Abolishing the East: The Dated Nature of Orientalism in the Definition

and Ethical Analysis of the Hindu Faith

Gregory A. Barton
Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East,
Volume 29, Number 2, 2009, pp. 281-290 (Article)
Published by Duke University Press
For additional information about this article
Access Provided by Australian National University at 07/31/11 4:49AM GMT
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/cst/summary/v029/29.2.barton.html
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!BOLISHING THE %AST 4HE $ATED .ATURE
OF /RIENTALISMIN THE $ENITION AND %THICAL
!NALYSIS OF THE (INDU &AITH
Gregory A. 8arIon
istorians have tangled with two different conceptualizations of Hinduism. One pos-
its a merry India that is diverse, tolerant, and amorphous, impossible to pin down,
dehne, or solidify into a single entity. The other accepts the term Hinduism but as-
cribes to it a battery of impressive environmental ethics that stand as a model for the West.
Yet the seemingly paradoxical attempt to historically deconstruct Hinduism and to anachro-
nistically reconstruct an environmental consciousness for Hinduism stems from a reluctance
to see how colonialism and global capitalism have inscribed the West on the East. The dated
nature of these dehnitions represents the last romantic outpost of an orientalism that is in-
creasingly outdated by the new global identity of the large middle- and upper-class elites on
the subcontinent.
Scholars dehne Hinduism as a culture and philosophy as much as a religionthe sum
of the practices and beliefs practiced by the Hindu peoples. It implies caste and philosophy,
sacred texts, manners of worship, and Brahmanism. This last describes the priestly aspect of
Hinduism. Historians of religion refer to Brahmanism as the older priestly ritual and Hindu-
ism to a later elaboration on a popular base, including local nature gods that Brahman teach-
ers added to the pantheon or merged with older gods.
Scholars have wrestled with the dehnition of Hinduism since the eighteenth century.
Friedhelm Hardy argued that since it is almost impossible to properly put a term to this collec-
tion of beliefs and practices, the term Hinduism must be regarded as an act of pure despair.
1

Ancient references are often invoked to clarify the dehnition of the word. The Persian cunei-
form tablets in the reign of Darius I refer to the people living beyond the Sindhus River, and
many modern historians prefer a dehnition that, like the Persians, relegates Hinduism to a
geographical entity. Some scholars have even more narrowly dehned Hinduism as an oriental-
ist construction devoid of reality or as a mere nationalistic tool by the Brahman elite.
2
Orientalism itself is a contested term. Edward Said dehned orientalism as a certain will
or intention to understand, in some cases to control, manipulate, even to incorporate, what is
. lriedhelm Rardy, 1he keliqicns c[ Asic (London: kouIledge,
ggo), )z.
z. lor a discussion oI Darius l and Rinduism, see R. SIieIencron,
"Rinduism: On Ihe Proper Use oI a DecepIive 1erm," in linJu-
ismkercnsiJereJ, ed. GnIer D. SonIheimer and Rermann Kulke
(Delhi: Manohar, gg), z. lor IurIher discussion oI Ihe dehni-
Iion oI Rinduism , see !oseph 1. O'Connel, "Gaudiya vaisnava
Symbolism oI Deliverance Irom Lvil," in Icurncl c[ the Amerircn
Orientcl 5criety g (g)): qo-q; komila 1hapar, "lmagined ke-
ligious CommuniIies? AncienI RisIory and Ihe Modern Search Ior
a Rindu ldenIiIy," McJern Asicn 5tuJies z (g8g): zzq; kichard
King, "OrienIalismand Ihe Modern MyIh oI 'Rinduism,'" Numen
q6 (ggg): q6-8; and ParIha ChaIIer|ee, "RisIory and Ihe Na-
IionalizaIion oI Rinduism," 5cricl kesecrrh g (ggz): q).
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a manifestly different (or alternative and novel)
world.
3
In Culture and Imperialism Said adds ob-
jectihcation and control of the Third World
to this dehnition of orientalism.
4
Recently some
scholars have proposed that other traditions can
be reinscribed and strengthened by an oriental-
ism that is both contingent and contradictory.
