Ramachandra Guha

political history

Based on research conducted over two decades, this accessible and deeply felt book provides a provocative comparative history of environmentalism in two large ecologically and culturally diverse democracies - India and the United States. Ramachandra Guha takes as his point of departure the dominant environmental philosophies in these two countries - identified as "agrarianism" in India and "wilderness thinking" in the U.S. Proposing an inclusive "social ecology" framework that goes beyond these partisan ideologies, Guha arrives at a richer understanding of controversies over large dams, state forests, wildlife reserves, and more. He offers trenchant critiques of privileged and isolationist proponents of conservation, persuasively arguing for biospheres that care as much for humans as for other species. He also provides profiles of three remarkable environmental thinkers and activists - Lewis Mumford, Chandi Prasad Bhatt, and Madhav Gadgil. Finally, the author asks the fundamental environmental question - how much should a person or country consume? - and explores a range of answers.

On cricketing history of India.

Most on eminent Indians.

"Verrier Elwin (1902-1964) was unquestionably the most colorful and influential non-official Englishman to live and work in twentieth-century India. A prolific writer, Elwin's ethnographic studies and popular works on India's tribal customs, art, myth and folklore continue to generate controversy.". "Described by his contemporaries as a cross between Albert Schweitzer and Paul Gauguin, Elwin was a man of contradictions, at times taking on the role of evangelist, social worker, political activist, poet, government worker, and more. Intensely political, the Oxford-trained scholar tirelessly defended the rights of the indigenous and despite the deep religious influences of St. Francis and Mahatma Gandhi on his early career, staunchly opposed Hindu and Christian puritans in the debate over the future of India's tribals.". "Savaging the Civilized is both biography and history, an exploration through Elwin's life of some of the great debates of the twentieth century, the future of development, cultural assimilation versus cultural difference, the political practice of postcolonial as opposed to colonial governments, and the moral practice of writers and intellectuals."--BOOK JACKET.

This text provides a cross-cultural and global survey of environmental thinking and the movements it has spawned.

"Verrier Elwin (1902-1964) was unquestionably the most colorful and influential non-official Englishman to live and work in twentieth-century India. A prolific writer, Elwin's ethnographic studies and popular works on India's tribal customs, art, myth and folklore continue to generate controversy." "Described by his contemporaries as a cross between Albert Schweitzer and Paul Gauguin, Elwin was a man of contradictions, at times taking on the role of evangelist, social worker, political activist, poet, government worker, and more. Intensely political, the Oxford-trained scholar tirelessly defended the rights of the indigenous and despite the deep religious influences of St. Francis and Mahatma Gandhi on his early career, staunchly opposed Hindu and Christian puritans in the debate over the future of India's tribals." "Savaging the Civilized is both biography and history, an exploration through Elwin's life of some of the great debates of the twentieth century, the future of development, cultural assimilation versus cultural difference, the political practice of postcolonial as opposed to colonial governments, and the moral practice of writers and intellectuals."--Jacket.

An attempt to highlight the values and orientation of the environmentalism of the poor and explore conflicting priorites of the rich and poor nations.

Analysis of the Indian research output, 1979-89.

"This new, expanded edition of The Unquiet Woods, Ramachandra Guha's study of peasant movements against commercial forestry, offers a new epilogue that brings the story of Himalayan social protest up to date, reflecting the Chipko movement's continuing influence in the wider world. A new appendix charts the progress of environmental history in India, and both bibliography and index have been revised and updated."--BOOK JACKET.

"Born against a background of privation and civil war, divided along lines of caste, class, language and religion, independent India emerged, somehow, as a united and democratic country. This book tells the full story - the pain and the struggle, the humiliations and the glories - of the world’s largest and least likely democracy." "Ramachandra Guha writes of the myriad protests and conflicts that have peppered the history of free India. But he writes also of the factors and processes that have kept the country together (and kept it democratic), defying numerous prophets of doom who believed that its poverty and heterogeneity would force India to break up or come under autocratic rule. Once the Western world looked upon India with a mixture of pity and contempt; now it looks upon India with fear and admiration."--BOOK JACKET.

xi, 376 p. : 22 cm