Environmental Politics
People´s Lives and Developmental Choices
by Sumi Krishna
Sage Publications, New Delhi, 1996
Writings on the theorisation of the relationship between environment and development, realistic or spiritualistic, have a long record. The book under review is a good addition to that list. It is based on Sumi Krishna´s close exposure to several field situations that represent various dimensions of this complex relationship in India. Credit should go to her for not underestimating the complexity of that relationship, and thus, for remaining restrained in prescribing instant national level solutions, as is quite common among the so called "alternative-wallas".
The strength of the book lies in the attention to analysis, and not to mere prescription. It does, however, fall victim to the weakness that the text is rather inward-looking and pays scant attention to the external linkages that influence the processes of economic transformation and environmental consciousness in India.
The prelude in Ms Krishna´s book, which is aptly described as "the human factor in environment" provides the scenario in which her analysis is set. The series of stories here provides the backdrop, albeit partial, of the emergence of stress in the environment-development relationship in India. The various responses to environmental issues are categorised in three compartments, which are described as popular, managerial and progressive. This is a refreshing departure from the general practice of clubbing environmentalists, of all types and in all situations, as one bundle of well-meaning knowalls busy in pointing out what has gone wrong in the world. The functional relationship of environment and development today, or more precisely of natural processes and economic processes, are of course too dynamic and complex for such a sweeping classification.