5

At the very root of orientalism is the attempt to
divide the world into geocultural regions and
thus divide peoples and cultures into discrete
entities.
George James argues that one of the most
pervasive features of orientalist thought is the
assumption that the way of thinking of the Ori-
ent is diametrically opposed to that of the West,
that East and West are separated by fundamen-
tally differing forms of thought.
6
This mark-
ing of cognitive difference manifests itself in
oblique and subtle ways, and the very question,
Is there such a thing as Hinduism? exemplihes
this. Inspired by the contribution of Benedict
Andersons Imagined Communities, some scholars
undermine comparative environmental history
by the aspersions cast on the term Hindu with-
out seeing that this freedom to deconstruct is
a heavy-handed Western, politically inspired,
dehnitional play on words that is rarely applied
outside the East on verities such as Christian-
ity, Islam, and Judaism. The latter are normal
religions, and those religions such as Hinduism
(and also Buddhism) do not ostensibly have the
same characterizations and therefore do not
have identity or meaning.
Many scholars find it difficult to speak
of Hinduism as a single entity. While this does
not stop them from using the term themselves,
often profusely, the objection to the term rests
on the reality that Hinduism, unlike Christian-
ity or Islam, does not have a central creed, a sin-
gle agreed-on set of scripture, or an identihable
orthodox position. Hinduism is a collection of
sects that to many scholars does not represent
a single faith entity or an entity with a unihed
identity.
7
Outsiders hrst coined the term Hinduism.
Muslims referred to themselves and to Chris-
tians as the People of the Book because to
Muslims it seemed the Hindus had no central
text or creed. This misunderstanding haunts
contemporary scholars who, like Joanne Wag-
horne, find this ancient Muslim distinction
useful. She also argues that the booking of
Hinduism is an imposition from outsiders, par-
ticularly the British. The India Ofhce commis-
sioned Max Muller, the German Sanskritist, to
translate and publish the Vedas, which came
into print between +SS and +SSq. These scrip-
tures, according to Waghorne, served the pur-
pose of transforming a variety of communities
into a single entity. The British gave the Indians
a book for Hinduism much like the British had a
book for Christianity. Nevertheless, this booking
attempt failed to tie the unruly mosaic together
into one easily controlled unit, as the imperial-
ists desired. Failing this, Waghorne concludes,
Western scholars and imperialists focused on
the epic of Ramayana and his struggles against
the demon Ravana. This latter effort proved
more successful, and today the Ramayana was
slowly becoming the central book of Hinduism
and booksellers in Ajodhya hawk [the Rama-
yana] as though it were a Hindu fundamentalist
gospel.
8
This literary coup, Waghorne believes,
transformed a tolerant and diverse Hinduism
into a contemporary political movement that de-
nies the complexities and contradictions of Hin-
duism. Hindu communalism is new and thus
unauthenticinspiring an unauthentic funda-
mentalist identity and politics. Viewing Hindu-
ism as a passive object molded by imperialism
and Western scholars, she juxtaposes a merry
Hinduism of the pasttolerant and diverse
to contemporary fundamentalist Hinduism and
its political expression, the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP), or Indian Peoples Party.
9
There are some problems with this ap-
proach. The distinction downplays the impor-
. Ldward Said, Orientclism (New ork: kandom
Rouse, g)g), z.
q. Ldward Said, Culture cnJ lmpericlism (New ork:
kandom Rouse, ggq).
. Romi K. 8habha, 1he lcrcticn c[ Culture (Nework:
kouIledge, ggq). lrIan Rabib oIIers a convincing and
devasIaIing criIique oI Said's work, "ln DeIence oI
OrienIalism," 5cricl 5rientist (zoo), qo-q6.
6. "lnIroducIion," in lthircl Perspertives cn lnvi-
rcnmentcl lssues in lnJic, ed. George A. !ames (New
Delhi: APRPublishing CorporaIion, ggg), 8.
). Prasen|iI Duara, "1he New PoliIics oI Rinduism,"
Wilscn Qucrterly , no. (gg): q.
