Overview

Indira Gandhi, prime minister of India for sixteen years, was as charismatic as she was controversial-at once admired and criticized for her political judgements and actions. Yet beyond such debate, what has not been fully understood is her life-long communion with nature and how that defined her very being. Weaving personal, political, and environmental history, politician-scholar Jairam Ramesh narrates the compelling story of Indira Gandhi, the naturalist. He tells us why and how she came to make a private passion a public calling; how her views on the environment remained steadfast even as her political and economic stances changed; how her friendships with conservationists led to far-reaching decisions to preserve India's biodiversity; how she urged, cajoled, and persuaded her colleagues as she took significant decisions particularly regarding forests and wildlife; and how her own finely-developed instincts and beliefs resulted in landmark policies, programmes, initiatives, laws, and institutions, that have endured. Drawing extensively from unpublished letters, notes, messages, and memos, Indira Gandhi: A Life in Nature offers a lively, conversational narrative of a relatively little known but fascinating aspect of Indira Gandhi's tumultuous life. Equally, the book acts as a compass to India at a time when the country faces the formidable challenge of ensuring ecological security and sustainability in its pursuit of high economic growth.

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9780199493852

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Jairam Ramesh, a member of Parliament, has held key ministerial portfolios between 2006 and 2014-rural development, drinking water and sanitation, environment and forests, power and commerce. He has authored a number of best-selling books including Old History, New Geography: Bifurcating Andhra Pradesh (2016), To the Brink and Back: India's 1991 Story (2015), Legislating for Justice: The 2013 Land Acquisition Law (2015), Green Signals: Ecology, Growth and Democracy in India (2015), Making Sense of Chindia: Reflections on China and India (2005) and Kautilya Today: Jairam Ramesh on a Globalising India (2002).

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