imagine that for centuries this has been the text assigned for the Sunday after Easter. This is fitting because it reports an event that happened a week after the resurrection.
If I were to mention the names of certain disciples to you and ask you to write down the first word that comes into your mind, it is unlikely you would come up with the same words. If I were to mention the name of Judas many of you would write down the word "betray" but not all of you. If I were to mention Simon Peter, some of you would write down the word "faith," but not all of you. If I were to mention the names of James and John, some of you would write down the phrase "Sons of Thunder," but not all of you. But when I mention the word Thomas, there is little question about the word most everyone would write down. It would be the word doubt. Indeed, so closely have we associated Thomas with this word, that we have coined a phrase to describe him: “Doubting Thomas.”You may be interested to know that in the first three gospels we are told absolutely nothing at all about Thomas. It is in John’s Gospel that he emerges as a distinct personality, but even then there are only 155 words about him. There is not a lot about this disciple in the Bible but there is more than one description.When Jesus turned his face toward Jerusalem the disciples thought that it would be certain death for all of them.
Surprisingly, it was Thomas who said: Then let us go so that we may die with him. It was a courageous statement, yet we don’t remember him for that. We also fail to point out that in this story of Thomas’ doubt we have the one place in the all the Gospels where the Divinity of Christ is bluntly and unequivocally stated. It is interesting, is it not, that the story that gives Thomas his infamous nickname, is the same story that has Thomas making an earth shattering confession of faith? Look at his confession, “My Lord, and my God.” Not teacher. Not Lord. Not Messiah. But God! It is the only place where Jesus is called God without qualification of any kind. It is uttered with conviction as if Thomas was simply recognizing a fact, just as 2 + 2 = 4, and the sun is in the sky. You are my Lord and my God! These are certainly not the words of a doubter. Let me come to the Gospel Portion.
In the Gospel of John, this encounter with the disciples is the second resurrection appearance. The first resurrection appearance was to Mary Magdalene; the second was to the disciples (first without Thomas on Easter Sunday evening and then with Thomas a week later); the third will be to the seven disciples on the Sea of Tiberias (Lake Galilee.) The Apostle John was counting those resurrection appearances. In John 21:14, we hear “This was the third time that Jesus was revealed to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.”
The Easter season is a time of joy and also a time of sending forth, of responsibility for Christians. Everything changes when Jesus arrives.
1.Fear Ends up in Rejoice-“When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews,” On that Sunday evening, the disciples were sequestered in a house and the doors of that house were locked because of their fear of the Jews/Pharisees/chief priests who had planned, plotted and pushed through the execution of Jesus. None of the disciples had yet seen the Risen Christ. None of the disciples had seen, touched, felt or connected with the Risen Christ. The disciples had only heard the story of what Mary Magdalene had seen. They themselves had not had a “first hand encounter” with the Christ of glory.
Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. It was then, when their minds were satisfied that he Jesus was not a ghost/spirit, the disciples rejoiced because they knew that they were seeing their Lord.
His sudden appearing in the midst of them when they were full of doubts concerning him, full of fears concerning themselves, could not but put them into some disorder and consternation, the noise of which waves he stills with this word, Peace be unto you.
The Good News of the gospel is clear. When we least expect him, and when we most need him, Jesus just appears.
2. An Inclusive Community can experience the peace of the Risen Christ.. "Peace" of the kingdom is not primarily a personal, inner tranquility, but the way people and all creation and God will relate to each another -- a harmonious existence. The disciples never given up anybody as worthless but they included everybody irrespective of their attitudes and words towards Jesus at the time of crucifixion and after. This portion clearly says their attitude towards Thomas, who never believed the words of other disciples.
"The other disciples kept telling him, 'We have seen the Lord'." Thomas refused to believe them. "We have seen the Lord!" "I don't believe you." "We are telling you the truth, we have seen the Lord!" "I still don't believe you." It wasn't just God's word he wasn't believing, but the word and experience of his friends. How do they keep a harmonious, peaceful relationship with a non-trusting friend?
It would be nice if they had told us how they did that so that we could apply it in our parishes!
Whatever they did, they didn't kick Thomas out of the fellowship. In spite of the failures of the disciples, they continued to come together as a group. Eventually he had his own experience with the risen Jesus. In the meantime, how did the disciples remain at peace with one another with such a major difference in experiences and beliefs -- and being at odds with most of the world outside their doors? I wish I knew.
It is important to notice that Thomas has separated himself from the disciples and therefore, in his solitude, missed the resurrection appearance. I think that john is suggesting to us that Christ appears most often within the community of believers that we call the church, and when we separate ourselves from the church we take a chance on missing his unique presence.
3.Faith is not really about what we believe, but what difference it makes in our lives that we believe. The risen Lord gives the disciples the necessary strength to carry out their mission. Jesus opens the doors which fear had closed. He brings them peace, but that does not mean rest. After finding the disciples, forgiving them and restoring peace to their souls, Jesus gave them the Holy Spirit and the ministry of grace. He said, "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained." Here, Jesus is entrusting us with his own ministry of forgiveness.
But peace is the prerequisite to go out to do the ministry of the Jesus. In The Resurrection of Jesus: A Jewish Perspective, the author, Pinchas Lapide, is a Jewish NT scholar. He is not a Christian; yet he believes that God raised Jesus from the dead.
For him, the proof of the physical resurrection lies in the changed lives of the disciples. I quote from the book:When this scared, frightened band of the apostles which was just about to throw away everything in order to flee in despair to Galilee; when these peasants, shepherds, and fishermen, who betrayed and denied their master and then failed him miserably, suddenly could be changed overnight into a confident mission society, convinced of salvation and able to work with much more success after Easter than before Easter, then no vision or hallucination is sufficient to explain such a revolutionary transformation.
Jesus’ followers place everything at the service of others. They enter into a communion which affects every dimension of human existence. In Acts 4:32, we read “every thing they owned was held in common”. In this way, they communicates “ the resurrection of the Lord Jesus”. Such a love eliminates needs within the community.
Like the disciples, we try to hide when we’re ashamed. We keep our hearts locked up tightly because we know the truth about ourselves, and the truth is that we are not what we want to be, or even what we pretend to be.
Faith in Jesus means that we have been born of God, and it transforms us into conquerors of death because we believe in the risen Lord. Now we have to make the resurrection of the risen Lord believable through our own signs of life towards others. The love of God and the love of God’s children are inseparable. This is what the first community did by putting every thing they owned in common so that no one would be in need. In our own situation, we must decide what it means to give signs of life.
St. John. 20:19-29.
I imagine that for centuries this has been the text assigned for the Sunday after Easter. This is fitting because it reports an event that happened a week after the resurrection.
If I were to mention the names of certain disciples to you and ask you to write down the first word that comes into your mind, it is unlikely you would come up with the same words. If I were to mention the name of Judas many of you would write down the word "betray" but not all of you. If I were to mention Simon Peter, some of you would write down the word "faith," but not all of you. If I were to mention the names of James and John, some of you would write down the phrase "Sons of Thunder," but not all of you. But when I mention the word Thomas, there is little question about the word most everyone would write down. It would be the word doubt. Indeed, so closely have we associated Thomas with this word, that we have coined a phrase to describe him: “Doubting Thomas.”You may be interested to know that in the first three gospels we are told absolutely nothing at all about Thomas. It is in John’s Gospel that he emerges as a distinct personality, but even then there are only 155 words about him. There is not a lot about this disciple in the Bible but there is more than one description.When Jesus turned his face toward Jerusalem the disciples thought that it would be certain death for all of them.
Surprisingly, it was Thomas who said: Then let us go so that we may die with him. It was a courageous statement, yet we don’t remember him for that. We also fail to point out that in this story of Thomas’ doubt we have the one place in the all the Gospels where the Divinity of Christ is bluntly and unequivocally stated. It is interesting, is it not, that the story that gives Thomas his infamous nickname, is the same story that has Thomas making an earth shattering confession of faith? Look at his confession, “My Lord, and my God.” Not teacher. Not Lord. Not Messiah. But God! It is the only place where Jesus is called God without qualification of any kind. It is uttered with conviction as if Thomas was simply recognizing a fact, just as 2 + 2 = 4, and the sun is in the sky. You are my Lord and my God! These are certainly not the words of a doubter. Let me come to the Gospel Portion.
In the Gospel of John, this encounter with the disciples is the second resurrection appearance. The first resurrection appearance was to Mary Magdalene; the second was to the disciples (first without Thomas on Easter Sunday evening and then with Thomas a week later); the third will be to the seven disciples on the Sea of Tiberias (Lake Galilee.) The Apostle John was counting those resurrection appearances. In John 21:14, we hear “This was the third time that Jesus was revealed to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.”
The Easter season is a time of joy and also a time of sending forth, of responsibility for Christians. Everything changes when Jesus arrives.
1.Fear Ends up in Rejoice-“When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews,” On that Sunday evening, the disciples were sequestered in a house and the doors of that house were locked because of their fear of the Jews/Pharisees/chief priests who had planned, plotted and pushed through the execution of Jesus. None of the disciples had yet seen the Risen Christ. None of the disciples had seen, touched, felt or connected with the Risen Christ. The disciples had only heard the story of what Mary Magdalene had seen. They themselves had not had a “first hand encounter” with the Christ of glory.
Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. It was then, when their minds were satisfied that he Jesus was not a ghost/spirit, the disciples rejoiced because they knew that they were seeing their Lord.
His sudden appearing in the midst of them when they were full of doubts concerning him, full of fears concerning themselves, could not but put them into some disorder and consternation, the noise of which waves he stills with this word, Peace be unto you.
The Good News of the gospel is clear. When we least expect him, and when we most need him, Jesus just appears.
2. An Inclusive Community can experience the peace of the Risen Christ.. "Peace" of the kingdom is not primarily a personal, inner tranquility, but the way people and all creation and God will relate to each another -- a harmonious existence. The disciples never given up anybody as worthless but they included everybody irrespective of their attitudes and words towards Jesus at the time of crucifixion and after. This portion clearly says their attitude towards Thomas, who never believed the words of other disciples.
"The other disciples kept telling him, 'We have seen the Lord'." Thomas refused to believe them. "We have seen the Lord!" "I don't believe you." "We are telling you the truth, we have seen the Lord!" "I still don't believe you." It wasn't just God's word he wasn't believing, but the word and experience of his friends. How do they keep a harmonious, peaceful relationship with a non-trusting friend?
It would be nice if they had told us how they did that so that we could apply it in our parishes!
Whatever they did, they didn't kick Thomas out of the fellowship. In spite of the failures of the disciples, they continued to come together as a group. Eventually he had his own experience with the risen Jesus. In the meantime, how did the disciples remain at peace with one another with such a major difference in experiences and beliefs -- and being at odds with most of the world outside their doors? I wish I knew.
It is important to notice that Thomas has separated himself from the disciples and therefore, in his solitude, missed the resurrection appearance. I think that john is suggesting to us that Christ appears most often within the community of believers that we call the church, and when we separate ourselves from the church we take a chance on missing his unique presence.
3.Faith is not really about what we believe, but what difference it makes in our lives that we believe. The risen Lord gives the disciples the necessary strength to carry out their mission. Jesus opens the doors which fear had closed. He brings them peace, but that does not mean rest. After finding the disciples, forgiving them and restoring peace to their souls, Jesus gave them the Holy Spirit and the ministry of grace. He said, "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained." Here, Jesus is entrusting us with his own ministry of forgiveness.
But peace is the prerequisite to go out to do the ministry of the Jesus. In The Resurrection of Jesus: A Jewish Perspective, the author, Pinchas Lapide, is a Jewish NT scholar. He is not a Christian; yet he believes that God raised Jesus from the dead.
For him, the proof of the physical resurrection lies in the changed lives of the disciples. I quote from the book:When this scared, frightened band of the apostles which was just about to throw away everything in order to flee in despair to Galilee; when these peasants, shepherds, and fishermen, who betrayed and denied their master and then failed him miserably, suddenly could be changed overnight into a confident mission society, convinced of salvation and able to work with much more success after Easter than before Easter, then no vision or hallucination is sufficient to explain such a revolutionary transformation.
Jesus’ followers place everything at the service of others. They enter into a communion which affects every dimension of human existence. In Acts 4:32, we read “every thing they owned was held in common”. In this way, they communicates “ the resurrection of the Lord Jesus”. Such a love eliminates needs within the community.
Like the disciples, we try to hide when we’re ashamed. We keep our hearts locked up tightly because we know the truth about ourselves, and the truth is that we are not what we want to be, or even what we pretend to be.
Faith in Jesus means that we have been born of God, and it transforms us into conquerors of death because we believe in the risen Lord. Now we have to make the resurrection of the risen Lord believable through our own signs of life towards others. The love of God and the love of God’s children are inseparable. This is what the first community did by putting every thing they owned in common so that no one would be in need. In our own situation, we must decide what it means to give signs of life.
Who is a Prophet? A Reflection
Reflection.23-6-2009.
Who is a Prophet?
Prophet is a person who walks with God in history and reads the history from justice perspective.
Prophet is a person who discern the signs of the time. Prophets always takes side of life and open their mouth against all kinds of evil which destroys life .
Prophets will speak truth and challenges the falsehood. They never compromise with sin. They always analyse history seriously and directs it towards God.
