Many people believe, and rightly so, that the main source of environmental destruction in the world is the demand for natural resources caused by consumption by the rich, whether nations, individuals, or groups. The positive message of this book is that poor communities have the power to accomplish economically and environmentally sound goals. In various parts of India over the last five decades, several social justice and environmental movements have been formed and continue to emerge. Environmental sustainability has been the primary goal of many of these movements, and my aim in this book is to provide detailed accounts of three such movements that had both a local and a global impact.

The Chipko movement, with its focus on preventing deforestation; Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), which fought for the rights of villagers displaced by a dam; and the Navdanya movement, a seed repository of native varieties, together constitute a special triad in terms of the magnitude of their impact, their membership constituencies, and their lack of political affiliation. This book honours their contributions toward an ethics of ‘globalization from below’ as opposed to ‘globalization from above’. In simple terms, globalization from below is the struggle against social exclusion that involves coming up with new initiatives that have both local and global impacts. By contrast, globalization from above – neoliberalism – helps to maximize capitalist efficiency and economic growth through free markets and policies that promote multinational companies’ (deleterious) involvement in the resources of other countries.