Helena Norberg-Hodge is the first westerner in modern times to master the Ladakhi language. She has been working for the past seventeen years with the Ladakhi people to protect their culture and environment from the devastating effects of rapid modernization.
In Ancient Futures - Learning from Ladakh, Helena Norberg-Hodge provides comprehensive evidence of the cultural and human destruction caused by 'Eurocentric' forms of development. She describes the changes that take place in this peaceful and strongly knit civilization after the ascendancy of modernization and development. The reader is taken on a journey of Ladakh, a remote area in the Himalayan region of Kashmir, divided between Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India. A place of few resources and a climate of extremes, it was home to a thriving culture for more than a thousand years; a society co-existing, sharing and living efficiently on scarce resources.
However, in the last two decades, Ladakh has become increasingly exposed to modern influences, brought on largely by tourism and development. Ladakhis are unquestionably adopting 'modern' ideas and practices projected by Westerners as the 'right way (the only way) to live'. The result, as Norberg-Hodge details, has been a shift towards a western life, giving rise to environmental and social problems. It's most destructive outcome has been the psychological disarray amongst Ladakhis, who now compare themselves with a glamorized media version of Western society. Ladakhi pride has been substituted by a lack of self-respect.
These and other effects on Ladakhi society have created a vital concern as to the 'actual' results of modernization and development. As the author critically reflects in her work, "development is the process of reducing all the diverse cultures of the world to a single monoculture. It is based on the assumption that needs are everywhere the same, that everyone needs to eat the same food, to live in the same type of house, to wear the same clothes. The same cement buildings, the same toys, the same movies and television programs find their way to the most remote corners of the world. Even language is becoming homogenized, since it is necessary to learn English to be part of the modern community".
In the last few chapters, Helena presents to readers her valiant efforts in the shape of a project in Ladakh. This project is helping Ladakhis in raising awareness for the need of a long-term ecological perspective on development which is also based on self-reliance and self-respect.
'Ancient Futures' is a chilling account of the contrast between Ladakh before and after development. The reader becomes entranced by the magnificent culture and practices of the Ladakhi people and shocked at the results of the development intrusion. This book is an eye-opener for countries around the globe that are paradoxically still experimenting with 'development' in order to progress.
Price: $US 12.00
Year of Publication: 1992
Published by: Sierra Club Books