8. !oanne Waghorne, "Rinduism and Ihe laIe oI
lndia," Wilscn Qucrterly , no. (gg): z.
g. lbid., .
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tance of an oral tradition, ignoring the fact that
Hindus had a book before the British aided
the process of preservation by encouraging
Muller to translate and edit the Vedas. Little at-
tention is given to the oral tradition of Islam,
during and immediately following the life of
Muhammad, or the extensive oral tradition of
the Old Testament. This position also assumes
such a supreme centrality for Europeans in the
formation of the modern conception of Hindu-
ism that it denies agency and even dignity to
the practitioners, as if Hinduism as practiced
today was invented by the West. Inuuenced
by this line of deconstruction, Ranchor Prime
remarked in Hinduism and Ecology: Seeds of Truth,
Hindus did not know that they were Hindus
until we told them so.
10
How much of the opposition to Hinduism
as a historical identity is based on a conception
of Western supremacy, even when articulated by
Indian scholars? Much of the confusion lies in
the fact that Hinduism differs substantially from
Christianity and Islam. For instance it is argued
that because in Hinduism there is the absence
of a prophet, with no revealed book or mono-
theistic God or ecclesiastical organization
with a clear outline of orthodoxy and heresy,
and even the absence of conversion, therefore
Hinduism does not measure up to an identity
in the same way. Romila Thapar argues that in-
stead of all these historically real and identity
building verities Hinduism is merely philo-
sophical ideas, iconology, and rituals.
11
This is
a fundamentally different approach from that
of religions which would like to insist on a single
interpretation arising out of a given theological
framework (:+). Thapar makes the point that
Hinduism has no creed, catechism, theology
and ecclesiastical organization and is differ-
ent in essence from the model for Semitic re-
ligions (:+S). Hinduism, he tells us, developed
and formed over time. There has not been a
single, homogeneous Hindu community as a
uniform, monolithic religion (+).
But Hinduism does not need to mimic Se-
mitic religions to be a meaningful term; Hin-
duism needs only to be a noun sanctioned with
common usage. The term needs no absolute
platonic essence or uniform standard, nor
does it need absolute predictive power. Rather,
like all nouns, Hinduism is a name given to ob-
served characteristics. It requires only prob-
able predictive power to be helpful. Excep-
tions, porous borders, elements observed under
other headings or nouns, variations, lack of a
unifying consistency, none of these invalidate
any term or noun, for all terms and nouns are
merely useful at a given level of utilitysuch
as Newtonian physics. Common practice deter-
mines dehnitions and it is mere sophistry to ar-
bitrarily dismiss them. Since all nouns can be
deconstructed in the same way, not just nation
or Hinduism, Thapars analysis shares many of
the conceptual weaknesses of Andersons Imag-
ined Communitieswhich Thapar utilizes as a
conceptual model.
But which historians use a nounin this
case Hinduismto indicate no development,
no history, no borders, or no variety? Thapar
argues against not other careful scholars but
the simplihed slogans of a political party, the
BJP, and thus makes his case with ease. But what
religious tradition does not have elements with
discrete originssuch as the Kaaba worship in
Mecca, or the Neoplatonic Gnostics in Christi-
anity, much of which has been assimilated into
Christianity? What religions do not include
broad civilizational symbols not specihcally re-
ligious, such as the cross found as a decoration
in architectural sites in ancient Israel before the
Christian era or the Christmas tree, clearly of
pagan origin and used by Christians? Yet nei-
ther Islam nor Christianity is singled out as a
meaningless term because of these issues.
Another narrative that scholars use to
erode the term Hinduism contradicts entirely
the hrst argument. This narrative associates the
term Hinduism with Indian nationalists. In this
version the British were not seeking to mold Hin-
duism into a monolithic and thus controllable
force, but rather the British insisted that India
was a conglomeration of peoples, religions, and
castes, with Hinduism a mosaic of sects. Only
the unifying presence of the Crown could hold
o. kanchor Prime, linJuism cnJ lrclcqy 5eeJs c[
1ruth (London: Cassell, ggz), ix.
