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. One would expect a list of tribal leaders, hunters-turned-conservationists, (‘repentant butchers’ as the author remarks in one section of the book), those who have spearheaded environmental movements, or professional conservationists and administrators.
Guha though presents us with an unexpected selection of people — writer Rabindranath Tagore, sociologist Radhakamal Mukherjee, Hindutva thinker K.M. Munshi, the naturalist M.
Krishnan, Gandhi follower Mira Behn, anthropologist Verrier Elwin and more. 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 environmental consciousness can only come out of prosperity (suggesting that Indian thought cannot be environmental). The people he picks in this book, eight men and two women from all over the world, linked nature to broader social and political thought with reference to India.
Another thing they had in common is that they wrote about their ideas, and were scholars. Refreshingly, the book leans on a variety of sources to piece together the ideas Guha puts forward. Readers may remember Jairam Ramesh’s tome on Indira Gandhi as an environmentalist ( A Life in Nature ); this book .