Kerala is situated in southern part of India and A very small statehaving sea on one side and having 44 rivers, Lagoons, lakes and various water sources. Even though Kerala is not that much industrialized state the industrialization and development model adopted in Kerala was not that much sustainable due to which many people started protesting against various projects. in different ways from different part of the state. We all know industries and dam construction in the heart of farmland and living place is the doom of the environment and social life of the people. It may also result in biodiversity loss and biological perils. New policies of development followed by the state (e g, building of big dams, industrial projects) that uproot local population without providing them with proper rehabilitation, and endanger the environment, are creating fresh sources of environmental movements and attracts sociological investigation.

In the book Environmentalism: A Global History (2009b), Ramachandra Guha, opines that environmental history of the world is divided into two waves. In the first wave, on par with the industrialisation in England British poets like Blake and Wordsworth, novelist like Charles Dickens wrote about environment and in the second wave people started to protest against various issues regarding environment that happened in USA (A practical aspect of theoretical orientations). Clearly enumerating the birth of the environmental consciousness among poets, thinkers and scientists Guha gives a historical account and explication of evolution and maturing of the concept environmentalism as first in the form of theory or thought or ideas then in the form of movement or activism. He also differentiates between environmentalism of North ie, addressing through laws or love of the nature and South ie participation of affected community.From the philosophical point of view it can be asserted that this book is nothing but the history of transformation of thought into action or ideas into activity that is environmentalism into environmental movement. The term environmentalism refers to an explicit, active concern with the relationship between human groups and their respective environments. Although “environmentalist” usually refers to political activists, the term can reasonably include persons and groups that are directly involved with understanding and/or mediating this relationship (Little, 1999: 254). As there are different approaches to the problem of environmentalism in the conceptual level there are different environmental movements too.

“Environmental degradation is by no means restricted to the industrialized world; in fact, its consequences are more serious in the third world, where it affects the livelihood and survival of hundreds of millions of poor peasants, tribals, and slum-dwellers. Hence, a cross-cultural dialogue must begin with this recognition; that third world environmentalism is qualitatively different, in its origins and emphasis, from its Western counterpart. One is an environmentalism of survival and subsistence; the other of access to a clean and beautiful environment for the enhancement of the 'quality of life” (Guha, 1988: 2578, Guha, 2009b).

Jayanto Bandyopadhyay and Vandana Shiva (1989: 1223-1232) argues that, “in the third world ecology movements are not the luxury of the rich but are a survival imperative for the majority of the people whose survival is not taken care of by the market economy but is threatened by its expansion. The various dimensions of social movements, for survival, for democratic values, for decentralized decision making at the local levels are all components of the ecology movements. Overall they are slowly progressing towards defining an alternate model for economic development—a new economics for a new civilization. That is how ecology movements all over the world are coming closer as an upcoming political force that will put its signature in the history of humankind in the coming few decades.”

We can easily say that in the North through laws people address their problems regarding environment while in the south we can see the mass movement and participation of affected community for solving their problems. To participate people need to form their own organizations. The poor need, through their own organizations, to counter the socio-economic reality around them and the forces that keep them in poverty. Such participation then opens up possibilities for people to bring about changes in their conditions through their own reflections and collective actions. This constitutes a learning process, a process of further consciousness-raising and self-transformation. In this sense, participation is also a basic human need (Wignaraja, 1993: 12).

