Ramachandra Guha on the Origins of Indian Environmentalism

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.

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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