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The Chipko Movement: A People's History
In India, modern environmentalism was inaugurated by the Chipko Movement, which began in 1973. Because it was led by Gandhians, included women participants, occurred in “spiritual” Himalayan regions, and used innovatively non-violent techniques of protest, the Chipko attracted international attention. It also led to a major debate on Indian Forest policy and the destructive consequences of Commercialisation.
Because of Chipko, clear-fuelling was stopped and India began to pay attention to the needs of an ecological balance which sustained forests and the communities within them. In academic and policy-making circles it fuelled a wider debate on sustainable development – on whether India could afford to imitate the West’s resource-intensive and capital-intensive ways of life.
Chipko’s historians have hitherto focused on its two major leaders, Chandi Prasad Bhatt and Sunderlal Bahuguna. The voices of “subalterns” – ordinary men and women such as Gaura Devi who made Chipko what it was – have not been recorded. Pathak places Chipko in its grassroots contexts. He shows that in leadership and ideology Chipko was diverse and never a singular Gandhian movement.
Every scholar and serious student of Indian environmentalism will need to engage with the empirical richness and analytic solidity of this book.
Because of Chipko, clear-fuelling was stopped and India began to pay attention to the needs of an ecological balance which sustained forests and the communities within them. In academic and policy-making circles it fuelled a wider debate on sustainable development – on whether India could afford to imitate the West’s resource-intensive and capital-intensive ways of life.
Chipko’s historians have hitherto focused on its two major leaders, Chandi Prasad Bhatt and Sunderlal Bahuguna. The voices of “subalterns” – ordinary men and women such as Gaura Devi who made Chipko what it was – have not been recorded. Pathak places Chipko in its grassroots contexts. He shows that in leadership and ideology Chipko was diverse and never a singular Gandhian movement.
Every scholar and serious student of Indian environmentalism will need to engage with the empirical richness and analytic solidity of this book.
390 pages, Hardcover
Published December 6, 2020
96 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 22, 2021
A spontaneous grassroots movement sprang across the verdant foothills of the Himalayas against the rapacious exploitation by industry and a deluded government sitting far away. The life-sustaining hills and forests were being denuded and replaced by commercially valuable trees like the chir pine. Chir is a resinous tree that is responsible for all the fires raging across the forests today. The highly inflammable fallen pine needles do not disintegrate easily, carpet the hill-sides and do not let normal plants shrubs proliferate.
Chipko, sadly, was hijacked by politics, communists, and self-aggrandizing NGOs and individuals.
The book could have been shorter, there was no need for long lists of names. The defining moment of Gaura Devi could have been highlighted more.
It is a very fine balance to preserve the ecology and sustainable economic development. The pressure on the environment is due not so much due to exploitation of natural resources but because of the population explosion. Ham-handed policies of the government do not really address the issue, just muddle it further.
Chipko, sadly, was hijacked by politics, communists, and self-aggrandizing NGOs and individuals.
The book could have been shorter, there was no need for long lists of names. The defining moment of Gaura Devi could have been highlighted more.
It is a very fine balance to preserve the ecology and sustainable economic development. The pressure on the environment is due not so much due to exploitation of natural resources but because of the population explosion. Ham-handed policies of the government do not really address the issue, just muddle it further.
November 8, 2022
this was sooooooo good.
November 4, 2025
This is how inspiration feels!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews