Environmental movements in the Global South

Abstract

Environmental movements in the Global South have a very long history dating back to pre-colonial periods. Despite such a long lineage, it is strange to see the absence of environmental struggles from the Global South in the mainstream literature on environmentalism. Such omissions have resulted in conceiving environmentalism as a middle-class phenomenon rooted in post-materialist value orientations. With this backdrop, using historical and contemporary examples of environmental movements in India, this chapter underscores the poor and working-class base of environmentalism. In doing so, the chapter challenges the monolithic conception of environmental movements as New Social Movements led by middle-class participants in post-industrialist societies. By highlighting the combination of material and ecological grievances in their protest vocabularies, this chapter vivifies the red and green shades of grassroots environmentalism. Most importantly, the chapter underscores the need to decolonise research on environmental movements by including poor and working-class environmentalism from the Global South.