ENVIRONMENTALISM: A GLOBAL HISTORY (PART 1)

ENVIRONMENTALISM: A GLOBAL HISTORY

RAMCHANDRA GUHA
The 1960s witnessed a lot of protests-pacifism, civil rights struggle, counter-culture
and environmental movements were a part of it while the others either lost out or lost
their way. The Greeen Wave has only intensified gaining steadily in power, prestige
and public appeal.
Guhas book gives a historical account and analysis of the origins and expressions of
environmental concerns of how individuals and institutions have perceived,
propogated, and acted upon their experience of environmental decay. Guha argues
that environmentalism must be viewed as a social programme, a charter of action
which seeks to protect cherished habitats, protest against their degradation, and
prescribe less destructive technologies and lifestyles.
When did the environmental movement begin? In most countries environmentalism
seems to have followed a broadly similar pattern an early period of pioneering and
prophecy, culminating in recent decades in a widespread social movement.
Ramchandra guha speaks of environmentalisms 1st WAVE: (initial response to
industrialism) and 2nd WAVE: (intellectual response + mass movements)

PART I- ENVIRONMENTALISMS FIRST WAVE

FIRST WAVE OF ENVIRONMENTALISM: highlights the initial response to the
onset of industrialism. This wave proceeded step by step with the Industrial revolution
which altered the natural world through new methods of resource, extraction,
production, transportation- nature was used and abused. Populations increased and
humans produced more and consumed more leading to habitat degradation greater
pollution. The pace of environmental destruction accelerated- nature became a source
of cheap raw material as well as a sink for dumping unwanted residues of economic
growth.
The industrialization of Europe affected rural economy- transformed agriculture
through the adoption of capital-intensive market-oriented methods of production. The
imperial expansion resulted in the white colonists taking possession of large parts of
the globe and re-orienting local economies. Through the 18th +19th centuries, the
British had become world leaders in deforestation followed by the Dutch, the
Portugese, the French, the Belgians, the Germans- all these were the prime agents of
Ecological destruction in their colonies. And there was now a perception of an
environmental crisis as even though the Industrial city was the prime generator of
ecological degradation. The burden was felt in the countryside and the colony. Thus
we see that the first voices were raised by the residents of countryside. Like other
social movements the environmental movement has within its fold a variety of
individuals, trends, traditions and ideologies.
1st Wave explores 3 varieties- each a response to the Industrial society.
1. Moral + Cultural critique of the Industrial Revolution: is expressed in a rich
literary tradition, BACK TO LAND. Great Romantic poets like William
Wordsworth, who saw only the darker side of the great change resulting
from the Industrial Revolution. The outrage done to nature, by cities+
factories such that common people were no longer breathing fresh air or
treading the green earth. Through his poetry+ philosophy he maintains that

even though the village folk were illiterate + inarticulate they were in close
touch with nature than the city dweller.
John Ruskin: Prof. of poetry at oxford focused on the physical consequence of
Industrialism. According to him modern man has desacralised nature, viewing it as a
source of raw material to be exploited, emptying it of the mystery, wonder + divinity
that the pre- modern man saw in the natural world.
Ruskin started a campaign (1876) to prevent the extension of the railroad into Lake
District-(tourists would destroy the district). Ruskin built institutions (Guild-St.
George) that ran farms + craft shops which stressed self-sufficiency + simplicity.
Handicrafts were revived by his disciple William Morris who wanted to turn England
from a grimy backyard of a workshop into a Garden.
Edward Carpenter (mathematician, ordained priest gave up the holy orders + a
prestigious Cambridge fellowship to move back to land. He set up a commune on a
hill above the factory of town of Sheffield offering a union of manual labour + clean
air as an alternative to Industrial Civilization. The commune grew its own food,
vegetables + baked its own bread.
Wordswoth, Ruskin,Carpenter, Moris influenced and inspired the establishment
of an array of environmental societies in the late 19th century that helped set aside
forests, wetlands or preserved historic buildings + parks thus saving atleast some parts
of England from the contaminatry effects of urban-Industrial civilization.
By the late 19th century Germany had surpassed England as a front runner in
technological+ Industrial development. Here too poets + writers have been
instrumental in campaigning to preserve their rural land and their forests. (Rainer
Maria Rilke-190) kept reminding that Germany was a nation of peasants + shepherds,
not of factory workers and entrepreneurs, which it was now becoming. According to
Rilke, peasants were the backbone of the nation+ forests the repository of German
Culture- an inspiration for its poets, artists, musicians. Industrialization was
undermining German-ness.
However both in England and Germany the rural romantics were a minority. The
two nations clashed in World War 1 which revealed to the world the destructive
power of modern technology. After the war there occurred a revival of the agrarian
ideal throughout Europe. Even Nazi thinkers emphasized the mystic unity between
the peasant, the forest and national spirit.
In India Mahatma Gandhi was influenced by Edward Carpenters Civilization: its
cause and cure often considered as a text to the back to land movement. Gandhiji
said The World has enough for everybodys need, but not for one persons greed.
His vision for a free India was a rural one as he felt there were natural limits to
Industrialization of the whole world. He opposed industrialization of agriculture
(modern methods- fertilizer, chemicals- as these would affect the soil and its
nutrients). He advocated the use of organic manure.
Gandhian vision- practical, English vision-romantic and viewed as an act of defiance
against Industrialization.
II) Variety: Ideology of Scientific Conservation.
Conservation Internationalism
In May 1864 Man and Nature: or physical Geography as modified by human action
was published- author was a Vermont scholar and diplomat George Perkins Marsh.
This booked sparked the first wave of American environmentalism Lewis Mumford
remarked Marshs opus was the fountainhead of the conservation movement. The
same year a German Botanist employed by the government of British India was

