Systemic Roots of India’s Climate Policy: Centering Community Adaptation Amid Structural Inequities and Global Justice
Original framing: “India’s Climate Policy Push Puts Communities at the Centre” — bing news
Colonial forest laws of the 19th century criminalized traditional Adivasi use of forests, laying the groundwork for contemporary land‑use conflicts and ecological degradation. Post‑independence development policies continued this legacy through large‑scale dams and mining projects that displaced tribal communities while increasing carbon emissions. Understanding this historical trajectory reveals that current climate vulnerabilities are not accidental but patterned outcomes of entrenched dispossession. Score indicates deep historical relevance.
India’s climate policy cannot be decoupled from the historical legacy of colonial land alienation, ongoing neoliberal extractivism, and entrenched caste‑class hierarchies that concentrate climate risks among marginalised peoples.
By foregrounding community‑led adaptation without confronting these structural drivers, the current narrative risks reproducing the very inequities it purports to alleviate. A systemic remedy requires legally securing indigenous and community land rights, reorienting public finance away from fossil fuels toward decentralized renewables, embedding participatory governance that guarantees voice to Dalit, tribal, fisherfolk, and urban poor actors, and weaving traditional ecological knowledge into nationally sanctioned adaptation strategies. Such a multifaceted approach, informed by cross‑cultural models like Buen Vivir and Ubuntu and guided by trickster‑inspired critical reflection, offers a pathway to climate resilience that is just, effective, and rooted in India’s own diverse cultural and ecological heritage.