ABSTRACT
The awareness of ‘sustainable development’ and ‘sustainable urban development’ as a planning priority is increasingly widespread in India; the urban policies and Master Plans of most states refer to this as a desirable notion. However, the sustainable development notion can be problematic in developing countries as the environmental dimensions of sustainable development have come to dominate most discussions in international development theory and practice. Its emphasis on environmental sustainability has been criticised as an elitist priority which can, in fact, reinforce existing social and political inequalities and/ or create new ones (Agyeman and McEntee 2012). Guha and Martinez-Alier (1997) classify the environmental movement in three main currents: the reverence for deep ecology which arises out of a deep love for nature in its pristine form; environmentalism driven by the ethic of eco-efficiency, which is concerned about the effects of economic growth on the environment; and lastly the ‘environmentalism of the poor’ which argues that the economic growth of the developed nations or the wealthy places a disproportionate burden on the livelihoods of the poorest, who often depend directly on the environment for their sustenance. The last strand calls for environmental justice that is based on greater social equality, and resists ‘environmental racism’ (Martinez-Alier 2002: 11), which can use the environment as an argument to hinder the greater development and empowerment of the poor.
