Churning the Earth: The Making of Global India

Invitation to the Bangalore release of 'Churning the Earth'

Environment Support Group (ESG), Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), and Bhoomi Network

cordially invite you to the release of the book

Churning the Earth: The Making of Global India

by

Aseem Shrivastava & Ashish Kothari

R. Kasturirangan, National Institute of Advanced Studies

&

A.R. Vasavi, Anthropologist, GRAAM

will critique the book.

The authors will be present to respond.

Thursday, 16 August 2012, 6.00 pm to 7.30 pm

(Registration and Tea: 5.30 pm. Copies will be available for sale.)

Institute of Agricultural Technologists, Queens Road, Bengaluru

About the book

The world stands so dazzled by India’s meteoric economic rise that we hesitate to acknowledge its consequences to the people and the environment. In Churning the Earth, the writers present incontrovertible evidence on the predatory nature of this recent growth and question its political and ecological sustainability. They urge a fundamental shift towards a range of policy, grassroots and conceptual alternatives that are necessary to forestall the descent into socio-ecological chaos.

Published by Penguin Books India, 15 May 2012, 416pp, Hardback, ISBN139780670086252

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Please confirm your participation with Shashikala Iyer by email [email protected] or tel: 91-80-26713559~61

Voice/Fax: 91-80-26713316 Web: www.esgindia.org

Advance praise for the book

'...a majestic work on society's future. Shrivastava and Kothari think that they have produced what amounts to a war diary of an epic struggle to secure the well-being and survival of the coming generation of Indians. Others will read it as a tragic story of a civilisation that faces self-destruction because it can no longer impose limits on human greed and irresponsible consumption.'

Ashish Nandy

'Cuts through the hype to tell you what is going on.. the only work I know of that provides a comprehensive account of the enormous social and environmental costs of the developments of the last fifteen years.. substantiated with a great deal of data..'

Amitav Ghosh

'An eye-opening critique of India's development strategy, based on growth mania and corporate-led globalisation..... it illustrates the value and urgency of closer collaboration between economists and environmentalists'

Jean Dreze

'A much needed, timely synthesis of social, economic and environmental challenges in India over the last two decades. ..Compels one to question the widely held comfortable assumptions about the consequences, and desirability of these changes...'

Madhav Gadgil

'This is an important chronicle of the countercurrents of our times... A perspective that needs to be read and understood.'

Aruna Roy

'A powerful indictment of the processes of development and globalisation... Bringing together ecological concerns and anguish at inequity and injustice, the authors make a .. passionate plea for what they call Radical Ecological Democracy.'

Ramaswamy R. Iyer, former Water Resources Secretary, Government of India

Authors:

Aseem Shrivastava wrote his doctoral thesis in environmental economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He has taught economics for many years in India and the US. Most, recently, he taught philosophy at Nordic College, Norway. He has written extensively on issues associated with globalisation.

Ashish Kothari is a founder-member of the environmental group Kalpavriksh. He has taught at the India Institute of Public Administration and coordinated India's National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan process. He has been active with various people's movements and has authored and edited over thirty books.

About Environment Support Group:

ESG is an independent not-for-profit organisation that promotes the cause of environmental and social justice through research, documentation, advocacy, training and campaign support. We support the advancement of the rights of local communities and voiceless ecosystems in a responsible and progressive manner, keeping contextual complexities in focus. More details about the group may be accessed at: http://www.esgindia.org. Details on how you can contribute to ESG may be accessed at: http://esgindia.org/about-us/what-you-can-do.html