Constitution:

Constitution:

The Modern State is considered to be a state for the welfare of the people. It is therefore, suggested that it should have a government of a particular form with appropriate powers and functions. The document containing laws and rules which determine and describe the form of the government, the relationship between the citizens and the government, is called a Constitution.

A constitution is a body of fundamental principles according to which a state is constituted or governed. It specifies basic allocation of power in the society.

A constitution is the supreme law of the land. It is the basic structure which defines the powers of the state and the rights and duties of the citizens.

A constitution is a set of basic rules that determine the nature of a state, the structure of its Government and the distribution of power within it. Thus a constitution is not merely a set of working rules, but is also a device by which power is distributed and limits of authority are set.

According to Gilchrist, a constitution consists of “that body of rules and laws, written and unwritten, which determines the organization of government, the distribution of powers of the various organs of the government and the general principles on which those powers are exercised.”

A constitution is the basic fundamental law of a State. It lays down the objectives of the State which it has to achieve. It also provides for the constitutional framework that is, various structures and organs of the governments at different levels. In addition, it describes the rights and duties of the citizens. It is, therefore, considered to be the basis for the governance of the country both in terms of goals and objectives as also their structures and functions.

Every constitution represents the vision and the values of its founding fathers and is based on the social, political and economic ethos and faith and aspirations of the people. A constitution is a frame of political community giving expression to the national consciousness, aspirations, ideals and goals of a people as developed through their history. Thus a constitutional state is a result of historical process. The constitution of India is the culmination and expression of the aspirations of the Indian people to be free from the yoke of British imperialism and guide their destiny so as to follow a path of economic prosperity and social justice.

Functions of the constitution:

1.      The first function of a constitution is to provide a set of basic rules that allow for minimal coordination members of a society.

2.      The second function of a constitution is to specify who has the power to make decisions in a society. It decides how the government will be constituted.

3.      Third function of a constitution is to set limits on what a government can impose on its citizens. These limits are fundamental in the sense that government may never trespass them.

Constitution not only set limits on the power of Government, more positively, a constitution may enshrine the aspirations of a society.

The framers of the Indian constitution,  for e.g. Thought that each individual in society should have all that is necessary for them to lead a life of minimal dignity and social self respect, minimum material well being, education etc.

4.      The forth function of a constitution is to enable the government to fulfill the aspirations of a society and create conditions for a just society.

A constitution expresses the fundamental identity of people.

A constitution is not only what is written in the text of the constitution. A constitution is a living organism of functioning institutions. It keeps constantly growing, evolving. Every constitution gets meaning and content only from the manner in which and the people by whom it is operated, the effects it acquires from how it is interpreted by courts of the land and the conventions and practices that grow around it in the actual process of its working.

The first major achievement of independent India was the framing of a new Constitution, a constitution based on the ideals of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity. Our present constitution- the first Constitution of India framed and given to themselves by the people of India- was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26 November, 1949. It came into full operation with effect from 26 January, 1950. The constitution as originally adopted had 22 parts, 395 articles and 8 schedules. Its present text is as amended from time to time. During the last 60 years, there have been more than 90 amendments.

The very fact that the Constitution of the Indian Republic is the product not of a political revolution but of the research and deliberations of a body of eminent representatives of the people who sought to improve upon the existing system of administration. The sources of the Constitution of India are diverse and many. These are both indigenous and foreign. The founding fathers made it very clear that they were not writing on a clean slate. They took a conscious decision not to make a complete departure from the past, but to build on the existing structure and experience of institutions already established. The constitution of India had an organic growth. It evolved through the interaction between various demands for representative-responsible governmental institutions during the nationalist struggles for independence and the small doses of constitutional reforms grudgingly granted by the British rulers from time to time. Howsoever rudimentary in form in the early stages, the process of political institution-building – particularly the legislatures-in the modern sense of the term can be gauged from as early as the late 1920s onwards. In fact, the sources of some of the provisions of the Constitution can be traced back to the beginning of the East India Company and the British rule in India.  

Comparative Public Administration

Comparative Public Administration (CPA) is the first major development in the post-war evolution of public administration. It aims at the development of a more scientific public administration by building and strengthening theory in public administration. Its objective has been ‘to hasten the emergence of a universally valid body of knowledge concerning administrative behaviour- to contribute to a genuine and generic discipline of public administration.

