From Gandhi to Deendayal: Contradictions of conservative Hindu tendencies in Indian environmental thinking

0517580 - SOÚ 2020 RIV BR eng J - Journal Article
Krejčík, Jiří
From Gandhi to Deendayal: Contradictions of conservative Hindu tendencies in Indian environmental thinking.
Civitas - Revista de Ciências Sociais. Roč. 19, č. 2 (2019), s. 374-390. ISSN 1519-6089
Grant - others:AV ČR(CZ) StrategieAV21/15
Program: StrategieAV
Institutional support: RVO:68378025
Keywords : India * Environmentalism * Traditionalism * Hinduism * Hindu nationalism * Integral humanism
OECD category: Political science
Method of publishing: Open access
http://revistaseletronicas.pucrs.br/ojs/index.php/civitas/article/view/31973

This article examines the traditionalist and conservative trends in the environmental thinking in India, especially in the works of M. K. Gandhi and Deendayal Upadhyay. Special attention is paid to the latter’s concept of integral humanism, which has recently become a widely discussed idea in the Indian public discourse. Exploring their ideological bases, Gandhian spiritual radicalism and Deendayal’s integral humanism are placed into the broader trend of the Indian nationalist and environmentalist thinking, showing the possible convergence of ecology and social conservatism. Analyzing the implications of the authoritarian and non-egalitarian tendencies in the society, it shows how the Indian environmentalist movements drawing on Brahminical traditions and Gandhian thinking become prone to be hijacked by the Hindu nationalism.


Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0302905