Going Green – Ramachandra Guha [SUMMARY]


01.How does Ramachandra Guha try to trace the history of serious environmental consciousness?

The prose, Going Green by Ramachandra Guha is taken from the first chapter of his book Environmentalism- A Global History. In this chapter he tries to tell the history of collective consciousness about the serious environmental issues. According to him it was a movement in 1960. Like other progressive movements like democracy, socialism and feminism, Environmentalism is also a social and international movement.

The writer believes that the environmental movement is becoming popular and international. With the help of laws and bills related to the forests and wildlife. With the help of environmentalists, developed countries like America and developing countries like India have effectively implemented pollution free environment schemes and national parks. They are trying to prevent the toxic pollution caused by industrialization. In a variety of countries around the globe this                 movement    has                  been   transmitted        with    modern          communication technologies.

Further, the writer traces the elements of environmental consciousness in world literature. The classical literary writings by the Sanskrit poet Kalidasa and the Roman poet Virgil are with the descriptions of beauty of birds, animals, rivers and farms. The writer calls them ‘nature-lovers’. He further finds a keen interest in richness and diversity of nature in the travelogs of European scientific travelers. The English scientist Charles Darwin is popular for   exuberance of plant and animal life. The American movement of environmentalism is traced in the book (Silent Spring) by Rachel Carson.

The writer feels that the environmental movement is in hand to hand with industrialisation and economic growth. He prefers organic and natural productions in agricultural fields. He criticizes the excessive use of natural products such as trees, water and air for economic growth. He blames colonizers

and the demands of metropolises to disturb ecological balance in the forests of America, Africa and the Western Ghats of India.

According to him, like all other progressive movements of the modern world, environmentalism may be summarized in three varieties. Such varieties are the moral and cultural critique of the Industrial Revolution by the romantic poets (Blake, Wordsworth), novelists (Charles Dickens) and political thinkers (Friedrich Engels). The Indian saint-politician Mahatma Gandhi is an amoral critique with a simple lifestyle and less wants. They all criticize the multiple wants of modern civilization. The second variety is scientific conservation with an empirical (research) mode of industrial society. The third variety is a combination of morality, science and aesthetics. This is known as the wilderness idea. Under this idea a response is started by artists and scientists aimed to free the rare variety of wildlife from human disturbance. Thus, Rachandra Guha attempts to find out the historical traces of environmentalism.

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