Comparative public administration stands for cross-cultural and cross-national public administration. It has two basic motivational concerns:

1)      Theory building

2)      Administration problems of the developing countries. 

In 1887, in his famous article, ‘The study of administration’ Woodrow Wilson stressed the need for comparative studies of administration. However the traditional literature was primarily descriptive rather than analytic or problem oriented. It was essentially non-comparative.

Robert Dahl and Dwight Waldo pointed out that cultural factors could make public administration in one nation different from that in another. As Dahl explained, “The comparative aspects of public administration have largely been ignored and as long as the the study of public administration is not comparative, claim for a ‘science of administration’ sounds hollow.”

Post World War II period pose some serious challenges to the social sciences in general and public administration in particular. Major developments of this period are success of independence movements in the erstwhile colonies of western powers. Resultantly many third world countries in Latin America, South Asia, Africa and elsewhere regained independence. Spread of socialism over half of the world was the cause of worry for western capitalist nations. They were now under pressure to deliver fruits of development in the third world in a bid to pull them in their block. Earlier thinking in public administration was ethnocentric in the sense that it was studied by westerners to understand their societies only. Societies in newly independent states were not in position to apply studies from western societies in toto in their countries. In this context need was felt to understand public administration in non –Western nations from comparative perspective. Scholars emphasized the need to study politico-administrative institutions in their social settings. Its origin can be traced to the 1952 conference of public administration held at Princeton. The establishment of Comparative Administrative Group (CAG) in 1960 with the help of Ford Foundation was a milestone in the annals of public administration.

Meaning, Nature and Significance:

The study of CPA contributes to a greater understanding of the individual characteristics of administrative systems functioning in different nations and cultures.

Robert H. Jackson defined CPA as “that facet of the study of public administration which is concerned with making rigorous cross-cultural comparisons of the structures and processes involved in the activity of administering public affairs.”

Nature:

Comparative Public Administration deals with administrative organizations or systems pertaining with different cultures and settings whose similar or dissimilar features or characteristics are studies and compared in order to find out “causes” or “reasons” for efficient or effective performance or behaviour of administrators, civil servants or bureaucrats.

This comparison can be cross-national, namely –the comparison of municipal administration in Ceylon and India. Intra-national like the comparison of Rajasthan and U.P. Secretariat, it can be cross-cultural such as the comparison of budget administration of Nepal and Russia and cross-temporal, such as the comparison of administration of Chandra Gupta Maurya and Akbar.

Trends:

Fred W. Riggs in his article Trends in the Comparative Study of Public Administration identified three trends which are outline below:

•        I.           From normative to empirical orientation
•     II.            From idiographic to nomothetic orientation; and
•  III.            From non-ecological to ecological orientation.

In the first trend, the attempt is to study administration not as a normative science, which deals with what out to be, but as an empirical science dealing with what is,

In the second trend, while the idiographic approach concentrates on the unique case of a single agency or country, the nomothetic approach seeks generalizations, laws and hypotheses that assert regularities of behaviour and correlation with variables.

The third trend is a shift in focus from the examination of administration as an isolated non-ecological activity to the examination of administration as a part of the larger administrative system or ecology.

Comparative administrative studies have been conducted at macro, middle-range and micro levels.

·         Macro Studies focus on the comparisons of whole administrative systems in their proper ecological contexts. For example India and U.S.A. Here the relationship between an administrative system and its external environment are highlighted.

·         Middle range studies focus specific aspects of administrative system. For instance, a comparison of local government in different countries. 

·         Micro study relates to an analysis of a part of an administrative system, such as the recruitment or training in two or more administrative organizations.

Comparative Public Administration approaches the question of administrative development to direct socio economic change in cross-cultural context.  It pays attention to the ecological and developmental aspects of public administration in comparative context.

Comparative public administration addresses the questions of modernization and developmental diversity in different systems. While dealing with these concerns it refers to ecology, goal orientation, developmental and cross-cultural perspectives. From ecological perspective it studies the interaction between the administrative systems and their environment. It attempts to analyze the unique goals of particular cultures in relation to their administrative systems. It explore developmental dimension through comparing the linkages of administrative systems with the question of modernization. Lastly it pursues broad comparison among administrative systems of Western and no-Western countries.

