Alternatives to Development: An Examination of Rights of Nature Approaches in India

This research project offers a critique of development understood as the endless, geographically uneven development of capitalism through economic growth. The damage produced by the pursuit of infinite growth, fuelled by the extraction of fossil fuels and exploitation of both natural and human resources, renders capitalist development inherently unstainable and irreconcilable with the preservation

of the environment. Therefore, this study moves beyond conventional thinking that takes for granted the positive value of the unfolding of capitalist development to examine alternatives to development. This research project interrogates the extent to which the Rights of Nature (RoN) facilitate a departure from

capitalist development by using the case study of the community movement Radical Ecological Democracy (RED) in India, locally called 'eco-swaraj' (Acosta, 2002; Escobar, 1992; Esteva, 2010; Kothari, 2019). The RoN acknowledges the inherent right of nature to exist, regenerate its vital cycles and be restored when

damaged. In India, the RoN has been upheld as one of the core principles of RED, alongside other core values such as equity, social justice, and environmental integrity (Kothari, 2019). The study of RED enables me to investigate how RoN facilitates alternative relationships between humans and nature that

transcend the anthropocentric nature of development and thus offer alternatives. Theoretically, the research investigates how the RoN reshape the relationship between humans and nature and thus offers an alternative to capitalist development. Empirically, the case study of RED in India will enable me to gain

insights into how redefining nature as worthy of its own rights can offer a radical alternative to capitalist development.