The main question to be raised here is about the origin of environmental movements. The roots of the environmental movement go as far back as George Marsh's Man and Nature (1864), one of the earliest systematic studies of man's effects on the natural world (Dunlap, 1980: 30). However, most accounts of the American movement date its beginnings to Rachel Carson's book on pesticide pollution, 'Silent Spring', published in 1962 and popularly known as the 'bible' and 'founding event' of modern environmentalism and environmental movements (Foster, 2009: 67-83). This book is also considered as one of the pioneering works on ecocriticism. It was only in the sixties, that environmentalism emerged as a popular movement, successfully influencing public policy through a mixture of protest in the streets and the lobbying of legislators in the corridors of power. Rachel Carson, (1907-1964), was a Marine biologist, writer, biologist and ecologist. For Rachel Carson the 'central problem of our age' was the contamination of man's total environment with substances of incredible potential for harm. (Guha, 2009: 69-97b). In the book, she puts forward some relevant questions like why birds and insects are disappearing from American society, why some trees are getting new diseases. This was the first single book brought out on the issue of pesticide use and its problem on birds, plants, animals and human beings. Translated into twelve languages, Silent Spring had a striking impact on the resurgence of environmentalism throughout Europe (ibid: 73). Her main question was how different would our lives be if we did not have springtime?Despite several oppositions, she prompted national action to regulate pesticides by mobilizing a concerned public. Nature herself, she says, has met many of the problems that now beset us and She has usually solved them in her own successful way.Where man has been intelligent enough to observe and to emulate Nature he, too is often rewarded with success (Carson, 1962).At last, she offers biological pest control that assures the preservation of our earth. Carson argues that less "sophisticated" methods, not requiring large-scale management techniques, is not only more successful at control but is also less expensive. She stated, “I deeply believe that we in this generation must come to terms with nature…” Repeatedly Carson refers to man's quest for domination over nature: his "assaults on the natural world" (16), his "[procession] toward his announced goal of the conquest of nature" (83), his tearing of "the earth's green mantle" (64). A common motive of the contemporary environmental movement is a profound and pervasive element of fear. This is not simply a fear that we will deplete a particular natural resource, lose pristine wilderness, or be poisoned. It is the belief that we may well be facing the "end of history," that we as a species might be doomed. This anxiety burst to the surface with the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is rooted in the omnipresent threat of nuclear destruction (Lutts, 1985: 222-223).

Three books came in the market in 1960s. James Whorton's Before Silent Spring, the only historical work of the three, covers the introduction of chemical insecticides and government regulation of residues as health hazards in the pre-DDT period.  Carson's Silent Spring presents the evidence against persistent insecticides as it was known in 1962 and Frank Graham Jr's, Since Silent Spring traces the influence, which Silent Spring had in the eight years after its publication (Dunlap, 1973: 34-35).

Now a days our country is witnessing mass scale poisoning of land, water and aquatic species and decline of flora and fauna because of mass scale use of chemical pesticides, fertilizers and insecticides.  One of the most globally ubiquitous threats to human health is the saturation of the environment with "man-made" chemicals—developed and introduced with virtually no understanding of their singular let alone their synergistic impact on humans, animals, and ecosystems (Seager, 2003: 959). Carson’s book is still relevant in India for conducting research on environmental pollution caused by the over use of insecticides and factories making insecticides. She was talking about companies started in Second World War American society for making insecticides and its use on environment. In our area of study Eloor also, these factories started almost at the same time and later increased in number over the years. This must be very interesting here since the researcher is studying about industrial pollution caused by pesticide and insecticide factories and Carson was studying about insecticides and its problems on human being, animals, birds and plants. Carson pointed to the key paths of inquiry for contemporary feminist environmental public health interventions (ibid: 959). The legacy of Rachel Carson continues beyond her death. For those who supported the environmental movement she became a symbol of sanity and the spokesperson of their cause. For those who doubted the harmful effects of pesticides, she became a much-respected adversary. Battles have been fought and won on many sides of numerous environmental issues. In the process, our awareness and values have been altered in the four decades since Rachel Carson's most important book (Tungck and Bybee, 1984: 303). After 1970s, environmentalism has become a truly international issue; with out borders. With the help of newer communication technologies, neo-environmentalism constitutes different organizations around the globe. We have seen different organisations will come up with their activism and support local people.

