New Articles by Ashish Kothari

Ashish Kothari, “Thirty Years of Resistance,” Meer, March 13, 2025.

“It has been a long time since I have seen a gathering that is a near-perfect microcosm of the celebrated diversity of India – farmers, fishers, Adivasis (Indigenous or tribal peoples), Dalits (India’s so-called ‘outcastes’), LGBTQ+ and feminist activists, lawyers, students and academics, worker organisations and unions, artists of various genres (including several musical troupes from the host state, Telangana, and elsewhere), environmentalists, politicians, housing and land rights activists, and more.”

Ashish Kothari, “Speaking for Nature’s Spokespersons,“ The India Forum, March 10, 2025. 

Notwithstanding these issues, this book needs to be read not only by those in environmental movements of India and the world, but also, more importantly, by those in government, civil society, and businesses, who shape economic and social policies. In relatively clear and sometimes even poetic prose that makes compelling reading, Guha points to myriad approaches in the work of the people featured that are relevant to the multiple crises we are engulfed in. Modern India would do well to learn from and adopt these if we are to rebuild a harmonious relationship with the rest of nature, and through this also save ourselves from the ecological collapse that is staring us in the face—to achieve, as Mirabehn put it, “true Freedom”.