Are we losing the tradition of our desi environmentalism?

India has a rich environmental tradition. Look back- you’ll see Gaura Devi, one of the leaders of the Chipko movement from 1971. We know the Bishnois, who’ve given even powerful people an even fight. Hundreds of people opposed a dam in the Silent Valley forests in Kerala and demanded justice for the Bhopal Gas Tragedy victims. Each time, Indians have gone out and stood their stand, literally.

Are we losing this tradition now? As someone engaged with a new generation bothered about the planet, it strikes me that few, if any, put themselves through physical activism. Young people start and sign petitions, give up a few items and tweet.

Or, they set up start-ups and NGOs.

They should do all, but being physically out there has irreplaceable value.

That’s why I believe last week’s climate strikes were important beyond their immediate asks. Critics pointed out, rightly, how they were largely elite.

But they got people on the roads, learning what a minor struggle felt like.

With them, came other strikers-even my mother-a fact I discovered on social media.

Who expects one’s sareeclad, gray-haired, Braj-Bhasha speaking mother to strike, led by the world’s youth, by girls like Greta Thunberg?

Standing up in person is something most people can be a part of and build solidarity from.

The world has marched recently, but for Indians, it’s an old tactic. We shouldn’t forget it after this week.

If anything, we must reclaim our impactful Indian recipe for change — for there’s a lot we have to change yet.