Qualitative methods have been used to carry out the present study.for understanding the texts, qualitative method was found to be useful. this study was mainly dependent on secondary sources like books, articles, documents of environmental and livelihood movements content analysis of records and documents, booklets, notices, study reports, newspaper cuttings, audio-visions of the movement, government records like Kerala State Pollution Control Board and industries was done. Most of the literature related to the movements is in Malayalam language due to which the author is transilated some of them from Malayalam to English.

Environmentalism in India                                                                                        

India is a terrain of different kinds of environmentalism and environmentalist thought as well as powerful movements. We can mainly trace studies regarding environmental movements in India against deforestation, big dams and displacement. Ramachandra Guha, Madhav Gadgill, Mahesh Rangarajan, Amita Bavisker and Vandana Shiva are some of the popular names associated with environmental thought in India. It was the 1972 Conference on Environment and Development at Stockholm that set the stage for the entry of the concepts of environment and ecology into the mainstream of Indian discourse both on development and on social movements. While the Western representatives highlighted the issues of pollution and the depletion of non-renewable natural resources, the official Indian position was that 'poverty is the greatest pollutant (Sethi 1993: 126). India's environmental movement has the advantages of Gandhian religion, strong links to native eco-management practices, an excellent intellectual and political infrastructure, sophisticated international support, and multiple points of access to national and local government (Peritore, 1999: 89). The process of industrialisation was sought to be achieved through gigantic factories, high-rise dams and high- tech firms, 'the temples of modern India', to recall the evocative phrase of Pandit Nehru. The overall tempo was one of celebrating scientific temper associated with western science and technology (Oommen, 2004: 245). India has generated four economic models in its post-independence history: Gandhi's village utopia, Jawaharlal Nehru's Fabian socialist state-planned import substitution regime, the current neoliberal adjustment regime begun under the late Rajeev Gandhi's prime ministership and continued under successor coalition governments, and neo-Gandhian environmentalism (Peritore, 1999: 61). This four paths and their bargaining process influenced our decision makers and environmental policies.

Guha, in distinguishing between the "private" and "public" faces of Indian environmentalism, identifies three ideological strands in Indian environmental movement: Crusading Gandhian, Appropriate Technology, and Ecological Marxists. The Gandhians have the largest reach, carrying their crusade across the country and indeed across the globe. The three strands also differ in their preferred sectors of activism. Their rural romanticism has led the Gandhians to exclusively emphasize agrarian environmental problems, a preference reinforced by their well-known hostility to modern industry. While Appropriate Technologists do recognize that some degree of industrialization is inevitable (though not of the present energy-intensive kind) in practice they have worked largely on technologies aimed at liberating work on the farm. They also strives for a working synthesis of agriculture and industry, big and small units, and western and eastern (or. modern and traditional) technological traditions. Consequently, both strands have seriously neglected urban and industrial environmental problems, whose impact on the life and livelihood of poor Indians is scarcely important. Here the Ecological Marxists, with their natural constituency among miners and workers, have been more alert to questions of industrial pollution and work safety (Guha, 1988: 2578-2581).

In the view of Peritore, (1999: 60-90), there are three types of environmental opinions among Indians: Greens, Ecodevelopers or Sustainable Developers and postmodern Managers. Greens, by rejecting the Western developmental model, favor the empowerment of people; Eco-developers advocate changing India's developmental model to small-scale, environmentally friendly, intensive development; and for the postmodern Managers, rational management of economic growth is desirable if it incorporates environmental concerns. According to him, Indian Greens are the most advanced in the developing world due to Gandhi's ethos, religion, and method of nonviolence.

After taking examples from the Chipko movement in the Himalaya, Save the Narmada movement in central India, and the SilentValley movement in southern India. Karen (1994:32) argues that, Grassroots environmental movements following Gandhian nonviolent tradition are expanding in India. These movements differ from the ones in the West in that they are concerned with both environmental preservation and issues of economic equity and social justice. According to him, people are adopting Gandhian nonviolent methods for resistance. We can see that, still most of the environmentalists of our country following Gandhian path for protecting the environment.  The people are empowered through local nonviolent mass movements, against mega development projects with the help of famous leaders or celebrities. Environmentalism' has finally become part of the dominant discourse. 'Development' has given way to 'sustainable development', and 'growth' has given way to 'green growth'. Yet the ruling paradigm about environmental issues continues to be biased in favour of the North, and the elites of the South. This bias creates a number of misconceptions about environmental issues in the Third World. The first misconception is that Third World countries need 'development' and cannot afford the luxury of protecting nature's ecological processes. The second misconception, closely related to the first, is that poor people cannot be a source of ecological solutions; they are merely a source of environmental problems (Shiva et al, 2004: 10). It means that destructive or luxurious development cannot be afforded by the third world countries. We can easily say that, this ideological plurality in Indian environmentalism has helped to widen the sphere of the protest movements and sharpen the terms of the debate.   As the western world celebrates the victory of market democracy over state socialism in Eastern Europe, the Third World experience takes on a new relevance (ibid:11).

Arundati Roy (2009: 9-16), observed that “the time has come to rethink on the mode of protest to a militant stage. We can see radical and liberal environmentalists in most of the environmental movements.”“The issues of displacement, rehabilitation and compensation have focused attention on the need for new policies and laws to ensure justice. Equally critical is the recognition of communities as communities: that where displacement does become unavoidable, people need to be settled not as individuals with mere cash compensation but as organic communities, without which they rapidly slide into destitution (Sethi, 1993: 134).”’ There is a very broad range of people who are concerned about environmental issues such as global warming and pollution, but who wish to maintain or improve their standard of living as conventionally defined, and who would not welcome radical social change, who will be described hereinafter as 'environmentalists (Garrard, 2007: 18).’

Different environmentalists have different views like some may argue for efficient rehabilitation for displaced people while others may argue for the complete stoppage of the project because it will affect the local people's lively hood, culture, etc. The main problem is that if some environmentalists are arguing for just rehabilitation means that they are in favour of the projects. Ecology provides the foundations for an alternative philosophy that recognizes that there is a plurality of ways of knowing nature; it provides the ontological possibility of an alternative framework for science and technology. Ecology also provides an epistemological framework that shows that alternatives to reductionist science and technology are preferable because, unlike the exclusive reductionism, they provide a holistic view of nature (Shiva, 2010: 287). Environmentalists take many of their principles from the science of ecology.

The participants of these movements in North are the middle class and upper class people, who have concern for the nature. However, in the south the protesters are generally the marginal population – hill peasants, tribal communities, fishermen and other underprivileged people. The different environmental movements in our own country support this argument. The examples could be taken as Chipko, N.B.A., MittiBachaoAndolan, Koel-Karo Andolan etc. That is why the environmentalism of the North is refereed as “full stomach” environmentalism and the environmentalism of the south is called as “empty – belly” environmentalism.  Our environmental movements have a vast intellectual infrastructure and are able to influence the government. The main problem is that leadership is getting more popularity than local movements. Another problem is that, most of the movements are defensive than offensive.

The environment is scrutinized through the lens of institutional decision-making. Rather than attributing it a unique status, the environment is treated as another policy area alongside health care, education and social services. The focus here is on regulatory agencies and processes, impending legislation, political personalities (Al Gore, Maurice Strong) and international forum (United Nations, European Union, quoted in John Hannigan, 2008:91). The environmental policy in India has evolved out of a series of exercises by policy-makers to strike an appropriate balance between the two goals, of rapid economic development on the one hand and pollution control on the other. With the realisation that poverty and the state of underdevelopment led to many of the environmental problems that confronted the nation, came the understanding that it was more rapid development which was the best approach. This development has to benefit people (and particularly the poor) by providing for their basic human needs and rising aspirations...However, another set of environmental problems have arisen as unintended side-effects of the very attempts at development. These have to do with mismanagement of natural resources, large-scale deforestation, unplanned discharge of industrial residues and wastes (Hadden, 1987: 709). Indian planning has begun accommodating environmental problems with new legal and administrative structures. Under Indira Gandhi, various environmental acts were passed and in January 1980, the Department of Environment was created. The department was elevated to the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Wildlife in 1985. The Environment Protection Act of 1986 led to specific enabling rules and regulations. Environmental impact assessments are now required for all government projects (Peritore, 1999: 64). Some environmentalists argue that, Wests are responsible for funding and promoting environmentalism in the Global South. In future India may face most threats from population growth and environmental issues. The problem of climate change will be unimaginable. The main problem is that we don't have a green party so all political parties should give importance for green thinking and environmental preservation as one of their agenda. Most of the movements are at the grassroots level. Policymaking, implementation, and impact are to be separately measured and analysed by the government. We are lacking in the implementation level in different states because of carelessness of the bureaucrats known for corruption. The cancer of corruption has to be tackled at all levels of Indian society. Another problem is that, powerful vested interests, bureaucracy, state corporations, contractors, international banks, and aid agencies favor large projects.

