Why Care About the Environment? (When People Are Being Killed) -- Mahesh Rangarajan

A young person once asked: why care about nature when people are dying in Gaza? Environmental historian Mahesh Rangarajan gives the long answer — why the choice between people and the planet was always false.In previous episodes of this podcast, our guests have talked to us about particular rivers, forests, seasons, environmental fissures. This time, we take the whole arc. Environmental historian Mahesh Rangarajan joins Arati Kumar-Rao and Prem Panicker for a conversation that runs from forest kingdoms that trained elephants for war, to the steam engine that made England the workshop of the world, to a tube well draining the water table under a field in Rajasthan tonight.History, he argues, isn't a museum. It's a diagnostic tool — a way of understanding how we got here, and of telling the difference between what we meant to do and what we actually did. War is about resources: land, water, plants. So is peace. There was never a wall between caring about people and caring about the earth.A conversation about the long quarrel between human beings and the rest of life on earth, and what the long view asks of us now:GUEST BIO:Mahesh Rangarajan is professor of history and environmental studies, and chair of the HDFC Archives of Contemporary India, at Ashoka University. Previously, he has taught at Cornell University, University of Delhi, Krea University and the National Centre for Biological Sciences (Bangalore). His notable works include Fencing The Forest and Nature and Nation. Along with Arupjyoti Saikia, he is co-editor of the recently released book, India's Forests. He has previous edited The Oxford Anthology of Indian Wildlife and Environmental Issues in India. Other notable co-edited works include Shifting Ground and At Nature's Edge. VIDEO TALKS:On archiving India's environmental history: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rO77i6E040India's environmental pasts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8wcFu7QfLoWhy history matters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28K8Y2khCQMWhat history teaches us about climate and ecological crisis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usHnYRFLVSoOn archiving India's environmental history: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rO77i6E040Revisiting the Anthropocene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFypZm52YBQ&t=7sHistory, activism and the Anthropocene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V4tig2pARk&t=1sScience, society and publics in 21st century India: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64jnPT4mvBkNature's pasts, nature's futures: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6emo9KuAwwHow the tiger became Indian (and why): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KldDax2ZNlwAre India's forest tribes still left out of policy?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQs4Hii3LwoWRITINGS AND INTERVIEWS: An extended The Hindu interview on being recognized by the American Historical Association: https://www.thehindu.com/education/an-interview-with-historian-dr-mahesh-rangarajan/article38185315.eceMahesh Rangarajan on the colonial branding of wildlife as "dangerous beasts", and its consequences: https://www.scribd.com/document/878819385/Indias-Environmental-History-A-Reader-Mahesh-Rangarajan-Z-Library-1An EPW piece on the debate on man-animal conflict in India: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4404560Mahesh Rangarajan on why mining in the Aravallis is driven not by strategic minerals, but by construction: https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/pune/aravalli-mining-not-driven-by-strategic-mineral-but-construction-demand-says-prof-mahesh-rangarajan-10446237/Mahesh Rangarajan interview in The Hindu on the need for a working relationship between man and elephant: https://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/THE-SATURDAY-INTERVIEW-mdash-Jumbo-concern/article14684450.eceMahesh Rangarajan on why India's biodiversity, surviving despite depradations, is a gift: https://www.outlookindia.com/society/green-rainbow-news-261339Wide-ranging interview in Business Standard: https://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/lunch-with-bs-mahesh-rangarajan-115103000710_1.htmlThe Hindu on Mahesh Rangarajan's resignation as director of the Nehru Memorial Museum: https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/NMMLs-Mahesh-Rangarajan-resignation-Mistaking-a-scholar-for-a-bureaucrat/article62119874.eceADDITIONAL READING:Dr BR Ambedkar's November 1949 speech: https://bodhisattva.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Last-speech-of-Dr-B-R-Ambedkar-given-25-Nov-1949-English.pdfHarish Damodaran piece on the importance of millet cultivation: https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-economics/why-iran-war-monsoon-worries-could-make-2026-indias-year-of-millets-10694671/Norman Borlaug's 1970 Nobel Prize acceptance speech: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1970/borlaug/acceptance-speech/Contact us:Email the PodcastArati Kumar-Rao on Instagram Prem Panicker on X (Twitter) Prem on SubstackFrom The Marginlands on Instagram