Is There Still a Chipko Andolan?

Abstract

A BOUT FIFTEEN YEARS AGO India experienced the large-scale emergence of groups, usually led by radicalized middle-class youth or urban intellectuals. These groups drew conventionally apolitical citizens into expressing and fighting for their basic right to participate in the decision making process. ' Generally non-political, or even anti-political, they were organizations concerned with local injustices, which engaged in direct action to protest against the social evils that occurred around them. Such groups are dynamic; they are formed, undergo changes, and generally, after a relatively short time, die out. Some become absorbed into political parties, while others eventually decline into irrelevance as anachronisms. Still others move on to different or broader paths by altering their goals or by interacting with other action groups or concerned intellectuals. Some just cannot survive the onslaught of local vested interests or state repression. Chipko andolan-formed to save trees-is perhaps India's most celebrated action group. Although many aspects of the are unique,2 the theoretical explanations most commonly used to explain the development and decline of organizations may be applied to its history, and seem to be generally valid. The Chipko movement from its inception has