To those wanting to escape Trump’s America, A Florida-based cruise ship company is offering a ‘Four-Year Skip Forward’ voyage! ❤️❤️❤️

‘Exquisite Corpse’ in Class | II BA English

The Exciting Surrealist Weave in Class Today

#classActivity #psychicAutomatism

The Day Today | Daily Diary

This morning, woke up at 4.40 am, and then, from 5.30 am to 6.00 am, browsed through the News of the Day from around the World – right from the regional to the global - Distilled so Dutifully as the Dew and given to us in a 24-page platter of myriad hues!

There were four insightful articles in the Editorial page of today’s Times of India.

The first one is on why America is starting to look like Japan - that is bogged down under a pile of govt debt! [Indeed, Japan’s government debt is one of the highest in the world, and is expected to continue to rise]!

The second one is on – A luxury ship in Florida, busy rolling out the red carpet for Americans seeking ‘Trumpless sanctuary’. 😊

The usual Jug Suraiya column, where the legend is at his wittiest best on Trump’s America and beyond. 

It seems, the Florida-based cruise ship company is offering a ‘Four-Year Skip Forward’ voyage – four years being the term of the US presidency – to those wanting to escape Trump’s America.

The luxury ship, which can accommodate 600 passengers, will visit 425 ports in 140 countries. An all-in package comes with a price tag of $155,999 per person for a double occupancy cabin, and $255,999 for single occupancy.

Those seeking a longer getaway from what they no longer see as the vaunted home of the brave, and the land of the free, are thinking of taking up residence in countries like Italy or Portugal.

The town of Sambuca in Sicily received “hundreds” of offers from prospective American buyers for derelict houses, and the mayor of Ollolai in Sardinia says that he got 35,000 applications for their scheme which offers abandoned properties for a single euro.

The third one, from Ms. Narayani Ganesh (daughter of the legendary MCC-ian Gemini Ganesan) is the icing on the cake!

It’s on the topic, “Atman Has No Gender. Let’s Dismantle Patriarchy”

Says Ms. Narayani –

Atman, soul – is it male, female or other variations of male and/or female? Is it he, she or they?

Atman is none of these; it is neutral. The higher Self, universal consciousness, is eternal, unchanging, infinite and all-inclusive. There is no question of assigning gender to these concepts.

Yet, in our daily lives, we nitpick over gender roles, gender rights and gender expectations in a warped, patriarchal world of our own creation, by distorting spiritual and scriptural concepts, misunderstanding gender roles. We have made male domination the social norm in almost all cultures, whether located in the east, west, north or south.

“I want a boy.” This is the demand of most would-be-fathers and their parents, entangled as they are in a web of their own making. Obstetrician Aruna Kalra in her recent work titled I Want a Boy, narrates her many experiences with patients.

When a baby girl is born, there is no celebration; only a pall of gloom that envelops the new mother’s relatives. Sweets are not distributed; they are withheld as they were meant to welcome a little prince. The female infant is no princess; she is viewed as a burden. The new mother is criticised and abused for not bearing a son.

The fourth news item was a shocker! It says that, 77% of Professor Posts in Karnataka Universities remain vacant!

Then, went to have my morning cuppa at my favourite bistro in town. There I was so happy to find an auto driver, so engrossed in reading his morning newspaper. 

Every day I find him there at the same spot, at the same point of time, eagerly reading through the day’s newspaper, first thing in the morning.

Then, went to my regular Newspaper Mart and got 25 copies of the day’s newspaper.

By 7.50 am, reached College. There my namesake, the lovely rufous treepie bird was at his best, chirping away, all the way into the day! You may find his cute chirps on our YouTube Channel HERE.

Well, it was a rainy day today, with more rains predicted for tomorrow as well.

Students eagerly came to take their day’s newspaper from our Office – the Office of International Programmes.

Today, in my first hour with the II BA English class, as part of their paper on “Literature and Aesthetic Ideas” we had a discussion on the various art movements of the 20th century.

Students were then oriented on Surrealism as an art movement, that ‘aims to revolutionise human experience’. Artists of the movement, found beauty in the unexpected and the uncanny, the disregarded and the unconventional, thereby challenging imposed values and norms, coupled with a search for freedom.

