Mukul Sharma is a Professor of Environmental Studies at Ashoka University. He was a Visiting
Professor at Tokyo College, Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Tokyo, Japan, in May-
July 2025. Before this, he was the Professor and Head, Department of Development
Communication, and Dean, Academics, at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New
Delhi (2014-2019). His formal academic qualification is in Political Science. Since 1984, he has
worked in academic, development and media sectors.
He has published nineteenth books and booklets in English and Hindi, including Hari Nili Dharti:
Dalit Bahujan, Jati aur Paryawaran Nyay (Green Blue Earth: Dalit Bahujan, Caste and
Environment Justice, Delhi: Setu Prakashan, 2025), and Dalit Ecologies: Caste and Environment
Justice (Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 2024), which received the Green LitFest Honour
Book Award 2025. His other recent books include Green and Saffron: The RSS, Modi, and Indian
Environmental Politics (Ranikhet: Permanent Black, 2024), Dalit aur Prakriti: Jati aur Bhartiya
Paryavaran Aaandolan (Delhi: Vani Prakashan, 2020, in Hindi), Caste & Nature: Dalits and Indian
Environmental Politics (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2017), and Human Rights in a Globalised
World: An Indian Diary (Delhi: Sage, 2010).His current research extend his long-standing work
on caste, religion, nationalism and environmental politics in India, with a particular new focus
on Muslims, Muslim ecologies, and the place of Muslims in Indian environmental politics.
He has been a research fellow in several universities and institutions, including Mahidol
University, Bangkok (2010), United States Institute of Peace, Washington DC (2002-2004),
SEPHIS scholar, International Institute of Social History, The Netherlands (1999-2003), London
School of Economic and Political Science (2000) and University of Oxford (1998). Mukul worked
as a Special Correspondent in Navbharat Times, Delhi (1983-1998), and received 12 national-
international awards for his environmental, rural and human rights journalism. After that, he
has been the Director of Amnesty International and Heinrich Boell Foundation in India, the
South Asia Director of Climate Parliament and the Asia Campaign, Advocacy and Policy Director
of ActionAid International.

Since 2000

Books

Single-Authored

2024 Dalit Ecologies: Caste and Environment Justice, Cambridge University Press.
Green and Saffron: The RSS, Modi, and Indian Environmental Politics, revised and new edition, Permanent Black, Ranikhet and Ashoka University.
2020 Dalit aur Prakriti: Jati aur Paryawaran Aandolan (Dalit and Nature: Caste and Environment Movements, in Hindi), Vani Prakashan, Delhi.
2017 Caste and Nature: Dalits and Indian Environmental Politics, Oxford University Press, New Delhi.
2014 (first paperback printing). Green & Saffron: Hindu Nationalism and Indian Environmental Politics, Permanent Black, Ranikhet. First published in hardback 2012.
2010 Human Rights in a Globalised World: An Indian Diary, Sage, Delhi & London.
2006 No Borders: Journeys of an Indian Journalist, Daanish, Delhi, 2006.
2002 Landscapes and Lives: Environmental Dispatches on Rural India, Oxford University Press, Delhi

Co-Authored

2008 (with Charu Gupta). Contested Coastlines: Fisherfolk, Nations and Borders in South Asia, Routledge, New Delhi and London. Reprint 2018.

Edited Volumes

2021 (with Mahesh Rangarajan and Harini Nagendra) Future Environmentalisms: a symposium on contested and emerging forms of environmental concerns, Seminar, 744, August 2021, https://www.india-seminar.com/semframe.html
2005 (with Sana Das) Defining Dignity: An Anthology of Dreams, Hopes and Struggles, World Dignity Forum, Delhi.
2004 Unquiet Worlds: Dalit Voices and Visions, Heinrich Boell Foundation, Delhi.
2003 Improving People’s Lives: Lessons in Empowerment from Asia, Sage Publications, New Delhi.

Select Research Papers/Articles

Published more than 500 special reports, articles, research papers and surveys in my specialized field of environment, labor and human rights, in journals, magazines and newspapers of national and international repute.

