The Enduring Legacy of Gandhi's Environmental Philosophy: A Journey Through India's Enduring Environmentalism
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4 months, 2 weeks ago

The Enduring Legacy of Gandhi's Environmental Philosophy: A Journey Through India's Enduring Environmentalism

ABP News  

Ramachandra Guha's 'Speaking with Nature: The Origins of Indian Environmentalism' is a nuanced exploration of India's environmental consciousness and its evolution. Guha examines 10 influential thinkers who predated global environmental movements and argues that India's environmentalism has developed its own trajectory shaped by sublime ecological, social, and cultural contexts. The book highlights the importance of livelihood environmentalism, a matter of necessity for millions of Indians who rely on sustainable natural resources for their survival. Guha further critiques modern environmental policies, arguing that India's development-vs-environment dichotomy is a false one and that a model that accommodates both social justice and ecological stability is needed. He concludes by offering an alternative perspective on the global environmental movement, emphasizing the importance of understanding the roots of environmentalism in a country's history and culture.

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BOOK REVIEW | The Genesis of Indian Environmentalism in Ramachandra Guha’s “Speaking with Nature”
2 months, 1 week ago

BOOK REVIEW | The Genesis of Indian Environmentalism in Ramachandra Guha’s “Speaking with Nature”

The Hindu  

Published : Jan 13, 2025 20:58 IST - 6 MINS READ Tagore was one of the founders of Indian environmentalism,” Ram Guha told me, when I had finally managed to grab a seat near him and start a conversation. I waited keenly to read Speaking with Nature, a book described by Guha as a “group portrait” of 10 nation-shapers who …

Roshan Kishore picks his favourite read of 2024
2 months, 3 weeks ago

Roshan Kishore picks his favourite read of 2024

Hindustan Times  

“India’s near east was administratively united and communally partitioned by colonialism. This book explores how India dealt with these realties to build a nation and project power,” Avinash Paliwal writes in his introduction to India’s Near East: A New History. It deploys, on the basis of what must have been a dogged pursuit of both historical documents and actors, not …

Echoes of nature: Frontline’s top 12 environment stories of 2024
3 months ago

Echoes of nature: Frontline’s top 12 environment stories of 2024

The Hindu  

Published : Dec 17, 2024 18:01 IST - 1 MIN READ Arguably one of the most disturbing headlines from the world of environment came when we rang in the New Year. In January 2024, from a pristine little island in the Indian Ocean, the Great Nicobar Island, author Pankaj Sekhsaria reported on the unimaginable havoc a proposed Rs.72,000 crore infrastructure …

Speak with Nature, Not Just for Nature: Guha Advises at Vidyaranga High Event
3 months, 3 weeks ago

Speak with Nature, Not Just for Nature: Guha Advises at Vidyaranga High Event

Deccan Chronicle  

Hyderabad: Historian and environmental thinker Ramachandra Guha inspired citizens to 'speak with nature' and not just 'for nature' at a talk and book-signing event at Vidyaranga High School on Friday. Providing a brief of his book, Guha said, "Chipko movement combined a concern for environmental conservation with an equally abiding concern for community rights and social justice. A large number …

Review of Ramachandra Guha’s Speaking With Nature: Under the banyan tree
4 months, 1 week ago

Review of Ramachandra Guha’s Speaking With Nature: Under the banyan tree

The Hindu  

Environmentalism isn’t just an idea; it’s also a verb. In his latest book, Speaking With Nature, historian Ramachandra Guha draws portraits of ten people who he credits with laying the foundation of environmentalism in India. Links with social thought Guha continues the questions he has asked in previous writings, in that he descries ‘full-stomach environmentalism’ — the Western idea that …

A legacy of balance
4 months, 2 weeks ago

A legacy of balance

New Indian Express  

CHENNAI: In his latest book, Speaking with Nature: The Origins of Indian Environmentalism, historian Ramachandra Guha takes readers on a journey through India’s environmental past — a legacy that few are familiar with. “In the environmental movement, both in India and abroad, there’s a trend where people focus only on beautiful landscapes or endangered species that need to be protected, …

A legacy of balance
4 months, 2 weeks ago

A legacy of balance

New Indian Express  

BENGALURU: In his latest book, Speaking with Nature: The Origins of Indian Environmentalism, historian Ramachandra Guha takes readers on a journey through India’s environmental past – a legacy that few are familiar with. Through their lives and writings, these figures – ranging from the poet Rabindranath Tagore to the economist J C Kumarappa – anticipated the environmental challenges we face …

