Dear readers,

To sit down and talk about environmentalism – or many environmentalisms – in India, seems a luxury when nearly every region and city is experiencing extremes of climate, from snow avalanches in the north to heat waves in the west and south. Let’s call it a necessary luxury if we are to understand ideas and ideologies behind environmental writing, movements, and actions. Indulge us in this edition of Question of Cities as we have a long conversation with well-known historian and author Ramachandra Guha about environmentalism and cities, parse through his latest book to discover gems of India’s environmental history, speak to women about feminism and environmentalism (Happy International Women’s Day to you all), and trace the environmentalism in countries of the Global South. 

Cities built at the cost of ecology are becoming uninhabitable and unsustainable. Between the Gandhian perspective which is hostile to city life and the other that cities are engines of growth, both flawed, cities face ecological crisis and issues of equity on housing, health, education, and transport, points out Ramachandra Guha, renowned historian and author, in this conversation with Team QoC. He calls for “effective decentralisation” and a more integrative language: “In cities, we are not even listening to one another, forget listening to nature”. Read it here.

As women, across barriers of caste and class and other social indices, assert themselves, they also touch upon environmental issues deeply tied to their lives, living conditions, work and more. They raise voices as women demanding gender justice and they raise voices as environmentalists demanding environmental justice too, writes multimedia journalist Jashvitha Dhagey. It would be difficult to separate their feminism from environmentalism; perhaps, the two are not in silos, after all. Women’s movements reflect eco concerns but environmental movements need to reflect gender more, women activists tell her. Read it here.

India’s environmentalism did not start with the Chipko movement, says historian and author Ramachandra Guha. His latest book Speaking with Nature – The Origins of Indian Environmentalism maps three waves of environmentalism in India and focuses on the forgotten, but significant, first wave. Profiling ten illustrious names, the book is part profile, part history, and part intellectual anchor of environmentalism in India, an important tome of ideas that collectively “speak to the environmental concerns of our own time”. Team QoC writes an analytical summary of the book with excellent illustrations by Nikeita Saraf. Read it here.

Rising heat waves, illegal mining, degradation of water bodies and depletion of trees are increasing in cities across the world. Most of the world’s vulnerable population lives in countries of the Global South and it is important to take note of the voices from the ground. Environmentalism in these countries, or among vulnerable communities in them, is often a direct battle to save the extraction of resources their land holds or against polluters, whether in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Vietnam. The largest number of environmental defenders attacked – and killed – are here. Illustrator-writer Nikeita Saraf puts together this compendium of environmental struggles in some countries of the Global South. Read it here.

The people of the Sundarbans show how they are the force of resilience, battling cyclones, and disrupted livelihoods. Adopting nature-based solutions, they use vetiver as a powerful natural tool to combat soil erosion and understand that protecting the streambanks from erosion and damage will protect their land and houses. Such nature-based strategies in the fragile ecosystem in the Sundarbans, facilitated by a non-profit, is the everyday environmentalism of marginalised common people. Read this republished essay by Amita Bhaduri, a consultant with India Water Portal. Read it here.

In our regular section, News Digest, read stories on climate change, people and cities.

Hope you find this edition engaging and worthwhile. We would love to hear from you at  [email protected]. If you haven’t yet subscribed to Question of Cities, do so here and share our work on X, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Thank you,
Shobha and Smruti
March 7, 2025