Scope:

1.      Comparative public administration deals with the comparison of administrative systems, structures, organization, functions and methods of all types of public authority engaged in administration, whether national, regional or local and whether executive or advisory. It also deals with the comparison of the Functions of administrative authorities including executive, legislature and judicial functions.

2.      A comparative study of various forms of control over administration.

3.      A comparative study of personnel administration and its problems.

4.      Comparative study of functional administration such as Educational administration, Social administration.

5.      Comparative foreign administration.

In short, applied administration has to be studied on comparative basis, country-wise, department or function- wise, governmental level- wise, historically and internationally.

Significance of Comparative Public Administration:

Comparative Public Administration significantly contributed to the field of public administration from both academic as well as practical manner.

·         Generalizations relating to administrative structures and behaviour emerging out of comparative studies in different nations and cultures can help in formulating theoretical constructs which can provide a scientific basis to the study of public administration.

·         It contributes to a greater understanding of the individual characteristics of administrative systems functioning in different nations and cultures. It also help in explaining factors responsible for cross-national and cross-cultural similarities as well as difference in the administrative systems.

·         It helps administrators, policy makers, and academicians to examine causes for the success or failure of particular administrative structures and patterns in different environmental settings.

·         It introduces us about the administrative practices followed in various nations so we can adopt those practices which can fit in our own nations and system.

Importantly it has academic utility in terms of scientific and systematic study of public administration and in improving the knowledge about other administrative systems so that appropriate administrative reforms and changes can be brought about in different nations.

Development Administration

Introduction

Till nineteenth century the public administration was committed to laissez faire policy. In Twentieth century it became welfare oriented. The concept of Development Administration is a development of post-1945 era. It is mostly due to challenges thrown by newly independent states (NIS) from Third World or developing countries from Asia Africa, Latin America.

Challenges for public administration in NIS         

NIS constitutes of two third of the total world population. These countries have problems of poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, mal-nutrition and population explosion. In these countries, the government and administrative machinery are expected to play the role of agents of change and modernization. Development in these countries depends upon integration of socio-economic structures with political system. National development in those countries demands the process of integration and change, which involves transformation of the entire society from all economic, social, political and administrative sides. Change in the structure or behavior of economic, social, political and administrative institutions demands change in the attitudes, values and perspectives of the people.

Such challenges for public administration demanded different approach than traditional approach which was focused on efficiency and economy. Therefore new approach of development administration was advocated by scholars of comparative administration. This new approach was designed to suit varying needs of public administration in different ecological settings, and help to achieve a set of social goals.

Meaning of Development Administration

The term development administration was first coined by U.L. Goswami in 1955 and later popularized by scholars like Fred W. Riggs, Edwards W. Weidner, Joseph La Palombara. Weidner was the first to introduce the concept of Development Administration.

Scholars are not agreeing with the exact meaning of development administration. Weidner defines it as “an action-oriented, goal-oriented administrative system.” He has further viewed development administration as the process of guiding an organization towards the achievement of progressive political, economic and social objectives that are authoritatively determined in one manner or another.

He described development as a state of mind, a tendency, a direction rather than a fixed goal. Further, development is seen as “an aspect of change that is desirable, broadly predicted or planned, or at least influenced by governmental action.” Riggs viewed development as involving, “the increased ability of human societies to shape their physical, human and cultural environments.” A ‘developed’ system, therefore, is capable of changing its environment to a greater degree than an ‘underdeveloped’ system. He emphasize that the study of development administration can help to identify the conditions under which a maximum rate of development is sought and obtained.

Largely, it carries two implications:

Firstly, it refers to the administration of developmental programmes, the methods used by large-scale organizations, especially governments, to implement policies and plans designed to meet developmental goals. 

Secondly, Development Administration, by implication, involves the strengthening of administrative capabilities.

Pai Panandikar identifies development administration with “administration of planned change.” The administrative capabilities are strengthened to achieve developmental goals. This objective is linked with planning. The planned development is intended to achieve specific results within the specified time.  Basically therefore, the framework of development gravitates around a planned change which is derived from a purposeful decision to effect Improvements in a social system. The phrase development administration is intrinsically intertwined with this process of change. Essentially, development administration refers to the structure, organization and behavior necessary for the implementation of schemes and programmes of socio-economic change undertaken by the governments of developing nations.”

Today, Development Administration is concerned with the formulation and implementation of the four P’s – Plans, Policies, Programmes and Projects.