They are the spokes persons of God. They could be able to differentiate between justice and injustice and God’s words and Words of the Darkness.
Who were the Prophets?
Moses who challenged Pharoah the oppressor.
Nathan Who Challenged David the King.
Elijah who questioned the decision of King Ahab
Isaiah who challenged the false spirituality of the Isrealites.
Amos who questioned the prophets of the exploitative system
They were confronted the powerful people to safeguard the justice and peace of God.
Who are the Prophets of this time?
We the Christian Communicators are the Prophets of this time. People who takes their engagements with God towards the well being of this creation are the prophets of this time.
Church is a prophetic movement which is called to choose life and to take sides of the people with God.
We should see things from the perspective of the ‘no people’. We are anointed to be with powerless and voiceless of this time. We are sent out by Christ to be the channels of justice , peace and reconciliation. We are called to proclaim truth where liars dominates.
What happened to the prophetic nature of the church? Where are the prophets of this time?
The ‘propaganda model’ of media operations laid out and
applied by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky in their book Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media says that Media are forced to tell the lies or they are forced to tell half truths or they are hiding the truth or they decides the news worthiness of the news according to the market value because Media content is filtered by five things – Five Filters .
1.Concentrated Ownership. Profit Motive
2.Advertising is the major source of income-They have to compromise the space or time.- A Kind of buyers and sellers deal. Readers or Viewers are the buyers and Advt as sellers. Compromising with the sellers for more profit.
3.News are given by the agents of power. Govt. or Funding agency and so on. Dissenting views are excluded or Unheard and may be a kind of one sided news.
4.Anti Communism .- A Kind of right wing biased ideas.
5.5th Filter is ‘Flak’ which means powerful people or organisations pressurize the media for their propaganda.
In a way Mass Media are used by elites for their interests and in a way Media shut its voices to the stories of the ‘no people’. There are unheard stories of exploitation, injustices and oppression
Let me take this Five Filters and use how The Voice of the Church has been silenced to tell the stories of the dalits, women, marginalized , poor and excluded.
1.Ownership of the church. Like Media Giants do we have some kind of Giants who hijacks the real goal of the church? What is their motive? Profit?
2.Who gives the major share of Church’s Fund? Do we need widow’s two coins. Major share of church’s ministry (space of the church) separated for what and for whom?
3.Do we allow to raise dissenting voices to be raised in the church. If any one speak against the powerful structures knows how to handle it. Isn’t it?
4.Is it our Church a biased community? Do we have Caste bias, Gender bias? Do we talks and act from the biased perspectives? Capitalistic biases are there?
5.Is there Any group that pressurizes the Church – Tell this ….otherwise ……Powerful, wealthy and so on…So Church hesitates to tell the truth and
We are called, anointed and commissioned to be the prophets of this time. But where are we ?
For whom we are speaking for? For what we are standing for? For whom we are searching for? Our message of the church is filtered by many external forces and we diluted the real message of Prophetic Christ. We became liars instead of truth tellers.
Who is a Prophet?
Prophet is a person who walks with God in history and reads the history from justice perspective.
Prophet is a person who discern the signs of the time. Prophets always takes side of life and open their mouth against all kinds of evil which destroys life .
Prophets will speak truth and challenges the falsehood. They never compromise with sin. They always analyse history seriously and directs it towards God.
They are the spokes persons of God. They could be able to differentiate between justice and injustice and God’s words and Words of the Darkness.
Who were the Prophets?
Moses who challenged Pharoah the oppressor.
Nathan Who Challenged David the King.
Elijah who questioned the decision of King Ahab
Isaiah who challenged the false spirituality of the Isrealites.
Amos who questioned the prophets of the exploitative system
They were confronted the powerful people to safeguard the justice and peace of God.
Who are the Prophets of this time?
We the Christian Communicators are the Prophets of this time. People who takes their engagements with God towards the well being of this creation are the prophets of this time.
Church is a prophetic movement which is called to choose life and to take sides of the people with God.
We should see things from the perspective of the ‘no people’. We are anointed to be with powerless and voiceless of this time. We are sent out by Christ to be the channels of justice , peace and reconciliation. We are called to proclaim truth where liars dominates.
What happened to the prophetic nature of the church? Where are the prophets of this time?
The ‘propaganda model’ of media operations laid out and
applied by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky in their book Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media says that Media are forced to tell the lies or they are forced to tell half truths or they are hiding the truth or they decides the news worthiness of the news according to the market value because Media content is filtered by five things – Five Filters .
1.Concentrated Ownership. Profit Motive
2.Advertising is the major source of income-They have to compromise the space or time.- A Kind of buyers and sellers deal. Readers or Viewers are the buyers and Advt as sellers. Compromising with the sellers for more profit.
3.News are given by the agents of power. Govt. or Funding agency and so on. Dissenting views are excluded or Unheard and may be a kind of one sided news.
4.Anti Communism .- A Kind of right wing biased ideas.
5.5th Filter is ‘Flak’ which means powerful people or organisations pressurize the media for their propaganda.
In a way Mass Media are used by elites for their interests and in a way Media shut its voices to the stories of the ‘no people’. There are unheard stories of exploitation, injustices and oppression
Let me take this Five Filters and use how The Voice of the Church has been silenced to tell the stories of the dalits, women, marginalized , poor and excluded.
1.Ownership of the church. Like Media Giants do we have some kind of Giants who hijacks the real goal of the church? What is their motive? Profit?
2.Who gives the major share of Church’s Fund? Do we need widow’s two coins. Major share of church’s ministry (space of the church) separated for what and for whom?
3.Do we allow to raise dissenting voices to be raised in the church. If any one speak against the powerful structures knows how to handle it. Isn’t it?
4.Is it our Church a biased community? Do we have Caste bias, Gender bias? Do we talks and act from the biased perspectives? Capitalistic biases are there?
5.Is there Any group that pressurizes the Church – Tell this ….otherwise ……Powerful, wealthy and so on…So Church hesitates to tell the truth and
We are called, anointed and commissioned to be the prophets of this time. But where are we ?
For whom we are speaking for? For what we are standing for? For whom we are searching for? Our message of the church is filtered by many external forces and we diluted the real message of Prophetic Christ. We became liars instead of truth tellers.
Interview with Rev.Dr. Jacob Thomas
Profile
A Self – CrItique with Strong Foot Steps.
“I would like to be known as a human being rather than as a theologian or as a Pastor”, says Rev. Dr. Jacob Thomas, Senior Faculty and Head of the department of Theology and Ethics, Gurukul Lutheran Theological College Chennai and the Senior Pastor of the Marthoma Church, in an interview at his residence.
Rev. Dr. Jacob Thomas, a Thelogian, Teacher, Pastor,Visionary lives in Gurukul Campus with his wife Aleyamma Thomas and mother Marykkutty. He said that "I still believes in the realisation of a world where there is no hierarchical and structural boundaries”.58 year old Indian Christian Theologian still believes that a ‘New Heaven and Earth’ is possible through Responsible Freedom and selfless involvement in the Kingdom Movement with God.
A man with high academic qualifications and theological and Pastoral exposure explicitly mentioned that, “my main critique is myself and I always feel an inner struggle between my vision and real life”. He obtained his MA in history with high marks and desired to become a college professor but challenged by the lives of Fr. Damien and Mother Teresa and took the great challenge to serve the humanity. He got his Phd in Thelogy and Ethics from Union Biblical Seminary, Newyork. In his conversation he said, as a self critique, “after my 31years’ ministry I realize that whatever I deicided to do in my ministry could not be done because of my own limitations”. These are the words of a scholar who is having a strong self- consciousness.
As a teacher he served in Calcutta Bishop’s College, Kottayam Mar Thoma Seminary and Chennai Gurukul Theological College.He was greately influenced by the theological visions of,Albert Scheitzer,Chenchaiah, M M.Thomas,Swamy Aroopananda Franscis Xavier and many others. Writings of the social thinkers like Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Nietzche also illumined his thinking and helped to see Fellow beings in a better way.Till 1990’s he strongly believed that Marxist ideology can bring social change and involved in politics with left parties.But the failures of Marxism in Soviet Russia and other countries made a shift in his political involvement.He realized that nobody can impose their ideology on others by force.Only through willfull acceptance and commitment towards an ideology brings change.He analysed that failures of different societies or communities are not the problems of ideologies and communities but the inherent sinfulness of the humanity.
Dr.Jacob Thomas authored many books including, ‘Human Freedom and Indian Culture’, ‘New trends in Thelogy’ and ‘Ethics of a world community’.He wrote scholarly articles in many journals.Now he is very passionate in writing articles in Web Blogs.He owns 70 blogs but most of them are kept very personal.When he look back he realise that that there is a shift in his thelogical stands. “Shift in thelogical thinking and action is a reality.Most of the theologians experienced this shift”,he added. And also he could see the imperfections and failures in life.He said, “ understanding of truth(what we believe today as truth) is not ultimate.What we believe today as truth may be wrong after a period of time.But that doesn’t mean that we should be lazy today.We should faithfull and genuine to what we believe today then only we could move in our faith journey with Christ ”.
He is a critique of many exclusive claims of the Christians. According to him, “usually we impose our (mis) understanding of truth as ultimate truths on others. And we forget to practice love and respect among ourselves”. According to him, “by exclusive claims we create a closed community instead of an open community. We need a better understanding of ourselves to build an inclusive community. As Christians we are truth searchers not the truth holders”. He asserted that, “I don’t have hesitation to visit any church or temple irrespective of denomination and religion”.
In his theological journey he experienced many challenges. His strong stands, theological positions and genuine criticisms made him a rebel in the eyes of many, including church leaders. He never tried to please anybody to safeguard any personal interests or to play power politics in the church. He believes that, “whatever position I got is God’s gift and it is more than enough and I don’t have any other ambition left unfulfilled in my life”. He would like to spend the remaining 7years in his active service in Parishes. “I always remember my Father’s words, ‘don’t be greedy but satisfy with whatever you have,’ and I still believe in that”. His eyes and words spoke a lot about his conviction and attitude.
As a lover of community living he started his ministry in Satna, one of the Ashrams of the Marthoma Church. Late Thomas Mar Athanasius, then the Bishop of the Marthoma Church encouraged him to enter in to the ministry of the church.He did his B.D at Bishop’s College, Calcutta during the period 1974-77. He was ordained in the year 1977 and served the parishes like Newyork, Kayamkulam, Ranni, Allahabad Vadasserikkara etc.He got two children,son Jennis got married to Reena and staying in Chennai with his wife and daughter Jeena studying in U.S.A. His wife Aleyamma Thomas also with him always to support his Ministry and Teaching. He taught many students through his words and life and witnessed the growth of many. He encouraged them by giving fellowship and moulded them by creative criticisms and dynamic leadership. He is not merely a teacher but a fellow traveller with the students in their theological journey and faith formation. He guided many DTh, MTh and B.D students in their thesis writings and helped many in their theological endeavors.
Even though he is one of the Senior Faculty members of the Senate of Serampore with great experience and acceptance, he is simple and approachable. Students of Gurukul had no hesitation to say, “he is always in the Campus, Library, Chapel and in the class rooms with a pleasant smile, powerful words and strong foot steps of a visionary”. When I said thanks to him for his time for the interview, he replied with a smile, “ give me a copy of your report before I leave from Gurukul, so that I could remember Gurukul Community”. After his 9 years fruitful ministry at Gurukul he will be posted in one of the Parishes of the Marthoma Church in2009April.After the interview I left him at his residence and on the way to my residence, then I also started love the community living and started to criticize myself. See, how infectious his personality is.
(This is the report of the interview with Rev.Dr.Jacob Thomas.Interview conducted at his residence on 22-11-2008 at 8 pm. by Sajeev Thomas,MTh.Com.1)
A Self – CrItique with Strong Foot Steps.
“I would like to be known as a human being rather than as a theologian or as a Pastor”, says Rev. Dr. Jacob Thomas, Senior Faculty and Head of the department of Theology and Ethics, Gurukul Lutheran Theological College Chennai and the Senior Pastor of the Marthoma Church, in an interview at his residence.
Rev. Dr. Jacob Thomas, a Thelogian, Teacher, Pastor,Visionary lives in Gurukul Campus with his wife Aleyamma Thomas and mother Marykkutty. He said that "I still believes in the realisation of a world where there is no hierarchical and structural boundaries”.58 year old Indian Christian Theologian still believes that a ‘New Heaven and Earth’ is possible through Responsible Freedom and selfless involvement in the Kingdom Movement with God.
A man with high academic qualifications and theological and Pastoral exposure explicitly mentioned that, “my main critique is myself and I always feel an inner struggle between my vision and real life”. He obtained his MA in history with high marks and desired to become a college professor but challenged by the lives of Fr. Damien and Mother Teresa and took the great challenge to serve the humanity. He got his Phd in Thelogy and Ethics from Union Biblical Seminary, Newyork. In his conversation he said, as a self critique, “after my 31years’ ministry I realize that whatever I deicided to do in my ministry could not be done because of my own limitations”. These are the words of a scholar who is having a strong self- consciousness.