. 1hapar, "lmagined keligious CommuniIies," zo-.
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society together and create an Indian nation.
Thus, in resistance to this effort by the British
to divide and rule, the nationalists erected the
historical claim that Hinduism, and India, had
an ancient, unihed monolithic identity.
While this latter narrative has some, if
limited, historicity, taken together these two
narratives give the British two contradicting
roles, and many scholars, Indian and Western,
use the narrative that best suits the argument
under construction. When arguing that Hin-
duism lacks a unifying identity, the first nar-
rative is used, that is, that the British created
a false monolithic interpretation of Hinduism
that produced Hinduism, the Vedas and the
Ramayana, and its offspring, the BJP. However,
when some scholars argue that early Indian na-
tionalists and intellectuals spoke of India and
Hinduism as a single entity, these nationalists
and intellectuals were merely responding to
the efforts of the British to divide India into an
incoherent mosaic that only the Crown could
rule. These scholars rarely notice the contradic-
tion between the two arguments: the British cre-
ated a monolithic Hinduism responsible for the
frightening BJP; the British denied the unity of
Hinduism to argue that the Crown offered the
only alternative and unifying factor. When op-
posing the religious BJP the hrst argument is
handy. When justifying Indian nationalism the
second is used.
Jawaharlal Nehru and the poet Rabin-
dranath Tagore believed Hinduism, along with
a legacy of Buddhism and enlightened Muslim
emperors, created a common base of secular
tolerance. The emperor Akbar held for Nehru
the highest place of honor, for he created a
sense of oneness among the diverse elements
of north and central India.
12
Nehrus daughter
Indira Gandhi and her political successors in
the Congress Party held this secular ideal and
opposed the conception of India as a Hindu
nation. Most Indian scholars published in the
West and most non-Indian Western scholars
align with this diverse and often secular view
and resist the concept of Hinduism as a mono-
lithic or even definable entity. The Congress
Party has promoted a tolerant secular elite rul-
ing over a diverse multitude that lacks any one
large monolithic identity. This position holds
that India could be held together only by a secu-
lar elite of professionals allied with merchants,
the military, and the civil service.
Not all prominent Indian political hgures
are cast in this mold. Gandhi and other nation-
alists drew heavily from the Brahmanic tradi-
tion and used this tradition to forge an opposi-
tion to British imperialism. Many emphasized,
instead of diversity, a coherent cultural base in
India capable of supporting independence and
individual liberty under the rule of law. Unques-
tionably, upper-caste Brahmans made up the
bulk of crusading nationalists. Though against
caste and sympathetic to the Untouchables,
Mohandas Gandhi advocated this view of a re-
forming Hinduism as the foundation of Indian
nationalism.
13
Though there are some similarities be-
tween the Gandhian vision of a coherent and
unifying Hinduism and Hindu fundamental-
ism, there are also many differences. The lat-
ter developed not only in the context of a de-
veloping nationalism but in opposition to the
proselytizing efforts of Christian missionaries.
Many scholars are revolted by the rise of this
Semitic Hinduism that mirrors the religious
traditions of the Near East and Europe. Arya
Samaj, a movement founded by the ascetic
Dayanand Saraswati in the nineteenth century,
based its opposition to Christianity and Islam
on the exclusive truth of the Vedas.
14
Indian
movements such as the Neo-Vedanta, Sathya Sai
Baba, and Transcendental Meditation share the
blame for creating a fundamentalist, revivalist,
and nationalistic Hinduism that is branded as
a Western import. Slowly divisions also spread
between fundamentalists and Sikhs. To those
outside its increasingly dehned borders, Hindu
nationalism began to take on the appearance of
aggressive chauvinism.
15
z. Duara, "New PoliIics oI Rinduism," qq.
. lbid., q.
q. lbid., q6.
. komila 1hapar, "SyndicaIed Moksha," 5emincr
(g8): z. Also see Daniel Gold, "Organized Rinduism:
lrom vedic 1ruIh Io Rindu NaIion," in lunJcmentcl-
isms ObserveJ, ed. MarIin L. MarIy and k. ScoII Ap-
pleby (Chicago: UniversiIy oI Chicago Press, gg),
-g.