An Exquisite Corpse is a type of progressive story game invented by Surrealist Andre Breton in the early twentieth century. It is a Surrealist strategy that encourages spontaneous writing and urges the individual to transcend conscious preparation, thereby ‘letting loose’ the unconscious!

Usually, an agreed upon rule is followed. For example, the AVN Adjective – Verb – Noun – pattern of sentence writing (that we followed today).

The first author writes a line using the given pattern of prose at the top of the page, then folds back the paper to ensure that no one else can read them. After folding the paper, the first author passes the paper to the next author.

The group continues the story by passing on the paper in like manner to everyone in the group. Once finished, one of the authors stands up and reads out loud the entire work thus created by this collaborative group effort.

That’s the uniqueness of the game as well. Since, each participant is unaware of what the others have written, producing a surprisingly weird yet often beautiful ‘weave’ in the end.

The Exquisite Corpse game facilitates collaborating with other authors, and helps in liberating oneself from the restraining constraints of order, decorum and structure.

Thereby, the game syncs with the First Surrealist Manifesto by Andre Breton, who exhorted writers to “Write quickly with no preconceived subject”.

He continues –

After you have settled yourself in a place as favorable as possible to the concentration of your mind upon itself, have writing materials brought to you.

Put yourself in as passive, or receptive, a state of mind as you can.

Forget about your genius, your talents, and the talents of everyone else.

Keep reminding yourself that literature is one of the saddest roads that leads to everything.

Write quickly, without any preconceived subject, fast enough so that you will not remember what you’re writing and be tempted to reread what you have written.

The first sentence will come spontaneously, so compelling is the truth that with every passing second there is a sentence unknown to our consciousness which is only crying out to be heard.

What a lovely philosophy to writing, ain’t it?

As such, Exquisite Corpse is an exemplification of this Surrealist Manifesto as well.

Now, let’s move on to the ‘Exquisite Corpse’ Game that we did today in class.

We followed the AVN Adjective – Verb – Noun – pattern of sentence writing. The first student – Vasanth wrote a line using the given pattern of prose at the top of the page, then folded back the paper to ensure that no one else can read them. After folding the paper, Vasanth passed the paper to the next student in his class, and so on.  

Here goes their exciting Surrealist Output 😊

Cute puppies are barking.

A grey cloud crept across the once bright sky.

Beautiful cow runs.

A fair horse was feeding on the grass.

A beautiful cuckoo was singing.

A lovely song was sung.

A pretty girl was twirling.

A bright dress was hung in front of the shop.

A fiery spirit keeps running amock at night.

Gloomy skies hold memories.

The Beautiful Taj Mahal sits on the banks of the Yamuna.

The arrogant lady fought in the market.

His charming eyes are electrifying her.

A pretty girl is dancing on the stage.

Glory painted the wall in blue.

A gorgeous peacock was spotted in Madras Christian College.

A cute cat was adopted by us.

I saw a tree which was beautiful.

The cute cat is sleeping under the car.

The tired dog sleeps on the couch.

Although the word ‘surrealist’ was originally coined by the French avant-garde poet Apollinaire in the preface to a play performed in 1917, it was actually André Breton, who, in his Surrealist Manifesto (1924), gave this visual art movement a definitive statement.

Says Breton –

Surrealism is pure psychic automatism, by which one proposes to express, either verbally, in writing, or by any other manner, the real functioning of thought. Dictation of thought in the absence of all control exercised by reason, outside of all aesthetic and moral preoccupation.

Does it strike a chord in you, dear reader?

Well, Freud was one of the earliest proponents of the concept of ‘psychic automatism’ - the process of writing, painting, drawing, or speaking automatically without conscious thought!

However, Freud refers to these unconscious flows of thought as "free associations."

“It has been considered an unmistakable sign of free association... if the emerging ideas or images, appear to be connected... without inter-relationship of meaning,” says Freud in his Interpretation of Dreams.

Then, heard the good news from Dr. Gnanasekaran, Department of Botany, that he has been recognised as one of the Taxonomic Expert Network (TEN) Members (out of 21 key contributors around the globe) for Acanthaceae.

