THE LEGACY OF SUNDERLAL BAHUGUNA
HT’s editors offer a book recommendation every Saturday, which provides history, context, and helps understand recent news events
On Friday, environmentalist and pioneer of the Chipko movement, Sunderlal Bahuguna, died after battling Covid-19. He was 94. This week, we recommend Ecology is Permanent Economy: The Activism and Environmental Philosophy of Sunderlal Bahuguna by George Alfred James, who teaches at the University of Texas. James explores the life, ideas and activism of the Gandhian environmentalist and the roots of Indian environmentalism. It includes interviews with Bahuguna, his writings, and journalistic accounts. The author also focuses on different aspects of the Chipko movement, the mobilisation for forest protection and local employment. The book highlights Bahuguna’s motivations, intellectual influences and changes in his outlook over time. It is essential reading to understand that a sustainable way of life is, indeed, possible, and India’s ecology is, indeed, the permanent economy.