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Race and ethnicity also entered the equa-
tion. Veer Savarkar, an architect of what Prasen-
jit Duara refers to as syndicated Hinduism,
advocated a distinctly racial view of Hinduism,
with Hindu-ness encompassing culture, com-
munity, and bloodline.
16
Hindu militants initi-
ate public action and ceremonies that proclaim
a pan-Hindu understanding, such as the cele-
bration of Ganesha, with an increasing use of
loudspeakers and chauvinistic public displays.
The celebration of the elephant-headed god
Ganesha begun by the nationalist leader Bal
Gangadhar Tilak around the turn of the last
century serves precisely this purpose. This has
been interpreted as a sign not of celebration or
worship but of opposition to the dual enemies
of Islam and secularism.
17
This brand of fundamentalist Hinduism
is the backbone of the BJP. They are supported
by conservatives who believe in the caste system,
and this means not only upper-caste Brahmans
but also those in the lower caste, who have not
prohted from the new secular elite of postcolo-
nial India. The BJP has successfully made the
argument that these diverse and secular elites
have not shown a keen regard for Indias poor,
have failed to provide universal education, and
have done little to close the gap between the
rich and the poor. The BJP draws broad sup-
port from the lower caste and the upper caste
because it provides not only religious identity
but a political crusade against indifference and
corruption.
This political divide goes a long way to ex-
plain the political motive of many Indian and
Western scholars who seek to deconstruct the
term Hinduism. The deconstruction fits per-
fectly the political opposition to the BJP. The
political opposition sharpens the political impli-
cations on the debate regarding Hindu identity.
Thapar, for instance, discusses the political im-
plications of modern Hindu identity, dissecting
some of the motivations for asserting a Hindu
identity while managing to avoid any discussion
of the political motivations that he and others
who oppose the BJP have in asserting an imag-
ined religious community.
18
It may be admitted that there is a politi-
cal need toin the words of Thaparcreate
the idea of a single, Hindu community and
that this concern seeks to add historicity to the
incarnations, focus on a sacred book, empha-
size monotheism, and support missionary activ-
ity and conversion.
19
It may be true that these
activities evolve out of the potential to claim
power in the political realm by stressing the
commonalties of the Hindu majority. It may
also be true that the concept of Hinduism fed
national aspirations in the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries, that orientalists spoke of
Hindus as one group, and that Hinduism covers
many practices and beliefs. However, the politi-
cal use of the term strengthens not weakens the
conception. Utility validates terminology. That
the use of the term disturbs historians with a
different political commitment than to the BJP
is understandable. Sophistry always involves the
rejection of common usage for either new deh-
nitions that are not widely used or the invalida-
tion of terms broadly used. This kind of sloppy
dehnitional sophism is the primary weakness
of this narrative, and the deconstruction of the
term Hinduism partakes of this rhetorical sleight
of hand.
Many of those who deconstruct the term
Hinduism practice blatant orientalism. Besides
the rather suspicious political motive of assert-
ing a tolerant and diverse Hinduism free of
monolithic identity is the clearly orientalist tone
in the construction of Hinduism as other. Hin-
duism in this form is other than Western and
other than the Near East religions like Chris-
tianity, Judaism, and Islam. It has the foreign
and romantic properties of (+) no book, (:)
no central creed, () no central organization,
and (q) no orthodox position. It is therefore ut-
terly unlike anything seen in the religious or-
ganization of the West and represents a totally
different mind-set with a discrete geographical
mentalitythe very essence, according to the
dehnitions laid out by Said and other scholars
such as James, of orientalism.
This orientalist narrative misses those ele-
ments of Hinduism that give it some, if not abso-
6. Duara, "New PoliIics oI Rinduism," q8.
). lbid.
8. See 1hapar, "lmagined keligious CommuniIies."
g. lbid., zz8.
