Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Lecture Outline
1. Christianity and the environment: Lynn White Jnr (1967) The Roots of our Present Ecological Crisis. Science 2. Hinduism: are Eastern religions the answer? 3. Conclusions
Prompted: 1986: The Assisi meeting, with representatives from all the major world religions, committing themselves to promoting greater environmental consciousness. A huge academic literature, meetings etc
Organisations:
Swadhyaya (Gujarat) the immanence of god in all things used to promote social and environmental justice Various organisations in the Braj region (just below Delhi) who use devotion to Krishna to promote reforestation.
"Whether we are in a rural area, in woods, on a battleground or in public meetings .. we should always speak graciously about the Mother Earth and be respectful to her" (Atharva Veda, Kanda XII, Hymn I, verse 56; quoted in Dwivedi, 1997, p. 31). "Of all that is material and all that is spiritual in this world, know for certain that I am both its origin and its dissolution" (Krishna to Arjuna, Bhagavad Gita, 7.6; quoted in Dwivedi, 1990, p.204)
Problems
Reflect elite, Brahminic male views and experiences, not those of the poor, rural, women, low castes or adivasis. Value-behaviour gaps (what do they tell us about the way people really thought and behaved?). Full of complexity and contradictions. Plenty of evidence (textual, historical, archaeological) of less ecologically harmonious views and behaviours The politicisation of environmental discourses
Dwivedi: If Hinduism is so innately ecologically harmonious, how can we explain the current environmental situation? The answer: 700 years of foreign cultural domination whose alien cultures, ideologies, religions and institutions have shaken the faith of the masses in the earlier cultural tradition and greatly inhibited the religion from continuing to transmit ancient values which encourage respect and due regard for God's creation (1990, p.210-11)
"Environmental history becomes another location in the struggle for the construction of and control over a national political memory, and is not innocent of its own implications. Over the last few years, organisations such as the Hindu nationalist Swadeshi Jagaran Manch (affiliated with the RSS) have articulated a politics which shares many of the assumptions of new traditionalism, defining Indian authenticity on the basis of 'Hindutva'" (Sinha, Greenberg and Gururani,1997, p.90).
"Vandana Shiva ... has become a leading light of Hindu ecology, and makes regular appearances in neo-Hindu [i.e. fundamentalist] ashrams in North America. Her work is most respectfully cited in The Organiser, the official journal of the RSS, the cultural arm of Hindu nationalist parties (Nanda, 2002: 30)
For the renouncer, seeking liberation from maya: The defects of the body, mind and objects of experience are innumerable. The discriminating have no more liking for them than for milkporridge vomited by a dog (quoted in Nelson, 1998:70) Pure non-attachment is disregard for all objects from the god Brahma down to plants and minerals like the indifference one has towards the excrement of a crow (p.81)
Purity and pollution: The sacred landscape/river can be worshipped, while the profane is neglected (e.g. Alley, 1998, 2002 on the Ganges; Haberman, 1994, on the forests of the Braj) Ones own self/house is kept scrupulously clean, while pollution/waste is expelled out, to be absorbed by lower caste/class groups (e.g. Varma, 1998; Gupta, 2000)
We ignore the social dimension of our actions and practices. The late Dr Adiseshaiah, one of our prominent economists and academicians, wrote about his mother that she was a high born lady who kept her house spotlessly clean. Every morning she used to sweep and clean the house herself, and then drop the rubbish in the neighbours garden. Self-regarding purity and righteousness, ignoring others, has been the bane of our culture. It has created a gulf in our society between people, even with regard to basic needs and fundamental rights President Narayan, Republic Day address, 2000
The best analyses recognise: The enormous diversity of belief and practice within and between various Hindu traditions Hybridity with other religions, including Buddhism, Islam, Christianity and sarna The importance of situating analyses within their changing historical, regional and socio-political contexts Complex and non-linear value-behaviour relationships AND some question whether religion/culture is appropriate in particular cases or at all
The worst analyses propose: An essentialised connection between Hinduism and ecologically sound values, beliefs and behaviours. Rely on an anti-Semitic religion, anti-science dualism Rely uncritically on Brahminic sources and traditions Are inattentive to context, diversity, hybridity and change Are inattentive to the hierarchies and oppression of women and low castes that accompanies belief in divine cosmological order.
Conclusions
Most religions have a variety of traditions and practices, and texts which are open to significant interpretation To what extent is religion a guide to behaviour? Problems with cosmological (as opposed to science/political) understandings of environmental wellbeing. Better to frame environmental issues in ways that have meaning for local people?
More effective Opposes Eurocentric, techno-centric, economically reductionist SD outlook