As a teacher he served in Calcutta Bishop’s College, Kottayam Mar Thoma Seminary and Chennai Gurukul Theological College.He was greately influenced by the theological visions of,Albert Scheitzer,Chenchaiah, M M.Thomas,Swamy Aroopananda Franscis Xavier and many others. Writings of the social thinkers like Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Nietzche also illumined his thinking and helped to see Fellow beings in a better way.Till 1990’s he strongly believed that Marxist ideology can bring social change and involved in politics with left parties.But the failures of Marxism in Soviet Russia and other countries made a shift in his political involvement.He realized that nobody can impose their ideology on others by force.Only through willfull acceptance and commitment towards an ideology brings change.He analysed that failures of different societies or communities are not the problems of ideologies and communities but the inherent sinfulness of the humanity.
Dr.Jacob Thomas authored many books including, ‘Human Freedom and Indian Culture’, ‘New trends in Thelogy’ and ‘Ethics of a world community’.He wrote scholarly articles in many journals.Now he is very passionate in writing articles in Web Blogs.He owns 70 blogs but most of them are kept very personal.When he look back he realise that that there is a shift in his thelogical stands. “Shift in thelogical thinking and action is a reality.Most of the theologians experienced this shift”,he added. And also he could see the imperfections and failures in life.He said, “ understanding of truth(what we believe today as truth) is not ultimate.What we believe today as truth may be wrong after a period of time.But that doesn’t mean that we should be lazy today.We should faithfull and genuine to what we believe today then only we could move in our faith journey with Christ ”.
He is a critique of many exclusive claims of the Christians. According to him, “usually we impose our (mis) understanding of truth as ultimate truths on others. And we forget to practice love and respect among ourselves”. According to him, “by exclusive claims we create a closed community instead of an open community. We need a better understanding of ourselves to build an inclusive community. As Christians we are truth searchers not the truth holders”. He asserted that, “I don’t have hesitation to visit any church or temple irrespective of denomination and religion”.
In his theological journey he experienced many challenges. His strong stands, theological positions and genuine criticisms made him a rebel in the eyes of many, including church leaders. He never tried to please anybody to safeguard any personal interests or to play power politics in the church. He believes that, “whatever position I got is God’s gift and it is more than enough and I don’t have any other ambition left unfulfilled in my life”. He would like to spend the remaining 7years in his active service in Parishes. “I always remember my Father’s words, ‘don’t be greedy but satisfy with whatever you have,’ and I still believe in that”. His eyes and words spoke a lot about his conviction and attitude.
As a lover of community living he started his ministry in Satna, one of the Ashrams of the Marthoma Church. Late Thomas Mar Athanasius, then the Bishop of the Marthoma Church encouraged him to enter in to the ministry of the church.He did his B.D at Bishop’s College, Calcutta during the period 1974-77. He was ordained in the year 1977 and served the parishes like Newyork, Kayamkulam, Ranni, Allahabad Vadasserikkara etc.He got two children,son Jennis got married to Reena and staying in Chennai with his wife and daughter Jeena studying in U.S.A. His wife Aleyamma Thomas also with him always to support his Ministry and Teaching. He taught many students through his words and life and witnessed the growth of many. He encouraged them by giving fellowship and moulded them by creative criticisms and dynamic leadership. He is not merely a teacher but a fellow traveller with the students in their theological journey and faith formation. He guided many DTh, MTh and B.D students in their thesis writings and helped many in their theological endeavors.
Even though he is one of the Senior Faculty members of the Senate of Serampore with great experience and acceptance, he is simple and approachable. Students of Gurukul had no hesitation to say, “he is always in the Campus, Library, Chapel and in the class rooms with a pleasant smile, powerful words and strong foot steps of a visionary”. When I said thanks to him for his time for the interview, he replied with a smile, “ give me a copy of your report before I leave from Gurukul, so that I could remember Gurukul Community”. After his 9 years fruitful ministry at Gurukul he will be posted in one of the Parishes of the Marthoma Church in2009April.After the interview I left him at his residence and on the way to my residence, then I also started love the community living and started to criticize myself. See, how infectious his personality is.
(This is the report of the interview with Rev.Dr.Jacob Thomas.Interview conducted at his residence on 22-11-2008 at 8 pm. by Sajeev Thomas,MTh.Com.1)
Worship Order
Gurukul Lutheran Theological College,Chennai
Morning Worship Order
27-1-2009
Invocation
We rejoice at the presence of the God who journeys with us,who does not forget God’s people,who has sent Jesus Christ, God’s Son, to give us justice and peace,and has given us the certainty that the Spirit of Jesus is among us.
Opening Hymn-229(Gurukul Worship Hymnal)
Litany of Thanks giving
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night”, even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day,for darkness is as light to you. For it was you who formed my inward parts;you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret,intricately woven in the depths of the earth. (Psalm 139: 11-15)
All-We thank you, O God,because you do not forget your people, your church or your world,because, even in the midst of the dark shadows of our life, you look upon us with pity.You cover us with your wingsand you come to visit us.
Litany of confession:
All-Here we are, Lord, laying our life before you,confessing our faults, whispering our sins to you.Because we do not accept the reign of God and we cherish violent thoughts:
Voice 1: I find it difficult to forgive others.Voice 2: If I am offended, I offend in return.Voice 3: Sharing is a word that does not exist in my vocabulary.Voice 4: I sow weeds instead of good seeds.Voice 5: I fold my arms, but I know that I could use my hands to build justice.
Today, we pray, be merciful to us.Give us strength and courageto walk from the darkness of violence into the light of your peace.
All-Here we are, Lord, laying our lives before you,confessing our faults, whispering our sins to you. Because we do not understand the reign of God, and we build up structures of violence:
Voice 1: We accept social and political systems that oppress the weakest.Voice 2: We respond to violence with more violence.Voice 3: We find it hard to commit ourselves to changing this distressing situation.Voice 4: We promote violence as a form of entertainment.Voice 5: We remain silent in face of injustice.Today, we pray, be merciful to our society.Give us strength and courage to walk from the darkness of violence into the light of your peace.
All-Here we are, Lord, as theological students, laying our lives before you,confessing our faults, whispering our sins to you.Because we do not experience the reign of God in our midst
Voice 1: We use your Word to justify attitudes that produce violence.Voice 2: We misuse the power of the church.Voice 3: We do not accept diversity and we exclude others.Voice 4: We keep the oppressed at a distance and receive oppressors with open arms.Voice 5: As Christians, we claim to have the absolute truth.
All-Today, we pray, be merciful to the Church.Give us strength and courage to walk from the darkness of violence into the light of your peace.Amen.
Scripture Reading-Acts:5:33-42
Reflection- Sajeev Thomas
Prayers of intercession
Lord, we pray forPeace for those who weep in silencePeace for those who cannot speakPeace when all hope seems to disappear.
All-O God replenish peace and justice in the midst of all your people
In the midst of rage, of violence and disappointment,In the midst of wars and destruction of the earth,Lord, show us your light in the darkness.
All-O God replenish peace and justice in the midst of all your people
Lord, we pray forPeace for those who raise their voices to demand it,Peace when there are many who do not wish to hear of it,Peace as we find the way to justice.
All-O God replenish peace and justice in the midst of all your people
Lords Prayer.
Benediction.
Let us go with Jesus, the light who guides us on our way.May our hope be that the Sun of Justice will rise one morning on all humankind.May the God of Peace, our constant companion,lead us along paths of solidarity and hope,and give us the joy of being united in God’s love. Amen(3).
Acknowledgement- W C C Liturgical Resources
Prepared by-Sajeev Thomas,MTh Com.1
Morning Worship Order
27-1-2009
Invocation
We rejoice at the presence of the God who journeys with us,who does not forget God’s people,who has sent Jesus Christ, God’s Son, to give us justice and peace,and has given us the certainty that the Spirit of Jesus is among us.
Opening Hymn-229(Gurukul Worship Hymnal)
Litany of Thanks giving
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night”, even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day,for darkness is as light to you. For it was you who formed my inward parts;you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret,intricately woven in the depths of the earth. (Psalm 139: 11-15)
All-We thank you, O God,because you do not forget your people, your church or your world,because, even in the midst of the dark shadows of our life, you look upon us with pity.You cover us with your wingsand you come to visit us.
Litany of confession:
All-Here we are, Lord, laying our life before you,confessing our faults, whispering our sins to you.Because we do not accept the reign of God and we cherish violent thoughts:
Voice 1: I find it difficult to forgive others.Voice 2: If I am offended, I offend in return.Voice 3: Sharing is a word that does not exist in my vocabulary.Voice 4: I sow weeds instead of good seeds.Voice 5: I fold my arms, but I know that I could use my hands to build justice.
Today, we pray, be merciful to us.Give us strength and courageto walk from the darkness of violence into the light of your peace.
All-Here we are, Lord, laying our lives before you,confessing our faults, whispering our sins to you. Because we do not understand the reign of God, and we build up structures of violence:
Voice 1: We accept social and political systems that oppress the weakest.Voice 2: We respond to violence with more violence.Voice 3: We find it hard to commit ourselves to changing this distressing situation.Voice 4: We promote violence as a form of entertainment.Voice 5: We remain silent in face of injustice.Today, we pray, be merciful to our society.Give us strength and courage to walk from the darkness of violence into the light of your peace.
All-Here we are, Lord, as theological students, laying our lives before you,confessing our faults, whispering our sins to you.Because we do not experience the reign of God in our midst
Voice 1: We use your Word to justify attitudes that produce violence.Voice 2: We misuse the power of the church.Voice 3: We do not accept diversity and we exclude others.Voice 4: We keep the oppressed at a distance and receive oppressors with open arms.Voice 5: As Christians, we claim to have the absolute truth.
All-Today, we pray, be merciful to the Church.Give us strength and courage to walk from the darkness of violence into the light of your peace.Amen.
Scripture Reading-Acts:5:33-42
Reflection- Sajeev Thomas
Prayers of intercession
Lord, we pray forPeace for those who weep in silencePeace for those who cannot speakPeace when all hope seems to disappear.
All-O God replenish peace and justice in the midst of all your people
In the midst of rage, of violence and disappointment,In the midst of wars and destruction of the earth,Lord, show us your light in the darkness.
All-O God replenish peace and justice in the midst of all your people
Lord, we pray forPeace for those who raise their voices to demand it,Peace when there are many who do not wish to hear of it,Peace as we find the way to justice.
All-O God replenish peace and justice in the midst of all your people
Lords Prayer.
Benediction.
Let us go with Jesus, the light who guides us on our way.May our hope be that the Sun of Justice will rise one morning on all humankind.May the God of Peace, our constant companion,lead us along paths of solidarity and hope,and give us the joy of being united in God’s love. Amen(3).
Acknowledgement- W C C Liturgical Resources
Prepared by-Sajeev Thomas,MTh Com.1
Worship Order in Communication Perspective
Gurukul Lutheran Theological College and Research Institute, Chennai.
Worship Order-23-6-2009.
Theme- Communication is Prophetic.
Introductory Thoughts (To be Read in Silence)
Many media workers are trying to interpret the signs of the times, because this is part of the public information work to which they are committed. For Christians, the events of the day are part of God's agenda for action. In it, God's plans are revealed through changing circumstances and new opportunities. In order to discern and interpret the situation correctly, Christian communicators must listen to God and be led by the Spirit. This is a condition of prophecy. But words are only part of prophecy. They take on real meaning only when they are accompanied by action. Prophetic communication expresses itself in words and deeds. Such prophetic action must be willing to challenge the principalities and powers, and may carry a high price. Prophetic communication serves truth and challenges falsehood. Lies and half-truths are a great threat to communication. Prophetic communication stimulates critical awareness of the reality constructed by the media and helps people to distinguish truth from falsehood, to discern the subjectivity of the journalist and to disassociate that which is ephemeral and trivial from that which is lasting and valuable. Often it is necessary to develop alternative communication so that prophetic words and deeds can be realized (WACC Document).
1.Invocation.
Leader: Blessed is our God always, now and for the ages to come.
All: Amen.
Leader: O Lord, open our lips,
All: And our mouths will declare your will
Leader: Create in us a clean heart, O God,
All: Put a new and a right spirit within us.
Leader: Do not cast us away from your presence,
All: And do not take your holy spirit from us. Make us prophets of this time.
Leader: Restore to us the strength of truth telling
All: And sustain in us the courageous spirit of the Prophets.
2.Opening Hymn-No.650 (Page No.495) meaning- God accept these tears coming out of our commitment. We offer our lives and talents for the fulfillment of your will. God , Source of life enrich our lives and the whole creation with the radiance of your life. God bless us and anoint us in this blessed occasion.
3.Readings and Responses.
A Reading. “Hear the words of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of red beasts;………When you come to appear before me, who asked this from your hand? ………bringing offerings is futile; …..I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity. Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them. When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice , rescue the oppressed , defend the orphan, plead for the widow (Isiah.1:10-17).
Response. God we are ready to wash ourselves; make us clean. Help us to be the channel of peace, justice and integrity of creation. Open our eyes to see our evil doings, Open our ears to hear the cry for life, Give your vision so that we may be your prophets. Help us to discern the signs of your Kingdom so that we may be voices of the oppressed, orphan and widow.
A Reading. We cannot communicate with others when we consider them ‘inferior’. The master may impart information to his slave or servant, but genuine communication hardly takes place. The same is true when men consider women as ‘inferior’ human beings. Mere information, or the sale of and access to media products, may then become substitutes for genuine communication. Communicative freedom presupposes the recognition that all human beings are of equal worth. And the more explicit equality is and becomes, in human interactions, the more easily and completely communication occurs (Michael Traber- Found in the article-Communication is inscribed in the human nature).