Features of Development Administration

1)      Change Orientation:

Development Administration’s central concern is socio-economic change. In this process of change it deliberately tries to reorient people in desired directions. The administrative system is thus called upon to play the role of a change-agent.

2)      Goal-orientation:

Development Administration is not just public administration in the sense of carrying out activities; it is a goal-oriented administration with emphasis on achieving social and economic goals.

3)      Result-orientation:

Development administration has to be change oriented since changes have to be brought about rapidly within a definite time schedule. It expects specific results and expresses in most areas fairly clear norms of performance. It is judged on the basis of results achieved.

4)      Citizen Participative Orientation:

Development is a process of socio-economic change. Its success depends upon citizen participation in public administration. Public servants must be equipped to carry people along with them and draw them actively into the development processes. This requires basic change in the outlook of civil servants towards people.

5)      Commitment to Work:

Development administration requires a firm commitment to socio-economic change, a sense of involvement and concern on the part of civil servants for completing time bound programmes.

6)      Innovativeness:

Development administration focuses on replacing or improving the existing governing structures and norms with the ones that suit the changing political and social environment.  In other words, development administration is one that is dynamic and progressive in thought and action.

7)      Client Orientation: 

Development administration is positively oriented towards meeting the needs of marginal farmers, landless agricultural labourers and rural artisans in developing countries. The socio-cultural and politico-economic progress of progress of these sections from the essential basis of the performance appraisal of development administration.

8)      Responsiveness and Accountability:

Development administration is required to be responsive and accountable. A development administrative system requires highly motivated personnel at all levels. Such personnel should be committed to the development goals and should have a high degree of enthusiasm to accomplish them. They need to posses and demonstrate their willingness, dedication and preservance to achieve the progressive goals of development.

9)      Temporal dimension:

Since socio-economic changes have to be brought about as quickly as possible, time assumes considerable importance in development administration. All development programmes are prepared for a certain time-frame and must be complete within that.

Development administration shapes the political, social and economic environment and also gets affected by it in turn. It is not a closed system. It receives feedback from the social system and responds to the demands put on it by the system.

Public Administration (SYBA-PAPER-III):Public Administration-Meaning & Nature

Public Administration: Meaning & Nature 

Public administration is a broad ranging and amorphous combination of theory and practice; its purpose is to promote a superior understanding of government and its relationship with the society it governs, as well as to encourage public policies more responsive to social needs and to institute managerial practices attuned to effectiveness, efficiency and the deeper human requisites of the citizenry.

Public Administration is a specialized academic field. It essentially deals with the machinery and procedures of government activities. Public Administration is an aspect of more generic concept of administration. Administration is as old as civilization itself and public administration dates back to the origin of the state. As an aspect of government activity, public administration is as old as political society that is, it has been co-existing with every political systems, to accomplish the objectives set by the political decision makers.

Administration has been defined as a cooperative human effort towards achieving some common goals. Thus defined, administration can be found in various institutional setting such as a business firm, a hospital, a university, a government department and so on. As an aspect of this more generic concept, Public Administration is that species of administration which operates within a specific political setting.

It is a means by which the policy decisions made by the political decision makers are carried out. Public Administration is decision making, planning the work to be done, formulating objectives and goals, working with the legislature and citizen organizations to gain public support and funds for government programmers, establishing and revising organization, directing and supervising employees, providing leadership, communicating and receiving communication, determining work methods and procedures, appraising performance, exercising controls and other functions performed by government executives and supervisors. It is the action part of the government, the means by which the purposes and goals of the government are realized. Hence the focus of public administration is on public bureaucracy, i.e., bureaucratic organization of the government or the administrative organization.

Public Administration lend itself to two usages; it is an activity; and it also refers to the discipline (or subject) of intellectual inquiry and study. Maintaining law and order is an activity and is part of Public Administration. Public Administration is also a discipline like Economics, Sociology, History etc., and it studies these activities and functions, formulate concepts and builds models and theories.

Public Administration as an academic discipline is barely one hundred and twenty five years old. The publication of Woodrow Wilson’s Essay ‘The Study Of Administration’ in Political Science Quarterly in 1887 is considered as the symbolic beginning of a fairly autonomous inquiry. Whereas public administration as an activity can be traced back to the earliest periods of human history when man started living in organized societies. Governmental administration of earlier times (ancient and medieval) however differed considerably in its structure and goals from state administration in the modern era.  