invited to head the newly created Indian Forest ServiceDietrich Brandis. He and
Marsh shared a similar concern with the pace of deforestation and a faith in the
powers of scientific expertise to reverse it. The Indian Forest Department which he
headed for almost 2 decades has been one of the most influential institutions in the
history of conservation. Established in 1864 it is by the biggest landlord in a large
country
From the late (18th Western Scientists began exploring links between deforestation,
desiccation and drought (European colonization affected large parts of Asia, Africa
leading to massive environmental degradation affecting rainfall)
George Perkins Marsh (North America) Dietrich Brandis in South Asia were in
vanguard of what was to emerge as a scientific movement of a global consequence.
This second variety of environmentalism Scientific Conservation chose not to turn
its back on industrial society but to tame its excesses. They propagated careful
research guidance by experts to reduce the impact of industrialization and with
regards to pollution and depletion of resources. Conservation was the Gospel of
Efficiency the use of Science to mange nature and natural resources efficiently. The
idea being a Sustained Yield not to dip into resources all the time.
By the (19th Conservation became a global movement with foresters taking the lead in
establishing resource management agencies run on scientific lines in Asia, Africa,
Europe and North America. They began to speak of national forests, rivers as
property of the nation. African scholar William Beinart stated, scientific conservation
was an Ideology of doom and resurrection. Rational planning became important so
to ensure that the great error of waste could be done away with and an efficient and
more sustainable system put in place. Here the role of state becomes important, the
one body capable of taking a long term view. For profit motive is incompatible with
conservation, therefore the state must assume the responsibility for managing
resources e.g. forest, water
In Marshs view man was an agent of destruction as well as regeneration, with the
potential to be a restorer of disturbed harmonies. Therefore judicious intervention and
systematic management are important. Marsh emphasized the need for public
ownership of forests and water. These became the guiding principles behind
American conservation policy and embodied in US forest service and bureau of
Reclamation.
The Global reach of Scientific Forestry
Scientific forestry had its origin in late medieval Europe. By 19th century much of the
globe embraced it. France was a pioneer, by 18th Germany was the front runner in this
fieldits theories, practices and models becoming a starting point for every national
effort in forest science and management until the end of the 19th.
The actual experience of Scientific Forestry in the colonies was different. Here it
followed a Custodian Approach state control and denial of customary rights of user
exercised by peasant and tribal communities who had been depending on the forests
for survival. So when access to these resources was restricted by strictly protected
Government reserves, it led to conflicts between local communities and the forest
departments e.g. South AsiaIndian Forest Act 1878. Tribals and peasants resisted
operations of the forest department in various ways through arson, breaches of
Forest law, attacks on officials and government property and rebellions. Sometimes
through local social movements which aimed at restoring local control over forests.
Jyotibha Phule, social reformer was very critical about the role of the forest
department The Cunning employees of our motherly government have used their
foreign brains to erect a superstructure called the forest department.

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In South and South east Asia, monsoon is an important factor and therefore its
questionable whether sustained yield forestry on the European model can be
successfully practiced. In 130 years state forest management forests are in a poorer
condition than before. Scientific forestry was introduced. 22% of Indian land mass is
still controlled by the forest department, but less than half of this has tree cover on it.
One Asian countryJapanits scientists developed skilled methods of regenerative
forestry that helped stabilize forest cover and mountain slopes of their islands.
III) VARIETY: ENVIRONMENTALISM: THE GROWTH OF THE WILDERNESS
IDEA
Combines elements of morality, science and aesthetics. These came to be known
as the Wilderness Idea (wild species and habitat)
The Industrialization of Europe, settlement and spread of the European pop in the new
worlddevastated areas of forests and wilderness. There rose a movement of artists
and scientists to look up areas still untouched to keep them free from human
disturbance. Some were geared to protect the extinction of endangered species
(grizzly bear) or saving scenic habitats (Yosemite)
The wilderness movement flowered vibrantly in the US a formal historya
little more than a century old.
The 1st international conference on environment took place in 1900 in London
topic protection of wildlife of Africa There were no Africans present!
The delegates were foreign ministers of the European colonial powersFrance,
Germany, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Great Britain. On one side are popular traditions of
Sacred Groves patches of forests worshipped as homes of deities and protected
from human interference (Hindu Nepal, Buddhist Thailand, those parts of Africa that
retain their ancestral religions). On the other side, elite feudal traditions of hunting
preserves (e.g. India particular Mughal Indiawhere animal species like tiger, deer
were reserved for exclusive pleasure of the lords and kings with peasants and hunters
banned from the hunt and sometimes from the preserve itself. Through colonies
wildlife preservation followed a set pattern.
Moderate demand by specifying closed seasons when animals could not be shot ans
issuing licenses which alone allowed hunting.
Designate particular species as protected
Specified territories as Game reserves meant exclusively for animals where
logging mining, agriculture are prohibited.
Establishment of national parkssanctity to entire habitats not merely animal
species
In Southern Africaprogress of conservation linked to the development of a distinct
settler identitythe African was nowhere. The white settler identified with the land
but not the men and women who lived there long before they arrived. Wildlife
conservation brought the Dutch and English closer but also consolidated white
domination over the majority of the black population. In the game reserves Africans
were banned from hunting and in national parksexcluded altogether forcibly
dispossessed of their land if it fell within the designated territory. If there was a
Crisis of African Wildlife, it was due to the white mans gun and rifle, not the native
spear and sling shot.
In Americathe 1st national park anywhere was the Yellowstone (1872). Today
thousands all over the US has the best managed national parks. Mention must be
made of John Muir who settled in California (1868). He had an interest in Botany and
Geology and travelled a lot making several trips to the Sierra Mountains. In 1892 he

