Nature-inspired Books and Environmental Advocacy.

Brewing Knowledge Friday

Discussing Priyadarshini’s nature-inspired books and environmental advocacy.

Key Takeaways

• Core Theme: Coexistence is the central message. The books challenge the idea of human-wildlife conflict by showing how balanced ecosystems depend on every creature.

• Root Cause: Unchecked urbanisation and year-round tourism are the primary drivers of environmental degradation in hill stations like Kodaikanal, leading to habitat loss, landslides, and increased human-wildlife encounters.

• Advocacy Strategy: Priyadarshini uses engaging genres (adventure, poetry) to make eco-fiction accessible and avoid being preachy. She empowers young readers by giving child characters agency and focusing on local environmental action.

• Policy Gap: Current conservation policies are insufficient. They categorise endangered species but lack concrete regulations to protect their habitats, such as the Shola grasslands, which are critical to the Nilgiri Tahr.

Topics

The Problem: Unchecked Urbanisation & Tourism

• Rapid urbanisation and tourism are the root causes of environmental issues in Indian hill stations.

• Kodaikanal Case Study:

  • Shift: From seasonal tourism to year-round crowds, fueled by remote work.

  • Impact: Constant noise, traffic, and pollution.

  • Consequence: Increased demand for resorts and homestays leads to habitat destruction in previously quiet areas.

• Interconnected Issues:

  • Urbanisation → Deforestation → Landslides (e.g., Wayanad)

  • Habitat loss → Animals move into towns for food (e.g., Indian Bison)

The Solution: Coexistence & Local Action

• Coexistence: The core message of The Myth of the Wild God.

  • Premise: Humans and wildlife must coexist, as animals are no longer confined to forests.

  • Goal: Shift the narrative from conflict to peaceful coexistence.

• Local Action: The most effective path to change.

  • Focus: Address local issues (e.g., neighbourhood heat waves, disappearing birds) rather than abstract global problems.

  • Rationale: Individuals can make a tangible difference in their own communities.

The Medium: Engaging Storytelling

• Goal: Make eco-fiction interesting to avoid being preachy.

• Methods:

  • Adventure/Mystery: The Myth of the Wild God and The Guardians of the Forest use adventure plots to engage readers.

  • Poetry: Thule’s Stroll offers a joyful, interactive reading experience.

  • Hand-Painted Illustrations: Provide a realistic, tactile feel of nature, contrasting with common digital art.

• Empowering Child Characters:

  • Rationale: Children are more flexible and open to change than adults.

  • Impact: Gives young readers agency and encourages independent thought.

Policy & Community Influence

• Policy Gap: Current conservation policies are inadequate.

  • They categorise species (e.g., endangered) but lack concrete regulations to protect their habitats.

  • Example: The Nilgiri Tahr is endangered because its Shola grassland habitat is being destroyed for construction, as it’s mistakenly considered “wasteland.”

• Community Influence: Local myths can serve a conservation purpose.

  • Example: Scary myths about the Indian Bison in Kodaikanal deter tourists from harassing the animals.

Next Steps

• Priyadarshini: Continue writing engaging eco-fiction to promote coexistence and local environmental awareness.

• Participants: Apply the principle of local action to address environmental issues in their own communities.

• Advocates: Push for stronger conservation policies that include concrete habitat protection regulations.

 Thanks to FATHOM AI for the session summary

Highway To Swades

Brewing Knowledge Friday

Author Bhairavi Jani discusses her book “Highway to Swades” and her 18,000 km journey across India.

Key Takeaways

• The Journey: Jani’s 18,181 km, 51-day drive across India was a quest for a firsthand understanding of the country, inspired by the ancient Indian principle of pratyaksha (witnessing).

• The 12 Superpowers: The book identifies 12 core strengths of India, with “Power of Assimilation” highlighted as uniquely Indian—the ability to adopt external influences while retaining its own identity.

• The Raft Analogy: India’s Republic is a raft on the eternal river of its civilisation. Citizens must pick up the oars and actively participate in its progress, as the country is run by its people, not just politicians.

• The “Chappan Bhog” Philosophy: Jani advocates for a life of diverse experiences—a “chappan bhog” (56-dish feast)—by challenging comfort zones and saying “yes” to life, avoiding the mental walls that create stress.

Topics

The Journey: “Highway to Swades”

• Inspiration: A lifelong practice of pratyaksha (witnessing) for learning, seeded by childhood travel with her parents and school.

• Catalyst: A question about policymakers’ understanding of India’s people and their choices.

• Scope: 18,181 km over 51 days, from Nagaland to Kutch and Kashmir to the Deccan.

• Method: An organic, anticlockwise parikrama (circumambulation) averaging 360-370 km/day, with 15-20 interviews daily.