The Acanthaceae TEN page on World Flora Online is now live, https://about.worldfloraonline.org/tens/acanthaceae.

A young professor with great promise! We are so proud of you dear Sir.

Shreya, our vibrant kid from III BA had promised me long back that she’s got a book recommend for me. Today she showed the book to me. It’s by Rithvik Singh, and it’s titled, ‘I don’t love you anymore: moving on and living your best life’, which also happens to be a National Bestseller. 

Just giving us all a lovely sneak peek into the book - 

Here goes - 

Promptly ordered myself a copy of the same. Thank you Shreya. Shreya, btw, is a published poet.

I was overjoyed to receive a courier from my mentor and guru Dr. Manalan. The parcel contained a lovely book. 

It’s titled, The English Grammar with Linguistic Application: Redefined by Dr. Solomon Dharmapaul from Coimbatore. Thank you dear Sir for so thoughtfully sending me a copy of this book.

Today my mentees Joice and Lal met me in my Office, and I gave them a few ideas on how to go about planning their days ahead. So happy that these mentees (including Pompi) from I BA English, turn up regularly to meet me and get guidance from me - their mentor.

I was so delighted to know that Joice, Pompi and Lal have started blogging consistently. 

Then, we had our Think Tank Meet (Ideators’ Meet) at the newly inaugurated MCC-MRF Innovation Park’s Writers’ Nook today.

In spite of the rains, and the Christmas holidays ahead, I was so glad to see many students who had turned up for today’s edition of Think Tank.

The topic for today’s discussion was –

“Is AI a Threat or a Catalyst to Human Creativity and Originality”

Many of the participants contributed to the discussions on the topic.

Then, Joshua Mahima, III BA English, gave a very impactful review of his first published book of poetry to the gathering.

We discussed the prospective agenda for the upcoming Think Tank edition.

Reached home around 6.15 pm. Then, we had the Carols visitation. So happy to see for the first time, a young girl dressed up as Santa Claus – one bold step towards breaking the ‘patriarchal’ Santa. 😊 In the same vein, I also wish that, the concept of Santa in ‘Red & White’ soon becomes outmoded, and replaced with a corporate-free garb!

“The Reason, sir?” You seem to ask! 😊 For that, you may want to watch our Vlog HERE.

'What we expect' vs 'what we actually receive' ❤️

What we expect vs what we actually receive from the media

The Day Today | Daily Diary

This morning, when I unlocked my mobile phone at around 7.05 am, after an eight-hour digital sabbatical, I was surprised to find a note of appreciation from our virtual big bosses, on Digital Wellbeing!

In fact, their weekly report has been very encouraging.

‘You used your phone 2 hrs 50 m less than last week.”

Thank you big boss! 😊

Indeed, after having started on my eight-hour digital detox on a daily basis for the past many months, (either from 10 pm to 6 am, or 11 pm to 7 am) I realise that I now have a lot of personal time for I, me, myself. 😊

In this space that I’ve gained, I do a lot of reading and writing. Well, to confess, I’ve just finished reading Demian by Hermann Hesse, (recommended to me by Ms. Lakshmi, II MA) and I’m almost completing Ramachandra Guha. After that, I plan to read, Our Social World: Introduction to Sociology.

Today, in my first hour class with the II MAs, we had a discussion on Print Media and Cultural Studies.

Students had come to class much ahead of time. Students were given a copy of the day’s newspaper. We then discussed the various components of a newspaper from a ‘Cultural Studies Matrix’, which yielded rewarding insights.

I began with the premise that –

All media houses are business houses, that create and distribute content that is ‘highly economically valuable’ to their business. This they do through their competitive pricing, liasioning with rich business/corporate houses which in turn helps them get their daily quota of advertisements, and thereby build for themselves a loyal subscription base as well. This ‘brand building’ and ad-space marketing, more often result in media bias and favouritism in ‘reporting’, which affects what we receive!

So the two questions that were put forth today are –

What do we expect from the media?

vis-à-vis

What we actually receive from the media?

With this in mind, a few representative sample news items, advertorials and editorials from the day’s newspaper were analysed in class.

