As cities get flooded because of climate change, and the unusual circumstances following from this,
people live in daily dread. They have no idea from where they will get their
water and electricity or food in the
days to come. Two weeks of heavy rain are again expected (weather.com Warmer conditions expected across India, with
heavy rains in South, 30th September 2018).
The intense gravity of the situation is represented by the
idea that Iddiki dam will flood over again. Planet Earth does its own thing,
and by controlling nature, we imagine that we have won the battle. The real
question is, how will people survive the waiting period, whether in relief
camps or at home? One of the ways in
which people cope with the ‘new normal’ is to transcend it’s pathological
aspect and derive comfort from the lowest common denominator aspect of it, that
is, they are still alive.
The desperation that survivors feel is evident in terms of
the records that they leave behind for us, which includes the written word, or
other forms of documentation. Lewis Mumford in “The Highway and The City”
(1958), one of the most lucid books that Sociologists have the pleasure to read,
wrote about planning for rebuilding cities after World War 11. He was the disciple of Patrick Geddes, who had written
useful texts on urban planning in the third world. Urban planners are necessary, in order to
visualise how India thinks about
rehabilitation. The losses are so huge, that building again for people who may
face the same grievous losses time and time again, requires some consideration
and imagination.
When Laurie Baker was called in to construct buildings for
Latur, after the earthquake in 1993, he took along his expertise with building
in Kerala, for decades, with local materials and artisans. However, while the
community endorsed Baker’s plan for neighbourhood resettlement, and his ideas
were lauded, Atul Deulgaonkar writes that Sharad Pawar and the NGOs were too quick to
define rehabilitation as a speedy time bound process, and ignored Baker’s
advice.(www, frontline,in/static/html/fl2020 Latur Revisited). Baker’s beautiful drawings and
terse but dynamic vision can be seen in the report ‘Earthquake’, which is a composition written for the
government, with regard to rehabilitation in Chamoli and Uttarkashi
(htps.//archive. org/details Earthquake – Laurie Baker- English). Here, he
suggests to the government, the need for salvaging raw materials, and for
reusing them, and the employment of local masons.. The extensive use of
photography is necessary for the purposes of record keeping and recompense. As
traditional houses, which used local materials, provide for greater safe
keeping of inhabitants, Laurie Baker
suggested that rebuilding should use traditional wisdom rather than extravagant
and quick fix solution for rehabilitation purposes.
In Kerala, it is famously noticed that the distinction
between town and country is not very visible. This is because rural economies
in ancient times were dependent on market towns. Weber wrote in ‘The City’
about the medieval peasant being linked to the town, for purposes of sale and
purchase of goods. The autonomous city, which developed in the West, is not to
be found in Kerala. The occidental medieval city, depended on the appearance of
‘free’ men, those who had migrated from previous settlements, in search of
burghers who would apprentice them, or the rentier class who protected them as
landholders, by the rights of citizenship.
Kerala’s modernity has
depended on the right to ‘return home’, which Malayalees guard jealously,
Affectual ties are maintained by annual visits home, or through skype and
mobile phone calls. People see the world as essentially interconnected, but
will risk their lives to see their ancient parents one more time, living with
kin, or friends, till they can make
their journey to the homestead/farm, which has been devastated by flood.
The extra terrestrial nature of communication in the globalized world, means that Malayalees
strategically place themselves in the present. If they accept that their bodies
are their home, which is conventional advaitin
practice, they tend to resolve the crises of physical discomfort for their
families. This is a cultural tradition, which had made Malayalees believe in
the dignity of labour where ever they find themselves. Unlike the Tsunami of
2004, where religious organisations were accused of favouritising their communities, in the
present crises, the Malayalees have stood together, regardless of party or religious association. Katherine Hankins and
Deborah Martin in an essay in the book Urban Politics, (2014) have suggested
that the way in which communities which have faced immense suffering can be
helped, is through strategic neighbouring. This means, that people who personally have the vocation, come to live as neighbours,
with those who have experienced great
loss, and help them with daily challenges, such as visiting banks, helping out
with children, seeking to revitalize the environment by planting or replanting
gardens. Ofcourse, the capitalization of
loss by professional agencies who profit
from philanthrophy would be safeguarded against. To believe in the here and
now, and to believe in tomorrow, and to trust others is the need of the hour.
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