• Key Discoveries:

  • Undakoti, Tripura: A hidden 6th-century rock-cut sculpture site, a major historical gem that was largely unknown.

  • Nalanda, Bihar: A watchman’s reverence for the ruins as a “temple of knowledge” revealed a deep cultural value for learning.

  • Safety: The journey proved that India is safe to travel in, with people across the country offering help and hospitality.

The 12 Superpowers of India

• Core Insight: A common thread of strengths binds India’s diverse people.

• Key Superpowers:

  • Enterprise: Entrepreneurship is a pervasive trait, seen from tribal women in Eastern Ghats markets to tech CEOs.

  • Nature: A reverential partnership with nature, contrasting with the anthropocentric view common elsewhere.

  • Knowledge: A deep cultural reverence for learning, not just education.

  • Creativity: An inherent aesthetic drive, from truck art to rangolis.

  • Assimilation: The unique ability to adopt external influences while retaining identity (e.g., Gobi Manchurian).

  • Inclusion: A natural acceptance of diversity, reflected in holidays for all major faiths.

• Internal Contradictions: Jani also questioned why a country that values beauty struggles with cleanliness and why, despite vast arable land, malnutrition persists.

Philosophy & Outlook

• India at 100: An India where 1.4 billion people are individually empowered (Swaraj) to realise their full potential, creating a gift to the world.

• The Raft Analogy: India’s Republic is a raft on the eternal river of its civilisation. Citizens are the sailors who must pick up the oars and actively participate in the progress.

• The “Chappan Bhog” Philosophy: Life should be a “Chappan Bhog” (56-dish feast) of diverse experiences. This is achieved by challenging comfort zones and saying “yes” to life, which eliminates the stress of “juggling.”

• Love Defined: Love is about receiving with an open heart and no expectations. This openness allows for a floodgate of love and warmth, leading to gratitude.

FATHOM AI-generated content, read with care.

The “Chutney” Book Project

Brewing Knowledge Friday

Discussing the cultural significance of Chutney and its documentation with Rushina Munshaw-Ghildiyal

Key Takeaways

• “Chutney” is a 525-page compendium that documents the cultural, historical, and medicinal significance of Chutney, elevating it from a side dish to a central topic.

• The book preserves oral history, capturing family recipes (e.g., “Nani’s Till Tomato Wally Chutney”) to prevent their loss as younger generations move away from home kitchens.

• Chutney is a flexible, sustainable food made from seasonal ingredients, embodying traditional wisdom like Ayurveda’s concept of tasir (ingredient qualities) to balance a meal.

• The book counters the misconception that Chutney is just the two basic restaurant types (green/brown), revealing its true diversity and role as a flavour anchor.

Topics

The “Chutney” Book Project

• Origin: The book grew out of the “Indian Food Observance Days” initiative (since 2018), which has celebrated 10 key culinary themes.

  • Chutney Day (in September) was the only non-seasonal observance, reflecting Chutney’s year-round relevance.

• Catalyst: A highly resonant 2021 Chutney Day online marathon revealed a vast, undocumented knowledge repository.

• Rationale: A physical book was chosen over a digital format to provide an immersive, permanent record.

• Scope: A 2-year project resulting in a 525-page, self-published book.

Documenting Oral History & Family Recipes

• Urgency: Documenting traditional recipes is critical to prevent knowledge loss across generations, especially as convenience-driven foods replace complex, time-intensive dishes.

• Core Goal: To give permanent, named recognition to the women (e.g., Nani, Chachi) who create these recipes, ensuring their legacy.

• Example: “Nani’s Till Tomato Wally Chutney”

  • A recipe from the author’s grandmother-in-law, a cross between a chutney and a sabzi (vegetable dish).

  • Its documentation preserved a powerful family memory, culminating in the Chutney being served at a family wedding, creating a shared moment of nostalgia.

Chutney’s Role in Traditional Wisdom

• Ayurvedic Roots: Chutney is rooted in the Ayurvedic concept of lehyam (to lick), a small, potent condiment designed to complete a meal’s Shadrass (six tastes).

• Balancing Tasir: Chutneys are used to balance the tasir (qualities) of a meal.

  • Example: Warming til (sesame) or bhaang (hemp) chutneys are eaten in winter to counteract the “cold” quality of foods like udad dal.

• Medicinal Properties: Many chutneys incorporate ingredients with specific health benefits.

  • Example: Pirandai (a cactus) is used in South Indian chutneys as a “bone strengthener.”

Chutney as a Sustainable & Flexible Food

• Core Misconception: The belief that Chutney is only the two basic types (green/brown) found in restaurants.

  • Reality: Home kitchens feature a vast, dynamic array of chutneys that elevate simple meals.

• Sustainability: Chutney is a zero-waste food that makes flavour from minimal resources.

