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Environmentalists of India: Rabindranath Tagore

RABINDRANATH TAGORE. D (1861 – 1941)

“Modern machinery has encouraged humans to embark on a career of plunder that entirely outstripped nature’s power for recuperation. Their profit makers dig big holes in the stored capital of the planet”.

“Humans created wants which are un-natural and provisions for these wants are forcibly extracted from nature”.

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“Take a man from his natural surroundings, from his fullness of his community life, with all its living associations of beauty and love and social obligations, and you will be able to turn him into so many fragments of a machine for the production of wealth on gigantic scale”.

“TURN A TREE INTO A LOG. IT WILL BURN FOR YOU, BUT IT WILL NEVER BEAR LIVING FLOWERS AND FRUITS”.

Source: Source: Guha, Ramachandra., (2024), Speaking with Nature: The Origins of Indian Environmentalism, Fourth Estate, New Delhi, p 1 – 36.

5 thoughts on “Environmentalists of India: Rabindranath Tagore

  1. Rabindranath Tagore quotes regarding Nature creates guilt while reading because the human attitude towards the nature very simply discribed in his quotes . By reading it as far as I understood was “The selfish human and the innoncent Nature”.

  2. Rabindranath Tagore’s comments reflect his deep concern for the environmental and ethical consequences of industrialization and modern machinery. He critiques the exploitative tendencies of humanity, particularly how technological advancements have been used to plunder nature at a pace that exceeds its ability to regenerate.

  3. Rabindranath Tagore was instrumental in saving the forests of Shantiniketan from logging and destruction. He believed that forests were sacred and essential for maintaining ecological balance. He advocated for responsible water management and conservation. He designed and built several ponds and water harvesting systems at Shantiniketan to conserve rainwater and also promoted organic farming practices and encouraged farmers to avoid using chemical fertilizers and pesticides. He believed that organic farming was essential for maintaining soil health and biodiversity.
    Tagore’s environmental ideas influenced Mahatma Gandhi, who later adopted similar principles in his own environmental and social activism.

  4. Tagore critiques industrialization for exploiting nature and dehumanizing society. He warns that modern machinery prioritizes profit over sustainability, depleting resources beyond recovery. He also highlights how removing people from their natural and communal environments reduces them to mere tools for mass production. His metaphor of a tree turned into a log emphasizes that destruction may bring short-term benefits but at the cost of life and renewal. Overall, he calls for a balanced, ethical approach to progress that respects both nature and humanity.

  5. Through his poetry and philosophy, Tagore continues to inspire us to appreciate the beauty and wonder of nature and to cultivate a deeper connection with the natural world.

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