Inspired by the idea of Swaraj and with the aim of creating a “non-violent social order”, Sumanas Koulagi’s grandparents Surendra and Girija Koulagi founded the Janapada Seva Trust at Melkote in 1960.
Growing up with what he calls an “overdose of Gandhi”, there was a time when he felt that most of the Mahatma’s ideas were outdated.
Now, at the age of 28, Mr. Sumanas Koulagi holds a different view. “I have always been interested in wildlife and ecology. The conflict between conservation and development slowly brought me to Gandhian philosophy. Gandhi and J.C. Kumarappa seem to hold many answers to questions that the world faces today, including climate change,” he told The Hindu.
Mr. Sumanas Koulagi completed his doctoral thesis on the ‘Development as Swaraj and a Quest for a Non-violent Social Order’ from the University of Sussex in the U.K. earlier this year. The idea of Swaraj — a community or even an individual leading a self-sustaining sustainable life — is important. He believes that development models need to be tweaked to encompass Gandhian ideals, but we need to find our own path.
“Swaraj is a normative idea. We need to separate this idea from the paths Gandhi adopted to reach that ideal. We need to find our own paths towards that ideal of Swaraj. Trying to tread the same path that Gandhi took won’t work,” he said, adding that though Gandhian ideas may seem outdated, as a normative idea they remain the most relevant to today’s age of global climate change.
Physical labour
Mr. Sumanas Koulagi now works with the khadi unit of the trust. “Khadi and physical labour is only seen till now in terms of employment. But I see human physical labour to be the most eco-friendly forms of energy. Alternative clean energy sources also most times only shift the exploitation of natural resources elsewhere,” he said. He hopes to steer the trust’s activists towards ecological concerns in the future.
