Speaking with nature : the origins of Indian environmentalism / Ramachandra Guha.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Guha, Ramachandra, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Environmentalism--India.

Environmentalism.

Physical Description:

xxxi, 407 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, 2024.

Summary:

"From one of the world's leading historians comes the first substantial study of environmentalism set in any country outside the Euro-American world. By the canons of orthodox social science, countries like India are not supposed to have an environmental consciousness. They are, as it were, 'too poor to be green.' In this deeply researched book, Ramachandra Guha challenges this narrative by revealing a virtually unknown prehistory of the global movement set far outside Europe or America. Long before the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and well before climate change, ten remarkable individuals wrote with deep insight about the dangers of environmental abuse from within an Indian context. In strikingly contemporary language, Rabindranath Tagore, Radhakamal Mukerjee, J. C. Kumarappa, Patrick Geddes, Albert and Gabrielle Howard, Mira, Verrier Elwin, K. M. Munshi, and M. Krishnan wrote about the forest and the wild, soil and water, urbanization and industrialization. Positing the idea of what Guha calls "livelihood environmentalism" in contrast to the 'full-stomach environmentalism' of the affluent world, these writers, activists, and scientists played a pioneering role in shaping global conversations about humanity's relationship with nature. Spanning more than a century of Indian history, and decidedly transnational in reference, this book offers rich resources for considering the threat of climate change today"--Amazon.ca.

Contents:

Introduction: Shades of green

The myriad-minded environmentalist: Rabindranath Tagore

Ecological sociologist: the work and legacy of Radhakamal Mukerjee

Gandhi's economist: J.C. Kumarappa and rural renewal

Scottish internationalist: Patrick Geddes and ecological town planning in India

Dissenting scientists: Albert and Gabrielle Howard and the quest for an ecological agriculture

Gandhi's Englishwoman: The passionate environmentalist of Madeleine/Mira

Culture in nature: The forest anthropology of Verrier Elwin

The first Hindutva environmentalist: K.M. Munshi

Speaking for nature: M. Krishnan and Indian wildlife

Epilogue: A partially usable past?

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Guha, Ramachandra. Speaking with nature.

ISBN:

9780300278538

0300278535

OCLC:

1464269781