Abstract
"Aren't poverty and need the biggest polluters?," asked Prime Minister Indira Gandhi at the 1972 Stockholm Conference on Human Environment. Half a century later, environmentalists, journalists, politicians, and academics interpret the speech to their liking. We contextualize and juxtapose this historical speech vis-à-vis environmental policies, programs, and campaigns enacted under Gandhi's leadership. A reassessment of these debates opens possibilities beyond the polarized arguments that pit "the environment" against "development" within contemporary global environmental governance.
