Anshul Rai Sharma

How can we rethink sustainability in ways that are not only innovative but also deeply impactful? This article aims to answer this question in the context of India and its unique socio-economic and ecological position. It stems from my experiences documenting the course "Sustainability in the Indian context" at Azim Premji University in Bengaluru.

Field visits are an exciting enterprise, especially as a young student who wishes to understand rural India. But they are also a complicated process of seeing and discerning, trying to figure out what is real and what is not. Hagiographies of local mobilisation are common in such endeavours, which, in some cases, are justified. To give into such tendencies is to pick the easy way out.

Nestled in the northern expanse of Bengaluru, Jakkur Lake occupies a pivotal point where streams from Yelahanka, Agrahara, and Shivanahalli converge. Once a realm of fruit orchards and scattered settlements, Jakkur has undergone a profound transformation in the past two decades.