In 1972, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi gained global attention with a speech she gave at the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm. The presentation was, in a way, an early treatise on global environmental history. Although her pithy statement that “poverty is the worst form of pollution” grabbed the headlines, it was her critique of the hypocrisy of what were then referred to as the “developed” nations that has had the greatest impact. Gandhi noted how so much of the industrialized world, which had made its wealth (and pollution) through the pillage of its colonies, now insisted that those newly independent nations be held equally responsible for cleaning up the world. Her argument that the smaller wealthy nations use far more resources than the larger, poorer ones, is, as the events surrounding the Paris Climate Accord show, as relevant as ever.
It is of course a truism to point out that Indira Gandhi remains a controversial figure. Depending on which accounts one reads, she was a savior, a tyrant, a ruthless opportunist, or a strong woman maligned unfairly. One fact seems indisputable, however: while she may have been a flawed environmentalist, she was a devout naturalist. This is the argument that Jairam Ramesh makes in his new biography, and it is a persuasive one.
Ramesh has the credentials to take on this subject. A Congress MP from Andhra Pradesh, he held several ministerial posts in Manmohan Singh's government, most notably that of Environment and Forests. He lays out Gandhi's development as a naturalist chronologically, beginning with the influence of her father, and continuing with her school years in Switzerland and subsequent role as advisor to her father. Naturally enough, he devotes the most attention to her years as prime minister. We see her love of the wild blossom, particularly her fondness for birds, forests, mountains, and tigers. During her period as prime minister, she was responsible for numerous wildlife sanctuaries and preserves, and, to an extent, forest preservation. Given the challenges she faced for much of her life, these were admirable achievements in conservation.
Less admirable were her environmental politics; in the final analysis Gandhi was unable to live up to her stirring speech in Stockholm. While Ramesh is strong on detailing what he sees as positive accomplishments, he is less so on critical analysis. He is particularly dismissive or defensive on issues of social ecology. This is especially true in his coverage of the last ten years of Gandhi's life. So, for instance, on the ruthless suppression of the railway strike shortly before the Emergency, Ramesh absolves Gandhi by claiming that she had no choice because compromise had been so “vitiated” by “the most strident” of her opponents to make any “calm or composed settlements possible” (p. 180). While he does briefly address the controversy of forced sterilization near the end of the volume, nowhere does he discuss the impact of the urban beautification programs of the Emergency and the 1982 Asian Games, which destroyed huge swaths of jhaggi (slums), dispossessing thousands of the urban poor. More complex issues, such as the effects of hydroelectric dam projects on the natural environment and the displacement of people, or the consequences of industrial pollution, are given superficial coverage. The complexities of the Green Revolution are abbreviated to a “success … for which she herself had provided determined leadership” (p. 390).
Many of the weaknesses tend to be caused by the way the book is organized. While Ramesh's primary material is impressive, it is almost exclusively limited to letters to and from Gandhi. His secondary material is shallow. As a consequence, the reader is consumed by how Gandhi demonstrated her love for nature but is left wondering why her political actions at times seemed so little in tune with her beliefs. In general, the chapters begin with brief chronological introductions to the periods covered, which are followed by a barrage of letters interspersed with brief summaries of how these letters emphasize her concern for different species of birds, lions, tigers, sea turtles, water fowl, and so forth. The reader comes away with an appreciation for the depth of her conviction but is also left wondering what it all led to.
Ramesh has done an admirable job of chronicling Gandhi's special closeness to the natural world in Indira Gandhi: A Life in Nature. The reader emerges with a vivid sense of a person who was in communication with her natural surroundings from an early age. Unfortunately, we get only a superficial sense of how she reconciled her passions with the chosen path of her life. We are left begging for a more inclusive perspective.
