Speaking with Nature

From one of the worlds leading historians comes the first substantial study of environmentalism set in any country outside the Euro-American world 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 Carsons Silent Spring and well before climate change, 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 humanitys relationship with nature. Spanning more than a century of Indian history, and decidedly transnational in reference, this book offers rich resources for considering the threat of climate change today.