Suraj Se Samriddh

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Overview

In June 2020, the Uttar Pradesh government announced plans to convert five cities, Ayodhya, Mathura, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, and Prayagraj, into "solar cities" by 2024. This sits within a state RE target of 10,700 MW (against an estimated 22,300 MW potential), and lands at a moment when India as a whole is on track to meet its climate commitments, having built 83 GW of a 175 GW renewable energy target through the International Solar Alliance. While the initiative reflects the state's efforts to expand renewable energy and promote greener urban development, it also raises an important question: how can the transition to solar energy be made more inclusive, locally owned, and beneficial to diverse communities across Uttar Pradesh?

The five cities chosen are also central to UP's dominant religious identity, even though they are, in practice, home to centuries of shared, inter-religious, and inter-cultural life. Our engagement with local faith leaders during the 2020 Covid-19 response showed this tension can be resolved rather than avoided,leaders from different faith communities came together on a single platform to advocate for climate action, treating diversity as a source of solidarity rather than division. The solar transition is therefore not only a question of increasing renewable energy capacity, but also of ensuring that local communities, businesses, workers and different social groups can participate in and benefit from the emerging green economy. This creates an opportunity to explore how solarisation can support both environmental sustainability and a more inclusive model of development in Uttar Pradesh, one that extends the same recognition and investment to all of UP's identities, and builds the widest possible public base of support for a much larger solarising campaign across the state.

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Key Objectives

Target the UPNEDA (UP Renewable Energy Department) to demand the inclusion of the 4 additional cities of UP under a unified UP solar cities program.
Push for the implementation of the solar cities program in order to meet the 2022 RE targets of 10,700 MW set by the UP Government and increase adoption of solar energy by 5% (33.5 MW) through the solarising of places of worship and government buildings (esp buildings belonging to the cultural & tourism department).
Build public endorsement on clean energy adoption from youth, faith leaders & officials from the UP cultural & tourism departments.

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Reviving Shared Identity to Build Public Demand

We began by reviving a shared identity across Agra, Lucknow, Kanpur, Meerut, Ayodhya, Mathura, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, and Prayagraj, reframing these cities around their common historical, artistic, and cultural heritage rather than religion alone. This narrative was carried through cultural programming, a Hindi-Urdu poetry event, a "My Heritage, My Pride" museum show, sun-themed wall art, and marches, combined with solar ambassadors and weekly social content, gradually shifting public conversation toward clean energy as a point of shared civic pride.

Mobilising Priority Audiences for On-Ground Commitment

Building on this, we mobilised three priority audiences to convert public sentiment into on-ground commitment: youth aged 18-25, faith leaders, and cultural department officials. A Youth Champions Fellowship and Solar Sabha built youth leadership around solar as a livelihood opportunity, faith leaders committed their places of worship to solarisation, and cultural and tourism officials committed institutional buildings. These commitments fed into a public petition demanding the inclusion of four additional cities in the state's solar cities programme.

Political Mobilisation and Policy Advocacy

With this public endorsement in hand, the campaign moved into direct engagement with MLAs, MPs, and City Mayors through a series of campaign activities, an inter-religious and inter-cultural parliament, delegation meetings, and a People's Manifesto on renewable energy ahead of the 2022 state elections. A Renewable Energy handbook was distributed to decision-makers, and the petition was formally delivered to press and government, converting public mandate into pressure for implementation against the state's 2022 RE target.

Tracking Impact Against Defined Hypotheses

Throughout, progress was tracked against three testable hypotheses, that shared-identity narratives would shift public sentiment, that influencer-led content would drive audience engagement, and that political mobilisation would prompt an implementation roadmap. Each was measured through scale/continue/exit thresholds on reach, petition signatures, and decision-maker engagement, with the process closing in a campaign evaluation deck capturing sector-wide learnings.

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Impact

Political Commitment: All parties, including the ruling and main opposition, accepted the demand to include Manifesto points in their Political Manifesto 2022, securing cross-party recognition of the campaign's agenda.

Policy Outcome: As a result, the state government issued a further notification in 2022 addressing the campaign's demands. The then RE Minister of the Uttar Pradesh Government announced at the campaign's culmination event that the government would include the cities recommended by the campaign. Today, 16 cities are included in the state's solar city scheme list, covering all the cities the campaign recommended.

Media Mobilisation: 200+ media representatives were mobilised through 7 press conferences, amplifying the campaign's reach and keeping climate demands in public discourse.

Public Endorsement: The petition crossed 70,000+ sign-ups across 9 cities, a strong show of grassroots support even after a complete 3-month disruption caused by COVID-19's second wave.

Faith & Culture Network: A statewide network of 60+ faith leaders across 7 religions in UP was formed, alongside culture representatives from Music, Art, Dance, and Folk Art, aligning religious and cultural voices with the climate conservation agenda through public campaigns.

Youth Engagement: 50 university-going youths from 9 cities were onboarded, building a base of young advocates to sustain and scale the campaign's outreach.