Response. God we are not mere producers, distributors and consumers of information. We are called to engage ourselves for a viable community where true communication and communion exists. Help us to transcend all kinds of divisions, parochialisms and inequalities.
A Reading. Christ who is the foundation of our Christian faith is both ‘communication between’ and ‘communication of’. He is the medium and the message. It points to the fact that Christ’s mission was a communication of himself, that others may hear this message and be enabled to respond to him. He exemplified the prophetic message in his life. That’s why Jesus is said to be the message and the medium. Prophets were not just channels but they were also the message themselves. ….Prophetic communication is being with people in their fears and anxieties and more so with the existential conflicts of life and death, and their riddles of life to maintain justice and righteousness ( Samuel W. Meshack –Found in the article-Christian Commn. is Prophetic: A Theological and Ethical Perspective).
Response. God we acknowledge that we are called to be communicators and prophets of this time. We know that a prophetic communication never seeks for neutrality. Rather it always challenges the principalities and powers and may carry a high price. Help us to stand for truth and question the falsehood. Help us to be agents of peace in the midst of conflict, violence and death.
Leader. Communication is Prophetic.
All. Communication is taking sides. Communication is peace. Communication is for creating viable communities.
4.Thanksgiving Prayer.
Leader. God of Community, Communication and Communion we thank you for the great gift of communication. God of language, we praise you for the diversity of the language. God of Prophets, we adore you for calling people to be the spokes person in the midst of injustice, inequality, violence and domination of all kind.
All. God of alternatives, we thank you for the alternatives you have shown through the New World Information and Communication Order. We praise you for the prophetic voice of the World Association for Christian Communication. We adore you for all the policies in making communication as a right of all especially through the Right to Information Act. We thank you for communicating peace through the story tellers, poets, the voices of the voiceless and the activists of justice issues.
5.Prayer of Confession.
Voice-1. Our right to communicate, right to inform and right to access are denied because we are poor.
Voice-2. Our right to live, right to express and right to freedom are negated because we are Dalits, Women Powerless and Marginalized .
Voice-3. Information is Power. It should be democratically shared to all. But today we are discriminated as Information Poor when some are rich in information.
Voice-4. How communication is possible when our dignity is in question. Who has given you the power to distort the image of God inscribed in us by our Creator God.
All. God of Mercy and Forgiveness we were kept in diplomatic silence in the places we were supposed to raise our voices. We have forgotten our call to be the spokes persons of God of Justice and peace and compromised with the principalities and powers of injustice, discrimination and violence. Help us to speak truth when falsehood is dominating. Help us to discern the signs of the time and anoint us with your spirit so that we may become true communicators of the time. Amen.
6.Bible Readings.
John.8:31,32. Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free”.
John.8:44……….You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.
Jeremiah.1:7-10 … “Do not say ‘ I am only a boy’; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you, and you shall speak whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you , says the Lord”. …. “Now I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant”.
Revelation.3:15,16. “ I know your works; you are neither cold or hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot , I am about to spit you out of my mouth”.
7.Reflection - Sajeev Thomas(MTh.Com II).
8.Affirmation of Faith.
Leader. We believe in the God who communicates with us through God’s creation…
All: We believe in the true Communicator, the one God who always intervenes in history / herstory through words and deeds. We affirm our faith in the Communicating God who is prophetic in nature and taking sides with the marginalized.
Leader. We believe in Jesus Christ the Perfect and Genuine Communicator
All. We believe in Jesus Christ who taught us that Communication is for human beings, not human beings for communication. We affirm our faith in Jesus the real communicator who gives respect to human dignity, people’s cultural integrity, their ability to respond and participate, their right to express their own concerns and anxieties, rather than how others think they ought to be.
We believe in Jesus the prophetic communicator. We believe in Christ Not merely in the sense of Jesus as the master of communication techniques, the clever story-teller, but rather in his identification with and respect for people where they are. We realize that his Incarnation is not to maintain the status-quo but to question, challenge, and re-order the society according to the will of God. To share this incarnation is to share radical human acceptance towards the marginalised. His identification with the poor, the oppressed and the marginalized is equally compelling. In order to affirm this he stood outside the boundaries of orthodox communication.
Leader. We believe in Holy Spirit who transcends all kinds of differences and creates community.
All. We believe in Holy Spirit who strengthen us to challenge all kinds of hegemonic and dominating attitudes and deeds. We affirm our faith in Holy Spirit who was present in the Pentecost and never there in Babel. We experience the presence of Holy Spirit in our prophetic engagements and in our faith journey.
Leader. We believe in the Christian Principles of Communication.
All. We believe that communication creates community, Communication is participatory, Communication liberates, Communication support and develops cultures and Communication is prophetic.
9.Interpreted Version of the Lord’s Prayer.
All: Our Parent God, Who lives in Community. Your kingdom come. Help us to stand for your will in this earth as it is in heaven. Help us to forgive others so that our debts may be forgiven. Strengthen us with the spirit of justice so that we may resist the market driven temptations. Fill us with the spirit of truth so that we may recognize the falsehood and struggle for truth and Justice. The Kingdom we are searching is yours, where media giants do not rule and the information rich never dominate. The Glory of Kingdom is for you and not for the capitalists. Now and for ever we Christian Communicators be your spokes persons in words and deeds. Amen.
10.Blessing.
All: May the blessing of the God of Community, peace and justice be with us; may the blessing of the Perfect Communicator Jesus Christ who listen the cries of the world’s suffering be with us; and may the blessing of the Spirit of Unity, who inspire us for reconciliation and hope be with us; from now unto eternity. Amen(Three Fold).
Prepared by Rev. Sajeev Thomas,Dept. of Communication, GLTC, Chennai
Worship Order-23-6-2009.
Theme- Communication is Prophetic.
Introductory Thoughts (To be Read in Silence)
Many media workers are trying to interpret the signs of the times, because this is part of the public information work to which they are committed. For Christians, the events of the day are part of God's agenda for action. In it, God's plans are revealed through changing circumstances and new opportunities. In order to discern and interpret the situation correctly, Christian communicators must listen to God and be led by the Spirit. This is a condition of prophecy. But words are only part of prophecy. They take on real meaning only when they are accompanied by action. Prophetic communication expresses itself in words and deeds. Such prophetic action must be willing to challenge the principalities and powers, and may carry a high price. Prophetic communication serves truth and challenges falsehood. Lies and half-truths are a great threat to communication. Prophetic communication stimulates critical awareness of the reality constructed by the media and helps people to distinguish truth from falsehood, to discern the subjectivity of the journalist and to disassociate that which is ephemeral and trivial from that which is lasting and valuable. Often it is necessary to develop alternative communication so that prophetic words and deeds can be realized (WACC Document).
1.Invocation.
Leader: Blessed is our God always, now and for the ages to come.
All: Amen.
Leader: O Lord, open our lips,
All: And our mouths will declare your will
Leader: Create in us a clean heart, O God,
All: Put a new and a right spirit within us.
Leader: Do not cast us away from your presence,
All: And do not take your holy spirit from us. Make us prophets of this time.
Leader: Restore to us the strength of truth telling
All: And sustain in us the courageous spirit of the Prophets.
2.Opening Hymn-No.650 (Page No.495) meaning- God accept these tears coming out of our commitment. We offer our lives and talents for the fulfillment of your will. God , Source of life enrich our lives and the whole creation with the radiance of your life. God bless us and anoint us in this blessed occasion.
3.Readings and Responses.
A Reading. “Hear the words of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of red beasts;………When you come to appear before me, who asked this from your hand? ………bringing offerings is futile; …..I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity. Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them. When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice , rescue the oppressed , defend the orphan, plead for the widow (Isiah.1:10-17).
Response. God we are ready to wash ourselves; make us clean. Help us to be the channel of peace, justice and integrity of creation. Open our eyes to see our evil doings, Open our ears to hear the cry for life, Give your vision so that we may be your prophets. Help us to discern the signs of your Kingdom so that we may be voices of the oppressed, orphan and widow.
A Reading. We cannot communicate with others when we consider them ‘inferior’. The master may impart information to his slave or servant, but genuine communication hardly takes place. The same is true when men consider women as ‘inferior’ human beings. Mere information, or the sale of and access to media products, may then become substitutes for genuine communication. Communicative freedom presupposes the recognition that all human beings are of equal worth. And the more explicit equality is and becomes, in human interactions, the more easily and completely communication occurs (Michael Traber- Found in the article-Communication is inscribed in the human nature).
Response. God we are not mere producers, distributors and consumers of information. We are called to engage ourselves for a viable community where true communication and communion exists. Help us to transcend all kinds of divisions, parochialisms and inequalities.
A Reading. Christ who is the foundation of our Christian faith is both ‘communication between’ and ‘communication of’. He is the medium and the message. It points to the fact that Christ’s mission was a communication of himself, that others may hear this message and be enabled to respond to him. He exemplified the prophetic message in his life. That’s why Jesus is said to be the message and the medium. Prophets were not just channels but they were also the message themselves. ….Prophetic communication is being with people in their fears and anxieties and more so with the existential conflicts of life and death, and their riddles of life to maintain justice and righteousness ( Samuel W. Meshack –Found in the article-Christian Commn. is Prophetic: A Theological and Ethical Perspective).
Response. God we acknowledge that we are called to be communicators and prophets of this time. We know that a prophetic communication never seeks for neutrality. Rather it always challenges the principalities and powers and may carry a high price. Help us to stand for truth and question the falsehood. Help us to be agents of peace in the midst of conflict, violence and death.
Leader. Communication is Prophetic.
All. Communication is taking sides. Communication is peace. Communication is for creating viable communities.
4.Thanksgiving Prayer.
Leader. God of Community, Communication and Communion we thank you for the great gift of communication. God of language, we praise you for the diversity of the language. God of Prophets, we adore you for calling people to be the spokes person in the midst of injustice, inequality, violence and domination of all kind.
All. God of alternatives, we thank you for the alternatives you have shown through the New World Information and Communication Order. We praise you for the prophetic voice of the World Association for Christian Communication. We adore you for all the policies in making communication as a right of all especially through the Right to Information Act. We thank you for communicating peace through the story tellers, poets, the voices of the voiceless and the activists of justice issues.
5.Prayer of Confession.
Voice-1. Our right to communicate, right to inform and right to access are denied because we are poor.
Voice-2. Our right to live, right to express and right to freedom are negated because we are Dalits, Women Powerless and Marginalized .
Voice-3. Information is Power. It should be democratically shared to all. But today we are discriminated as Information Poor when some are rich in information.
Voice-4. How communication is possible when our dignity is in question. Who has given you the power to distort the image of God inscribed in us by our Creator God.
All. God of Mercy and Forgiveness we were kept in diplomatic silence in the places we were supposed to raise our voices. We have forgotten our call to be the spokes persons of God of Justice and peace and compromised with the principalities and powers of injustice, discrimination and violence. Help us to speak truth when falsehood is dominating. Help us to discern the signs of the time and anoint us with your spirit so that we may become true communicators of the time. Amen.
6.Bible Readings.
John.8:31,32. Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free”.
John.8:44……….You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.
Jeremiah.1:7-10 … “Do not say ‘ I am only a boy’; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you, and you shall speak whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you , says the Lord”. …. “Now I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant”.
Revelation.3:15,16. “ I know your works; you are neither cold or hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot , I am about to spit you out of my mouth”.
7.Reflection - Sajeev Thomas(MTh.Com II).
8.Affirmation of Faith.
Leader. We believe in the God who communicates with us through God’s creation…
All: We believe in the true Communicator, the one God who always intervenes in history / herstory through words and deeds. We affirm our faith in the Communicating God who is prophetic in nature and taking sides with the marginalized.
Leader. We believe in Jesus Christ the Perfect and Genuine Communicator
All. We believe in Jesus Christ who taught us that Communication is for human beings, not human beings for communication. We affirm our faith in Jesus the real communicator who gives respect to human dignity, people’s cultural integrity, their ability to respond and participate, their right to express their own concerns and anxieties, rather than how others think they ought to be.
We believe in Jesus the prophetic communicator. We believe in Christ Not merely in the sense of Jesus as the master of communication techniques, the clever story-teller, but rather in his identification with and respect for people where they are. We realize that his Incarnation is not to maintain the status-quo but to question, challenge, and re-order the society according to the will of God. To share this incarnation is to share radical human acceptance towards the marginalised. His identification with the poor, the oppressed and the marginalized is equally compelling. In order to affirm this he stood outside the boundaries of orthodox communication.
Leader. We believe in Holy Spirit who transcends all kinds of differences and creates community.
All. We believe in Holy Spirit who strengthen us to challenge all kinds of hegemonic and dominating attitudes and deeds. We affirm our faith in Holy Spirit who was present in the Pentecost and never there in Babel. We experience the presence of Holy Spirit in our prophetic engagements and in our faith journey.
Leader. We believe in the Christian Principles of Communication.
All. We believe that communication creates community, Communication is participatory, Communication liberates, Communication support and develops cultures and Communication is prophetic.
9.Interpreted Version of the Lord’s Prayer.
