Indian environmentalism has been richly told as a story of forests, rivers and grassroots movements confronting the developmental state. This talk turns to other important trends that have emerged over the past two decades, as caste, religion and nationalism have moved to the centre of Indian political and social life and, with them, of its environmental politics. It traces four threads. The first is Hindu nationalism, from the RSS to the Modi government, which has drawn sacred rivers, cows and “Vedic” ecology into cultural and political mobilisation. The second is Dalit ecologies, which show how caste shapes who labours on nature, who bears its pollution and who is excluded from it, and how Dalits resist. The third is the casting of Muslims as India’s environmental “other,” read alongside Muslims’ own environmental expressions and practices. The fourth is the new energy politics, which has become the ground for conflict, displacement and struggle. Together, these threads show that nature in India today is contested through caste, religion and nationalism as much as through ecology and development.
Bio
Mukul Sharma is Professor of Environmental Studies at Ashoka University. His research looks at how caste, religion and nationalism shape environmental politics in India. He is the author of Green and Saffron: Hindu Nationalism and Indian Environmental Politics, Caste and Nature: Dalits and Indian Environmental Politics, Dalit Ecologies: Caste and Environment Justice and Green and Saffron: The RSS, Modi and Indian Environmental Politics. His current work on Muslim ecologies looks at how Muslims have been cast as India's environmental “other,” and at Muslims’ own environmental expressions.
