Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Foreword
- Glossary
- Introduction: Three Grassroots Movements That Made a Global Impact
- 1 Historical and Cultural Contexts in India
- 2 Chipko (Hug the Trees) Movement
- 3 Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA): Save the Narmada
- 4 Navdanya (Nine Seeds) Movement
- 5 Moral Implications of Environmental Movements
- 6 Hindu Ethics and Ecology
- Conclusion: The Symbiosis of Natural Resources and Local Needs
- Index
Introduction: Three Grassroots Movements That Made a Global Impact
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 November 2021
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Foreword
- Glossary
- Introduction: Three Grassroots Movements That Made a Global Impact
- 1 Historical and Cultural Contexts in India
- 2 Chipko (Hug the Trees) Movement
- 3 Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA): Save the Narmada
- 4 Navdanya (Nine Seeds) Movement
- 5 Moral Implications of Environmental Movements
- 6 Hindu Ethics and Ecology
- Conclusion: The Symbiosis of Natural Resources and Local Needs
- Index
Summary
Abstract
Three Indian environmental movements are analyzed – the Chipko movement of the 1970s against deforestation, Narmada Bachao Andolan in the 1980s against dam-building, and Navdanya, the contemporary movement against genetically modified organisms (GMOs) – from three dimensions: nonviolence, feminism, and environmentalism. Each of these movements has accomplished its goals, with Chipko achieving a 15-year ban on tree-cutting, NBA succeeding in slowing down the building of dams on the Narmada river through litigation with the help of the World Bank and still fighting for the resettlement and rehabilitation of the displaced people, and Navdanya promoting local organic seeds for small farmers in India whose rights have been violated by multinational corporations monopolizing GM crops. The three movements followed three principles: environmental justice, intergenerational equality, and respect for nature.
Keywords: environmental justice, intergenerational equality, respect for nature, globalization from below, globalization from above
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.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Environmental Movements of IndiaChipko, Narmada Bachao Andolan, Navdanya, pp. 17 - 22Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2021