The Development Of Personality in the Indian Ecology

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Dr. Margaret Khalakdina is an independent consultant. She has had a long career in her area of specialisation-human development and human ecology. She completed her PhD from Cornell University, New York, US, and is a recipient of fellowships from Syracuse University, Altrusa International and Ford Foundation. She has had a long, distinguished professional career as a teacher of post-graduate student at lady Irwin College, New Delhi; and Nirmala Niketan College and SNDT Home Science College, Mumbai,

She was formerly the Executive Director of the Indian Council or Child Welfare and her last assignment was with the UNICEF in African countries.

She is the author of the books Early Child Care in India (1997), sponsored by the Russell Sage Foundation, and Human Development in the Indian Context A Socio-cultural Focus (two volumes, 2009, 2011). She has also contributed to various publications such as The First Five Years (1998) and journals such as the Indian Journal of Social Work and Journal of Human Ecology.

Foreword Human-ecology is about the way in which human beings live in their ecological spaces and the human habitat they establish; whether they continue to live in their original ecologies or whether they move from one ecology to another. Human ecology is intertwined with geo- ecology and to understand human ecology, it is necessary to know about these specific parameters of differing geo-ecologies and the effect they have on their human lifestyles. What role innovations in technology play in the process of human adaptation to his geoecology.

Dr. Margaret Khalakdina, who lived in different parts of the world as a social analyst, aptly explains this process involving civilization transformation from a communication and human relations perspective in India and brings out cause and effect dilemmas involved in the process of technological change.

The book analyses cooperation, co-existence and conflict and convergence aspects in interactions in the constantly changing ecological situations. The book offers insights to ponder about as environment and habitat become the agenda for all those in socio- economic and political domain. The book would facilitate in understanding the shifts in the paradigms at micro and macro levels about different phases of human ecology.

Economists and ecologists and planners and policy people alike should explore the subject matter of the book, the development of the Indian in his ecology. Margaret Khalakdina has opened up a new discipline for a holistic pursuit.

Introduction This book sets out to specify the human and geo-ecology in which the human being grows up and becomes a personality. It also seeks to find a logical nexus of the growing personality as affecting and being affected by the surroundings which make up the individual's ecology. The book also seeks to analyze the following:

What concepts identify the operational definition of geo- ecology?

What is its importance, globally, nationally and for the individual in his family network?

What are the ideational processes that take place in the individual's repertoire?

What concepts influence the moulding of a personality?

How does a person affects and become affected by his ecology of other individuals and the geo-ecological factors surrounding him?

This book attempts in some measure to answer these questions. Given the fact that relating man to his geo-ecology is a philosophical idiom, operationalising geo-ecology in relation to man's development is a challenge. The human because of his continual experiences in his setting comes to know that the surroundings affect his style of living. For example, living in metropolitan cities, he becomes familiar with and assimilates the events, the relationships and the phenomena in his ecology, which consists of his family members and many others he comes in contact with. His mode of communication is both oral and written. He also uses electronic media for communication. His means of transport is usually a vehicle. If he is not an agriculturist, he does not have to farm to produce food for his daily needs. The given ecology meets all his needs for articles, artefacts and services through a process of series of interactions with the world around him. This involves industry, economic exchange of goods and services, for which he makes use of money and banking for transactions, and other facilities in his ecology which he takes for granted.

**Contents and Sample**