BENGALURU: In his latest book, Speaking with Nature: The Origins of Indian Environmentalism (HarperCollins; `799), historian Ramachandra Guha takes readers on a journey through India’s environmental past – a legacy that few are familiar with. Challenging the prevalent notion that environmental consciousness is a recent, Western import, Guha uncovers a lineage of Indian thinkers who, long before ‘sustainability’ became a buzzword, grappled with the need for a balanced relationship with nature. 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 today and crafted a vision of coexistence that Guha calls ‘livelihood environmentalism.
’ This form of environmentalism, Guha argues, is not born out of luxury. It’s not the ‘full-stomach environmentalism’ of the affluent West, who often focus on protecting aesthetic landscapes or endangered species. “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, which I’d call ‘speaking for nature’,” Guha observes.
In contrast, the Indian pioneers in his book fought for environmental practices rooted in survival, community well-being, and equitable resource access. “Each of these ‘thinkers’ came from a varied professional background: several were writers, a few were social.