All: Our Parent God, Who lives in Community. Your kingdom come. Help us to stand for your will in this earth as it is in heaven. Help us to forgive others so that our debts may be forgiven. Strengthen us with the spirit of justice so that we may resist the market driven temptations. Fill us with the spirit of truth so that we may recognize the falsehood and struggle for truth and Justice. The Kingdom we are searching is yours, where media giants do not rule and the information rich never dominate. The Glory of Kingdom is for you and not for the capitalists. Now and for ever we Christian Communicators be your spokes persons in words and deeds. Amen.
10.Blessing.
All: May the blessing of the God of Community, peace and justice be with us; may the blessing of the Perfect Communicator Jesus Christ who listen the cries of the world’s suffering be with us; and may the blessing of the Spirit of Unity, who inspire us for reconciliation and hope be with us; from now unto eternity. Amen(Three Fold).
Prepared by Rev. Sajeev Thomas,Dept. of Communication, GLTC, Chennai
Modern Science and Technology - A Subaltern Reading
Gurukul Lutheran Theological College and Research Institute , Chennai.
MTh Integrated Course 2009-2010.
The Church and the Ecological Crisis.
Seminar Presentation on the topic:
Modern Science and Technology and the Distress of Earth.
1.Introduction. One of the exclusive claims of this time is that we can solve any problem in this earth by using modern science and technology. We believe that the developments and discoveries in the field of science and technology would benefit to the humanity. But is it true? Science and technology should be for the people, by the people and of the people. But the history of science and technology reveals that it is far away from the grass root communities and confined in the laboratories or it is controlled by power structures for their dominant ideologies. Its journey with the prophets of modern development and the relation with the dominant group led its direction away from the mother earth and caused many damage to the life in it. This paper is an attempt to read the science and technology and the distress of earth from the perspective of the earth and subaltern communities.
2.Science, Technology, Patriarchy and Colonialism The rise of modern science and the colonial expansion of Europe after 1492 constitute two fundamental and characteristic features of modern world history….The story is dual one. One of its aspects concerns how science and the scientific enterprise formed part of and facilitated colonial development. The other deals with how the colonial experience affected science and contemporary scientific enterprise(Harding,1998,39). ….Harding has called it a ‘western, bourgeois, masculine project’, and according to Keller “science has been produced by a particular sub-set of the human race, that is, almost entirely by white, middle class males. For the founding fathers of modern science, the reliance on the language of gender was explicit; they sought a philosophy that deserved to be called ‘masculine’, that could be distinguished from its ineffective predecessors by its ‘virile’ powers, its capacity to bind Nature to man’s service and make her his slave”(Shiva,1988,15).
According to Vandana Shiva, “ Colonial domination systematically transformed the common vital resources into commodities for generating profits and growth of revenues”(Shiva,1991:14). For centuries the important natural resources like land, water and forests had been used by the village communities for their existence. Modern science and technology with an imperialistic and profit oriented value system threatened the preservation of these natural resources and challenged the existence of the village communities.
How science and technology being used by Powerful Nations and communities to subjugate? Answer to this question can be found in the nexus between Power, Development, and Science and Technology. Science and Technology is having a strong colonialistic basis and there by an exploiting nature. Science and Technology is closely related with Capitalism and its power structures. There starts the problem. “Violence of science and technology, from a postcolonial perspective, is not a problem with science and technology per se; rather it is the consequences of the prevailing dominant power relations and social relations on which science and technology is embedded”(Zachariah,2008:109). ). A kind of colonial violent forms of violence is inherent in the modern science which never give space to compassion.
3. Postcolonial and Feminist Readings on Science and Technology.
Development of the science and technology has been conceptualized in the North as the transfer of European models of sciences and technologies to the underdeveloped societies in the Third World. The Postcolonial reading observes that this kind of importing process has primarily de- developed the people who are supposed to be the beneficiaries of the transfers of the science and technology. Different readings on science and technology helps us to understand it properly.
3.1.A feminist Reading. According to Vandana Shiva, “ Modern Science was a consciously gendered, patriarchal activity. As nature came to be seen more like a woman to be raped, gender too was recreated. Science as a male venture, based on the subjugation of female nature and female sex provided support for the polarization of gender. Patriarchy as the new scientific and technological power was apolitical need of emerging industrial capitalism. While on the one hand the ideology of science sanctioned the denudation of nature, on the other it legitimized the dependency of women and the authority of men (Shiva,1988,17,18).
3.2.Postcolonial Reading. According to George Zachariah, “Violence against earth and the subaltern communities is the apt title that one can attribute to the history of modern science and technology in India. Modern science and technology came to the subcontinent along with European colonialism. Colonialism was committed not only to destroy indigenous knowledge systems and scientific practices, but also to exploit them for the advancement of European science projects: a three way process of incorporation, appropriation, and erasure” (Fahrenholz,2008,104).
Different readings on science and technology reveals the hidden hands and interests in the process of its development. “Knowledge is Power” is the one of the values of today. Those who owns knowledge holds the power. Always Europe owns Knowledge and Third World Nations and the poor people in the First World are the powerless. At the same time women are excluded from the discourse of knowledge. Women are close to nature and most of the time ecological crisis disproportionately affect them.The de- mothering of nature through modern science and the marriage knowledge with power was simultaneously a source of subjugating women as well as non-European peoples (Shiva,1988,18,19).
4.Presuppositions of Our Discussion. Who is the owner of this earth? We may have different answers. But today Earth and its resources are controlled by the people who is having power. Those who are having money and “knowledge” will decide the fate of the earth. They are the policy makers. While they create policies whose interests are taken in to consideration? What is their ultimate aim behind monopolizing the natural resources? Is it profit? Then we could say that without violence and destruction they cannot make profit. We have to start our discussion from this point. Claude Alvares in his book ,”Science, Development & Violence”, bring some presuppositions which are good for our discussion.
one, that modern science and violence(himsa)are inextricably connected, and that the relationship has made possible a degree and intensity of violence hitherto unknown;
two, that the extension of the reach of modern science can only lead to more extensive and intensive forms of violence;
three, that development ideology is partly legitimated by modern science; and
four, that development, legitimated by modern science, constitutes the most serious threat to human rights in our era(Alvares,1994:64).
Modern science is having a gaze of a Capitalist who see the value of every thing from the perspective of the market and it is embedded with notions like colonialism and violence.
5.Claims of the Modern Science and Technology. Technology claims that it can turn scarcity into abundance and poverty in to affluence. Technology is viewed as the motive force for development and the vital instrument that guarantees freedom from dependence on nature. There are people claims that the affluence of the industrialized west is due to the introduction of the modern science and technology. Many claim that, development of the biotechnology, genetic engineering etc will increase the productivity and thereby we could overcome the poverty, underdevelopment and other problems. These claims have to be evaluated critically. In the history of India we could see many scientific revolutions with lot of promises and claims. But the closer look of each revolution challenges all claims and promises. It destroyed the soil, community and thereby destroyed the life support system of the earth.
5.1.Green Revolution-On the 26 Jan 1986, one of the country’s leading magazines the Illustrated Weekly of India, ran a cover story on ‘Hunger’, and the fate of a 100 million Indians caught in an anxious state of drought, famine and starvation. This is 20 years after the launch of Green Revolution, advertised the world over as one of India’s outstanding achievements. Ironically, the country had 29 million tones of food grains, mostly wheat, in its storehouse at that time. These conflicting images of large food surpluses, ‘revolutionary’ production technology, and hunger have a common basis: the application (in many cases, imposition) of western agricultural science, inspired by western (agribusiness) capital, to an environment that had once not only raised its own competent agricultural tradition, but also a population immensely talented and interested in agriculture. An alien model of development, of handling nature and society, fashioned originally in a western context, was used to straitjacket diverse socio- geographical, bio-regional phenomena that had evolved in response to different specific environments all over the south (Alvares,1994:33).
Closer Look. 1.The green revolution turns out to be essentially a ‘revolution’ in the production of a single commodity: wheat. Dr. Bajaj notes, the increased productivity of wheat was achieved by undermining the productivity of other equally important crops. Ashok Thapar in the Times of India had observed, “ Paradoxically enough, the spurt in the production of food grains has in many ways only aggravated the problem of malnutrition. There has been a 16 % drop in the production of pulses, an important source of protein in vegetarian diets, as more and more pulse growers have switched to the profitable cereal crops”. The point to make at this stage is that rice, and not wheat, is the principal crop of India and Asia. The estimates says that the post Green revolution phase has been less than it was in the preceding period.
2. Before Green Revolution the import of chemical fertilizers was marginal. Most of the resources required for agriculture came from the agriculture itself. The Green Revolution changed all drastically. We spend three times the price of wheat for the decade 1967-76 for the fertilizers (equals wheat imports in the Green revolution decade had increased by 50%).
3.Use of the pesticides. The indiscriminate use of pesticides, most of which are banned in the industrialized countries.
4.The soils of India are dying, and the most fertile among them are dying because of the violence of green revolution technologies.
5. Many land owners became labourers because they don’t had capital to invest.
6. According to Vandana Shiva green revolution accelerated the desertification process or the death of soil (through large scale monocultures, high water demand and high nutrient uptake and low organic nutrient returns to soil by the hybrid and cash crop cultivation).
5.2.White Revolution and Realities. The modern Indian dairy science establishment was set up by the British. As in other spheres, the entire foreign system was imported. But the imported Breed cows and bulls cannot live in the tropical heat. And also the exotic animals do not have the resistance to disease. Indigenous breeds, evolved over centuries, are specially adapted to the Indian climate were ignored and considered as inferior breed. The green revolution has emerged as an enemy to the white, as the high yielding crop varieties have reduced straw production. Like hybrid crops, hybrid cattle also demand resource intensive input. Cross-breeds, however, like hybrid crops, respond only to intensive inputs like green fodder and concentrated feeds, which puts new pressures on land. Just as the green revolution replaced local ecological integration by commercial integration at the level of global markets and the manufacture of pesticides, fertilizers and seeds, the white revolution has replaced local ecological linkages between fodder, cattle and food with global commercial linkages between trade in cattle feed and in milk products and substitutes(Shiva,1988:173). White revolution aimed to increase the milk production ended in failure and it negatively affected the Indian breeds.
5.3. Blue Revolution and the Ecological Disturbance. Green and White Revolutions have been followed by a blue revolution in fisheries where , with the intervention of modern technology, the intake of fish protein all along India’s coasts has rapidly declined. The new fishing technology consisting of mechanized boats and nets was ostensibly introduced to meet the ‘protein shortage’ of the local population. As had happened with the other technological interventions, the new fishing technology caused a major ecological disturbance. Its use disrupted the fishing methods of traditional fishermen beyond tolerance and sought to usurp their niche. It destroyed the natural cycle of the fish breeding and the living organism of the sea.
5.4. Social Forestry- Social forestry advertised as a safe, alternative, ecological approach to rural development. But different studies concluded that social forestry is headed the way of the Green Revolution in its disastrous impact on employment, food and ecology. Just as the Green Revolution created surplus food stocks while millions found themselves without the purchasing power to benefit from the new increases, social forestry schemes are leading to a firewood crisis even while thousands of hectares of land are being enthusiastically crammed with trees. The firewood shortage is an effect of numerous causes. The principal one is that the rural population no longer controls the forest and in its environment. Social forestry projects are a good example of single-species, single commodity production plantations, based on reductionist models which divorce forestry from agriculture and water management, and needs from markets. Modern science cannot reconstitute a natural forest. Vandana Shiva criticized the social forestry project as ‘colonialism and the evolution of masculinist forestry’.
5.5.Tradition Vs Modernity-Claude Alvares, argues that, tinned baby food, monospecies ‘forests’, white sugar, alcohol, white bread, are all symbols of that great modern co-operative: science, technology, development. He questions basic notions of modern science by highlighting the imported and ‘civilized’ life style and food habits of today. He quote Rudolf Ballantine regarding the invasion of the white sugar in the place of our traditional sugars like gur and khandsari. ‘Nutritionally speaking, when one eats sugar he has incurred a “debt”. Gur and khandasari contain vitamins, iron, calcium, and phosphorous that refined white sugar does not have. Now things changed from tradition to modernity like we sifted from Roti(vitamins, minerals, B complex etc) to Bread( all beneficial is eradicated). He again argues that, western-trained, western oriented scientists in India, still remain ignorant of the vast store house of fermentation technology that South India constitutes. And also there is a conflict between ‘natural’(breast feeding-tradition)and the ‘scientific’(Bottle feeding-oppressive force) (Alvares,1994:64-89).
5.6. Science and Subjugation of the forest. The crucial importance of forests to survival was recognized early in Indian Society. In fact, Indian culture is replete with the celebration of an aranya culture, based on reverence for trees. Tribal communities raised food supplies through a sophisticated interplay of forest and crop systems. In the plains, in non-tribal areas, an equally harmonious relationship seems to have prevailed between village communities and adjoining forests. Modern science and colonial demands changed all that overnight. The health and well-being of the tropics were now subjected to the demands of ‘production forestry’, fuelled by the intimate links between science and big industry, or rather, between colonial science and British imperialism. Large forest areas were removed from the control of villages, and reserved for the purpose of industry and revenue. Villagers lost interest in their maintenance and alienation commenced.
