Sarvodaya and climate justice: Reimagining global environmental politics

Sarvodaya, the classic Indian concept of welfare—reimagines global environmental politics by drawing a sociopolitical-legal nexus for justice and normativity. This article traces how Sarvodaya, understood as a moral norm, diffused through India’s environmental movements to gain legal traction through economic, social, and cultural rights (ESCR) as codified in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Citation1966). Situated within constructivism, norms research, and critical legal theory, this article argues that ESCR provides a legal architecture to operationalize Sarvodaya’s moral claims through two pathways: courts and campaigns. Through courts, mechanisms such as public interest litigation translate moral demands into enforceable rights. Through campaigns, grassroots movements mainstream a human rights-based approach to climate action, aiding the cross-pollination of strategies and norms transnationally. The article engages with structural, feminist, and institutional critiques of Sarvodaya, while demonstrating how its moral grammar—bottom-up and relational—persisted beyond its political limitations. By charting Sarvodaya’s transnational normative influence on contemporary climate litigation and advocacy, the article offers an exploratory contribution toward reimagining global environmental politics through a justice-centric, rights-based framework.