Justice O. Chinnappa Reddy's 1987 Judgment Quoting a Letter Written by a Red Indian Chief of Seattle in 1854 on the Importance of Environment and Wildlife
In a landmark Supreme
Court of India judgment on 11th of February 1987 of a bench inclusive of
Justice V. Khalid, Justice O. Chinnappa Reddy starts the judgment in the case of
Sachidananda Pandey vs State Of West Bengal & Others (Civil Appeal No. 378 of 1987) with the following words:
JUDGMENT: CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Justice O.
Chinnappa Reddy:
A hundred and thirty-two years ago, in 1854, 'the
wise Indian Chief of Seattle' replied to the offer of 'the great White Chief in
Washington' to buy their land. The reply is profound- It is beautiful. It is
timeless. It contains the wisdom of the ages. It is the first ever and the most
understanding statement on environment. It is worth quoting. To abridge it or
to quote extracts from it is to destroy its beauty. You cannot scratch a
painting and not diminish its beauty. We will quote the whole of it*:
"How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea
is strange to us.
"If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the
water, how can you buy them?
"Every part of the earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine
needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing and
humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people. The Sap which
courses through the trees carries the memories of the red man.
"The white man's dead forget the country of their birth when they
go to walk among the stars. Our dead never forget this beautiful earth, for it
is the mother of the red man. We are part of the earth and it is part of us.
The perfumed flowers are our sisters; the horse, the great eagle, these are our
brothers. The rockly crests, the juices in the meadows, the body heat of the
pony, and man--all belong to the same family.
"So, when the Great Chief in Washington sends word that he wishes
to buy our land, he asks much of us. The Great Chief sends word he will reserve
us a place so that we can live comfortably to ourselves. He will be our father
and we will be his children. So we will consider your offer to buy our land.
But it will not be easy. For this land is sacred to us.
"This shining water moves in the streams and rivers is not just
water but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you land, you must remember
that it is sacred, and you must teach your children that it is sacred and that
each ghostly reflection in the clear water of the lakes tells of events and
memories in the life of my people. The water's murmur is the voice of my
father's father.
"The rivers are our brothers, they quench our thirst. The rivers
carry our canoes, and food our children. If we sell you our land, you must
remember, and teach your children, that the rivers are our brothers, and yours
and you must henceforth give the kindness you would give any brother.
"We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One
portion of, land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes
in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his
brother but his enemy, and when he has conquered it, he moves on. He leaves his
fathers' graves behind, and he does not care.
"He kidnaps the earth from his children. His father's grave and his
children's birth-right are forgotten. He treats his mother, the earth, and his
brother, the sky, as things to be bought, plundered, sold like sheep or bright
beads. His appetite will devour the earth and leave behind only a desert.
"I do not know. Our ways are different from your ways. The sight of
your cities pains the eyes of the red man. But perhaps it is because the red
man is a savage and does not understand.
"There is no quite place in the white man's cities. No place to
hear the unfurling of leaves in spring or the rustle of an in- sect's wings.
But perhaps it is because I am a savage and do not understand. The clatter only
seems to insult the ears. And what is there to life if a man cannot hear the
lonely cry of the whippoorwill or the arguments of the frogs around a pond at
night? I am a red man and do not understand. The Indian prefers the soft sound
of the wind darting over the face of a pond, and the small of the wind itself,
cleansed by a mid-day rain, or scented with the pinon pine.
"The air is precious to the red man, for all things share the same
breath--the beast, the tree, the man, they all share the same breath. The white
man does not seem to notice the air he breathes. Like a man dying for many
days, he is numb to the stench. But if we sell you our land, you must remember
that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the
life it supports. The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also
receives the last sigh. And if we sell you our land, you must keep it apart and
sacred as a place where even the white man can go to taste the wind that is
sweetened by the meadows flowers.
"So we will consider your offer to buy our land. If we decide to
accept, I will make one condition. The White man must treat the beasts of this
land as his brothers.
"I am a savage and I do not understand any other way. I have seen a
thousand rotting buffaloes on the prairie, left by the white man who shot them
from a passing train. I am a savage and I do not understand how the smoking
iron horse can be more important than the buffalo that we kill only to stay
alive.
"What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man
would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts
soon happens to man. All things are connected.
"You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is
the ashes of our grandfathers. So that they will respect the land. Tell your
children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin. Teach your children
what we have taught our children, that the earth if sun mother. Whatever
befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. If men spit upon the ground,
they spit upon themselves.
"This we know: The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the
earth. This we know: All things are connected--like the blood which unites one
family. All things are connected.
"Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did
not weave to web of life: he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the
web he does to himself.
"Even the white man, whose God walks and talks with him as friend
to friend, cannot be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers after
all. We shall see. One thing we know, which the white man may one day discover--our
God is the same God. You may think now that you own Him as you wish to own our
land; but you cannot. He is the God of man, and His compassion is equal for the
red man and the white. This earth is precious to Him, and to harm the earth is
to heap contempt on its Creator. The white too shall pass; perhaps sooner than
all other tribes. Contaminate your bed and you will one night suffocate in your
own waste.
"But in your perishing you will shine brightly, fired by the
strength of the God who brought you to this land and for some special purpose
gave you dominion over this land and over the red man. That destiny is a
mystery to us, for we do not understand when the wild buffalo are all
slaughtered, the wild horses are tamed, the secret corners of the forest heavy
with scent of many man and the view of the ripe hills blotted by talking wires.
Where is the thicket? Gone. Where is the eagle? Gone. The end of living and the
beginning of survival."
*Reproduced
verbatim from Pariyavaran Vol. I No. 1, June 1984.
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Reference: The above is a small extract from the
Supreme Court of India Judgment dated 11Feb1987: weblink
Alternative weblink: https://indiankanoon.org/doc/497388/
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