India's Circular Economy in Action: Learnings from Traditions and Margins [Hardcover]

This book presents a series of case studies which highlight culturally embedded circular economy practices of reuse, repair, and regeneration in India.

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

1.    Connecting the dots

2.    Rajasthan: Earth, Fire and Legacy

3.    Ikra Houses of Sikkim: A Blueprint for What We Stand to Lose

4.    A Future Woven in Leaves

5.    Homecoming - Where the Circle Begins

6.    Connecting the dots continues

Index

This book presents a series of case studies that highlight culturally embedded circular economy practices of reuse, repair, and regeneration in India.

Far from innovations, these traditions reflect ways of living that have long sustained communities within ecological limits. From terracotta clusters in Rajasthan to bamboo-timber houses in Sikkim, palm-leaf artefacts in Kerala, and community commons in Chhattisgarh, they demonstrate that circularity is not an abstract policy goal but a lived inheritance. Against this backdrop, Purva Tavri explores how practices from the margins can offer valuable lessons for the affluent world, wherever it may be located. Drawing on her lived experiences in India and professional work in the UK, Tavri maps the social, cultural, economic, and ecological impacts of these traditions against the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, framing them as reverse learning with replicability and scalability for advancing circularity and resilience. At the same time, she raises a caution: as the affluent increasingly appropriate practices from the margins, policies alãz