Amit Bhaduri, and Medha Patkar (2009: 10-13) argues that, the composition of our GDP must change. The majority for their own use, while playing their rightful dual role as consumers and producers should produce it. The composition of output, produced in this manner at the local level would require less energy; no big dam would be needed to provide electricity nor would expensive and dangerous nuclear power be required; production in general would become much less intensive in its use of natural resources like land, water, forest and mineral products. To reduce the pace of mindless urbanisation and daydreams of world class cities that suck in enormous natural resources for a handful of rich people by destroying the livelihoods of the poor is a related task which only this alternative pattern of industrialisation focusing on local initiatives in rural areas can achieve. Saving and improving, through popular initiative, common resources of forests, rivers and the seacoast, cultivable land for the peasantry and those who now make a livelihood from related agricultural activities are the way forward for sustainable development without the state practising developmental terrorism on the poor.

The New social movements (NSMs) of India are variously referred to as 'non-party political formations' or as 'grass root, 'popular', 'apolitical', 'single-issue' and 'anti-state' movements. “Movements old or new by definition ought to be popular enterprises and by the same tenet, they have to be successfully involved in grass root mobilisations. Whether directly linked to a political party or not, no movement can be apolitical because movements are essentially efforts to elevate people in the periphery to the centre or to create alternate centres, both of which imply transfer and dispersal of power” (Oommen, 2004: 246).

Leadership Structure of environmental movements in Kerala

“Environmental movement in India is often characterised by its twin- leadership structure: the local and the outside leadership. The local leaders mobilise the people for mass protest and unite the participants of the movement for more direct action. The involvement of outside leadership, mostly middle-class intellectuals, helps in articulating and formulating the ideologies of the struggle and giving the movement a wider publicity” (Omvedt 1984).

Most of the environmental movements were not only successful in popularising the struggle against pollution and displacement but with the help of its links to other Marxists/Communists and trade union organisations, they could also mould the politics in different parts of Kerala by putting pressure on the state and local bureaucracy. in different places

Attitude of Mainstream Political Parties towards Environmental Movements in Kerala

EloorPurushan (2009: 28-32) asks some important questions and criticizes all political parties alike. Why is it that Kerala Shastra Sahitya Parishet (KSSP), and other Left-youth, rightwing, religious, political youth organization such as Solidarity that proclaimed itself to be for the soil and human oriented development kept them away from the people’s struggles? All these organizations neglected people’s struggles that is going on in different parts of Kerala against the pollution of air, water, and soil and endangering the ecosystem by the hazardous industrial waste. However, it seems so mysterious at this stage of its absence that KSSP, which used to jump into research every now and then, did not come to study the problem and support the struggle of the people.  It has to be kept in mind that after the silent valley movement, nowhere could KSSP take a clear position and properly intervene.

