Churning the Earth: The Making of Global India

by Aseem Shrivastava, Ashish Kothari

Dazzled by India s meteoric economic rise, we hesitate to acknowledge its costs to the people and the environment. Churning the Earth engages in a timely inquiry and presents incontrovertible evidence on how the nature of this recent growth has been predatory. Unfettered development has damaged the ecological basis that makes life possible for hundreds of millions and has increased the chasm between the rich and the poor, threatening the future of India as a civilization.

Rich with data and stories, this eye-opening critique of India s development strategy argues for a radical ecological democracy based on the principles of environmental sustainability, social equity and livelihood security. Churning the Earth is unique in presenting not only what is going wrong in India but also the ways out of the crisis that globalized growth has precipitated.

Genres: Economics, Environment, India, Politics, Nonfiction, History

552 pages, Paperback

First published November 7, 2012

Reviews

[Revanth Ukkalam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best introductions to contemporary India and entails a courageous look at the nation's development strategy. As Amitav Ghosh has written in his review, it "cuts through the hype." It does not hesitate to make us uncomfortable. I would like to see a reprisal for the new decade with fresher statistics, something that will make the picture sadly look worse. We learn in this book about an India that is become steadily unhealthier, crueler, unequal, underpaid-staffed and starved, and an exclusive one. The book would have benefitted greatly from sections dedicated to philosophy and infrastructure of health and education.

[Anuradha Goyal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Presents a picture of ecology that we all need to know and understand : http://www.anureviews.com/churning-th...

[Sunil Acharya · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read to understand the costs of economic globalization and alternative framework for prosperity and well-being in harmony with nature.

[Hemen Kalita · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book reads like the Indian version of The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions. Both are data-heavy and portray the evils of globalization and the gullibility of incessant growth promised by the free market economy. The central idea here is that the free market economy is fundamentally at odds with ecological sustainability and social equality. That seems pretty obvious. One 2009 data shows that anyone earning Rs 8000 (~$100) or more per month was contributing towards the global temperature rise of more than 2 degrees.The reality is pretty grim but the author has a way around it. He comes up with his so called ‘radical” solution. His solution is a mixture of Marxism, Gandhi’s “gram swaraj”, soviet style “commons” and ecological sustainability. In short we all must embrace minimalism and eventually turn into Gandhi by relinquishing our comfort and basic human desires. And that is not even a defeatists argument, he believes that by following his way we not only can sustain billions of population but will also somehow achieve inclusive growth.That just goes against my common sense.

[Bikash Kanungo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book presents a sound critique of the development paradigm that has emerged in India post 1991, the year that marks the liberlisation and globalisation of Indian economy. Penned by an economist (Aseem Shrivastava) and an environmentalist (Ashish Kothari), it reflects upon the calamitous outcomes that are present in the dominant narrative of development, almost by design. These include a predisposition towards economic inequality and aggravation of ecological degradation. The book combines the dry world of statistics and data with that of the evocative world of social justice, presenting a much warranted learned account of the vices of neoliberalism---which is no respecter of ecology or social ethics. It drives home a simple yet oft-neglected reality of neoliberalism---that with finite resources, an infinite hunger for wealth leads to conflict and violence, at worst, or results in deprivation of resources and freedom for certain social groups, at best.

[Tushar Garg · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the recent times, when 'development' has become the buzzword and being used by political leaders, economists and citizens more than ever, I think this book does a fantastic job of asking very fundamental questions about it. Development - for whom and at what cost ? Full with stats and data, from different reports from around the world and Indian govt, and coupled with logic and observations, it takes you through the 'world of development' that mainstream media doesn't discuss often.

I will recommend this book to every Indian (in the following order) :
1. Who can read English.
2. Who is interested in the phenomenon of development of India.

[Anurag Panda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heavily polarized against the movement to modernize/capitalize India, but well supported by data and anecdotal evidence. Provides a much needed comprehensive analysis of perspective lacking in government reports/mainstream media.

[Manish Gupta · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book with its heart in the right place. An eye opener on how in our trivial materialistic pursuits of stuff we end up destroying the sociological and ecological aspects of our dear earth. Tedious read at times, however the book is littered with facts that would make you think.

[Swati Singla]

The book “Churning the earth” written by Aseem Srivastava and Ashish Kothari is about the Developmental changes in India on and before 2012 and its long term and short term impact on humanity, both the positive and negative effects has been discussed.
The book begins with the time when India starts taking part in globalization, competing with the developed world as well as the neighboring quick growing economies like China, Japan, Korea. Industrialization in the country was quick and unbalanced. These economic growth lead to environmental degradation, rich becoming richer, increased differences between rural and urban communities.
The authors mentioned the undermined ecological security as “a house of fire”, where taking part in globalization is equivalent to using resources to grow without self-assessment of what they need, in which extend. Development of infrastructure, mining, using excessive minerals, deforestation, agricultural land degradation, improper waste management was the common negative effect of the globalization in India. Although the industrialized countries of the developed world tightening their environmental standards and getting control over industries, a reverse process is going on in India where loosening in policies of environmental safeguards by industrialists an opposition in politics. The term “Adding fuel to fire” is truly explains the situation. Despite this, there are some environmental benefits gained from globalizing India like, renewable energy, pollution control, energy efficiency, and so on.
Taking us through the different stages of globalisation, the authors have given detailed description about the economic ambition in the country and inequality resulted from it by giving such a suitable example “We are on different coaches of a long accelerating, burning train. The few air-conditioned coaches in the front are insulated for the time being from the fire that is blazing in the coaches at the back, where the majority of the passengers travel. Some of the coaches have already derailed (think of the 200,000 farmer suicides). However, the wealthy people in the A.C. coaches want the engine staff to run the train even faster... There is very little doubt that the reforms, which began in the early 1990s (though many of the policy trends date to the 1980s) have brought great material benefits to the richest 10 to 25 per cent of India’s population.”

The authors have discussed the case of Land Grabbing in the name of building special economic zones. They find that more farmers are committing suicide now than were before 1991. And this is when so-called debts have been written off. And agricultural productivity is supposedly better.
Overall the book is a must read for understanding the impact of globalization , for learning economic disparity, for understanding the impact of economic growth on our society , our resources and on our environment. In short this book is about explaining the cost of human development on humans.