Research Papers in Refereed Journals

2025 ‘Modi the “Solar Superman”: Hindutva, Climate Change and Renewable Energy,’ India Review, 24:1, 2025, pp. 55-86.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14736489.2025.2454795
2023 ‘Hindu Nationalism and Right-wing Ecology: RSS, Modi and Motherland Post-2014,’ Studies in Indian Politics, 11 (1), 2023, pp. 102-117.
https://doi.org/10.1177/23210230231166197
2022 ‘Caste, Environment Justice, and Intersectionality of Dalit-Black Ecologies’, Environment and Society: Advances in Research, Vol. 13, 2022, pp. 78-97.
https://doi.org/10.3167/ares.2022.130106
‘Caste of Labour: Dalits, the Industrial Ecosystem and Environmental Politics in Delhi’, Social Change, Vol. 52, No. 1, March 2022, pp. 7-23.
https://doi.org/10.1177/00490857221079467
‘Governing Sacred Groves: Religion, State, and Institutions in Indigenous Jharkhand’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. LVII, No. 2, January 8, 2022, pp. 42-49.
https://www.epw.in/journal/2022/2/special-articles/governing-sacred-groves.html
2021 ‘ “God of Humans”: Dina-Bhadri, Dalit Folktales and Environmental Movements’, South Asian History and Culture, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 1-18.
https://doi.org/10.1080/19472498.2020.1866365
2020 ‘Dalit on Earth: River Titash, Malo Commons and Cultural Affirmation’, Man in India, Vol. 100, Nos. 3-4, 2020, pp. 209-228.
‘The Killing of Maya in a Lake: Caste, Nature, and Culture’, MARG, Vol. 71, No. 3, March 2020, pp. 28-35.
2019 ‘My World Is a Different World’: Caste and Dalit Eco-Literary Traditions’, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, Vol. XLII, No. 6, December 2019, pp. 1013-1030.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2019.1667057
‘Ambedkar aur Paryavaran’ (Ambedkar and Environment), (in Hindi), Aalochana (A Quarterly Journal in Hindi), No. 61, July-September 2019, pp. 102-124.
2018 ‘Dalit Paryavaranvaad: Alag Swar aur Sapne’, (Dalit Environmentalism: Different Voices & Visions), (in Hindi), Tadbhav (A Quarterly Journal on Modern Hindi creative writing), Year 6, No. 2, May 2018, pp. 39-66.
2017 ‘Brahmanical Activism as Eco-Casteism: Reading the Life Narratives of Bindeshwar Pathak, Sulabh International, and “Liberated” Dalits’, Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, Special Issue on Caste and Life Narratives, Vol. 40, No. 1, 2017, pp. 199-243.
DOI: 10.1353/bio.2017.0009
‘Sulabh, Swachta, Dalit and Brahmani Paryavaranwad’, (Sulabh, Cleanliness, Dalit and Brahmanical Environmentalism), (in Hindi), Tadbhav (A Quarterly Journal on Modern Hindi creative writing), Year 5, No. 2, November 2017, pp. 44-75.
2014 (with Charu Gupta). ‘Speaking in Tongues’, Himal South Asia, Vol. 27, No. 2, June 2014, pp. 172-87. Special Issue titled ‘Growing Media, Shrinking Spaces?’ edited by Sukumar Muralidharan, et al., 1996 [Also published in: Himal South Asia, Vol. 9, No. 6, pp. 18-23].
2012 ‘Dalits and Indian Environmental Politics’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XLVII, No. 23, 9 June, pp. 46-52.
https://www.epw.in/journal/2012/23/special-articles/dalits-and-indian-environmental-politics.html
2010 ‘The Vrindavan Conservation Project’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XLV, No. 36, 4 September, pp. 59-66.
https://www.epw.in/journal/2010/36/special-articles/vrindavan-conservation-project.html
2009 ‘Passages from Nature to Nationalism: Sunderlal Bahuguna and Tehri Dam Opposition in Garhwal’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 44, No. 8, 21 February, pp. 35-42.
https://www.epw.in/journal/2009/08/special-articles/passages-nature-nationalism-sunderlal-bahuguna-and-tehri-dam
2006 ‘The Making of Moral Authority: Anna Hazare and Watershed Management Programme in Ralegan Siddhi’, Economic and Political Weekly, 41, 20, 20 May, pp. 1981-88.
https://www.epw.in/journal/2006/20/special-articles/making-moral-authority.html
2004 (with Charu Gupta). ‘Blurred Borders: Coastal Conflicts between Indian and Pakistan’, Economic and Political Weekly, 39, 27, 3 July, pp. 3005-15.
Select Articles in Newspapers and Blogs
2025 ‘Grassroot Warriors,’ Book Review, Open, 25 February, https://openthemagazine.com/lounge/books/grassroot-warriors/
2024 ‘Green Pioneers’, Book Review, Open, 31 October, https://openthemagazine.com/lounge/books/green-pioneers/
2020 ‘Caste, Nature and their Presence in a New India’, Indian Express, 19 April 2020. https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/dalits-casete-savarnas-india-swachh-bharat-misson-6368655/
2019 ‘Alternative Futures: India Unshackled’, Kafila.online, 15 June. https://kafila.online/2019/07/15/alternative-futures-india-unshackled/
2017 ‘Observing Water Day on Ambedkar’s Birthday is a Hollow Exercise if his Legacy on Water is Ignored’, Scroll.in, 14 April. https://scroll.in/article/834435/observing-water-day-on-ambedkars-birthday-is-a-hollow-exercise-if-his-legacy-on-water-is-ignored
2016 ‘Ambedkar and the Environmental Tradition’, Kafila.org, 1 October. https://kafila.online/2016/10/01/ambedkar-and-the-environmental-tradition/
2011 ‘Deep-etched poverty lines’ (co-authored with Jeremy Seabrook), The Hindu, 4 October.
2010 ‘Labour conferences and protection of workers’ rights’, The Hindu, 16 February.
2010 ‘Bagram, the other Guantanamo’, The Hindu, 6 January.
2009 ‘Working of shareholder democracy’, The Hindu, 25 November.
2009 ‘Need for Coastal Integration in South Asia’, The Hindu, 22 October.
2009 ‘Companies Bill & Social Accountability’, The Hindu, 3 October.
2009 ‘Towards Evolving a Collective Coastal Community’, The Hindu, 12 August.
2009 (with Charu Gupta). ‘Need for Coastal Integration in South Asia’, The Hindu, 22 October, p. 10.
2008 (with Charu Gupta). ‘Towards Evolving a Collective Coastal Community’, The Hindu, 12 August, p. 10.

