Hindu Traditions and Nature: Survey Article

Abstract

The scholarly investigation of the convergences between Hindu traditions and the natural world is a relatively recent endeavor, having arisen in the wake of similar projects seeking to identify the intersections between religion, culture, and nature. Partly a response to present and looming environmental threats, this effort has resulted in a wide range of material, from a more general "environmental assessment" of the tradition(s) in question to specific inquiries about the social, economic, and demographic factors that impinge upon contemporary Indians' understandings of nature. This literature review provides an overview of these materials and should offer readers a sense of the topics that have received the most attention from scholars to date.

Recycling, relatedness, and reincarnation: Religious beliefs about nature and the afterlife as predictors of sustainability practices.

“…In contrast to the hierarchical view, Eastern religious adherents may espouse a more heterarchical organizational structure of the divine and nature (Narayanan, 2001; Sarre, 1995; Van Horn, 2006). For example, Lauma is the Hindu goddess of trees, and Prajanya is the Hindu goddess of rain.…”

Conversion and Cow Protection in India: Analysis and Critique of Hindutva Politics

“…Rethinking constitutional secularism entails situating the ban on cow slaughter in larger contexts including those of ecology, spirituality (Korom 2000;von Horn 2006) and "'casteised speciesism', or discriminatory practices towards non-humans, in this case by imposing casteist hierarchies on all bovines-the ostensibly protected cow as well as the unprotected buffalo" (Narayanan 2018: 351). With respect to these, the Supreme Court decision of 2005 highlights both economic/ecological as well as compassionate grounds for not slaughtering 'milch cattle' and 'draught cattle' past service.…”