In this entry, the researcher will analyse neoliberal policies and how they have been popularised through the mass media – with a particular focus on market triumphalism. This is an important issue in contemporary times as neoliberal policies have led to an increase in economic inequality. However, public discourse has argued that these policies are beneficial to the economy and workers. The first section will describe the historical trajectory that shaped neoliberal policies. In the second section, the researcher will trace the introduction of neoliberal policies in India in the 1990s and how English newspapers popularised them. In section ​“Sandel’s Critique of Market Triumphalism in America”, the researcher will discuss the popularity of market triumphalism through neoliberal policies in the USA and Michael Sandel’s (What money can’t buy: the moral limits of markets. Penguin, London, 2012) influential critique of it.

This chapter discusses collective and multiactor interventions by local communities in Bengaluru, in conserving urban ecological commons — specifically, urban lakes — which provides a range of services to residents, as well as protecting the overall resilience of the city. Bengaluru, which once had an agrarian ecological landscape nourished by a large network of interconnected rainwater harvesting structures — tanks or lakes, has now grown to a megacity. Rapid urbanization has been accompanied by conversion of many of these lakes into other forms of land use, with a decline in the functioning of lakes and their surrounding reliant socio-ecological systems. With the import of piped water to the city since the early 20^th century, lakes lost much of their perceived relevance for policymakers. Waste discharge and sewage eventually polluted most of the lakes and choked the overflow channels that connected lakes along a topographic gradient, reducing the flow of water. In recent years, spurred by a resurgent awareness of the importance of lakes, a growing number of civic and community efforts have resulted in lake restoration, in collaboration with the Government.

It is easy to lose hope in the future. The 20^th-century growth model is no longer viable as is evident from the spiralling climate crisis. At the time of writing this paper, the atmospheric carbon dioxide reading is a record high of 417 ppm. The current COVID-19 outbreak (and prediction of more such pandemics) is a grim sign of humanity’s distorted relationship with nature. Scientifc data related to the breaching of four of the nine planetary boundaries puts a dent on the aspirations and chase for unfettered economic growth and increasing material wealth. In reality, it is and always has been a dance of death resulting in several crises that we encounter today – extreme inequality, rising populism, degrading of our natural environments and violence and injustice of various kinds. Mahatma Gandhi warned of such a fate for India and the world when he wrote, “…like the proverbial moth (India) will burn itself eventually in the fame round which it dances more and more furiously”