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VANISHING FORESTS, SACRED TREES: A HINDU PERSPECTIVE ON ECO-CONSCIOUSNESS

VANISHING FORESTS, SACRED TREES: A HINDU PERSPECTIVE ON ECO-CONSCIOUSNESS Abstract This paper examines the coming together of two streams of eco-consciousness among urban middle-class Hindus—one, derived from exposure to a scientific discourse about environmental crisis, and two, drawing upon a repertoire of Hindu beliefs and practices regarding the environment. This intermingling has numerous contradictions arising from the two radically different epistemologies from which these streams flow. Yet they have been knit together creatively by locating them within a larger critique of development as a Western project which needs to be challenged from a Hindu vantage point. This paper describes the contours of the Hindu ‘civilizational critique’ and argues that its assertion of an ecologically conscious religious community is deeply problematic. Such a perspective falls prey to the problem of what Ronald Inden calls ‘inverted Orientalism’, which homogenizes and glorifies India as the mirror opposite of the West. While this perspective has been important as a mode of mobilizing an Indian political identity, it has achieved this by suppressing alternative conceptions of religion and community as well as by denying uncomfortable issues such as the attraction of Western-style consumerism for many Indians. In conclusion, the paper points to other, more sensitive ways in which Hindu tradition has been creatively used to address environmental issues. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Asian Geographer Taylor & Francis

VANISHING FORESTS, SACRED TREES: A HINDU PERSPECTIVE ON ECO-CONSCIOUSNESS

BAVISKAR, Amita
Asian Geographer , Volume 18 (1-2): 11 – Jan 1, 1999
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VANISHING FORESTS, SACRED TREES: A HINDU PERSPECTIVE ON ECO-CONSCIOUSNESS

Abstract

Abstract This paper examines the coming together of two streams of eco-consciousness among urban middle-class Hindus—one, derived from exposure to a scientific discourse about environmental crisis, and two, drawing upon a repertoire of Hindu beliefs and practices regarding the environment. This intermingling has numerous contradictions arising from the two radically different epistemologies from which these streams flow. Yet they have been knit together creatively by locating them...
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Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN
2158-1762
eISSN
1022-5706
DOI
10.1080/10225706.1999.9684045
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Abstract This paper examines the coming together of two streams of eco-consciousness among urban middle-class Hindus—one, derived from exposure to a scientific discourse about environmental crisis, and two, drawing upon a repertoire of Hindu beliefs and practices regarding the environment. This intermingling has numerous contradictions arising from the two radically different epistemologies from which these streams flow. Yet they have been knit together creatively by locating them within a larger critique of development as a Western project which needs to be challenged from a Hindu vantage point. This paper describes the contours of the Hindu ‘civilizational critique’ and argues that its assertion of an ecologically conscious religious community is deeply problematic. Such a perspective falls prey to the problem of what Ronald Inden calls ‘inverted Orientalism’, which homogenizes and glorifies India as the mirror opposite of the West. While this perspective has been important as a mode of mobilizing an Indian political identity, it has achieved this by suppressing alternative conceptions of religion and community as well as by denying uncomfortable issues such as the attraction of Western-style consumerism for many Indians. In conclusion, the paper points to other, more sensitive ways in which Hindu tradition has been creatively used to address environmental issues.

Journal

Asian Geographer – Taylor & Francis

Published: Jan 1, 1999

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