In every society, public administration began with its main focus on the performance of activities like maintenance of law and order, collection of revenue, defence, etc. The rise of the modern welfare state has expanded the importance scope of public administration. Besides law and order, revenue collection and security functions, it operationalises a vast variety of public laws, provides public services like post and telegraphs and transport facilities in cities and towns, educational and health services and is the main instrument of socio-economic transformation in developing societies. It has widened to the extent that now very few aspects of an individual life remained unaffected by public administration. This stands true for all societies. – Socialist, capitalist and so on.

Public administration as visible public serving activity is before everyone’s gaze. Public administration is a system of organization and action concerned with performance of public serving activities. It can best be looked at as an instrument that is used for the realization of the goals of the government. Just as societies have their political systems and economic systems, they also have their public administrative systems.

Meaning and Definitions:

WHAT IS ADMINISTRATION?

The English word ‘administer’ is derived from a combination of two Latin words ad & ministrare meaning ‘to serve’ or ‘to manage’. Literally, the term ‘administration means management of affairs – public or private.

Administration may be defined as “group activity which involves cooperation and coordination for the purpose of achieving desired goals or objectives”.

F. M. Marx: “Administration is determined action taken in pursuit of a conscious purpose. It is the systematic ordering of affairs and the calculated use of resources aimed at making those things happen which one wants to happen.”

J. M. Pfiffner: “Administration is the organization and direction of human and material resources to achieve desired ends.”

Therefore, the two essentials of administration are:

i)                    Cooperative effort and

ii)                  Pursuit of common objectives.

DEFINING PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION:

Public administration is any kind of administration in the public interest which, in other words, has simply come to mean governmental administration. Administration of private enterprises is known as private administration.

L.D. White observes that although public administration varies in form and objects, and although the administration of public and private affairs differs at many points, there is an underlying similarity, if not identity. As an integral aspect of such generic concept, public administration could be related to that type of administration, which operates within a specific ecological setting. It is a means to carry out the policy decisions made by political executive.

To be seen along with it is the ‘Public’ aspect of Public administration, which attributes a special character and focus to it. ‘Public’ can be looked at formally to mean ‘government’. So, public administration is government administration, government in action, or a socio-economic and politico-administrative confluence, the focus being especially on public bureaucracy.

Encyclopedia Britannica defines public administration as ‘the application of a policy of a state through its government.’

Public Administration, therefore, refers to that part of administration, which pertains to the administrative activities of the government.

Now we will try to look into the definitions of Public Administration provided by various scholars.

Woodrow Wilson:

Public administration is the detailed and systematic application of law. Every particular application of law is an act of administration.

L.D. White:

“Public administration consists of all those operations having for their purpose the fulfilment or enforcement of public policy”.

Luther Gulick:

Public administration is that part of the science of administration, which has to do with the government; it concerns itself primarily with the executive branch where the work of the government is done; though there are obviously problems also in connection with the legislative and judicial branches.

J.M. Pfiffner:

“Administration consists of getting the work of government done by coordinating the efforts of people so that they can work together to accomplish their set tasks”.

H.A. Simon, D.W. Smithburg and V.A. Thompson:

“By Public Administration is meant, in common usage, the activities of the executive branches of national, state and local governments, government corporations and certain other agencies of a specialised character. Specifically excluded are judicial and legislative agencies within the government and non-governmental administration.”

Dimock:

“Public Administration is the fulfillment or enforcement of public policy as declared by the competent authorities…Public administration is law in action. It is the executive side of government.”

D. Waldo:

Public Administration is “the art and science of management applied to the affairs of the State.”

Percy Mc Queen:

Public administration is related to the operations of government whether local or central.

F.A. Nigro and L.G. Nigro:

Public Administration:

• is co-operative group effort in a public setting;

• covers all three branches-executive, legislative, and judicial, and their inter-relationships;

• has an important role in the formulation of public policy and is thus a part of the political process;

• is different in significant ways from private administration; and

• is closely associated with numerous private groups and individuals in providing services to the community”.

Thus, Public Administration is the management of affairs of the government. It operates within a political context. It is a means by which the policy decisions made by the political decision makers are carried out.