Later, some endearing news reports/features were also analysed.

Giving a few of them here -  

‘Zakir Hussain always entered stage with a smile’ says L Subramaniam.

Video of couple kissing at Kol metro station kicks up social media storm

A video of a couple deeply engaged in a kiss at Kolkata’s Kalighat metro station, somewhat oblivious of their surroundings, led to a furore on social media, prompting Kolkata police to come to their rescue from harassment by trolls.

To thwart any possible attempt to distort the video or share anything demeaning, police on Monday issued a stern warning to social media users.

“Will take action if a complaint of distortion or hampering private life is made,” said a senior officer at Lalbazar, the police headquarters.

The warning came after reports of moral policing, trolling and online harassment. Some social media users even created objectionable memes. Several police officers took to social media to send out a message. “Grow up Kolkata … grow up humanity,” an OC of a police station said in a post on X.

Eco-conscious feature articles also got prominence in the newspapers today.

Wise Turtle, Foolish Man: Olive ridleys travel great distances to continue life, we destroy environments with abandon

Forest legend, tree activist Tulasi Gouda is no more

Forest encyclopaedia and Padma Shri Tulasi Gouda— who had extensive knowledge of deep forests, planted more than 30,000 saplings in a 60-year close ties with Uttara Kannada’s jungles, and won hearts of millions of people by walking barefoot to receive the Padma award from then President in 2021. Her ties with forests began at age 12 and continued for more than 60 years. She was named after the Tulasi plant. Her knowledge of plants, trees and shrubs, their growth patterns and care requirements earned her the title ‘Vriksha Maata’.

After oil spill, Ennore Creek is on a green mend

Ennore Creek, which was the site of an oil spill during Cyclone Michaung in Dec 2023, is showing signs of recovery with a greener outlook thanks to the forest department’s restoration efforts — planting mangrove saplings and native species along the creek’s bund to revive the ecosystem.

This apart, there was a very timely initiative from the Times of India initiative that, we felt, was the need of the hour. It comes with the hashtag #CancelPatriarchy, which contains a WhatsApp message written by a daughter to her daddy.

Then, we had Professor Ken Rouse, from the Department of Computer Science, LeTourneau University, Texas, visiting us in Campus today.

The Dean of International Programmes Dr. Rufus, and the Head, Dept of Computer Science, Dr. Persis Glory, received him. Mr. Sabarinathan, our Global Student Ambassador (well-known to Prof. Ken) proved an excellent host for our guest, today. He then met with our Principal Dr. Wilson, who honoured him with a shawl.

Prof. Ken gave us some interesting insights on his teaching style in class. Speaking about technology, he said that, Technology is like a two-year-old child, It will do what they are told to do! It cannot independently navigate complex situations without clear direction, he added.

He then proceeded to the Chemistry Seminar Hall to give a lecture for the students of the Department of Computer Science.

This afternoon, we had an interaction with Professors from Nottingham Trent University, UK. We discussed the possible avenues for collaborating with NTU. Dr. Iyappan, Head, Dept of Chemistry (Aided), Dr. Sahila, HoD, Dept of Chemistry (SFS), Dr. Nimmy and Dr. Rajesh from the Department of Chemistry participated in the discussions.

Officials from Immersion Global met with us today in the Office of International Programmes. 

Photo courtesy: Mr. Sabarinathan, Global Student Ambassador

"It demands patience, skill and perseverance" | The Day Today ❤️

A Teacher’s Day Today | Daily Diary

Morning I woke up at 5 am, and then from 5.30 to 6 am went through the day’s newspapers.

The Editorial page in today’s Times of India, sported a shocking feature article on America’s popular support for a killer! (of a healthcare CEO)

Excerpts from the article - 

US has a tradition of turning criminals into folk heroes. Thompson’s killer is unlikely to be lionised as they have been, but he has something in common with criminals of the past who were seen favourably by the public. During the depression, ordinary Americans saw robbers like Bonnie and Clyde or the Dillinger gang as fighting against banks, on behalf of the poor. Subway vigilante Bernie Goetz shot four men that he said were trying to rob him on a New York subway in 1984, at a time when the police were viewed as ineffective.

