Page 80 - EW March 2021

Books

(educationists, principals, and case studies.
parents, teachers and DILIP THAKORE THE CHIPKO MOVEMENT: A
senior students). PEOPLE’S HISTORY
Despite EWISR hav- Shekhar Pathak
ing established a global Glorious failed ORIENT BLACKSWAN
reputation as the world’s Rs.895
largest school rankings movement
initiative which attempts Pages 390
to make an objective as- N THE YEAR 1974,
sessment of the relative when the womenfolk
strengths and weaknesses Iand children of village exceptions, limits itself ei-
of the country’s day, Reni, under the leadership ther to discrediting the en- No other ecological
legacy, boarding, interna- of the gutsy Gaura Devi, vironmental commitment initiative from India
tional, government and were chasing away labour of the movement as mere has perhaps evoked
private budget schools contractors and their mythmaking, or indulges more global admira-
ranked inter se in separate crony forest officials bent in raking up ego clashes tion than the Chipko
categories — a monumen- upon felling trees for com- between its leaders. movement. This book
tal interviews-based field mercial exploitation, writ- Needless to say, this has provides a ringside
survey — Dutt dismisses ing perhaps the most glori- undermined the efforts of view of the agitation
all schools ranking surveys ous chapter in the history Chipko’s foot soldiers, the
as “dubious listings”. “The of the Chipko Movement, peasants, students, women and limb.
annual listing, the much a young scholar named and children, who had Described as a “defini-
awaited media hype and Shekhar Pathak was to contend with poverty, tive history” by respected
sensationalism is all harm- undertaking with a few scarcity and precarious historian Ramchandra
ing the education process, others, a foot march from circumstances to protect Guha, who has written the
rather than helping it. the easternmost fringe of the fragile balance of their foreword of this book, the
Good work itself outshines Uttarakhand to its west- forests, relying completely author has brought to light
the ‘good word’ sold to us ernmost point. This, with- on indigenous wisdom and several activists whose
by media hype,” he opines. out a penny in the pocket, resources, quite oblivious names, even during the
Even if one accepts the group’s survival during of the emerging global time of Chipko, had been
this confusing argument, the arduous trek entirely discourse on ecology. relegated to footnotes and
surely parents can’t be dependent on the charity Despite the movement pages of vernacular media
expected to visit 450,000 of village folk. having provided endless or minutes of protest
private schools — govern- Having undertaken this grist to academic and jour- meetings. While acknowl-
ment schools are not on difficult journey four more nalistic mills, there has edging their role in pro-
the author’s radar — to times at an interval of a been no detailed history tecting valuable commu-
assess which ones are decade each, and his other of Chipko until now. By nity resources, which later
executing best practices numerous travels across giving us a blow-by-blow came to be recognised as
prescribed by him. The the Himalayas coupled account, a ringside view of natural wealth critical to
vitally important ser- with a brief incarcera- the movement as it trans- humanity, he also narrates
vice the annual EWISR tion during the move- formed from an effort to their often-impoverished
provides is that it informs ment, have given him an seize forest resources from circumstances and their
and enables parents and unrivalled understanding exploiters from the plains familial struggles.
teachers (looking for best of the mountains and their into a widespread agita- Grassroots movements
places to serve in) to study indigenous settlements tion for a separate State exist and proliferate in
the relative strengths and and tribes. and identity, the author multiple layers of reality.
weaknesses of schools and No other ecological has done a great service As they progress, they
short-list, if not select, the movement from India not only to scholarship on acquire divergent mean-
most suitable school for has perhaps evoked more environmentalism but also ings for different people.
their children. global empathy and ad- to the hitherto unknown Chipko also reflected these
Although a useful good miration than the Chipko subalterns who carried multiplicities of thought
schools manual, this book’s Movement. Journalistic forward the movement in and action. While for the
perspective is entirely sub- and anthropological lit- the remote forest patches marginalised, especially
jective and opinionated, erature on the movement of the Himalayas, in the the valiant women of Ut-
bereft of objective evidence is vast, but barring a few face of extreme risk to life tarakhand, it was an effort

80 EDUCATIONWORLD MARCH 2021