Revisiting Gandhi's Environmentalism - On 150th Birth Anniversary Of The Father Of The Nation

As India celebrates the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr John S Moolakkattu revisits Gandhi’s thinking and views on environment. He says that Gandhi’s environmentalism fitted in with his overall vision for India and the world that sought to extract from nature what is absolutely necessary for human sustenance. His ideas on environment are intimately linked with his ideas relating to the polity, economy, health, and development. The author concludes that Gandhi’s environmentalism is largely built on ecological practices of peasants and tribal communities.

- Dr John S Moolakkattu

Was Gandhi the progenitor of environmental ideas in the country? The answer is both ‘yes’ and ‘no’. He was an environmentalist if we discern the implications of his social, political, and economic ideas on the environment. Many environmental movements in India have drawn inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi. He cannot be called an environmentalist if we do a mechanical content analysis of his statements based on the present understanding of environmental issues since words like ‘environment’ and ‘ecology’ do not appear in his Collected Works. The Encyclopaedia of Human Ecology edited by Julia R Miller and others did not have an entry on Gandhi in their otherwise impressive list. This article seeks to look at the implications of his ideas for an ecologically sound system of living.