Ecological Perceptions in Marxism and Gandhism

Contents: Foreword. Preface. Acknowledgments. Introduction. I. Ecology and Marxism: 1. Marx and the environment/John Bellamy Foster. 2. Marxist approach to ecology/R.K. Prasad. 3. Ecology and related themes in classical Marxism. 4. Ecologism and the new left/D.P. Sharma. 5. Socialism and the ecological crisis/Randhir Singh. II. Ecology and Gandhism: 6. Relevance of Gandhian approach/C.K. Varshney. 7. Gandhi and environmentalism/Ashok S. Chousalkar. 8. Indian environmentalism and Gandhian values: the relevance of Satyagraha in contemporary environmental movements in India/Sarmishtha Pattanaik. 9. War with nature: at what cost?/Sunderlal Bahuguna. 10. Environmental Sabath and Gandhi. 11. Ecology and Gandhism/Bindeshwar Pathak. 12. Impact on ecology of the two views of life/Sachchidanand Sinha. 13. Gandhian environmentalism/Manoj Sinha. Index.

In continuity with our publication Ecology and Religion we took the task of editing Marxian and Gandhian perceptions of ecology. Needless to say that the views of these two thinkers on ecology are the product of forces that shaped their times. Marx was mainly concerned with ameliorating the economic condition of the deprived section of people who were hardly hit by the economic impacts of the industrial revolution. He had no compunction at the distraction of the natural resources which ware blatantly tapped. All that he wanted was that the profits accruing out of the tapping of these resources must be diverted to free the deprived section from the clutches of the new industrial class. Thus his perception of ecology was mundane, worldly and rooted to bettering the interest of the proletariate. Gandhian perception of ecology was idyllic, frugallist aiming at changing hearts of the beneficiary of the exploitation of nature and making them conscious of the woes of the non-beneficiaries. Thus the Gandhian perception of the ecology appears to be more suited to minimizing the mad rush for development at the cost of depletion of natural resources causing ecological in balances. In the growing consciousness of ecology all over the world the views of two great thinkers to be balanced and made effective.