Early Environmental Thinkers of India: A Journey Through History and Activism
4 months, 2 weeks ago

Early Environmental Thinkers of India: A Journey Through History and Activism

The Hindu  

The article highlights the importance of practical resource management and grassroots movements in shaping environmentalism in India. It features 10 individuals whose work spans from the 1880s to the 1990s, emphasizing the importance of forest, soil, and water conservation for sustaining village life and agriculture. The book also features contributions from Rabindranath Tagore and K.M.Munshi, who were deeply involved in …

Review of Johannes Urpelainen’s Energy and Environment in India: Fossil-free future
1 year, 3 months ago

Review of Johannes Urpelainen’s Energy and Environment in India: Fossil-free future

The Hindu  

India’s environmental crisis remains unaddressed partly because the expanding middle class settles for private solutions that come at a cost to the environment, and the poor, argues Johaness Urpelainen in his new book, Energy and Environment in India. For a majority of consumers, diesel generators provide reliable source of energy; groundwater pumps ensure water supply; air purifiers counter air pollution, …

The age of ‘climate fiction’: how Indian novels and cinema have spotlighted stark realities with more nuance than the West
2 years ago

The age of ‘climate fiction’: how Indian novels and cinema have spotlighted stark realities with more nuance than the West

The Hindu  

In Janice Pariat’s latest novel, Shai’s story begins with a declaration — “to go back to where I came from — the wettest place on Earth”. No genre switch, this Works like Pariat’s, Amitav Ghosh’s The Living Mountain, and Kartiki Gonsalves’s film The Elephant Whisperers are constructing climate realities where the environment exists as a backdrop, a protagonist, but also …

Becoming a Gandhian
4 years, 5 months ago

Becoming a Gandhian

Hindustan Times  

Mahatma Gandhi, as this newspaper’s editorial said on October 2, 2019, to mark the beginning of his 150th birth anniversary celebrations, was the greatest Indian ever. But Hardiman wrote, “Gandhi’s method succeeded because of the relentless pressure it put on rulers — forcing them to give in to mass demands.” This, then, became an example for other political and civil …

Seventy-one years later, Gandhi’s influence in India diminishes
6 years, 1 month ago

Seventy-one years later, Gandhi’s influence in India diminishes

The Independent  

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. On a mild winter day, Mohandas K Gandhi, more …

Dividing Lines: Of science, Gandhi and climate change
6 years, 3 months ago

Dividing Lines: Of science, Gandhi and climate change

Deccan Chronicle  

Decades ago in the heat of the McCarthyite period, scientist Robert Oppenheimer was being interrogated by the United States congressional committee. I am emphasising these narratives because as one confronts the issue of climate change, one sees the same syndrome of technical answers to technical questions. As climate change practitioners we need to go beyond idiot ideas of Gandhi as …

Ramachandra Guha's new book on Gandhi to release in September; chronicles his role in freedom movement
6 years, 7 months ago

Ramachandra Guha's new book on Gandhi to release in September; chronicles his role in freedom movement

Firstpost  

The book will reveal Mahatma Gandhi to the readers just as he was understood by his contemporaries New Delhi: Renowned historian and author of several bestselling books, including the highly acclaimed India After Gandhi and India Before Gandhi, Ramachandra Guha has penned a new book on the father of the nation, which has just gone to the press and will …

Book Review 'Indira Gandhi, a life in Nature: How Indira saved Chennai's lung space'
7 years, 8 months ago

Book Review 'Indira Gandhi, a life in Nature: How Indira saved Chennai's lung space'

Deccan Chronicle  

Chennai: In the early 1970s’ Chennai’s lung space encircling the Raj Bhavan complex, widely known as the Guindy deer park, was in danger of being lost to political symbolism and the increasing pressure on urban land for what was being developed as an ‘Institutional Area’ locating a whole array of scientific and technology institutions. Shah, seeking his help in “securing …

An activist-environmentalist
23 years, 2 months ago

An activist-environmentalist

The Hindu  

THE death of Anil Agarwal at the age of 54 on January 2, 2002 is a loss to the environmental movement in India. After documenting the state of India's forests, rivers, cities and industries, Agarwal argued here for holistic management of land and water resources in the country. The shift in Agarwal's political activism towards closer collaboration with the state …

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