Freedom for Nature - India’s Next Freedom Movement

Seventy-nine years after India’s tryst with destiny, India now stands at the threshold of a different sort of freedom movement. Are we truely free if the rivers that sustain us are not free to flow? Are we truely free if the soil that nourishes us is not free from depletion? Are we truely free if the trees that allow us to breathe are no longer free from afforestation? Overexploitation of our ecological systems will make us and our future generation subjugated to an era of pollution, climate changes and biodiversity losses. If we need air purifiers to breathe air and trash skimmers to drink water, we are as far from freedom as it gets.

A simple glance across India will tell you the story of disdain for our ecosystems – rivers filled with garbage, forests being cut down in the name of development and mountains being quarried in the name of economy. But this was not always the case. Long before the West championed environmental conservation and sustainabilty, Indians ingrained the importance of the nature that provides for us – through culture and customs.

Through folklore, trees became sacred, rivers become revered and animals became holy. It was man’s Dharma to protect nature in recognition of the interconnectedness of all life and no verse encapsulates this better than, ‘The Earth is my mother and I am her son’ from Bhumi Sukta of Atharva Veda.

While the West viewed Earth as a resource, Indians always felt a deep kinship with her. The first traces of this idea can be glimpsed across the Vedic corpus. All kinds of trees – Banyan to Peepal, animals – cows to frogs, rivers – Saraswati to Sindhu, insects – honeybees to moths were bestowed with significance to symbolise their importance to our habitat. One will be hard pressed to find reverence for such varied elements of nature within any scriprtures across cultures.

The vedic concept of Rta tells that humans thrive only when they live in accordance to nature and the cosmic order. Nature was not outside the purview of culture but a crucial aspect of it. This world was not owned by man to be exploited for his wishes and wants but a place to coexist peacefully, and in balance with nature.

Perhaps our greatest civilizational achievement was the ecological consciousness passed down from one generations to the other, although we are lacking at it at the moment. Despite of this inheritance, we are now stuck at the crossroads. Cities have expanded, Industries have grown, millions have been pulled out of poverty but our groundwater levels are declining, river pollution is increasing, air quality is depleting, wildlife habitats are shrinking.

How free will our future generations be with poor natural conditions continuing to compound. No economic prosperity is possible without healthy monsoons, breathable air and clean water. This is not merely a philosophical dilemma but an economic conundrum as well. Our government, for its part, has embraced ambitious sustainability goals but policies dont suffice when the culture is lacking. Revival of our lost ecological consciousness is as necessary as the next technological breakthrough.

Our next freedom movement has to be against the illusion that we can thrive while nature barely survives. Our next tryst, has to be the one with nature.

Author - Ananth Mandra, 5th August 2026