A forest ecosystem is a community of infinitely diverse living organisms that has evolved untouched by the human species, complete with a self-sustaining soil, and a full complement of so called ‘useless’ species. In a fundamental way, all forests have a component that is useless to man, but vital for other organisms. This component is linked with other ecological tasks, some of which will always be unknown to us. In fact, some of the interrelationships between species are still in evolution. A natural forest grows and is constituted over time, sometimes over centuries. As a totality, a forest system has a right to its own ecological niche in the earth system. Modern science cannot reconstitute a natural forest(Alvares,1994:86-87).
6.Genetic Engineering and Agricultural Disaster. Biotechnology and genetic engineering developed as a solution to the different problems in the society. It claims better productivity and resistance. Genetic engineering is the manipulation of the genes within species and between species and even between plants and animals aiming better result.
6.1. Bio-Technology and the Earth. For many proponents, biotechnology will help agriculture to ‘feed the world’ and to minimize pollution. One scientist advocates inserting herbicide-resistance genes into crops, as ‘a moral imperative for world food production’. Through this humanitarian and environmental images, the bio technology industry seeks ethical legitimacy for its efforts to obtain state subsidy and to minimize regulatory constraints (Shiva,1995:175 ). WCC criticizes the mechanistic world view of biotechnology which threatens the integrity of creation. According to a researcher for Britain’s National Farmer’s Union, herbicide- resistant crops run ‘against the spirit of nature’ (Shiva,1995:177-78).
6.2.Bio-Technology and Monoculture. Without idealizing nature, some organizations criticize biotechnology for taking agriculture further down a misguided route. That is, it develops single-gene solutions for problems which derive from a mono-cultural farming system, designed on industrial models of efficiency. These critics foresee transgenic products intensifying farmer’s dependence upon laboratory-based expertise and industrialized inputs; for ex. the familiar pesticides treadmill would be replaced or even supplemented by a genetic treadmill. From this perspective bio-technological control would aggravate the socio-economic dependence and environmental hazards endemic in the wider risk-generating system of monoculture (Shiva,1995:178). There is a prevalent misconception that biotechnology development will automatically lead to biodiversity conservation. The main problem with viewing biotechnology as a miracle solution to the bio-diversity crisis is related to the fact that biotechnologies are, in essence, technologies for the breeding of uniformity in plants and animals.
6.3.Bio-Technology and Colonisation of the Seed. In the recent revolutions in the field of agriculture through Green revolution or through bio technologies the seed is at the centre of all recent changes in agricultural production. All technological transformation of biodiversity is justified in the language of ‘improvement’ and increase of ‘economic value’. …The improvement of the seed is not a neutral economic progress. It is, more importantly, a political process that shifts control over biological diversity from local peasants to TNCs and changes biological systems from complete systems reproducing themselves into raw material. It therefore changes the role of the agricultural producer and the role of ecological processes. The new biotechnologies follow the path of hybridization in changing the location of power as associated with the seed. As Jack Kloppenburg has stated, “ It decouples seed as “seed” from seed as “grain” and thereby facilitates the transformation of seed from a use value to an exchange value(Shiva,1995:199).
Herbicide and pesticide resistance will also increase the integration of seeds/chemicals and the multinational’s control of agriculture. A number of major agricultural chemical companies are developing plants with resistance to their brand of herbicides. This increase the market power of the TNCs. The farmer’s will own the land, but the corporation will own the crop in the field, giving instructions by a computer that monitors the progress and needs of a crop grown from genetically programmed seed.
Biotechnology can thus become an instrument of dispossessing the farmer of seed as a means of production. The relocation of seed production from the farm to the corporate laboratory relocates power and value between the North and South; and between corporations and farmers. It is estimated that the elimination of home-grown seed would dramatically increase the farmer’s dependence on biotech industries by about $6billion annually(Shiva,1995:201,202). Even though the seeds which do not serve the commercial interests they are essential for the survival of nature and people.
6.4.Hybridisation -Genetic Violence. The hybridization of seed was an invasion into the seed itself. It broke the unity of seed as food grain and as a means of production. The commodified seed is ecologically incomplete and ruptured at two levels.
One, it does not reproduce itself, while by definition, seed is a regenerative resource. Genetic resources are thus, through technology, transformed from a renewable into a non-renewable resource.
Two, it does not produce by itself. It needs the help of other purchased inputs to produce. As the seed and chemical companies merge, the dependence on inputs will increase.
Ecologically, whether a chemical is added externally or internally, it remains an external input in the ecological cycle of the reproduction of a seed. It is this shift from ecological processes of production through regeneration to technological processes of non-regeneration production that underlies the dispossession of farmers and the drastic reduction of biological diversity in agriculture. It is at the root of the creation of poverty and of non- sustainability in agriculture(Shiva,1993:133). Hybridisation is a kind of genetic violence which destroys the centuries old seeds of the different crops and breeding process in cattle.
In the era of globalization, Genetically Manipulated Organisms like Bt. Cotton are the new faces of the continued presence of imperialism on our land which poison the earth and kill the subaltern communities. In the year 2007, 1095 farmers committed suicide in the Vidharbha region in Maharashtra; one suicide in every eight hours. Vidharbha is also the region where Monsanto sells most of its genetically engineered Bt. Cotton. Vandana Shiva calls this the “suicide economy of globalization”.(Zachariah,2008: 105).
6.5.Genetic Engineering – Do we have Hope? Here we are to see the claims of bio technology and the present situation of it. A document published by WACC and WCC help us to understand today’s technology in better way.
1. To increase the yields of crops - which has had little success thus far;
2. To produce crops that can withstand environmental pressures such as drought, salinity or frost – this has had little success;
3. To increase the nutritional value of the plant, so that staple legumes and cereals would carry vital amino acids, which they currently lack, thus reducing the required quantity of food intake – this process is still in its infancy;
4. To enhance resistance to disease, weeds and pests, or (as in most cases) to enhance tolerance to designer herbicides, which kill off the disease, weeds or pests but leave the plant healthy – this is the most well developed aspect of Genetically Modified Organisms thus far;
5. To minimize the need for fertilizers and agrochemicals, although this seems rather unlikely as the companies which produce the GMOs also produce the fertilizers and the chemicals; and
6. To enhance the texture, flavour or shelf-life of the plant. Quite a bit of work has been done in this area(WCC/WACC,2005:27).
All these points highlights that the claims of the modern science are not worked out successfully and it created disturbance in the web of life.
6.6.Patent and Privatisation of Knowledge. Where technological means fail to prevent farmers from reproducing their own seed, legal regulation in the form of intellectual property rights and patents is brought in. Ownership and property claims are made on living resources, but prior custody and use of those resources by farmers is not the measure against which the patent is set. Rather, it is the intervention of technology that determines the claim to their exclusive use, and possession of this technology then becomes the reason for ownership by corporations and for the simultaneous dispossession and disenfranchisement of farmers(Shiva,1993:133).
According to Vandana , “If you want to have one tool for imperialistic control, it’s patent law under the WTO agreement. It’s in my view the worst of the WTO agreements. It is a totally coercive tool. It has only a negative function: to prevent others from doing their own thing; to prevent people from having food; to prevent people from having medicine; to prevent countries from having technological capacity. It is a negative tool for creating underdevelopment”.
“It’s the privatization of knowledge. I have called it the enclosure, the ultimate enclosure. We had enclosures of land. Now, we are seeing enclosures of biodiversity, life itself. In my book “Biopiracy”, I’ve talked about how this is the last colony. It is the spaces within our minds -- for knowledge. The spaces within life forms for reproduction. A seed cannot reproduce without permission of the patent holder and the company. Knowledge cannot be transmitted without permission and license collection. It’s rent collection from life. It’s rent collection from being human, and thinking, and knowing”(www.inmotionmagazine.com.).
The increased water, fertilizer, and pesticides use led the farmer’s into financial problems and loosing the fertility of the land – Large scale mining of ground water. Yield may be high but cost of production in terms of fertilizer, pesticides etc became higher and we should think that this high yield is at the cost of ecology
7.Science and Technology and Implications on Earth.
1.Uncontrolled use of the fertilizers, pesticides destroyed the fertility of the land.
2.Biodiversity was destroyed through scientific and technological interventions.
3.Everything is commodified and sold for profit including seeds.
4.When profit became the motto there was a shift from food grain cultivation to cash crops.
5.Traditional scientific knowledge, practices, Knowledge attained through experience and values were undermined as unscientific.
6.Over dependence on science and technology destroyed the community oriented farming.
7. Violence to nature is closely associated with violence to women whose life is closely associate with nature.
8. Water mining and other unlimited use of the natural resources badly affected the regeneration of natural resources.
8.Challenging the Power with Spinning Wheel. Among the pressing challenges posed by modern biotechnological developments, the anthology discusses the relationship between biotechnology and biodiversity; the politics of biotechnology in North-South relations; the patenting of plant genetic material; values, conceptions of nature and understandings of knowledge within biotechnological research and development; the importance of ethics in a time when technological possibilities seems to have put traditions and ethical systems out of the running; and the issue of risk.
Gandhi’s spinning wheel is a challenge to notion’s of progress and obsolescence that arise from absolutism and false universalism in concepts of science and technology development. Obsolescence and waste are social constructs that have a both a political and ecological component. Ecologically, obsolescence destroys the regenerative capacity of nature by substituting manufactured uniformity in place of nature’s diversity. The induced dispensability of poorer people on the one hand and diversity on the other constitutes the political ecology of technological development guided by narrow and reductionist notions of productivity. Parochial notions of productivity, perceived as universal, rob people of control over their means of reproducing life and rob nature of her capacity to regenerate diversity(Shiva,1996:198).
Ecological erosion and destruction of livelihood are linked to one another. Displacement of diversity and of people’s sources of sustenance both arise from a view of development and growth based on uniformity created through centralized control. In this process of control, reductionist science and technology act as handmaidens for economically powerful interests. The struggle between the factory and the spinning wheel continues as new technologies emerge.
8.1.Non-Stop Journey of Struggle. Modern science and technology led the people, earth and history in a wrong direction. One of the important reasons is that they couldn’t find out the possibilities inherent in our indigenous knowledge. We had a long and rich traditions of knowledge. Everything destroyed or got patent in new form or name by the First World. Our traditional knowledge always walk along with nature and nurtured it. But all were destroyed and plundered. Let me bring some suggestions to reduce the stress on the earth created by the modern science and technology.
1.Good research should be done to find out the richness of the traditional and indigenous knowledge and practices.
2. Our knowledge should not be gender biased. Women are very close to mother earth so that their knowledge also considered seriously.
3. Over dependence on the west should be avoided. We need to find out ourselves and we need to believe in ourselves.
4. People who live very close to nature know nature and its pulses much better than the western scientists. Believe them and include them in our journey of struggle.
5.We need to find out the traditional seeds which are close to our climate and habitat.
6. Develop an indigenous technology which see the life seriously than profit.
7. Develop an agricultural pattern which reject monoculture and enhances biodiversity.
8. Engage ourselves with the movements which support life and resist violence and exploitation.
8.2.Seven Dimensions of Sustainable Agriculture. Nicanor Perlas in his article says that , the green revolution paradigm has collapsed. So he suggests seven attributes towards a
‘Based on Integrative and Holistic Science’.
‘supportive of the development of Human Potentials.
Culturally sensitive.
Founded on the Use of Appropriate Technologies.
‘Ecologically Sound’.
‘Socially Just and Equitable’
‘Economically Viable’(Perals,1996,234).
We have to develop an earthly friendly agriculture system which includes the powerless, people without capital and women. Modern science and technology ignored them and handed the entire agriculture to the industrialists and capitalists and thereby ecological crisis worsened.
9.Conclusion. While I conclude this presentation I realize that any system or knowledge which is imposed on us disturb the earth and the life in it. Modernity constructed a wrong notion about the knowledge which we have and said all these are superstitions and you should learn from us. But from the above analysis we learned that the science and technology developed in the laboratories of the West are not free from colonialism, exploitation and hidden agenda. Today we need to deconstruct these notions and find out the politics and economics behind it. We need to come out of the colonial notions and engage ourselves with the social movements especially with the subaltern communities to develop a non violent science and technology.
Bibliography
Alvares, Claude. Science, Development& Violence, Oxford, Delhi:1992.
Harding, Sandra. Is Science Multicultural?, Indiana University Press, Bloomington:1998.
Leach, Melissa, Ian Scoones and Brian Wynne (Eds). Science and Citizens – Globalisation and the challenge of engagement, Orient Longman, Newdelhi:2005.
Perals, Nicanor. “The Seven Dimensions of Sustainable Agriculture”, in Biopolitics, Vandana Shiva(Ed), Orient Longman,UK:1996.
Shiva, Vandana . Staying Alive-Women, Ecology and Survival in India, Kali for women,Newdelhi:1988.
Shiva, Vandana. Ecofeminism , Kali for women,Newdelhi:1993.
Shiva, Vandana & Ingunn Moser (Eds). Bio-politics ,Orient Longman,UK:1996.
Shiva, Vandana (Ed). Minding Our Lives, Kali for women,Newdelhi:1993.
Shiva, Vandana . Ecology And the Politics of Survival, Sage: Newdelhi/London,1991.