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lute, unity. Despite the differences among sects,
all aspects of Hinduism share a number of key
concepts. The doctrine of karma uows through
the scriptures most read and dramatized today
and is inseparable from the term Hinduism. The
doctrine of reincarnation also runs through
most of the sects. Though certain groups reject
reincarnation, such as the Charvakas (sixth cen-
tury BC), the Kapalikas (medieval), and reform-
ers like Ram Mohun Roy (nineteenth century),
the doctrine of reincarnation is central to and
dehnes the character of most of the sects com-
prehended under the term Hinduism.
20
Environmental discourse offers another
interesting example of how many Western schol-
ars construct Hinduism as a romantic other
even when the term Hinduism is not questioned.
Some offer Hinduism as a spiritual soul for the
environmental movement and as a framework
that will connect Westerners to nature and pro-
vide the foundation for environmental ethics in
the twenty-hrst century. Some of the earliest en-
vironmental history writers have looked to the
East to hnd inspiration for environmental eth-
ics. With uncritical admiration, they propose
shipping back home a treasure trove of Hindu
ethical virtueslike a cargo of cloves on a Por-
tuguese caravelthat will then, when unpacked
and consumed, guide the approach to nature in
Europe and the Americas.
Often environmental scholars have, ac-
cording to Ronald Inden, a vested interest in
seeing that the orientalist view of India as spiri-
tual, mysterious and exotic is perpetuated.
21

They mine the East as other, appropriating the
East as ornamentation to their Western view of
nature. This species of scholarly tourism rarely
investigates Eastern scripture, myth, or doc-
trine with any depth or objectivity. Peter Mar-
shal tellingly critiqued this romantic strand of
Western scholarship: As Europeans have always
tended to do, they created Hinduism in their
own image. Their study of Hinduism conhrmed
their beliefs and Hindus merged from their work
as adhering to something akin to un- dogmatic
Protestantism. Later generations of Europeans,
interested themselves in mysticism, were able to
portray the Hindus as mystics.
22
Roderick Nash wrote that ancient eastern
cultures had a respect for the natural world
that Western cultures did not, and that wilder-
ness did not have an unholy or evil connota-
tion in the East. The Hindus, in his estimation,
along with the Buddhists, professed a feeling of
compassion and a code of ethical conduct for all
that was alive.
23
Eliot Deutsch makes two points
about Hinduism in his essay A Metaphysical
Grounding for Natural Reverence: East-West.
Since Hinduism teaches that nature is Maya (il-
lusion), it allows one to engage in the creative
play that is required for a proper man/nature
relationship. The doctrine of karma shows
the subtle ramifications or consequences of
ones makings [deeds] throughout ones envi-
ronment. The author then concludes his essay
by reverting to an entirely Western conception
of nature and asserting that natures organic
complexity can be harmonized with a scientihc
understanding by turning to Asian thought
(in this case, Indian Vedantic philosophy).
24

Elsewhere he argues that humans connect with
nature in Hinduism because in Hinduism all
things emanate from Brahma and thus make
all things one.
25
Rarely discussed is how the doctrine of
Maya and of karma is a radical idealism that
projects the most complete disconnect to nature
imaginable. It also projects a radical disconnect
from an active reformist zeal that proved neces-
sary for the development of environmentalism
in the British Empire and throughout the West.
It was precisely the activist engagement in the
zo. lbid.
z. konald lnden, "OrienIalisI ConsIrucIions oI lndia,"
McJern Asicn 5tuJies zo (g86): qqz.
zz. PeIer Marshal, 1he 3ritish 0isrcvery c[ linJuismin
the liqhteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versiIy Press, g)o), q-qq. OIher scholars criIicize Ihe
same orienIalizing Iendency. See lnden, "OrienIalisI
ConsIrucIions oI lndia," qq; PeIer van der veer, "ln-
IroducIion," in Orientclism cnJ the Pcstrclcnicl Pre-
Jircment, ed. Carol A. 8reckenridge and PeIer van der
veer (Philadelphia: UniversiIy oI Pennsylvania Press,
gg), -z; and M. Sprinker, ed., lJwcrJ 5ciJ A Criti-
rcl kecJer (OxIord: OxIord UniversiIy Press, ggz).
