Ramachandra Guha on the Origins of Indian Environmentalism
Update: 2025-06-05
Description
Today my guest is environmental scholar, historian and biographer Ramachandra Guha. He is the author of a number of books, including a two-volume biography of Gandhi and the award-winning book “India After Gandhi.”
We talked about his latest book, "Speaking with Nature: The Origins of Indian Environmentalism.” We spoke about global versus local commons, bottom up approach to environmentalism in India, urbanization, economic growth and technological progress and much more.
Recorded May 7th, 2025.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.
Connect with Ideas of India
Follow Shruti on X
Follow Ram on X
Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
Timestamps
00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:08 - Speaking with Nature
00:08:42 - Unquiet Woods
00:38:29 - Science and Progress of Environmentalism
00:47:33 - Radhakamal Mukerjee
00:55:06 - K. M. Munshi
01:03:38 - Technological Progress and Tradeoffs
01:11:22 - Jayaprakash Narayan
01:19:39 - Outro
Comments
In Channel
Download from Google Play
Download from App Store
United States00:00
00:00
1.0x
