018.Religion Culture and Environment

8/4/2019 018.Religion Culture and Environment

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Religion, Culture and theEnvironment


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Lecture Outline

1. Christianity and the environment: LynnWhite Jnr (1967) The Roots of our

Present Ecological Crisis. Science

2. Hinduism: are Eastern religions the

answer?

3. Conclusions


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White argued that:

"What people do about their ecology depends on what they

think about themselves in relation to things around them.

Human ecology is deeply conditioned by beliefs about our

nature and destiny -- that is, by religion."

Judaeo-Christianity the most anthropocentric religion

nature is their to serve humans

Associated with this, the Wests ability to change and

damage nature the highest because of science and

technology. A relationship between Christian values and

technological development since Medieval times.


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Sparked huge debates:

E.g. over the messages within Genesis:

"God saw everything that had been made andindeed, it was very good." (Gen 1:31)

But ."Let us make humankind in our image, accordingto our likeness; and let them have dominion over

the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air,and over the cattle, and over all the wild animalsof the earth, and over every creeping thing that

creeps upon the earth." (Gen 1:26)


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Did recognise that:

Eastern, Orthodox Christianity more respectful, andtraditions within the mainstream Protestant and

RC church which were better (e.g. St Francis of

Assisi).

BUT:

Historically, the P. and RC church has been

blatantly unconcerned with the environment.


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Prompted:

1986: The Assisi meeting, withrepresentatives from all the major world

religions, committing themselves to

promoting greater environmentalconsciousness.

A huge academic literature, meetings etc


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Hinduism and the environment

Analytical approaches The standard popular argument

Cautions and caveats Limitations of textual analysis Environmentally problematic Hindu beliefs and

practices The challenges and realities of contemporary India


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Analytical approaches to

Hinduism and ecology

Exegesis of mytho-historical texts (e.g. the Vedas,Upanishads, Gita) to uncover philosophical

precepts and teachings, and indications of past

behaviours. Ethnographic explorations of practices (e.g. sacred

groves, religious rituals)

Socio-political analyses of movements and

struggles for environmental justice (e.g. Narmada

Bachao Andolan, Chipko)


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Hinduism and ecology: the

popular argument The holism of Hinduism the immanence of god

in all things, matter and consciousness meansthat humans recognise their part in divine creation,and respect the rest of it.

Gods and goddesses often take full or part animalform; trees and plants are worshipped, and play animportant ritual role.

The doctrine of reincarnation gives humans anintimate sense of connection with other life forms

through the belief in the trans-migration of souls.


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Variations of this argument have beensupported by:

Orientalist scholars

European (and especially German/Nazi)Romantics

Indian philosophers (from Vivekananda toGandhi)

Lynn White Jnr (1967) The Roots of our Present

Ecological Crisis Science Neo-traditionalists, post-colonial scholars and

ecofeminists


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Organisations:

Swadhyaya (Gujarat) the immanence ofgod 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.


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Cautions and caveats

1. Limitations of textual analysis2. Environmentally problematic Hindu

beliefs and practices3. The challenges and realities of

contemporary India


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1. Problems with texts

"No person should kill animals helpful to all. Byserving them, one should obtain heaven

(Yajurved, 13.47; quoted in Dwivedi andTiwari, 1999, p.174)

"He who plants even one tree, goes directly to

heaven and obtains Moksha"(Matsya Purana, 59.159; quoted in Dwivedi,1990, p.206)


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"Whether we are in a rural area, in woods, on a

battleground or in public meetings .. we shouldalways speak graciously about the Mother Earthand be respectful to her"

(Atharva Veda, Kanda XII, Hymn I, verse56; quoted in Dwivedi, 1997, p. 31).

"Of all that is material and all that is spiritual inthis world, know for certain that I am both itsorigin and its dissolution"

(Krishna to Arjuna, Bhagavad Gita, 7.6;quoted in Dwivedi, 1990, p.204)


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Problems

Reflect elite, Brahminic male views andexperiences, not those of the poor, rural, women,low castes oradivasis.

Value-behaviour gaps (what do they tell us aboutthe way people really thought and behaved?).

Full of complexity and contradictions.

Plenty of evidence (textual, historical,archaeological) of less ecologically harmoniousviews and behaviours

The politicisation of environmental discourses


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Dwivedi:

If Hinduism is so innately ecologicallyharmonious, 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 themasses 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)


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"Environmental history becomes another locationin the struggle for the construction of and control

over a national political memory, and is not

innocent of its own implications. Over the last fewyears, organisations such as the Hindu nationalist

Swadeshi Jagaran Manch (affiliated with the RSS)

have articulated a politics which shares many ofthe assumptions of new traditionalism, defining

Indian authenticity on the basis of 'Hindutva'"

(Sinha, Greenberg and Gururani,1997, p.90).


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"Vandana Shiva ... has become a leadinglight of Hindu ecology, and makes

regular appearances in neo-Hindu [i.e.fundamentalist] ashrams in NorthAmerica. Her work is most respectfully

cited in The Organiser, the officialjournal of the RSS, the cultural arm of

Hindu nationalist parties(Nanda, 2002: 30)


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2. Beliefs and practices

Holism and dualism:

Semitic religions critiqued for theirtranscendental dualism the separation of

humans from nature. But Advaita Vedanta also sets up a

dualism: matter and consciousness (maya)on one side, and liberation/absorption andloss the Self (moksa) on the other.


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For the renouncer, seeking liberation from maya:

The defects of the body, mind and objects ofexperience are innumerable. The discriminatinghave no more liking for them than for milk-

porridge 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 theexcrement of a crow (p.81)


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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)


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We ignore the social dimension of ouractions and practices. The late Dr Adiseshaiah,one of our prominent economists andacademicians, wrote about his mother that she wasa high born lady who kept her house spotlesslyclean. Every morning she used to sweep and cleanthe house herself, and then drop the rubbish in the

neighbours garden. Self-regarding purity andrighteousness, ignoring others, has been the baneof our culture. It has created a gulf in our society

between people, even with regard to basic needsand fundamental rights

President Narayan, Republic Day address, 2000


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3. Contemporary realities and

challenges

The weak case: Is any religion an appropriate or

sufficient basis from which to confront the sheer

scale and original nature of contemporary

environmental threats (e.g. Tomalin, 2000)? The strong case: religion is part of the problem,

not the solution. Environmental and social justice

cannot be achieved as long as people adhere toreligious myths of nature, existence, gender etc.

(e.g. Nanda, 2002, 2003)


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The bestanalyses recognise:

The enormous diversity of belief and practicewithin and between various Hindu traditions

Hybridity with other religions, includingBuddhism, Islam, Christianity andsarna

The importance of situating analyses within theirchanging historical, regional and socio-politicalcontexts

Complex and non-linear value-behaviourrelationships

AND some question whether religion/culture isappropriate in particular cases or at all


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The worstanalyses propose:

An essentialised connection between Hinduismand ecologically sound values, beliefs and

behaviours. Rely on an anti-Semitic religion, anti-science

dualism

Rely uncritically on Brahminic sources andtraditions

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.


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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 well-being.

Better to frame environmental issues in ways that havemeaning for local people?

More effective

Opposes Eurocentric, techno-centric, economicallyreductionist SD outlook

Must be aware of specific contexts and issues

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018.Religion Culture and Environment