z. koderick Nash, WilJerness cnJ the Amerircn MinJ
(New Raven, C1: ale UniversiIy Press, g6)), zo, z,
gz-g. Ashis Nandy aIIempIs Io explain Ihe subordi-
naIion oI mysIical and poeIic elemenIs in WesIern so-
cieIy as an eIIecI oI Ihe LnlighIenmenI and balanced
by Ihe pro|ecIion oI Ihese same qualiIies onIo Ihe LasI
as Ihe inverse "oIher." See Ashis Nandy, 1he lntimcte
lnemy (Delhi: OxIord UniversiIy Press, g8), )-)q.
zq. LlioI DeuIsch, "A MeIaphysical Grounding Ior
NaIural keverence: LasI-WesI," in Ncture in Asicn 1rc-
Jiticns c[ 1hcuqht lsscys in lnvircnmentcl listcry,
ed. !. 8aird CallicoII and koger 1. Ames (Albany: SIaIe
UniversiIy oI New ork Press, g8g), z6-6.
z. LlioI DeuIsch, "vedanIa and Lcology," in lnJicn
Philcscphircl Annucl, ed. 1. M. P. Mehederan (Ma-
dras: CenIer Ior Advanced SIudy in Philosophy, g)o),
):-o.
. .
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world from Enlightenment optimism, married
to a utilitarian and pragmatic concern for re-
source depletion, and a belief in the indepen-
dent worth of nature that led to the formulation
of an environmental ethic.
26
All these factors
are missing from Hinduism and, one could
perhaps argue, missing from all major religious
traditions. Since environmental ethics did not
develop from any one faith tradition, it may be
a fools errand to try to discover them in ancient
scriptures or religious practice. Perhaps the saf-
est bet for discovering environmental ethics
would be to investigate the source from which
they originally sprang and harvest new corn
from old helds. Since most religious traditions
developed to help humans control and survive
nature, it is expecting too much (and perhaps
is an unfair criticism) of faith traditions that
they reuect and reinforce a nineteenth-century
invention that arose only after the onslaught of
the Industrial Revolution.
Many environmental scholars hold a
deeply ingrained suspicion that major faith tra-
ditions like Hinduism conceal a wealth of envi-
ronmental ethics. J. Baird Callicott and Roger T.
Ames argue that Eastern wisdom is thus free
from the scientihc world view and leads prac-
titioners to appreciate the particular and to
reject systemic unity. This view sees Eastern
wisdom focused not on a theory but on images,
an inexpressible and inimitable experience,
not argument or logic but metaphor. The end
result is an aesthetic feeling toward nature free
of the scientihc sense of coherence. The prac-
titioner of Eastern wisdom can then reject uni-
versalizing principles and see that order has no
discernable harmony and that abstractions of
system, unity, objectivity, transcendence, uni-
formity, conceptualization and so on have no
reality.
27
Callicott and Ames look to Eastern thought
to better understand not another cultural tradi-
tion but our own: One clear way that the East
can help the West to understand and value na-
ture is, therefore, by revealing certain premises
and assumptionsconcerning the nature of na-
ture and who we human beings are in relation
to it, as well as the kind of knowledge of it that
we seek to obtainwhich lie so deep within or
which so pervade the Western world view that
they may not come to light any other way.
28
And,
in Callicott and Amess view, Eastern modes of
thought, in short, may resonate with and thus
complement and enrich the concepts of nature
and values in nature recently emergent in the
historical dialectic of Western ideas.
29
Against this idea, Ramachandra Guha,
with the Indian Institute of Science, objects
that complex Eastern philosophies were often
invoked and lumped togetherHinduism, Bud-
dhism, Taoismand touted as holding a view
of nature believed to be quintessentially bio-
centric.
30
These writers even place the heavily
Christian-inuuenced Gandhi, he complained,
in the Eastern ecological pantheon.
