That the 20th century shapes our present and will influence our future is common point of debate in India. Clearly, politics and economics, culture and society clearly were deeply influenced, if not fundamentally shaped, by choices made at key points of time. Yet this applies equally, so with even greater long-term consequences, to the environment in its widest sense. In a more focussed way, this is how human actions, via technological choices or the ways land or water are governed, influence the non-human entities we share spaces with.

Rather than view ecology and society as two distinct entities, the overlaps and interfaces can shed fresh light on where we stand today. knowing how we got to where we stand matters. India’s recent environmental pasts have bearing not only on this country, but Asia and the world at large.

In this episode of BIC Talks,  Professor of History and Environmental Studies, Ashoka University Prof. Mahesh Rangarajan delivers the first annual Vijay Thrivuvady memorial lecture that took place at the big premises in early January 2024. Vijay Thiruvady was a naturalist, environmental historian and a true blue Bangalore who will be terribly missed by all who knew him and all who have walked Lal Bagh with him.

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