ABSTRACT
The Growth vs. Environment debate in India is not a ‘lifestyle environmental debate,’ instead, a larger political debate interconnected with livelihoods, land distribution, caste, gender, resource grab, poverty, water scarcity, and equality amongst others. Environmental justice is intricately woven with cultural, economic, social, and spiritual justice and one has to challenge the economic growth based paradigm, which paves for gross environmental and human rights violations. It is a sad irony that regions that are rich in natural and mineral resources are often the poorest on human rights index, suffering long histories of exploitation. Can a system based on maximum profits for corporations be just and equitable for communities and the environment? When important questions relating to sustainable development, equality, human rights violations, corporate control of resources, government corporate nexus are raised by activists and concerned citizens the state brands them as a threat to the ‘economic security of the country.’ The security narrative is often used as a basis for a crackdown on civil liberties in generalized atmosphere of shrinking democratic space.