Since late 1980s there had been drastic changes in Kerala society, the nature of struggles and movements. The Left organizations got strong base in Kerala where the movements for social reform and social justice worked successfully. But after the 1970s these organizations orientations changed largely and they could not maintain much difference from other political and developmental orientations. So the state politics stooped into mere maintenance of power exchange and thus to keep the status quo unchanged. A large number of sufferers and the affected people of the land came in struggle for their basic life and livelihood while the mainstream political organizations went on ritualized process of activities. Neither they came to the real questions of the suffering people nor could they understand the formations of these people’s struggles Those ‘big’ organizations still accused these ‘small’ struggles as going counter to the united focuses of the ‘big’ struggles (Neelakandan, 2009: 55-58). The general criticism levelled against the popular struggles and movements is that they are against development.

The main stream political parties ridicule these decentralized struggles as ‘fragmented’. These non-party centric struggles, according to the mainstream, would destroy the mass movements against imperialism. But the most significant thing which makes these parties away from people’s concerns is that these struggles and the developmental outlook of the mainstream parties are at loggerheads always (Neelakandan 2008: 32-39). This organisations need to understand that the struggle against pesticides and the corporate giants who insensitively profit from pesticide sale are genuine people’s struggles against imperialism. The main thing noted here is that, now a days we can't see the support of mainstreem political parties in most of the environmental movements in Kerala.

Ideological Dimensions of Environmental Movements from Kerala

Since its inception most of the environmental movements have been keeping away from most of the mainstream political parties and had their own ideology. People from multiple political parties arecoming together for protecting their land, Water, environment and property. The main reason for this is that whenever a political organization steps into any environmental movements they use the platform of the struggle to carry out their political agendas and gains that undoubtedly weakens real issues.In most of the environmental movements people from different political party are coming together and protesting against state.In Kerala.

The movements in Kerala spearheaded by people was constructed by Ecological Marxism and Appropriative technocratic approaches. The 'appropriate technocrats' have had a profound influence on the environmental movements in Kerala. Kerala Shastra Sahitya Parishat (KSSP)Translates into (Kerala Scientific Literary Organization) study reports and community science helped to take the environmental problems of Kerala in to local people. The presence of progressive technocratic elements in the movements becomes more explicit in different movements,These movements possesses a relatively clear goal as well as calculated strategies; political factors such as leadership and ideology played a decisive role to get at least this much success.“An important strand in all environmental action is how participants come up with a shared idea of nature that provides the basis for their collective action” (Hazlett, 2004: 719). The role of the different social and people’s movements and experiments can be correctly defined in their full complexity within this only broad conceptual framework.

Role of Mass Media in Creating Environmental Awareness Among Citizens in Kerala

We can say that Mass Media have played a big role for high success rate behind most of the environmental movements from Kerala. In moving environmental problems from conditions to issues of policy concerns, media visibility is crucial. Without media coverage, the odds are low that an erstwhile problem will either enter into the arena of public discourse or become part of the political process. While the traditional news media are important here, there is also an extensive array of other media sources- from documentary television shows on nature and the environment to motion pictures to Internet websites and social media. “Indeed, the news media's role as an agent of environmental education and agenda setting is both important and complex” (Hannigan, 2008: 76, 79). The important question is that, how the mainstream media take the people’s issues, struggles and movements. In the case of Kerala, the mainstream media were not interested in the real grave issues of the people before 2000; small struggles occupied the space in the print media as mere local news till 2001-2002.

The satellite supported TV channels, with their global viewer base and competitive updating of the news have been largely interested to take up the issues of people’s struggles, and the ‘management interests’ lost its primacy of dictation. This has forced the print media to follow them in detail. The Radio (FM) which can now be available even at mobile phones has also come to address the issues. Main example is the ongoing struggle against K Rail project (an alternative semi spead railway project from south to northern Kerala). The interesting interventions through increasing number of Vlogs, blogs and other social networking platforms have also to be accounted in this regard. Thus, the pulses of the people’s struggles and movements have now become a part of the debate in mainstream media. Media plays a major role in bringing these issues into government attention. Though the media were at most of the times taking up these issues for their competitive news updating interests, their interventions have helped the struggles reach their positive ends many times. The phenomenal developments in the field of media has notably transformed the state of people’s struggles in Kerala and changed the reductionist ‘localization’ and trivialization of the issues and real concerns of the suffering people (Neelakandan, 2009, 55-58). The success of several movements in Kerala like the Silent Valley movement, Athirappalli anti dam struggle, Plachimada struggle against Cococola Factory  the movement against the Grasim Factory popularly known as MavoorGualior Rayons in Calicut can be attributed to the vigilant role played by a concerned citizenry backed by a vigilant media. It means that all of these movements from Kerala were successful.

