Understanding Environmentalism as Politics in India

Abstract

The concept of environmentalism reflects worry over the degradation of the natural world as a result of economic progress. The concept of environmentalism arose from concerns about the deterioration of human existence, a crisis in the human species' survival economy, and the potential dangers of the organic and inorganic environment. Environmentalists in the West have their roots in ecological or green movements, as well as the revolution against industrialism. The main principle of ecology was introduced by Thomas Robert Malthus, who proposed that population expands in a geometrical proportion while food supply grows in an arithmetic proportion (Ramaswamy, 2004, 428). Environmentalism is commonly connected with the birth of the green or ecological movement in the late twentieth century (Heywood, 2007, 64); nevertheless, its roots can be found in the nineteenth-century uprising against industrialism. Environmentalism emerges from social movements, which aim to influence the political process in order to save natural resources and the entire ecosystem. Because the philosophy stresses human needs and their satisfaction, environmentalism supports 'shallow ecology.' Environmentalists are concerned with the long-term viability and conservation of natural resources for human needs.