The Ramachandra Guha Omnibus

This is an omnibus edition of three path-breaking works by a historian described in the New York times as ‘perhaps the best among India’s non-fiction writers’. The Unquiet Woods puts into historical perspective the well-known Chipko movement, a peasant movement against commercial forestry in Uttarakhand. The author forcefully establishes that Chipko was but a continuation of an earlier history of social protest, in which peasants had consistently mobilized themselves in defence of their rights of forest ownership and use. The most important consequences of colonial rule were the takeover of the forests by the state and the introduction of commercial forestry. As the village communities lost their traditional rights over the surrounding forests, the ecological degradation of the region followed. For the Uttarakhand peasantry, Chipko was not a consciously environmental movement, but, rather, a battle for survival. Environmentalism: A Global History details the major trends, ideas, campaigns, and thinkers within the environmental movement worldwide. Guha identifies three distinct schools, which he terms ‘back to the land’, ‘scientific conservation’, and ‘wilderness thinking’ respectively. He profiles thinkers from all over the globe such as John Muir, Aldo Leopold, Mahatma Gandhi, Rachel Carson and Lewis Mumford. Among the social movements Guha discusses are the green party in Germany, Waangari Mathai’s Green Belt movement in Kenya, environmental dissent in the Soviet Union and China, Chico Mendes’ struggle in Brazil, and the Narmada Bachao Andolan. Savaging the Civilized brings to life one of the most remarkable figures of twentieth-century India, Verrier Elwin, an anthropologist, poet, and activist from England who lived among the tribes of India and recorded his life with them. It reveals a many-sided scholar and writer, a friend of Nehru and Gandhi who was also at home with the impoverished and the destitute. This book is both biography and history, and exploration through Elwin’s life of such critical issues as the future of development, cultural pluralism, and the moral practice of intellectuals. With a freshly written introduction, this omnibus will appeal to historians, environmental buffs, and fans of Ramachandra Guha.