In the early 1970s, three events occurred precisely in global environmental history: at the institutional level, the United Nations held its first Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm; at the academic level, Rachel CarsonIt is Silent Spring rose to prominence for championing environmentalism; and at the local level, the Chipko (hugging trees) began in northern India as a response to state neglect of ecological concerns. While the Stockholm Conference and Carson’s seminal book have remained the benchmarks of global environmentalism, Chipko’s new articulations of environmental activism have often been forgotten. With independence from British colonialism in 1947, Indian leaders focused on rapid development centered on modern industries and agriculture. Once combative against colonial policies, after independence the Indian state retained most of the authoritarian aspects of colonial rule. These include regressive forest policies that have deprived farmers, forest dwellers, pastoralists, women, Adivasis, etc.
Despite all his great demands for forest conservation and his efforts to transform 33 percent of India into forests, there was virtually no alternative proposal in the 1952 “forest policy” – and in most areas the colonial structure of exploitation persisted. The idea of ”reserved forests» was maintained in the name of “national needs”. However, forest resources were exploited and felling of trees was permitted for commercial purposes. The states favor for commercial interest this also came at the expense of the “subsistence needs for fuel, fodder and kindling” of farmers and forest dwellers. Consequently, Chipko launched a peasant movement that sought to reclaim and defend community rights over forests.
The Chipko movement began in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (later Uttarakhand) in 1973. Led by local people (mostly women and tribals) who depended on forests for their livelihood, Chipko activists kissed trees to protest against commercial logging. The movement originated in Mandal, a village in the interior of the Garhwal Himalaya, where loggers from the Allahabad-based Symonds Company were prevented from felling ash trees. The Chipko movement, led by Chandi Prasad Bhatt, Sundarlal and Vimala Bahuguna, and Gaura Devi, among others, protested the unfair treatment of locals who oppose the use of forest resources for their livelihood, while allowing large-scale companies to profit from felling trees.
The movement quickly struck a chord in many parts of northern India, with people (men, women and children) hugging trees and protest against state policy on forestry which had disenfranchised local communities and favored commercial interests. The movement successfully promoted the interests of the local community and helped address their ecological concerns. This is why Chipko has often been called the “environmentalism of the poor“. Thus, the historian Ramachandra Guha writes: “Until Chipko, environmentalism was identified with rich countries and the middle class. It was thought that peasants lacked knowledge and understanding of ecological processes, and that India was too poor to be green. The movement’s success has been considerable in regulating commercial forestry and entrepreneurial systems and in asserting community rights over forests. However, despite his enormous success, there is virtually no scholarly discourse in IR and political science on how Chipko’s activism can shape our current understanding of environmentalism.
In this context, I wrote an article entitled: “Feeling the Anthropocene: emotional relationships and ecological activism in the Global South‘ For International affairs. In this article, I sought to understand how ecological activism could be thought/and understood differently. That’s why I asked: “How do emotions shape environmental activism in the Global South?” » I drew on growing scholarly interest in relationality, emotions, and the Anthropocene in IR to fully capture the essence of how ecological activism might be thought about differently. Through my empirical discussion of the Chipko movement, I have argued that it is essential for scholars and activists to move beyond the “dominant rationalist approach.” technocratic fixes» and understanding environmentalism through “affective relationships”. I have discussed that “affective relationships” can be a framework for situating and maintaining relationships between humans and nature. Specifically, I have argued that emotions link humans and nature. Furthermore, the Chipko movement allows us to consider how feelings, expressed through hugging trees, applying bandages to trees, singing and raising slogans, can act as non-practices. violent and bring about social and political change.
Today, as societies grapple with the onslaught of environmental catastrophe (in the making), the Chipko movement has some lessons to learn. global environmentalism. This brief essay documents four crucial lessons from this movement for current and future environmental activism. First, Chipko’s ecological activism highlights to us the interconnectedness between man and nature that must be recognized in our understanding of environmentalism. Global environmentalism has often treated humans and nature as two separate domains, where economics and ecology are at odds with each other – and where humans can solve ecological problems, however ugly they may be. they. However, in Chipko we see interconnections between humans and nature consistent with the Anthropocene understanding of the world. Such understandings of the interdependence between humans and nature also resonate with other communities in the South. The ecological practices of the countries of the South therefore contribute to situating what Bruno Latour calls “land peoples”. For example, the Yanomami the people of Brazil consider themselves as one being among the many beings that exist in the forest; their stories, songs, myths and dreams all reflect what they feel – pain and suffering – when the forests are burned. Global environmental activism should actively harness this knowledge in its knowledge dissemination practices. It should actively promote the idea that humans and nature are related to each other rather than being seen as against each other.
Second, Chipko’s activism shows how emotions can exploit human-nature relationships. At Chipko, we witness an act of resistance, where bodies interpose themselves between the trees and the men with axes. Given the important role that forests played in their lives, with reliance on dry leaves and grass for fodder, twigs and branches for cooking fuel, wood for agricultural tools, and nuts and herbs for consumption, these activists attributed to forests the role of a teacher who nourishes and nourishes them. Emotions, like felt experiences, help connect humans to nature and help them feel nature. To feel nature is to accept our inseparable attachment to nature. Although emotions help situate and maintain relationships between humans and nature, they become active sites of activism and resistance. It is a space where collective anxiety for the environment is felt, shared and expressed. Emotions affect and are affected by each other. Additionally, feelings for nature “frequently emerge through relationships, engagements, and practices” in ecological spaces. Therefore, today’s environmentalism can further harness the emotional power to bind humans together, humans with nature, and against coercive state structures.
Third, Chipko shows us new ways of doing environmental activism. In Chipko’s activism, emotions are harnessed to maintain human-nature relationships, actively engage with people about the environment, and interact effectively with policymakers and governments. The tree protection movement was not simply an act of resistance for these communities but a means of survival. Based on this principle, the practice of hugging trees, shouting slogans and singing songs actively evokes a sense of solidarity between communities in the face of shared anxieties. For example, in one such practice, Chipko activists applied bandages to trees that were being felled or marked for felling. This practice created a strong sense of responsibility in protecting forests from destruction and demonstrated how trees have been injured and need to be healed, just as humans would. Furthermore, such practices demonstrate the role of the non-violent Gandhian movement in the face of state power.
In recent years, global environmentalism has harnessed the power of emotional practices. In Davis’ 2019 speech, Greta Thunberg, who leads the school strike for the climate movement, called Fridays for the future, said, “I don’t want you to get your hopes up. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act. The emotional valence of speeches like this is essential for promoting environmental awareness. In a similar vein, climate activists have used emotive slogans such as “Climate justice without borders”, “There is no planet B” and “Climate change is real” to push for climate change. environmentalism in an evocative way. Whether it is creating posters, singing songs or appealing to public opinion, emotional practices also help to strengthen solidarities within and between societies. More must be done.
Finally, Chipko’s ideas tell us that policymakers and practitioners need to demonstrate empathy. They must be willing to listen – listen how the “subordinate” speaks. Governments need to focus on eco-centric communities when dealing with environmental issues. In such communities, nature includes humans and vice versa. As governments grapple with the looming ecological crisis, they must leverage the innate knowledge of these communities. They must listen, empathize and engage with the local communities that depend on their ecology. In doing so, they will be able to understand how much humans and nature depend on each other for sustenance.
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