ISSN (Print) - 0012-9976 | ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846

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Reading Ecology, Reinventing Democracy

The Gadgil report on the Western Ghats is a major ecological tract and a significant reflection on the politics of ecology. It illustrates how a theory of nature, lives, livelihood combined with local knowledge, decentralisation, and diversity add to the dynamism of democracy. In contrast, the Kasturirangan report is an antidote to such therapeutic ecology and shows how development creates the asymmetries of injustice and representation. The article explores the implications of these two different ways of reading ecology.

Wage-led Climate Change Amelioration

A Marxian orientation towards ecology must support an increase in wages and employment and a fall in profits.

Driven to Ecological Crisis: Motility and Disparity on Urban Roads

Modern cities in India such as Delhi are a cesspool of inequalities and disparities that are deeply tied to the class-caste nexus. These aspects manifest themselves starkly on its roads, made apparent by identifying those who utilise its infrastructure, while dictating its design, and those who are systematically left out. The automobile owning classes of Delhi have a monopoly over the city’s land, water and air, extracting and exploiting for their needs and comforts, while the poor are left to bear the brunt of the ecological degradation that comes with it. The bourgeois class’s systematic collusion with the state is also visible in its environmentalism, through which it controls the narrative of legitimacy. The social and ecological consequences of these processes stand as evidence of the crisis that neoliberal India is facing at present.

Revisiting the Debates on Man-Nature Relation in Marxist Tradition

This paper tried to locate the debate on man-nature relation in the Marxist tradition. It looks at Marx’s theory of alienation and dialectics and argues that his theory of alienation and dialectics is not limited to a critique of capitalist modernity but shows man’s alienation from nature. Developing on this thesis, this paper looks at Engel’s position on the place of nature in Marxism. We argue that Engels’s notion of ecological crisis in capitalism is a result of his idea of nature as above society as he argued in Dialectics of Nature. In Lukacs and western Marxism, Engel’s thesis of the dialectics of nature is criticised. We especially highlight how Engels’s notion of nature suffers the reification of capitalism.

Marxist Ecology in the light of Contemporary Ecological Thought: Reflections on the Ontological Questions in Dark, Deep and Marxist Ecology

The paper strives to explore some fundamental debates concerning the question of ecology, nature and culture in Marxian corpus. First, it attempts to explicate the differences and commonalities between the philosophical conception of nature in Marxism and contemporary and old ecological thoughts like Dark ecology of Timothy Morton and Deep ecology of Arne Naess. Second, the paper is also an attempt to revisit some of the larger philosophical and ontological questions pertaining to nature and ecology; especially the questions related to ontological position of mind and matter in relation to nature and how these fundamental questions have a bearing on the current and future trajectory of ecological thought and movements globally in the Anthropocene epoch.

‘Fixing’ the River: Political Ecology of Changing Water Flows and Infrastructuring along the Godavari Riverscape in Nashik

Technocratic managerialism has a long legacy of infrastructuring the Godavari river to maintain the hydraulic order of Nashik city. The implementation of hard infrastructures in the riverscape has been the dominant governmentality in the city. As the city started expanding and began to spatially fix itself with more permanent roads, housing complexes, and other public infrastructures, the moments of overflow and no flow of water in the river flood and drought became incongruous with Nashik’s emerging modern urban life. In other words, they became disruptions giving rise to the need to fix the...

The Irreversibility of Change in Climate

Climate-resilient development should be commensurate with social justice.

Extreme Flooding Events and Land Cover Change

This discussion is a response to Aniket Navalkar’s article “Extreme Flooding Events and Land Cover Change: An Empirical Assessment of Western India” (EPW, 16 October 2021).

 

Contested Relocations

Rehabilitation is always a challenging project. This article is an attempt to analyse the process of housing rehabilitation among the coastal community through the perspectives of traditional fi shers.

From Paper to Practice

While Madhya Pradesh is an acknowledged leader in implementing the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, operationalising the local-level biodiversity management committees is a continuous challenge. The state’s multipronged approach with a focus on bio-fi nance, regulatory fl exibility, convergence with other government schemes, and enabling policy environment holds the key to building empowered, Atmanirbhar biodiversity management committees.

Assessing Marine Plastic Pollution in India

The rampant use of plastics in India and inefficient waste management practices have led to plastic waste being either piled up on dumpsites or finding their way into the open sea, contributing to the global problem of marine plastic pollution. Marine plastic pollution is a threat to the well-being of marine creatures and humans, and there are heavy economic costs as well. Providing a picture of the situation along India’s coast, this study points to the dire consequences in store if no or limited action is taken.

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