The murder of a health insurance company’s CEO speaks to many Americans for much the same reason. These companies are almost universally despised in American culture. More than 90% of Americans have health insurance. And according to polling from KFF, a leading health policy non-profit, 40% of them have medical debt. Three-quarters of Americans say they worry about being able to afford the healthcare services they might need,

says the article, by Prof. Dan Cassino.

Moving on to the Editorial Page of The New Indian Express, I came across a very perceptive editorial piece on ‘Lessons for Democracy from impeachment of South Korean President’, that says –

In South Korea, Yoon won the presidential mandate in 2022 by a whisker. But he ended up being the first president in decades dealing with an opposition-controlled parliament for his entire tenure as his party failed to get a majority—just 108 in a 300-member House. That dissonance and his lack of political experience—he joined the ruling party in 2021 after a long career as a prosecutor—possibly made him impatient!

Quite insightful!

Then went to the Newspaper Mart and bought 25 newspapers (English dailies) for students.

I reached College by 8 am today. So happy that 17 students turn up every day at around 8 am to collect their daily newspapers.

Spot at 8.30 am, entered the II MA Class, and I was glad to see most of the students seated in class much ahead of time. Felt so glad to see this.

We discussed Bioregional Literary Studies in class today, from LifePlace: BIOREGIONAL THOUGHT AND PRACTICE by Robert L. Thayer, Jr.

Then, met with students who had their appointments with me from 9.30 to 10.45 am.

The “Book Reading Chain Circulation” that we had initiated amongst our Ideators, a few months ago, got a new member on board today.

So at 10.20 am, my vibrant ward Annie met me to get her paper corrected.

Later, Swetha introduced Amy as the next reader for the Book Reading Chain Circulation System.

Well, for newbies to Book Reading Chain Circulation, it is a system where a single book is passed from one person to another in a chain-like manner, with each person reading the book before passing it on to the next, in a week’s time, essentially creating a ‘chain’ of readers who all get to access the same book sequentially.

This Chain Circulation helps to foster a sense of shared reading experience within a group, allowing people to discuss the book with others who have also read it.

The book is titled, The Urgency of Change by J. Krishnamurti.

Photo Courtesy: Mr. Sabarinathan, III BBA

Mr. Sabarinathan inaugurated the Book Reading Chain Circulation by reading the book and then blogging about it. Ms. Durga got the book from Sabari, and after reading the book, in a week’s time, she passed it on to Ms. Shannon, who, then passed it on to Ms. Swetha. Today, Ms. Swetha has now passed it on to Ms. Amy - who has promised to finish reading the book in a week’s time.

Readers who have completed the Book Reading Chain Circulation will be sharing their thoughts about the book in their online blogs/social media platforms, and later they would come together for a Panel Discussion on the book during a Think Tank Rendezvous.

If you have a book to share with fellow ideators, please share the book to me and we shall start a new Book Reading Chain Circulation.

Then, wished a genial Good Morning (as usual) to our 90-year old vibrant PhD Scholar and Dr. Abdul Kalam's Classmate Dr. T. D. Krishnamachari, who is currently doing his third PhD in Mathematics in MCC. 

After that, had the third hour II MA Class for the students, in the Miller Memorial Library, where I also took attendance for them, and met with the Librarian as well.

At 11.40 am, I rushed to Queen Mary’s College, Mylapore, which took me around an hour’s drive from Tambaram. Right when I reached QMC, Dr. Preethi gave me a call, and guided me to the Lecture Hall.

The lecture hall was brimming with enthusiastic student readers, who had just given their best, as part of the Avid Readers’ Challenge. The Readers’ Challenge had a compilation of some lovely reads – one novel and 10 short stories compiled into a single document for students to read them and come geared up for the Challenge.

A lovely conceptualistion by Dr. Preethi, HoD, English, Queen Mary's College

Hats off to the consistent efforts, hard work and dynamic initiatives of Dr. Preethi and her vibrant team, in promoting the habit of reading amongst students. I was also happy to distribute the prizes to the Winners of the Reading Challenge. Dr. Preethi had a few lovely words on Readers’ Rendezvous, our Whatsapp Group formed in November 2017 to share from what we read!