WCC/WACC . “Science, Faith, and New Technologies:Transforming Life, Vol.2,Discussion document on
Genetic Engineering of the JPIC Team, Geneva:2005(p.27-57).
Zachariah, George. “Peace on Earth and Peace with Earth” A Search for Alternatives” in Peace on Earth and Peace with the Earth, Geiko Muller- Fahrenholz(Ed), Geneva:2008.
Online Material.
http://www.inmotionimagemagazine.com/global/vshiva4_int.html, cited on 5-7-2009.
Presented By : Sajeev Thomas, MTh. Com.II
Course Co-ordinator : Dr. George Zachariah.
MTh Integrated Course 2009-2010.
The Church and the Ecological Crisis.
Seminar Presentation on the topic:
Modern Science and Technology and the Distress of Earth.
1.Introduction. One of the exclusive claims of this time is that we can solve any problem in this earth by using modern science and technology. We believe that the developments and discoveries in the field of science and technology would benefit to the humanity. But is it true? Science and technology should be for the people, by the people and of the people. But the history of science and technology reveals that it is far away from the grass root communities and confined in the laboratories or it is controlled by power structures for their dominant ideologies. Its journey with the prophets of modern development and the relation with the dominant group led its direction away from the mother earth and caused many damage to the life in it. This paper is an attempt to read the science and technology and the distress of earth from the perspective of the earth and subaltern communities.
2.Science, Technology, Patriarchy and Colonialism The rise of modern science and the colonial expansion of Europe after 1492 constitute two fundamental and characteristic features of modern world history….The story is dual one. One of its aspects concerns how science and the scientific enterprise formed part of and facilitated colonial development. The other deals with how the colonial experience affected science and contemporary scientific enterprise(Harding,1998,39). ….Harding has called it a ‘western, bourgeois, masculine project’, and according to Keller “science has been produced by a particular sub-set of the human race, that is, almost entirely by white, middle class males. For the founding fathers of modern science, the reliance on the language of gender was explicit; they sought a philosophy that deserved to be called ‘masculine’, that could be distinguished from its ineffective predecessors by its ‘virile’ powers, its capacity to bind Nature to man’s service and make her his slave”(Shiva,1988,15).
According to Vandana Shiva, “ Colonial domination systematically transformed the common vital resources into commodities for generating profits and growth of revenues”(Shiva,1991:14). For centuries the important natural resources like land, water and forests had been used by the village communities for their existence. Modern science and technology with an imperialistic and profit oriented value system threatened the preservation of these natural resources and challenged the existence of the village communities.
How science and technology being used by Powerful Nations and communities to subjugate? Answer to this question can be found in the nexus between Power, Development, and Science and Technology. Science and Technology is having a strong colonialistic basis and there by an exploiting nature. Science and Technology is closely related with Capitalism and its power structures. There starts the problem. “Violence of science and technology, from a postcolonial perspective, is not a problem with science and technology per se; rather it is the consequences of the prevailing dominant power relations and social relations on which science and technology is embedded”(Zachariah,2008:109). ). A kind of colonial violent forms of violence is inherent in the modern science which never give space to compassion.
3. Postcolonial and Feminist Readings on Science and Technology.
Development of the science and technology has been conceptualized in the North as the transfer of European models of sciences and technologies to the underdeveloped societies in the Third World. The Postcolonial reading observes that this kind of importing process has primarily de- developed the people who are supposed to be the beneficiaries of the transfers of the science and technology. Different readings on science and technology helps us to understand it properly.
3.1.A feminist Reading. According to Vandana Shiva, “ Modern Science was a consciously gendered, patriarchal activity. As nature came to be seen more like a woman to be raped, gender too was recreated. Science as a male venture, based on the subjugation of female nature and female sex provided support for the polarization of gender. Patriarchy as the new scientific and technological power was apolitical need of emerging industrial capitalism. While on the one hand the ideology of science sanctioned the denudation of nature, on the other it legitimized the dependency of women and the authority of men (Shiva,1988,17,18).
3.2.Postcolonial Reading. According to George Zachariah, “Violence against earth and the subaltern communities is the apt title that one can attribute to the history of modern science and technology in India. Modern science and technology came to the subcontinent along with European colonialism. Colonialism was committed not only to destroy indigenous knowledge systems and scientific practices, but also to exploit them for the advancement of European science projects: a three way process of incorporation, appropriation, and erasure” (Fahrenholz,2008,104).
Different readings on science and technology reveals the hidden hands and interests in the process of its development. “Knowledge is Power” is the one of the values of today. Those who owns knowledge holds the power. Always Europe owns Knowledge and Third World Nations and the poor people in the First World are the powerless. At the same time women are excluded from the discourse of knowledge. Women are close to nature and most of the time ecological crisis disproportionately affect them.The de- mothering of nature through modern science and the marriage knowledge with power was simultaneously a source of subjugating women as well as non-European peoples (Shiva,1988,18,19).
4.Presuppositions of Our Discussion. Who is the owner of this earth? We may have different answers. But today Earth and its resources are controlled by the people who is having power. Those who are having money and “knowledge” will decide the fate of the earth. They are the policy makers. While they create policies whose interests are taken in to consideration? What is their ultimate aim behind monopolizing the natural resources? Is it profit? Then we could say that without violence and destruction they cannot make profit. We have to start our discussion from this point. Claude Alvares in his book ,”Science, Development & Violence”, bring some presuppositions which are good for our discussion.
one, that modern science and violence(himsa)are inextricably connected, and that the relationship has made possible a degree and intensity of violence hitherto unknown;
two, that the extension of the reach of modern science can only lead to more extensive and intensive forms of violence;
three, that development ideology is partly legitimated by modern science; and
four, that development, legitimated by modern science, constitutes the most serious threat to human rights in our era(Alvares,1994:64).
Modern science is having a gaze of a Capitalist who see the value of every thing from the perspective of the market and it is embedded with notions like colonialism and violence.
5.Claims of the Modern Science and Technology. Technology claims that it can turn scarcity into abundance and poverty in to affluence. Technology is viewed as the motive force for development and the vital instrument that guarantees freedom from dependence on nature. There are people claims that the affluence of the industrialized west is due to the introduction of the modern science and technology. Many claim that, development of the biotechnology, genetic engineering etc will increase the productivity and thereby we could overcome the poverty, underdevelopment and other problems. These claims have to be evaluated critically. In the history of India we could see many scientific revolutions with lot of promises and claims. But the closer look of each revolution challenges all claims and promises. It destroyed the soil, community and thereby destroyed the life support system of the earth.
5.1.Green Revolution-On the 26 Jan 1986, one of the country’s leading magazines the Illustrated Weekly of India, ran a cover story on ‘Hunger’, and the fate of a 100 million Indians caught in an anxious state of drought, famine and starvation. This is 20 years after the launch of Green Revolution, advertised the world over as one of India’s outstanding achievements. Ironically, the country had 29 million tones of food grains, mostly wheat, in its storehouse at that time. These conflicting images of large food surpluses, ‘revolutionary’ production technology, and hunger have a common basis: the application (in many cases, imposition) of western agricultural science, inspired by western (agribusiness) capital, to an environment that had once not only raised its own competent agricultural tradition, but also a population immensely talented and interested in agriculture. An alien model of development, of handling nature and society, fashioned originally in a western context, was used to straitjacket diverse socio- geographical, bio-regional phenomena that had evolved in response to different specific environments all over the south (Alvares,1994:33).
Closer Look. 1.The green revolution turns out to be essentially a ‘revolution’ in the production of a single commodity: wheat. Dr. Bajaj notes, the increased productivity of wheat was achieved by undermining the productivity of other equally important crops. Ashok Thapar in the Times of India had observed, “ Paradoxically enough, the spurt in the production of food grains has in many ways only aggravated the problem of malnutrition. There has been a 16 % drop in the production of pulses, an important source of protein in vegetarian diets, as more and more pulse growers have switched to the profitable cereal crops”. The point to make at this stage is that rice, and not wheat, is the principal crop of India and Asia. The estimates says that the post Green revolution phase has been less than it was in the preceding period.
2. Before Green Revolution the import of chemical fertilizers was marginal. Most of the resources required for agriculture came from the agriculture itself. The Green Revolution changed all drastically. We spend three times the price of wheat for the decade 1967-76 for the fertilizers (equals wheat imports in the Green revolution decade had increased by 50%).
3.Use of the pesticides. The indiscriminate use of pesticides, most of which are banned in the industrialized countries.
4.The soils of India are dying, and the most fertile among them are dying because of the violence of green revolution technologies.
5. Many land owners became labourers because they don’t had capital to invest.
6. According to Vandana Shiva green revolution accelerated the desertification process or the death of soil (through large scale monocultures, high water demand and high nutrient uptake and low organic nutrient returns to soil by the hybrid and cash crop cultivation).
5.2.White Revolution and Realities. The modern Indian dairy science establishment was set up by the British. As in other spheres, the entire foreign system was imported. But the imported Breed cows and bulls cannot live in the tropical heat. And also the exotic animals do not have the resistance to disease. Indigenous breeds, evolved over centuries, are specially adapted to the Indian climate were ignored and considered as inferior breed. The green revolution has emerged as an enemy to the white, as the high yielding crop varieties have reduced straw production. Like hybrid crops, hybrid cattle also demand resource intensive input. Cross-breeds, however, like hybrid crops, respond only to intensive inputs like green fodder and concentrated feeds, which puts new pressures on land. Just as the green revolution replaced local ecological integration by commercial integration at the level of global markets and the manufacture of pesticides, fertilizers and seeds, the white revolution has replaced local ecological linkages between fodder, cattle and food with global commercial linkages between trade in cattle feed and in milk products and substitutes(Shiva,1988:173). White revolution aimed to increase the milk production ended in failure and it negatively affected the Indian breeds.
5.3. Blue Revolution and the Ecological Disturbance. Green and White Revolutions have been followed by a blue revolution in fisheries where , with the intervention of modern technology, the intake of fish protein all along India’s coasts has rapidly declined. The new fishing technology consisting of mechanized boats and nets was ostensibly introduced to meet the ‘protein shortage’ of the local population. As had happened with the other technological interventions, the new fishing technology caused a major ecological disturbance. Its use disrupted the fishing methods of traditional fishermen beyond tolerance and sought to usurp their niche. It destroyed the natural cycle of the fish breeding and the living organism of the sea.
5.4. Social Forestry- Social forestry advertised as a safe, alternative, ecological approach to rural development. But different studies concluded that social forestry is headed the way of the Green Revolution in its disastrous impact on employment, food and ecology. Just as the Green Revolution created surplus food stocks while millions found themselves without the purchasing power to benefit from the new increases, social forestry schemes are leading to a firewood crisis even while thousands of hectares of land are being enthusiastically crammed with trees. The firewood shortage is an effect of numerous causes. The principal one is that the rural population no longer controls the forest and in its environment. Social forestry projects are a good example of single-species, single commodity production plantations, based on reductionist models which divorce forestry from agriculture and water management, and needs from markets. Modern science cannot reconstitute a natural forest. Vandana Shiva criticized the social forestry project as ‘colonialism and the evolution of masculinist forestry’.
5.5.Tradition Vs Modernity-Claude Alvares, argues that, tinned baby food, monospecies ‘forests’, white sugar, alcohol, white bread, are all symbols of that great modern co-operative: science, technology, development. He questions basic notions of modern science by highlighting the imported and ‘civilized’ life style and food habits of today. He quote Rudolf Ballantine regarding the invasion of the white sugar in the place of our traditional sugars like gur and khandsari. ‘Nutritionally speaking, when one eats sugar he has incurred a “debt”. Gur and khandasari contain vitamins, iron, calcium, and phosphorous that refined white sugar does not have. Now things changed from tradition to modernity like we sifted from Roti(vitamins, minerals, B complex etc) to Bread( all beneficial is eradicated). He again argues that, western-trained, western oriented scientists in India, still remain ignorant of the vast store house of fermentation technology that South India constitutes. And also there is a conflict between ‘natural’(breast feeding-tradition)and the ‘scientific’(Bottle feeding-oppressive force) (Alvares,1994:64-89).
5.6. Science and Subjugation of the forest. The crucial importance of forests to survival was recognized early in Indian Society. In fact, Indian culture is replete with the celebration of an aranya culture, based on reverence for trees. Tribal communities raised food supplies through a sophisticated interplay of forest and crop systems. In the plains, in non-tribal areas, an equally harmonious relationship seems to have prevailed between village communities and adjoining forests. Modern science and colonial demands changed all that overnight. The health and well-being of the tropics were now subjected to the demands of ‘production forestry’, fuelled by the intimate links between science and big industry, or rather, between colonial science and British imperialism. Large forest areas were removed from the control of villages, and reserved for the purpose of industry and revenue. Villagers lost interest in their maintenance and alienation commenced.
A forest ecosystem is a community of infinitely diverse living organisms that has evolved untouched by the human species, complete with a self-sustaining soil, and a full complement of so called ‘useless’ species. In a fundamental way, all forests have a component that is useless to man, but vital for other organisms. This component is linked with other ecological tasks, some of which will always be unknown to us. In fact, some of the interrelationships between species are still in evolution. A natural forest grows and is constituted over time, sometimes over centuries. As a totality, a forest system has a right to its own ecological niche in the earth system. Modern science cannot reconstitute a natural forest(Alvares,1994:86-87).
