Green Parties in India: The question of success and survival
By Purimetla Raghavi
Since the beginning of ecological consciousness in India, the emphasis was mainly on activism and social movements. Though Gandian ideology and practices brought green politics into the Indian political context, no concrete efforts were made to form a green party until the beginning of the last decade. Even though some national parties formed with Gandian principles advocated for environmental issues, no proper institutional shape has been given to the green parties. With the environmentalism and ecological security taking the centre stage in world politics and shaping the policy discourse, it is important to understand the green politics in institutional connotations especially in India which has been regarded as a spokes person of the third world. Thus, this article is an attempt to understand the green parties in India and why are they unable to garner the popular support like in the west?
On the international front green parties emerged in 1980s with the formation of The Greens in West Germany. The party had four working principles social justice, ecological wisdom, non-violence and gross root democracy which eventually became the dictums of green politics with sustainability and diversity being the later additions. Unlike in India, social movements in Western Europe have provided a conducive environment for the growth of green parties. The Green party, for instance emerged as an alternative political institutions under the mass anti nuclear movement in West Germany. The social movements were able to transform into political institutions in Europe due to large scale support from the middle classes who were consciously involved in the environmentalism in large numbers, where as in India large scale environmental movements predominantly included ecological refugees, tribals and poor.
One of the reasons for triumph of green parties in Europe, Australia and New Zealand etc is the confidence of middle class. The parties were able to sell the ideas of sustainability and ecological security to the middle class which has already attained a saturation point in consumerism. The exact replica such politics wouldn’t be possible in India because the middle class who also constitutes huge portions of the population is highly into materialism perpetuated by neoliberal philosophies that are against the premise of green politics and parties.
Another reason for the stunted growth of green politics in India is that the political philosophy of green politics is against the current dominant (economic) paradigm. Post 1991 economic reforms, the policy environment and economic theory of the Indian developmental strategy is large scale industrialization and urbanization. Though there have been expert suggestions on development of micro, small and cottage industries (which is in line with the Gandian principle), very less has been done this front. Hence, in spite of rich knowledge accumulated through intense research and development in the field of environment and ecology, the political discourse was very meagerly attracted to green polices. Indian state on the other hand right from the independence has given preference to economic development over environment and ecological security.
Notwithstanding the hostile environment, India did see the raise of few green parties starting with Indian National Green Party (INGP) in 1999. The last decade saw the formation of few green parties like Indian People’s Green Party, Green Party of India etc. The parties have even contested in few assembly and Lok Sabha elections in 2010 and 2014 respectively but failed to gather the deposits at any place contested. This poor performance indicates lack of popular support. The mainstream political parties in the strategy of attracting voters across the spectrum have embraced almost all the principles of green politics at least as campaign tactics. In this context, a green party would be too radical for a normal voter. Besides, the Indian middle class is also of a view that ecological security and environmentalism is a matter of financial burden and out of reach. Hence, the current social, economical and political fabric seems unfriendly to the green parties.
Therefore, it is important to have the large mass of middle class on board to be a successful party. Right now the environmental consciousness of the class is limited to local and personal level; the moment it reaches the macro level encompassing the larger environmental goals there would be a space for green parties to thrive or else they would be reduced to any other activist organisation working on environment.
