Gandhi's Successors: from Forest Satyagraha to the Chipko Social Movement

The article examines the role of the ideological successors of Mahatma Gandhi in the development of his teaching on spiritual resistance to violence – Satyagraha. Much attention is paid to the history of the transformation of Forest Satyagraha campaigns, which were characteristic of the period of the struggle of India for independence, into the Chipko social movement that arose during the period of Independence. The contribution of “two English daughters” of Gandhi, Mira Ben and Sarala Ben, and an Indian woman Vandana Shiva, in the formulation of new goals for Forest Satyagraha, is analyzed. Mira Ben states the need to stop cutting down the forests of the Himalayas due to the danger of flooding and causing economic damage to rural communities. Sarala Ben discusses the dangers of a modernizing development concept and opposes it to the thesis of the importance of maintaining the climatic balance in northern India to prevent droughts and floods. Vandana Shiva, summarizing the experience of Forest Satyagraha and the Chipko movement, speaks of the priority of sustainable development over the strategy of economic growth. The article shows that the creative development of Gandhi’s ideas in relation to the protection of Indian forests and the survival of rural communities, carried out by the three successors of Gandhi in India, is important for creating a sustainable world, especially in a highly integrated global economic system.