  • Example: Jamau (Meghalaya)

    • Leftover rice is mixed with the flavorful juices clinging to a grinding stone (silbatta) to create small, savoury cakes.

  • Example: Raggede Boda Saru (Karnataka)

    • Water used to wash a grinding stone after making Chutney is tempered and served as a light rasam or sambar substitute.

  • Example: Mand Joli (Uttarakhand)

    • The starchy cooking water from rice is repurposed as a separate dish.

FATHOM AI-generated notes, read with care.

India's Forest

We often imagine forests as still, untouched spaces. Green, silent, distant. Something we visit, admire, and leave behind. But India’s Forests: Revisiting Nature and History book by Arupjyoti Saikia and Mahesh Rangarajan unsettles that comfort. It shifts the lens entirely, revealing forests not as passive landscapes, but as places deeply entangled with power, history, and human lives.

Because forests, as the book insists, have never been empty.

Long before they were mapped, they were lived in woven into the everyday rhythms of communities who understood them not as resources, but as relationships. This balance, however, was fractured under colonial rule. Forests were reimagined as assets—timber for railways, land for expansion, territory to be controlled. And in that transformation, the people who belonged to these spaces were recast as outsiders within them.

What emerges is not just an environmental history, but a political one.

The book carefully traces the tension between conservation and survival—a tension that continues to define forests even today. Protection, in its institutional sense, often comes with boundaries, restrictions, and exclusions. But for those who depend on forests for their livelihood, survival cannot be separated from access. The idea of a “protected” forest begins to feel complicated, even contradictory.

And yet, within this conflict, there is resistance.

The Chipko Movement stands as a quiet but powerful reminder that environmentalism does not always come from policy or authority. Sometimes, it comes from those who have the most at stake. Villagers—especially women held onto trees, refusing to let them be cut down. Their act was not symbolic. It was intimate, immediate, and deeply political. It redefined what it meant to protect nature not by distancing humans from it, but by asserting a different kind of belonging.

What lingers after reading this book is a shift in perception.

Forests no longer feel like neutral spaces. They feel layered marked by histories of control and resistance, shaped by decisions that extend far beyond ecology. They carry the weight of everything that has been taken, protected, fought for, and remembered.

Perhaps the most striking realization is this: forests are not just about nature. They are about the ways we choose to see, use, and value the world around us. And in that sense, they are not silent at all. They are constantly speaking through the lives they sustain, the conflicts they hold, and the histories they refuse to let fade.

-Sneha

Biocracy redefines responsibility

The idea of biocracy emerges from an uncomfortable yet straightforward realisation: most of our political decisions today are still centred almost entirely on human convenience, power, and short-term gain, while the ecological systems that sustain life are treated as secondary—or worse, expendable.

Biocracy can be understood as a form of governance where decisions are not driven solely by human wants but are fundamentally guided by ecological needs. In such a system, the health of air, water, soil, forests, and climate becomes a primary factor in policy-making, not an afterthought. 

If we honestly evaluate the dominant forms of governance—democracy, monarchy, autocracy, or even technocracy—we find that they are increasingly inadequate for the challenges of our time. These systems were designed in eras that did not account for ecological collapse. Today, when AQI levels are at historic highs, visibility is literally blurred, forests are cut relentlessly, and regions like the Aravallis are reduced to dumping grounds, it becomes evident that something is deeply broken. 

The crisis is not only environmental; it is political and moral. Our regimes continue to function as if nature is infinite, resilient, and silent. But nature is neither limitless nor silent anymore—it is responding, and the consequences are visible everywhere. 

This brings us to a crucial question: On what basis should future governments be formed?

Should political power still be decided purely on ideology, caste, religion, or economic promises? Or is it time to evaluate leadership on parameters such as air quality, tree cover, water security, pollution levels, cleanliness, and the sustainability of future generations? 

I firmly believe that the next generation of voters—the youth—are far more aware and informed than ever before. They will not vote merely on narratives that have existed for decades. They will ask different questions: 

• What is the AQI of my city?
• How many trees are being protected or planted?
• What is the state of water and soil?
• Is development sustainable, or merely destructive?

This shift in thinking is the foundation of biocracy.  

Biocracy may be unrealistic. Can trees, rivers, mountains, animals, or soil have rights? Can they be represented in governance? It may sound impossible today—but history tells us otherwise.  

A hundred years ago, most countries did not allow all citizens to vote. Universal suffrage once seemed unthinkable. If someone had proposed it then, it would have been dismissed as impractical or idealistic. Yet today, it is a fundamental democratic principle. Similarly, recognising ecological entities as stakeholders in governance may seem radical now, but it may well become inevitable. Because without protecting nature, no political system—however powerful—can survive. 

Biocracy redefines responsibility. 

The photo of Kunal in the lap of Aravali