Situating Tagore's Environmentalism: Environmental degradation and Rabindranath's activism

In recent years, a large number of works on Rabindranath Tagore have been published. Environmental history, on the other hand, has also become a very flourishing area of research.But Scarcely we find any work linking these two. This work attempts to fill in this lacuna by highlighting the historical significance of Tagore's environmental ideas and activism.Tagore, by his thoughts and actions, contributed to the first wave of environmentalism in his own unique way.It is explored how his environmentalism was shaped by his experiences of boyhood in the colonial city of Calcutta, in rural Bengal,by his awareness of the adverse environmental impact of western industrialism and imperialism, and how he became engaged in restoring the solidarity between human beings and our planet.His ideas and activities are also compared and contrasted with his contemporaries like M. K. Gandhi and Patrick Geddes.This book would be especially useful to students,teachers,historians, researchers, social scientists, philosophers,as well as environmental activists.

Dr.Sujata Mukherjee(ex-student, Pathabhavana,Visva-Bharati) is Professor of History at Rabindra Bharati University,Kolkata.Her research interests include history of science, medicine,environment, women's history, Gandhian studies,socio-cultural history of modern India. She has authored several books,articles and also edited monographs and journals.