Then followed my Talk. And as Patron of Readers' Planet, my talk today at QMC was on ‘How to Make Reading a Habit’.

Towards the end of the talk, I also exhorted the students to visit the Chennai Book Fair 2025 that starts on 27th December 2024, at the YMCA Grounds, Chennai.

The lecture ended at 1.35 pm, and after that, we went to a lovely restaurant in Mylapore for a Fellowship Lunch for our vibrant kids who are part of the Office of International Programmes, MCC – a long overdue lunch, that we had promised the kids months ago, for their exemplary service as Interns with the Office of International Programmes. It was a memorable time with such fun and frolic, and a ‘prank birthday’ that we had orchestrated for one kid amongst us, that proved the memorable icing on the cake. 😊

Sabari was quite busy on his momo hunt, 😊 and he also did a quick and exciting vlog to archive the occasion for memory.

Since Prof. Arun couldn’t join us at the last minute, we had a surprise visitor who joined us today (Ms. Christina)

On an aside, a few proud moments today -

So happy to also note that Ms. Lekhaa from II BA English is having her ideation inaugurated tomorrow, as a Service Learning Programme from the Dept of English.

It’s titled, ‘The Magic of Storytelling: A Society of Storytellers’. The Staff in-charge for the programme is Dr. Sam Paul.

Added, special congratulations to three of our students who have published their first books this past week – Joshua Mahima, from III BA English, Nitish Kumar from I MA English and Veena from II BA English. Kudos to you dear students. Links to their books are given here to the right of our blog.

What’s more!

We are having the famous Katha Utsav for the very first time @ MCC in the last week of December 2024.

Those of you who are interested in participating in this two-day workshop, (to be conducted by eminent writers) can ping me asap.

Participants of the workshop will be given a Participation Certificate as well! 

PS: You may want to read an Interview that our students had done with Dr. T. D. Krishnamachari, a classmate of Dr. Abdul Kalam, HERE, on our past post. 

Picture Courtesy: Dr. Abdul Kalam with his classmate Dr. Krishnamachari from Times of India, Chennai Edition

Becoming Guardians, Not Gardeners! | Nash, Guha and More... ❤️❤️❤️

What happens when true friendship and vibrant scholarship come together?

#CaseStudy

#lovelyReads

#EnvironmentalHistory

#untrameled

#Friendship-ScholarshipCombo

I’m presently reading Unquiet Woods: Ecological Change and Peasant Resistance in the Himalaya (1989) by Ramachandra Guha.

And this book, I should confess, took me straight to Harvard Graduate Roderick Nash who is credited with coining the term ‘environmental history’ thereby opening up the now-flourishing field of Environmental History to the world.

And this again took me back yet again, to Nash - his friendships and their scholarship that resulted in impactful transformations to our perspective of ‘wilderness’ and the natural environment.

So before Guha, let’s do a little bit of Nash! 😊

The life-long passion of Nash was to study the impact of human society on the natural environment.

When you have a passion, you necessarily need friends or mentors who encourage and support you in your passion and quest, ain’t it?

This blogpost provides an inspirational take on Nash, and how his ‘scholarly’ friendships coupled with his scholarship had a transformative and therapeutic impact on society.

Eminent environmental historian Char Miller, Pomona College, California, (and a friend of Nash) has given a lovely foreword to the book written by his friend Roderick Nash, (titled, Wilderness and the American Mind) which throws further light on the subject of Environmental History and how it all began.

Nash Saw the Missing Gap

When Nash began his doctoral studies in 1960 at the University of Wisconsin under the direction of the legendary intellectual historian Merle Curti, there was no such thing as environmental history.

Although some scholars and critics had written brilliantly about the human place in nature - notably Walter Prescott Webb, Henry Nash Smith, and Leo Marx - Nash realized that no one had explored the fundamental role that wilderness as wilderness played in the nation's imagination.

So did another lucky break: Nash convinced the university archives to hire him to gather, organize, and sort through the papers of Aldo Leopold, arguably one of the twentieth century's most important conservationists — a perfect job for an aspiring historian committed to tracking alterations in Americans’ ideas about nature.

