‘We Have to Change Our Expectations from Being Alive If We Are to Survive'

Eminent historian Dr Romila Thapar’s latest book Voices of Dissent, published by Seagull Books, is essential reading for the current times. In an exclusive conversation with Ipshita Mitra for TerraGreen, Dr Thapar foregrounds the connection between natural and cultural heritage, condemns humankind’s intolerance to climate change, emphasizes the importance of understanding historical events through the lens of environmental sociology, and more.

- Ipshita Mitra

In Voices of Dissent, you write, “Dissent has been expressed in many forms ... New idioms will be required as, for instance, with the recent debates on the destruction of the environment and its links to climate change.” Both natural (prakriti) and cultural (sanskriti) heritage are interdependent. Today when we are grappling with an invisible virus, how do you think we have fared in terms of protecting our prakriti?

Heritage is what we put together and believe that it is inherited through the generations. The importance of heritage of any kind has first to be understood in terms of what it means in our lives. When that is understood then it becomes easier to call for its protection. Understanding it should not be in a routine manner of merely insisting on its importance, but rather in explaining all its various facets and the difference it makes to our lives. We also have to remind ourselves that although we may be disconnected from our natural environment when we live in concrete high rises, there is nevertheless always a basic connect to the environment that we have to respect and provide space for in our thinking.

To do this we have to encourage every generation to ask questions about what is meant by environment, resources, natural life, heritage, culture. The questions would be about the world that surrounds us. They should also ask questions about the past, the world that has gone before them. It is useful to know how actions were carried out in the past and why; and then why they have changed in the present. Asking questions and attempting to find satisfying answers is crucial to human existence. We can only protect something if we understand why it is to be protected and are convinced that it has to be protected. It is only then that we can more easily disagree or dissent with actions that we think go counter to the required protection. This may encourage better methods of protection.