FELLOWSHIPS/RESEARCH PROJECTS/GRANTS/AWARDS

Dec 2015 Foreign Travel Grant under the Scheme ‘Data Collection Abroad’ from the Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi, to do archival research in London, for 10 days.
2011-12 Visiting Fellow, Center for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi. Topic: Environmentalism, Conservatism, Democracy and Peoples’ Rights in India.
Mar 2010-Apr 2011 Research Fellow, Research Center of Health Economics, Mahidol University, Bangkok. Topic: Access to Treatment: HIV and AIDS in Asia.
Jan 2004-Dec 2006 Director, Research Project, ActionAid International. Topic: Positive Voices: Emerging Governance Issues on HIV and AIDS in Asia.
Dec 2004-Jun 2005 Coordinator, Research Project, ActionAid International and Institute of Human Development, New Delhi. Topic: Free Trade Agreements, Food Security and Development in Asia.
2001-2003 United States Institute of Peace (USIP), Washington, Research Grant. Topic: Towards a Peaceful Indian Ocean: A Study of Coastal Conflicts in South Asia.
1998-2001 SEPHIS Fellowship (South-South Exchange Program for Research on the History of Development, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam). Topic: Green and Saffron: Environment & Communalism in India, c. 1950-1997.
2000 Research Fellow, Asia Center, London School of Economics and Political Science, London.
2000 Appan Menon Memorial Award for Journalism 2000.
1999 Award for Excellence in Asian Print Media Writing by Asian Media Information and Communication Centre, Singapore and Singapore Press Holdings.
1998 South Asia Visiting Scholar, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford, Oxford.
1995 Reuter Fellow, Green College, University of Oxford.
1995 PUCL Award for Human Rights Journalism by Peoples’ Union for Civil Liberties.
1991 The Statesman Award for Rural Writing 1991, First Prize by The Statesman newspaper.1991 The Vineet Gupta Memorial Award 1991, for outstanding contribution to Media, New Delhi.
1990 The Statesman Award for Rural Writing 1990, First Prize by The Statesman newspaper.
1989 Best Asian Journalist for Environmental Reporting, 1989, by Asian Forum of Environmental Journalists and Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Germany.
1989 Environmental Consciousness Award, by Science Centre, Gwalior.
1988 Sanskriti Award for Journalism 1988, by Sanskriti Pratishthan.
1987 Journalist of the Year 1987, prize by Lions Delhi Kanishka.

Foundation Courses:

Environment, Politics and Society;
Environment, Development and Climate Change.

Elective Courses:

Environment and Social Exclusion;
Indian Environmental Politics;
Environmental Justice;
Environmental Governance: Politics, Institution, Policy.

Mukul Sharma

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Campus Location

Delhi Office

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