SPEAKING OF THE MARGINS

Sunita Narain's 'The Rise of the Neo-Locals' is a fiercely evocative mosaic of essays that challenge the global order and urge for a grounded, interconnected, and ecologically just future

- SANJEEV CHOPRA

The Rise of the Neo-Locals: A Generational Reversal of Globalization by Sunita Narain is a collection of The Prelusion (a synonym for Prelude) and ten essays written between 2016 and 2024. It covers a range of issues, from the 'global locals' to energy transition and migration, making it obvious that our existence is 'Ubuntu,' which means everyone and everything—the living and non-living, the organic and the inorganic, the present, the past, and the future—is connected.

This is a short but intense book of keynotes and essays from the pen of India's best-known environmentalist, who has steered both CSE and DTE as important dialogue and action platforms as well as a respected voice of empirical research in the global debates on the subject of ecology, environment and our shared future.

The Prelusion is a synoptic review of the last six decades of India—of moving from the ship-to-mouth existence when US wheat was provided to India (and other food-deficit countries) under Eisenhower's PL 480. It talks about the banning of Coca-Cola in 1977, the establishment of the Maruti factory in the early eighties, and the 1991 liberalization under Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh. For Narain, 1992 is an important year; it marked the launch of DTE as well as the Rio Earth Summit. The decade also saw global protests at Seattle and Occupy Wall Street. While the World Bank was only looking at parameters like economic growth, the UN was a shade better. It launched the MDGs and SDGs and nudged governments into putting their time, resources, and attention into improving the condition of resource-poor people and countries. She discusses COVID-19 and the challenges of individual countries trying to contain a virus which could not be held back by border fences, and the irony of China controlling the critical elements needed to make the transition from fossil fuels.