The Task Ahead of Nash (How he structured his Research)

Nash’s task becomes oddly straightforward - to trace this malleable concept’s evolution across time, to make sense of how succeeding generations of Americans made sense of the wild, what he calls the self-willed (literally, ‘wild’) world.

Assessing the Past Research and Creative Output to Plan for the Future

Nash does so by assessing the wilderness advocacy of such iconic writers as Henry David Thoreau, George Gaitlin, John Muir, Aldo Leopold, and John McPhee and by unearthing pithy political speeches that extoll America the Wild.

Newspaper editorials, like varied forms of artistic expression and cultural production, make good copy, as does the slow emergence of legislative initiatives designed to protect the public lands and the wildness they exemplified, culminating in the 1964 passage of the Wilderness Act. Nash's close attention to such an interdisciplinary array of sources, and to some of the quirky details they contained, sensitizes him to subtle changes in tone, texture, and temper.

One of these moments proved pivotal to his narrative and is emblematic of our understanding of a tectonic shift in American political culture.

Until the late nineteenth century, wilderness was a place to be feared, fought, and flattened. This rough terrain, and the native peoples who inhabited it, Euro-Americans argued, must be ‘civilized’, brought under control by gun, plow, and rail. No sooner was this end achieved, however, than a wave of nostalgia for the sharp, formative edges of the Western frontier swept through the urban East.

This psychic crisis - reflected in literature, poetry, and paintings - helped tip the scales in wilderness's favor, Nash argues.

A Newfound Perspective / A Revolution in Meaning

The wealth that came from an industrializing society allowed urbanites to “approach wilderness from the viewpoint of the vacationer rather than the conquerer,” a newfound perspective, a “revolution in meaning!”

Once reviled, a terrain to be grazed over, cut down, or plowed up, the idea of wildness emerged as a tonic for all that ailed modernizing America. A remarkable transition then built on itself.

From Transition to Transformation

By the early twentieth century, an appreciable audience embraced the idea of wilderness’s purity, a sensibility the contemporary naturalist John Muir deified through his odes to Yosemite and the Sierra Mountains, his “Range of Light”.  

In time, succeeding generations moved beyond the poetic appeal and drummed up a political demand for wilderness preservation. Among those who mobilized a legion of likeminded followers was Robert Marshall, a radical forester who in 1930 argued for the creation of an “organization of people who will fight for the freedom of the wilderness”.

The Wilderness Society and Its Impact on Nash

Four years later, in 1935, Robert Marshall founded the Wilderness Society (with Aldo Leopold as its president), launching a special interest for special places. As its members fought to secure wilderness designations for portions of the national forests and other public lands — a fitful and painstaking process — as they struggled to fend off dams on the Colorado and other Western rivers that threatened to inundate cultural sites, submerge iconic landforms, and pacify whitewater, they also conceived of a broader resolution, the passage of a congressional act that would forever protect remnants of the wild.

Good Friends and their Value to Society

Quite interestingly, Nash was a good friend of Howard Zahniser, (who was also member of the Wilderness Society) and whose canonical essay titled, “The Need for Wilderness Areas” (1956), paved the way for the passing of the famous 1964 Wilderness Act in the US.

Howard Zahniser wrote the first draft of the Wilderness Act in 1956. He chose the word ‘untrammeled’, and made the word connote with the concept of wilderness!

"A wilderness...is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man..." - The Wilderness Act.

Great Friends (Minds) Think Alike!

Howard Zahniser emphasises on the need to be a guardian than a gardener!

Nash also echoes similar views, says Char Miller.

Nash emphasises on the creation of “garden-earth”; that is, a thoroughly and completely guarded planet scrubbed free of its gritty peripheries, a pastoral paradise, whose roots run back through Thomas Jefferson’s deification of the yeoman farmer to the Garden of Eden.

Coming back, how did environmental history begin in India? And yes, what was the role of Ramachandra Guha in playing a pioneering role in the environmental history movement in India?

Stay tuned… for updates! 😊

Courtesy: All quotes are from Char Miller’s foreword to his friend Nash’s Book on Wilderness and the American Mind.