 Kerala boasts the largest consumption of newspapers, magazines and books per capita in India (Parayil, 1996: 943).Kerala has the largest newspaper reading population in the world. Intellectual weeklys are crucial to take the issues to the people through articles, stories, poems, interviews etc. Role of environmental activist poets like Sukatha Kumari is also very important for taking issue to people. There are a large number of weeklys printing in Malayalam like Mathrubhumi, Madhyamam etc. that play a very important role in forming the debates in the public sphere in state.

Role of cinema and documentaries in addressing environmental issue is very important. “In recent times, many documentary has been blocked and many filmmaker targeted by state institutions, which itself is evidence that documentaries are vibrant sources of information, especially in the hands of people themselves, and, therefore, potentially hazardous to those in power. With water, waste and crops being such politically sensitive issues that they affect even municipal-level elections, it is time to take a serious look at documentaries as a powerful tool of mobilisation and as one of the tools that the people can use to build themselves a more democratic democracy” (ZAIDI, 2006). Through Environmental film festivals and films we can learn about earth, natural resources, people's livelihoods, health, safety, various environmental issues and the manner in which various governments have chosen to deal with these concerns.

In the case of different environmental movements in Kerala all these medium are successfully utilised. Apart from the support the movements received from mainstream media, the movements itself adopted media as an important tool.

NGO Interventions and their ramifications on Environmental Movements from Kerala

Neither the Government nor the media can now avoid the question of people’s struggles that have developed in different parts of Kerala over the past four decades. These are the struggles of the victims, formed by themselves without any external pressure or motivation and support from the political parties. “Founding of non-ideological development and depoliticization of society are being deeply carried out by ‘NGOization’ at micro levels. Most of the NGOs are funded by imperialist agencies against which hundreds of suffering masses come in struggle in their everyday life. They are the allies of neo liberal globalization. While taking money from the big corporations they highjack the struggle against imperialism” (James, 2008: 52-55). James (2008) gives a historical and theoretical background for the growth of NGOs at global level. He observes that “NGO interventions in the mainstream has a historical background of the decline of Keynesian welfare economy in the period after 1970s, the setback faced by the Left in the political and ideological arena from 1980s onwards, and the rise of neo liberal globalization in the later period. The theoretical backdrop for the growth of NGOs and ‘NGOism’ was set by post-Marxism and postmodernism which sought to replace the class based communist and mass based movements by new social movements and micro politics since 1980s. Thus, the global centralization of the capital, on the one hand, and the ‘NGOization’ that focused on micro politics, on the other, began to run as the dialectics of the neo liberal globalization. The postmodern thinkers emphasized nonstatist interpretation of power, and the post Marxists were attracted by non class-based new social movements. Parallel to this, the UN and its related bodies took NGOs into mainstream giving them the consultative status. It was at this stage that the neo colonial international financial-developmental institutions such as World Bank and American, European and Japanese funding agencies began to sponsor the NGOs to compensate the social capital and remove backwardness. At this the time the models of participatory development and micro credits, such as popular planning and ‘kudumbasree were formed in space created by the decline of welfare state” (ibid).