An analysis of the above definitions indicates that the term public administration has been used in two sense i.e., wider sense and narrow sense. In the wider sense (broader sense), public administration includes the activities of all the three branches of the government, that is, legislature, executive and judiciary. This view has been taken by Woodrow Wilson, Marshall Dimock, F.A. Nigro and Pfiffner. By contrast, public administration in the narrower sense includes the activities of only the executive branch of the government. This view has been taken by Simon, Gulick, Ordway Tead, Fayol and Willoghby.

NATURE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

There are two views regarding the Nature of Public Administration, that is, Integral and Managerial.

According to the integral view, ‘administration’ is the sum total of all the activities – manual, clerical, managerial, etc., which are undertaken to realise the objectives of the organisation. In this view all the acts of officials of the government from the Attendant to the Secretaries to the government and Head of the State constitute Public Administration. Henri Fayol and L.D. White are the supporters of this view.

Thus, administration, according to this view, depends upon the subject matter of the concerned agency, that is, it differs from one sphere to another sphere.

According to the managerial view of administration, the managerial activities of people who are involved in planning, organising, commanding, coordinating and controlling constitute Public Administration. This view regards administration as getting things done and not doing things. Luther Gullick, Herbert Simon, Smithburg and Thompson are the supporters of this view. The managerial view excludes Public Administration from non-managerial activities such as manual, clerical and technical activities.

Thus, administration according to this view constitutes the activities of only the top persons. Administration, according to this view, is same in all the spheres as the managerial techniques are same in all the fields of activities.

The two views differs from each other in many ways. According to Prof. M.P. Sharma the difference between the two views is fundamental. The integral view includes the activities of all the persons engaged in administration whereas the managerial view restricts itself only to the activities of the few persons at the top. The integral view depicts all types of activities from manual to managerial, from non-technical to technical whereas the managerial view takes into account only the managerial activities in an organisation. Furthermore, administration, according to the integral view would differ from one sphere to another depending upon the subject matter, but whereas that will not be the case according to the managerial point of view because the managerial view is identified with the managerial techniques common to all the fields of administration.

The difference between the two views relates to the difference between management and operation or we may say between getting things done and doing things. The correct meaning of the term administration would however, depend upon the context in which it is used.

Dimock, Dimock and Koening sum up in the following words:

“As a study public administration examines every aspect of government’s efforts to discharge the laws and to give effect to public policy; as a process, it is all the steps taken between the time an enforcement agency assumes jurisdiction and the last brick is placed (but includes also that agency’s participation, if any, in the formulation of the programme in the first place); and as a vocation, it is organising and directing the activities of others in a public agency.”

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Indian Constitution and Government (SYBA- PAPER- II) Environment Movement In India

ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECOLOGICAL MOVEMENTS

The first lesson is that the main source of environmental destruction in the world is the demand for natural resources generated  by the consumption of the rich (weather they are rich nations or rich individuals and groups within nations)….

The second lesson is that it is the poor who are affected the most by environmental destruction.

                                            (Anil Agrawal, 1986)

Environmental movements of various countries have emerged due to different reasons. It is basically due to prevailing environmental quality of the locality. The environmental movements in the north are basically on the issue of quality of life. Whereas the environment movements in the south arise  due to some other reasons, such as due to conflicts for controlling of natural resources and many more. The participants of these movements in North are the middle class and upper class people, who have concern for the nature. But in the south the protesters are generally the marginal population – hill peasants, tribal communities, fishermen and other underprivileged people. The different environmental movements in our own country support this argument. The examples could be taken as Chipko, N.B.A. , Mitti Bachao Andolan, Koel-Karo Andolan etc. That is why the environmentalism of the North is refereed as “full stomach” environmentalism and the environmentalism of the south is called as “empty – belly” environmentalism.

Environmental and ecological movements are among the important examples of the collective actions of several social groups. Protection and recognition of constitutional and democratic rights, which are not defined by law but form an important part of the day to day living of the subaltern masses like the control over their resources, the right of indigenous people to preserve their culture, protection of environment and maintenance of ecological balance are significant concerns of these movements, as they affect the human life to a great extent.

These movements also reflect an enlarged vision of economics and politics. Economic justice sought by these movements does not mean mere distribution of resources but encompass a larger vision like enhancement in the quality of life through recognition of people’s right over their natural resources, their right to live with dignity, and their participation in the decision–making. The concerns of human environment received spectacular attention of scholars following the conclusion of the United Nations Conference on Human Environment, Stockholm in 1972. By the 1980s the “green movement” became a worldwide phenomenon encompassing various countries of the world including India.