founded the Sierra Club which has since then been the most influential conservation
society in American environmentalism. His essay in the Atlantic monthly published in
July 1897 where he wrote about the past, the present and the possible future of the
American forest, had stirred public opinion to try and protect the Aborginal forest to
save what is left of the forest. The steel axe of the white man was destroying the
forests, affecting the natives. Muir knew well the economic rationale for forest
production (steady supply of timber, prevent soil erosion, regulate the flow of the
water in the rivers). He also advocated a non- utilization rationale for preserving the
wildforests are not only a cover but also have a variety of interesting and sacred
trees. For him every species had its own honored place in the scheme of nature. In his
later years he was glad to see city dwellerstried coming to savor the glories of the
Sierra to relax and enjoy nature. By early 20th century, growing urbanization gave
rise to a leisure industry which created a powerful social force for preserving wild
area. Weekend camping and trekking played an influential part in creation of a
national park system. The 1st reserve established on purely Ecological grounds was
Everglades national park 1934. Muir became a cult figure for latter-day
environmentalists.
Another important person in the wilderness movement was ALDO LEOPOLD a
German immigrant. He worked in the forest service with a tradition of scientific
conservation later becoming a philosopher of nature. He developed a philosophy of
Game Management. In time he realized the importancethe cultural and ecological
significance of the wild and from promoting game refuges he began urging that a
portion of the national forests be set aside as fully protected wilderness.
While Muir wanted parks to be guarded by the military, for Leopold responsible
human behavior outside the national parks was more important. He urged people and
communities to moderate their consumption and respect nature.
These 3 strands of environmentalism were analytical and reflective in nature and
guided the trans-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary intellectual movements. Here
contributions of environmentalist Scotsman Patrick Geddes (1854-1932) is significant
(he was an admirer of Marsh and Ruskin). He taught Botany in Dundee and sociology
in Bombay he was a social-ecologist who sought to understand the dynamic interrelationships between human societies and their natural environments. His concern
was with the town and city planningHow the city exploited the countryside for
energy and materials. He called for a return to the health of village life, with its
beauty of surroundings and its contact with nature. Town planning was importanthe
stressed the creation of open spaces and parks, planting and protecting trees and the
conservation of water and water bodies. His ideas were carried forward by his
disciplesLewis Mumford an American historian (1895-1986) and Indian
Sociologist Radhakamal Mukherjee.
Mumford: Ace to him the organic unity between the city and the hinterland (medieval
Europe) was distributed by the coal and iron based Industrialization of the 19th
century which resulted in pollution and unhygienic slums, deteriorating environment.
He hoped for the emergence of a Post-I society based on non-polluting sources of
energy (solar power, hydroelectricity). This he wished would restore the three
distributed equilibria:
1) The equilibrium between the city and the village
2) The equilibrium in population (by balancing birth and death rates)
3) Most important equilibrium between humans and nature
Radha Kamal Mukherjee was influenced by Geddes when lived in India between
1915-1922. He insisted that a social group must be considered in relation to the chain

of interwoven biotic communities to which it is linkedthe plants, the animals and

even the insects which are indigenous to a region. He studied closely the IndoGangetic plain. He found exhaustion and depletion everywhere (Deforestation, soil
erosion, depleting yields). Renewal and enrichment of nature should be mans goal.
He called for an alliance with the entire range of ecological forces through new
values a thought for tomorrow, sacrifice for inhabitants yet unborn.
Combining reason with passion, the Geddes MukherjeeMumford tradition of
social Ecology brings together three realms:
1) of the wilderness
2) the countryside and
3) the city
A regionalist programme works simultaneously for the preservation of the primeval
wild. The restoration of a stable rural community and for the urban-Industrial
complex that is sustainable without being parasitical.