With the emergence of the socialist states and the welfare states, development and welfare replaced charity as the mechanism of meeting the demands of the poor. Strategies were initiated both by the state and by voluntary associations, popularly referred to as NGOs, to bring about the 'self-sustaining development' of the poor (Oommen 2004: 221). The general allegation by the main stream political parties that popular struggles are run by the funded agencies and NGO interests has to be understood very critically. No one should miss to understand the politics behind these allegations that is to divert the public attention from and destroy the people’s struggles when they get decisive massive support. It is a fact that there are so many NGOs fed and led by the imperialist forces in the country. They are getting large amounts as funds. But it is a severe injustice to call the people’s struggles to save their life, livelihood and environment as NGO sponsored struggles (Neelakandan, 2008: 32-39). We can see, now a days NGOs increasingly stepping into most of the movements. Subsequently, NGOs have focused on identifying the problems of specific constituencies, building leadership skills among group members, helping to facilitate organizational skills and developing direct action tactics and strategies. They also help to create awareness about the issue both at the local and global levels. “In the new century, national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are the primary catalysts of change rather than experts from large bureaucratic institutions (including the state). NGOs have been identified as the preeminent, if not sole, organizational forms that can implement the global commitment to 'bottom up' development” (Kamat, 2004: 155).

In the opinion of James, (2008: 52-55), the literacy activities, popular plan and the ‘kudumbasree’ missions in Kerala are part of the NGO agenda. Calling all voluntary organizations as NGOs is problematic as many of these groups are not registered as NGO and carry on their voluntary activities for development. The growth of NGOs in the context of Kerala is particularly related with the general decline of the officially organized Left. The practice of the postmodern theoretical and ideological supports, actually, sought to replace the old Kerala model of development that developed around class-based movements. Now NGOs has taken up their role. The prime aim of these NGOs is the reinforcement of the structural status quo without change.

The middle-class experts of the NGOs and the developmental bureaucracy of the state are replaced by a set of militant, ideologically- oriented, social activists (Oommen, 2004: 221). What do NGOs do? Wherever NGOs have got upper hand the class based politics and global loot of the capital are the scene. Though the NGOs claim that they engage in non-state domains, they are in an unholy tie up with state to gain the ideological and resource related support from the funding agencies. NGOs try to turn the struggles against the domination of capital into mere collectivities of the victims to meet compensation. They are also used as the mediators of these dominations. NGO interventions thus weaken larger massive movements by shifting the focus and creating divisions among the participants while the imperialist loot gets graver (James, 2008: 52- 55).

The main problem faced by the people's struggles in Kerala is that some of the local NGOs are taking fund from polluting factories and doing some welfare activities in the field and turning people's struggle into welfare without addressing the real problem. EloorPurushan (2009: 28-32) argues that, political organizations come up always with the allegation that the people’s struggles in Kerala are highjacked by NGOs and they portray this struggles as "small struggles". In fact, NGO interventions hamper the real progress and shift the focus of the movement. Nevertheless, there are many a genuine struggle led by and for the people that has no brand ambassadors or NGO patrons. We know that, some of the Panchayati raj institutions have not been people-centred and propoor because of the under-representation of the disadvantaged, Dalits and women. NGOs are trying to bridge this gap (Vyasulu, 2001: 2568-2569)

We cannot take NGOs as a substitute for democratic functioning. Now days NGOs are replacing the State as representatives of democracy that is a dangerous move. The main point is that the NGOs can do more in local level than government or Panchayati raj institutions (ibid). NGOs are acting for public good and tending that they are the honest brokers of people's interests. Neither the state nor NGOs represent the public good, but then who does? We can see many organizations which show their presence in the local environmental and human rights movements, and are interested only to lead the struggles and not to fight as one among the local people unto win.Resently we can see that many leaders of NGOS are not able to travel abroad or they are blocking foreign funding for weakening the NGOs in India.

Role of Citizens action groups for environmental movements in Kerala

Role of Citizens action groups and public interest groups in environmental action is also very important. Citizen action groups can do the most at the local level. They can rally experts from different fields to educate the public on the hazards of unsound pollution and the proper alternative practices. Alliance should be created between, scientists, naturalists, journalists, and activists who can carry on the struggle and educate masses.

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