While agrarian or working class movements have had a long historical trajectory, environmental or ecological movements gained worldwide attention only in the second half of the twentieth century. These movements focus not only on basic survival issues but also on larger ecological concerns. These are different from earlier social movements. In general these movements are grouped under tribal and peasant movements and as well under New Social movements. This is so because ecological aspects are generally associated with peasant and tribal’s whose survival is associated with the state of natural resources like forests, water etc. Some treat them as middle class or elite movements as the problems and concerns of the local communities, indigenous people or non–tribal poor are generally articulated by the urban middle class elite. In fact, there has been no single unified and homogenous environmental discourse in India. There has been what Guha calls ‘varieties of environmentalism’.

ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENTS IN INDIA: ISSUES ANDCONCERNS:

The environmental movement is a broad generic term which is generally used to describe and understand different types of local struggles and conflicts concerned with livelihood issues and ecological security within the larger context of the development debate. These struggles in fact critiqued and questioned the notion of development and conservation ecology pursued by the Indian state and its officials since colonial time.

The genesis of the environmental movement in India can be traced to the Chipko movement (1973) in Garhwal region in the new state of Uttranchal. In fact, between1970s and 1980s there were several struggles in India around issues of rights to forest and water which raised larger ecological concerns like rights of communities in forest resources, sustainability of large scale environmental projects like dams, issues of displacement and rehabilitation etc.

The Indian environmental movement is critical of the colonial model of development pursued by the post–colonial state. The post–independent state failed to build up a development agenda based on the needs of the people and continued to advocate the modern capitalist agenda which led to the destruction of environment, poverty and marginalisation of rural communities. Formation of national parks, sanctuaries, protected areas in India, in fact represents the conventional environmentalism which the Indian state advocated with the aim of preserving wildlife and biodiversity by pushing people out of these areas.

In response to this conventional environmentalism which considered the Indian state to be the custodian of natural resources, the environmental movement in India advocated the ideology of ‘environmentalism of the poor’. It not only criticized modern developmentalism but also strongly advocated the revival of traditional ‘self –sufficient village economy’. It brought communities to the centre stage of Indian environmental discourse. The environmentalist stated that local communities were best suited to conserve natural resources as their survival depended in the sustainable use of such resources. They argued that in order to make the sustainable use of the resource the customary rights or traditional rights should be given back to the people which were taken away by the State, and traditional institutions should also be recognized. In a nutshell, the environmental movement in India concentrates on the issue of equity in relation to access and use of natural resources.

Unlike in the West, a significant characteristic of environmental movements in India is that they have mainly involved the women, the poor and disadvantaged masses who have been directly affected by or are victims of environmental degradation. Thus these movements are primarily political expressions of the struggle of local communities’ and people who are victims of environmental degradation or abuse of resources.

Gadgil and Guha identify four broad strands within the environmental movements in India based on vision, ideology and strategy.

• The first types are those which emphasize on the moral necessity to restrain overuse and ensure justice to the poor and marginalised. Mainly Gandhians belong to this strand.
• The second strand stresses on the need to dismantle the unjust social order through struggle. Marxists mostly follow this strand.
• The Third and fourth strands advocate reconstruction, i.e. employing technologies appropriate to the given context and time. They reflect the concerns of the scientists or the spontaneous efforts of the communities at the village level who aim at protecting local community forests or the right to pursue environment-friendly agricultural practices.

THE REASONS FOR EMERGENCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENTS IN INDIA

 CONTROL OVER NATURAL RESOURCES:

Control over natural resources is an important reason for emergence of environmental movement in India. Some good examples of these kinds of movements are like Chipko and Narmada Bachao Aandolan. In the first case, the reason for conflict was control over forest; whereas, in the second the reason was control over water. Let’s have a look on the reasons behind the emergence of Chipko movement in the Garwhal Himalyas.

The Chipko movement started in the Garhwal Himalaya in April 1973. Between 1973 and 1980, over a dozen instances were recorded where, through an innovative  technique of protest, illiterate peasants, men, women and children- threatened to hug forest trees rather than allow then to be logged for export. Notably the peasants were not interested in saving the trees per se, but in using their produce for agricultural and household requirements. In later years, however the movement turned its attention to broader ecological concerns, such as the collective protection and management of forest, and the diffusion of renewable energy technologies.

