DEVELOPMENT-INDUCED PROTEST MOVEMENTS IN POST- INDEPENDENCE INDIA: AN ANALYSIS

The antecedents of environmental development in India can be critically analyzed through Marxian concepts of modes of production and production relations. Different societies, such as hunter-gatherer communities, nomadic pastoral groups, settled agricultural societies, and industrial capitalist systems,have historically utilized natural resources in distinct ways. However, the mode of resource utilization under industrial capitalist civilization has had a profound impact on biodiversity and ecological systems over the past two centuries.With the expansion of industrial capitalism, environmental movements gradually emerged as significant forms of resistance. In India, such movements originated during the colonial period and continued through the postcolonial, independence, and liberalization phases. The changing ecological processes across these historical periods reveal how indigenous and native communities have increasingly faced displacement, marginalization, and exploitation.Against this broader backdrop, the paper examines the functioning of development projects and environmental protest movements in India. It analyzes major environmental movements such as the Chipko Movement in the Himalayan region, the Narmada Bachao Andolan, and the Silent Valley Movement in the Malabar region of southern India. The paper concludes with a discussion of various environmental movements in Odisha.