6.Genetic Engineering and Agricultural Disaster. Biotechnology and genetic engineering developed as a solution to the different problems in the society. It claims better productivity and resistance. Genetic engineering is the manipulation of the genes within species and between species and even between plants and animals aiming better result.
6.1. Bio-Technology and the Earth. For many proponents, biotechnology will help agriculture to ‘feed the world’ and to minimize pollution. One scientist advocates inserting herbicide-resistance genes into crops, as ‘a moral imperative for world food production’. Through this humanitarian and environmental images, the bio technology industry seeks ethical legitimacy for its efforts to obtain state subsidy and to minimize regulatory constraints (Shiva,1995:175 ). WCC criticizes the mechanistic world view of biotechnology which threatens the integrity of creation. According to a researcher for Britain’s National Farmer’s Union, herbicide- resistant crops run ‘against the spirit of nature’ (Shiva,1995:177-78).
6.2.Bio-Technology and Monoculture. Without idealizing nature, some organizations criticize biotechnology for taking agriculture further down a misguided route. That is, it develops single-gene solutions for problems which derive from a mono-cultural farming system, designed on industrial models of efficiency. These critics foresee transgenic products intensifying farmer’s dependence upon laboratory-based expertise and industrialized inputs; for ex. the familiar pesticides treadmill would be replaced or even supplemented by a genetic treadmill. From this perspective bio-technological control would aggravate the socio-economic dependence and environmental hazards endemic in the wider risk-generating system of monoculture (Shiva,1995:178). There is a prevalent misconception that biotechnology development will automatically lead to biodiversity conservation. The main problem with viewing biotechnology as a miracle solution to the bio-diversity crisis is related to the fact that biotechnologies are, in essence, technologies for the breeding of uniformity in plants and animals.
6.3.Bio-Technology and Colonisation of the Seed. In the recent revolutions in the field of agriculture through Green revolution or through bio technologies the seed is at the centre of all recent changes in agricultural production. All technological transformation of biodiversity is justified in the language of ‘improvement’ and increase of ‘economic value’. …The improvement of the seed is not a neutral economic progress. It is, more importantly, a political process that shifts control over biological diversity from local peasants to TNCs and changes biological systems from complete systems reproducing themselves into raw material. It therefore changes the role of the agricultural producer and the role of ecological processes. The new biotechnologies follow the path of hybridization in changing the location of power as associated with the seed. As Jack Kloppenburg has stated, “ It decouples seed as “seed” from seed as “grain” and thereby facilitates the transformation of seed from a use value to an exchange value(Shiva,1995:199).
Herbicide and pesticide resistance will also increase the integration of seeds/chemicals and the multinational’s control of agriculture. A number of major agricultural chemical companies are developing plants with resistance to their brand of herbicides. This increase the market power of the TNCs. The farmer’s will own the land, but the corporation will own the crop in the field, giving instructions by a computer that monitors the progress and needs of a crop grown from genetically programmed seed.
Biotechnology can thus become an instrument of dispossessing the farmer of seed as a means of production. The relocation of seed production from the farm to the corporate laboratory relocates power and value between the North and South; and between corporations and farmers. It is estimated that the elimination of home-grown seed would dramatically increase the farmer’s dependence on biotech industries by about $6billion annually(Shiva,1995:201,202). Even though the seeds which do not serve the commercial interests they are essential for the survival of nature and people.
6.4.Hybridisation -Genetic Violence. The hybridization of seed was an invasion into the seed itself. It broke the unity of seed as food grain and as a means of production. The commodified seed is ecologically incomplete and ruptured at two levels.
One, it does not reproduce itself, while by definition, seed is a regenerative resource. Genetic resources are thus, through technology, transformed from a renewable into a non-renewable resource.
Two, it does not produce by itself. It needs the help of other purchased inputs to produce. As the seed and chemical companies merge, the dependence on inputs will increase.
Ecologically, whether a chemical is added externally or internally, it remains an external input in the ecological cycle of the reproduction of a seed. It is this shift from ecological processes of production through regeneration to technological processes of non-regeneration production that underlies the dispossession of farmers and the drastic reduction of biological diversity in agriculture. It is at the root of the creation of poverty and of non- sustainability in agriculture(Shiva,1993:133). Hybridisation is a kind of genetic violence which destroys the centuries old seeds of the different crops and breeding process in cattle.
In the era of globalization, Genetically Manipulated Organisms like Bt. Cotton are the new faces of the continued presence of imperialism on our land which poison the earth and kill the subaltern communities. In the year 2007, 1095 farmers committed suicide in the Vidharbha region in Maharashtra; one suicide in every eight hours. Vidharbha is also the region where Monsanto sells most of its genetically engineered Bt. Cotton. Vandana Shiva calls this the “suicide economy of globalization”.(Zachariah,2008: 105).
6.5.Genetic Engineering – Do we have Hope? Here we are to see the claims of bio technology and the present situation of it. A document published by WACC and WCC help us to understand today’s technology in better way.
1. To increase the yields of crops - which has had little success thus far;
2. To produce crops that can withstand environmental pressures such as drought, salinity or frost – this has had little success;
3. To increase the nutritional value of the plant, so that staple legumes and cereals would carry vital amino acids, which they currently lack, thus reducing the required quantity of food intake – this process is still in its infancy;
4. To enhance resistance to disease, weeds and pests, or (as in most cases) to enhance tolerance to designer herbicides, which kill off the disease, weeds or pests but leave the plant healthy – this is the most well developed aspect of Genetically Modified Organisms thus far;
5. To minimize the need for fertilizers and agrochemicals, although this seems rather unlikely as the companies which produce the GMOs also produce the fertilizers and the chemicals; and
6. To enhance the texture, flavour or shelf-life of the plant. Quite a bit of work has been done in this area(WCC/WACC,2005:27).
All these points highlights that the claims of the modern science are not worked out successfully and it created disturbance in the web of life.
6.6.Patent and Privatisation of Knowledge. Where technological means fail to prevent farmers from reproducing their own seed, legal regulation in the form of intellectual property rights and patents is brought in. Ownership and property claims are made on living resources, but prior custody and use of those resources by farmers is not the measure against which the patent is set. Rather, it is the intervention of technology that determines the claim to their exclusive use, and possession of this technology then becomes the reason for ownership by corporations and for the simultaneous dispossession and disenfranchisement of farmers(Shiva,1993:133).
According to Vandana , “If you want to have one tool for imperialistic control, it’s patent law under the WTO agreement. It’s in my view the worst of the WTO agreements. It is a totally coercive tool. It has only a negative function: to prevent others from doing their own thing; to prevent people from having food; to prevent people from having medicine; to prevent countries from having technological capacity. It is a negative tool for creating underdevelopment”.
“It’s the privatization of knowledge. I have called it the enclosure, the ultimate enclosure. We had enclosures of land. Now, we are seeing enclosures of biodiversity, life itself. In my book “Biopiracy”, I’ve talked about how this is the last colony. It is the spaces within our minds -- for knowledge. The spaces within life forms for reproduction. A seed cannot reproduce without permission of the patent holder and the company. Knowledge cannot be transmitted without permission and license collection. It’s rent collection from life. It’s rent collection from being human, and thinking, and knowing”(www.inmotionmagazine.com.).
The increased water, fertilizer, and pesticides use led the farmer’s into financial problems and loosing the fertility of the land – Large scale mining of ground water. Yield may be high but cost of production in terms of fertilizer, pesticides etc became higher and we should think that this high yield is at the cost of ecology
7.Science and Technology and Implications on Earth.
1.Uncontrolled use of the fertilizers, pesticides destroyed the fertility of the land.
2.Biodiversity was destroyed through scientific and technological interventions.
3.Everything is commodified and sold for profit including seeds.
4.When profit became the motto there was a shift from food grain cultivation to cash crops.
5.Traditional scientific knowledge, practices, Knowledge attained through experience and values were undermined as unscientific.
6.Over dependence on science and technology destroyed the community oriented farming.
7. Violence to nature is closely associated with violence to women whose life is closely associate with nature.
8. Water mining and other unlimited use of the natural resources badly affected the regeneration of natural resources.
8.Challenging the Power with Spinning Wheel. Among the pressing challenges posed by modern biotechnological developments, the anthology discusses the relationship between biotechnology and biodiversity; the politics of biotechnology in North-South relations; the patenting of plant genetic material; values, conceptions of nature and understandings of knowledge within biotechnological research and development; the importance of ethics in a time when technological possibilities seems to have put traditions and ethical systems out of the running; and the issue of risk.
Gandhi’s spinning wheel is a challenge to notion’s of progress and obsolescence that arise from absolutism and false universalism in concepts of science and technology development. Obsolescence and waste are social constructs that have a both a political and ecological component. Ecologically, obsolescence destroys the regenerative capacity of nature by substituting manufactured uniformity in place of nature’s diversity. The induced dispensability of poorer people on the one hand and diversity on the other constitutes the political ecology of technological development guided by narrow and reductionist notions of productivity. Parochial notions of productivity, perceived as universal, rob people of control over their means of reproducing life and rob nature of her capacity to regenerate diversity(Shiva,1996:198).
Ecological erosion and destruction of livelihood are linked to one another. Displacement of diversity and of people’s sources of sustenance both arise from a view of development and growth based on uniformity created through centralized control. In this process of control, reductionist science and technology act as handmaidens for economically powerful interests. The struggle between the factory and the spinning wheel continues as new technologies emerge.
8.1.Non-Stop Journey of Struggle. Modern science and technology led the people, earth and history in a wrong direction. One of the important reasons is that they couldn’t find out the possibilities inherent in our indigenous knowledge. We had a long and rich traditions of knowledge. Everything destroyed or got patent in new form or name by the First World. Our traditional knowledge always walk along with nature and nurtured it. But all were destroyed and plundered. Let me bring some suggestions to reduce the stress on the earth created by the modern science and technology.
1.Good research should be done to find out the richness of the traditional and indigenous knowledge and practices.
2. Our knowledge should not be gender biased. Women are very close to mother earth so that their knowledge also considered seriously.
3. Over dependence on the west should be avoided. We need to find out ourselves and we need to believe in ourselves.
4. People who live very close to nature know nature and its pulses much better than the western scientists. Believe them and include them in our journey of struggle.
5.We need to find out the traditional seeds which are close to our climate and habitat.
6. Develop an indigenous technology which see the life seriously than profit.
7. Develop an agricultural pattern which reject monoculture and enhances biodiversity.
8. Engage ourselves with the movements which support life and resist violence and exploitation.
8.2.Seven Dimensions of Sustainable Agriculture. Nicanor Perlas in his article says that , the green revolution paradigm has collapsed. So he suggests seven attributes towards a
‘Based on Integrative and Holistic Science’.
‘supportive of the development of Human Potentials.
Culturally sensitive.
Founded on the Use of Appropriate Technologies.
‘Ecologically Sound’.
‘Socially Just and Equitable’
‘Economically Viable’(Perals,1996,234).
We have to develop an earthly friendly agriculture system which includes the powerless, people without capital and women. Modern science and technology ignored them and handed the entire agriculture to the industrialists and capitalists and thereby ecological crisis worsened.
9.Conclusion. While I conclude this presentation I realize that any system or knowledge which is imposed on us disturb the earth and the life in it. Modernity constructed a wrong notion about the knowledge which we have and said all these are superstitions and you should learn from us. But from the above analysis we learned that the science and technology developed in the laboratories of the West are not free from colonialism, exploitation and hidden agenda. Today we need to deconstruct these notions and find out the politics and economics behind it. We need to come out of the colonial notions and engage ourselves with the social movements especially with the subaltern communities to develop a non violent science and technology.
Bibliography
Alvares, Claude. Science, Development& Violence, Oxford, Delhi:1992.
Harding, Sandra. Is Science Multicultural?, Indiana University Press, Bloomington:1998.
Leach, Melissa, Ian Scoones and Brian Wynne (Eds). Science and Citizens – Globalisation and the challenge of engagement, Orient Longman, Newdelhi:2005.
Perals, Nicanor. “The Seven Dimensions of Sustainable Agriculture”, in Biopolitics, Vandana Shiva(Ed), Orient Longman,UK:1996.
Shiva, Vandana . Staying Alive-Women, Ecology and Survival in India, Kali for women,Newdelhi:1988.
Shiva, Vandana. Ecofeminism , Kali for women,Newdelhi:1993.
Shiva, Vandana & Ingunn Moser (Eds). Bio-politics ,Orient Longman,UK:1996.
Shiva, Vandana (Ed). Minding Our Lives, Kali for women,Newdelhi:1993.
Shiva, Vandana . Ecology And the Politics of Survival, Sage: Newdelhi/London,1991.
WCC/WACC . “Science, Faith, and New Technologies:Transforming Life, Vol.2,Discussion document on
Genetic Engineering of the JPIC Team, Geneva:2005(p.27-57).
Zachariah, George. “Peace on Earth and Peace with Earth” A Search for Alternatives” in Peace on Earth and Peace with the Earth, Geiko Muller- Fahrenholz(Ed), Geneva:2008.
Online Material.
http://www.inmotionimagemagazine.com/global/vshiva4_int.html, cited on 5-7-2009.
Presented By : Sajeev Thomas, MTh. Com.II
Course Co-ordinator : Dr. George Zachariah.
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