Most of these conflicts have pitted rich against poor: Logging companies against hill villagers, dam builders against forest tribal communities, multinational corporations deploying trawlers against traditional fisher folk in small boats.

One important factor is that those poor peoples are solely dependent upon those natural resources for there survival hood. So, the changes in control of resources directly hamper their subsistence economy due to which their survival hood came in danger. Therefore the protest of the people rise against those outsiders, which had ultimately taken the shape of environmental movement in many instances.

POLITICAL REASONS:

After independence in 1947 people have great expectation from the indigenous government, it was assumed that the new government which was more aware of the Indian problems and was equally concerned for the people would definitely seek to eradicate all problems, with the installation of new government under the leadership of Nehru , with the observations of industrializations raised hopes but the government policies were only for industrialization without looking the environment and equal sharing of natural resources.

The governmental policies resulted into a lot of displacement of people due to large projects such as dams like Bhakra – Nangal and many others. These policies pushed the local people on the edges more often than not, the agents of resource intensification are given preferential treatment by the states through the grant of generous long leases over mineral or fish stocks, e.g., or the provision of raw materials at an enormously subsidised prices, with the injustice so compounded local communities at the receiving end of this process have no recourse except direct actions, resisting both the state and out side exploiters through a variety of protest techniques. So we can say these struggles might perhaps as seen as manifestation a new kind of  ‘traditional’ class conflict were fought in the cultivated field or in the factory, these new struggles are  waged over gifts of nature such as forests, and waters, gifts that are coveted by all but increasingly monopolized by a few.

If we talk in explicitly ecological terms then we can say that history of development in India can be interpreted as being, in essence, a process of resources capture by the omnivorous (individuals and groups with the social power to capture, transform and use natural resources from a much wider catchment area) at the expanse of ecosystem people (those communities which depend very heavily on the natural resources of their own locality). So, we can say the environmental movement is the resistance offered by ecosystem people to the resource capture by omnivorous: as embodied in movements against large dams by tribal communities to be displaced by them or struggles by peasants against diversion of forests and grazing land to industry.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC REAONS:

The other angles by which we look upon the cause of emergence of environmental movements are the socio-economic reasons. Almost most of the environmental movements in India are some how related with this aspect, also, if we see the location where these movements have started then we would found that most of these areas are tribal dominated. These people have strong beliefs regarding their forests, land and water. At the same time they are also totally dependent upon these resources for their survival hood. Therefore, when these forests or other sources of livelihood get disturbed by the outsiders, their socio-economic conditions get hampered and the ultimate recourse is the movement against those people who were harnessing those resources. Also, women had generally played an important role in these movements, in tribal groups; women are accustomed to responsibility and leadership for community survival. There work involves them directly and daily with forests and natural resources. So, whenever their survival came into risk, they take the lead role for the protection of their community and its resources.

ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION/DESTRUCTION: 

Environmental degradation is also an important cause which many time leads to environmental movement. One such e.g. was the silent valley case. Here the proposed dam by the Kerala State Electricity Board was supposed to submerge a large tract of virgin forest. Those are one of the few virgin rain forests left in the country. So, the local people of vicinity along with the N.G.O.s resisted this move. In this movement the K.S.S.P. also get help from scientist community of India and abroad. And the result was withdrawal of this project by the government.

One another e.g. of movement which arose due to the degradation of local environment was the movement against the limestone quarrying, in the Doon Valley in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

SUMMARY

To sum up, environmental and ecological movements became prominent in India since the 1970s, like other such movements. The concerns of these movements are not confined to any particular groups. They are all encompassing – the entire village and urban communities, women, tribals, peasants, middle classes and nature. Even the issues raised by them concern all sections of society in varying degrees. These issues are: protection of people’s right to access of natural resources, prevention of land degradation, preventing commercialization of nature resources and environmental pollution, maintenance of ecological balance, rehabilitation of displaced people, etc. These issues are also related to people’s dignity, environmental rights and their decision-making rights on the issues concerning them. The state in collaboration with the donor agencies disturbed the ecological balance in the society following independence. In the process this adversely affected the people. The latter launched environmental and ecological movement with their leadership, NGOs and other civil society organisations. These movements have raised the levels of people’s consciousness, and achieved some success. They form a significant aspect of democracy in India.

(Ref:http://www.scribd.com/doc/15990953/Environmental-and-Ecological-Movements