Speaking with Nature: The Origins of Indian Environmentalism

by Ramachandra Guha

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 gained currency as a term, 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, Speaking with Nature offers rich resources for considering the threat of climate change today.

Genres: India, Nonfiction, Nature, Environment

440 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 10, 2024

About the author

Ramachandra Guha was born in Dehradun in 1958, and educated in Delhi and Calcutta. He has taught at the University of Oslo, Stanford, and Yale, and at the Indian Institute of Science. He has been a Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, and also served as the Indo-American Community Chair Visiting Professor at the University of California at Berkeley.

After a peripatetic academic career, with five jobs in ten years on three continents, Guha settled down to become a full-time writer based in Bangalore. His books cover a wide range of themes, including a global history of environmentalism, a biography of an anthropologist-activist, a social history of Indian cricket, and a social history of Himalayan peasants.

Guha’s books and essays have been translated into more than twenty languages. The prizes they have won include the U.K. Cricket Society’s Literary Award and the Leopold-Hidy Prize of the American Society of Environmental History.

Reviews

[Divya · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5 It’s a decent book but not a great one perhaps. Guha’s scholarship and leaning on the Gandhian period is evident in some of the choices of which individuals he chooses to profile. I felt that chapters on Miraben and Verrier Elwin were the weakest, at some parts the latter read like a review of Verrier’s reports, not much narrative or summarising insight from Guha. Verrier’s work itself seems to have contributed immensely to conversations on tribal policy, especially in his last ten years. Other chapters like the one on Kumarappa and Patrick Geddes were more readable and insightful.

Yes, it is history and the author a historian, but I would have liked to see some parallels or relations being drawn to present scenarios of environmental management and conservation are in India. This unfortunately, Guha addresses only in the epilogue.

Fifteen or twenty years ago, I might have found the Anglo-romantic language of passionate environmentalists appealing, but this is not as interesting to me today when presented without relevance to the present. That said, there is acknowledgement of caste and wealth and other inequalities, but somehow it still felt inadequate.

[S Ashok · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this wonderfully researched book, Ramachandra guha explores the thoughts of early Indian environmentalists. Conventional sociology characterises Environmentalism as a full stomach behaviour, hence it is usually associated with developed countries of the west. Yet in India environmental thought very varied contours have been seen for the last 100 yeras. In this remarkably well researched, well written book explores the thoughts of some of the pioneers of Indian environmental movement.
In a tropical country like India with such dense population its important to understand the importance of ecological conservation the various facets of it. Like various factors from protecting forests, planning cities, managing agriculture, soil fertility, the nature and characteristic of our development etc. In this book Guha dedicates one chapter to these pioneering thinkers who were prescient about the ecological implications of our actions. It was quite sad much of their rightful concerns were not given proper importance and not much actions were taken but it is an important document to understand our history.
The book explains some way how the environmental movements were collective, the environmentalist saw men as well as part of the nature, unlike in America where the envionmental movement was individualistic, in India it was a collective movement. Many of these thinkers were also of the opinion that India should not ape the west in its development this they felt will be disastrous to the environment and its not sustainable.

The book has chapters from Tagore, JC Kumarappa, Patrick Geddes, Albert and Garbielle Howard, Mira Bhen, Verrier Elwin, M Krishnan amongst others. These men and women were interested in different aspects of the environmental movement, they were deeply commited to social justice. Its a rewarding read.

[Prerna Munshi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first of Guha's and I found him balanced in his approach as he traces the origins of environmentalism in India by introducing 10 people from vastly different backgrounds who contributed towards the betterment of the ecosystem either through dissemination of their seminal thoughts or through decades of active participation.

He restricts himself to 19th-20th century pre-independent India.
The 10 people he talks about are eminent multi-faceted, inter disciplinarian personalities. Out of these, there are some foreigners too like Geddes, Elwin, Mira Behn etc and their contribution to Indian environmentalism is as crucial as their Indian counterparts.

I wish there were some insight on ordinary people too who were as invested, if not more to the cause and whose literature is not as readily available.

Apart from that, the book is well researched and as already stated balanced in its approach. It critiques where necessary with as much insight as possible. Guha has also tried to establish little but significant links amongst these people's works which may or may not have necessarily been inspired by the other but shows the convergence in their thoughts even if they were different in their ideas and approach. Guha also focusses on how these people have assimilated the social justice aspects too thus reinforcing the idea that environmentalism cannot be divorced from it.

I will recommend this for it serves as a very good guide to the specific demands of environmentalism in India. The language and writing style are mature and yet flowing. Loved it!

[Ashish Kothari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely well-researched, written in popular style shorn of much academic jargon, and strung together with strong common themes, I would highly recommend this book of essays to anyone interested in environmental-social movements in India and globally. There are glimpses and analyses here that even an environmentalist who's been active for nearly half a century, like myself, would find new and fresh. Here is a published review I wrote, which includes some critical comments: https://www.theindiaforum.in/book-rev...