This volume marks fifty years of the Chipko movement, one of India’s most influential environmental movements. Discussing its impact, influence and afterlife in contemporary Indian environmental policies, global cultural narratives and thought, the volume offers a ring-side view of the movement from personal, academic, activist and critical perspectives. The essays explore Chipko's core themes of environmental justice, community, rebellion and feminism that resonate through literature, art, cinema and philosophy in India and across the world.
Murali Sivaramakrishnan is a poet, painter, professor and literary critic. He retired as Professor and Chair of the Department of English, Pondicherry University.
Publisher’s Acknowledgements Acknowledgements Introduction: Chipko’s Pedigree and Presence: Through the Looking Glass of Culture and History Murali Sivaramakrishnan
1. 50 Years of India’s Chipko Movement Bharat Dogra 2. Situating the Chipko Movement in Its Historical Context Dhirendra Dangwal 3. On How the Chipko Movement Tells Us What We ‘Owe’ to Society and Ourselves Samir Banerjee 4. Chipko Andolan’s Eco-Cultural Forest Poetics Kamala Platt 5. Women and Nature in Transnational Narratives: The Power of Feminine Spiritualism Through Words Carmen Escobedo de Tapia 6. The Chipko Movement, Ecofeminism and After Usha V. T. 7. Embracing Earth: Gender, Mythology, and Environmentalism in Gloria Anzaldúa’s Activism within the Context of the Chipko Movement Asunción López-Varela Azcárate and Daniela Sandoval Fierro 8. From the Himalaya to the Western Ghats: Relevance of Chipko Pandurang Hegde 9. Sunderlal Bahuguna: Himalaya’s Foot Soldier Ashish Kothari 10. Vimla and Sunderlal Bahuguna in the Chipko Movement George Alfred James 11. Deep Ecology and the Role of Women in Sikkim Himalayas Jayita Sengupta 12. Ecocinema: The Chipko Movement on Film Nikhila S.
Appendix Murali Sivaramakrishnan
Editor and Contributors