Conceptualising the environmentalism in India: Between social justice and deep ecology

Abstract

Environmentalism as a green ideology and social movement is a comprehensive subject, which can only be studied in an interdisciplinary manner. That is to say, in order to offer any meaningful or convincing theoretical explanation on the environmentalism in a society, we need to understand not only the various values and belief systems, but also the social communication mechanism, which may play their promoting or restricting parts. There is no exception to Indian environmentalism. This chapter places the Indian environmentalism under a theoretical framework of 'social justice vs. deep ecology', and characterises it as social justice, non-violence, grassroots democracy, and local economy. Or in other words, Indian environmentalism has been being, and will continue to be for apparent reasons, a type of 'eco-socialist' movement, struggling for a sustainable development alongside social justice as well as ecological sustainability. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.