31
The
impulse behind this appropriation of Eastern
faith is the need for environmental scholars to
construct a noble lineage for ecology and crown
itself with universal signihcance. Too often, the
interpretation of Eastern tradition is selective
and does not bother to differentiate between
alternate (and changing) religious and cultural
traditions: as it stands, it does considerable vio-
lence to the historical record.
32
Guha criticizes environmental scholars
for treating the East as an other that Westerners
discover as a solution to difhcult and complex
problems. The primal or peasant societies have,
he argues, no mystical afhnity with nature, and
modern western man no monopoly on environ-
mental disasters. It is a western myth that major
religious traditions in the East were forerunners
of deep ecology or had a special connection
to nature.
33
This coupling of (ancient) Eastern
and (modern) ecological wisdom is an artihcial
attempt to give ecology a philosophy of univer-
sal significance. One could make an analogy
with the ancient Greeks who sought to justify
z6. Gregory A. 8arIon, lmpire lcrestry cnJ the Oriqins
c[ lnvircnmentclism(Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-
siIy Press, zooz).
z). !. 8aird CallicoII and koger 1. Ames, "lnIroducIion:
1he Asian 1radiIions as a ConcepIual kesource Ior Ln-
vironmenIal Philosophy," in CallicoII and Ames, Nc-
ture in Asicn 1rcJiticns, q, .
z8. CallicoII and Ames, "lnIroducIion," 6.
zg. lbid., ).
o. kamachandra Guha, "kadical American Lnvi-
ronmenIalism and Wilderness PreservaIion: A 1hird
World CriIique," lnvircnmentcl lthirs (g8g): )6.
. lbid., )). A discussion oI Ihe ChrisIian and 1heo-
sophical inuence on Gandhi can be Iound in kich-
ard G. lox, "LasI oI Said," in Sprinker, lJwcrJ 5ciJ,
qq-6.
z. Guha, "1hird World CriIique," ).
. lbid., )q.
. . .
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philosophical doctrine by inventing links with
Egypt in an attempt to give an ancient and ma-
jestic pedigree to ideas that were newly invented
or freshly formulated.
Often environmental scholars reformu-
late old orientalist arguments that in the nine-
teenth century justified imperialism and the
dominance of Europeans. Though the reformu-
lation is an attempt to compliment Hinduism, it
nonetheless brings home the same point of the
East as other. Baird and Ames, for instance, dis-
tinguish between a rational Western logic that
is based on methodology and demonstration
and a scientific sense of coherence and an
Eastern absence of a hypostatized rational sys-
tem that relies on an evocative metaphor, not a
logically demonstrated truth.
34
Compare this to
the nineteenth-century governor of Egypt, Lord
Cromer, perhaps the most well known apologist
of imperialism outside Rudyard Kipling. After
discussing the virtues of the rational European,
he refers to the mind of the oriental . . . [that]
like his picturesque streets, is eminently want-
ing in symmetry. His reasoning is of the most
slipshod description. . . . dehcient in the logical
faculty.
35
The earlier comparison makes left-
handed compliments about the East sound sus-
piciously like the moral tacked onto the end of a
horror movie or erotic hlm. The thrill of giving
such compliments to Hinduism and the East
may lie more in the veiled compliment to the
authors own ethnicity and Western culture.
In fact, the similarity between Cromers
statement and Baird and Amess reveals an ac-
tual similarity among environmentalism, impe-
rialism, and the reality of modern India: much
of Indias environmental consciousness, and
almost all of its environmental legislation and
state departments, developed out of imperial-
ism. The earliest comprehensive legislation for
water sanitation, forestry, erosion, and even cli-
mate change (embodied through forestry laws)
began in the late nineteenth century through
a variety of different legislative acts. Modern
Indian forestry still uses the colonial forestry
school at Dehra Dun, and it still retains its old
name, the Indian Forest Service, celebrating
its colonial heritage long after the transfer of
power. Many of the heralded forms of envi-
ronmentalism that orientalist scholars ascribe
to Hinduismsuch as community and social
forestrywere hrst implemented by the chief
of the Indian Forest Service, Dietrich Brandis,
to ensure that local peoples had a say in forest
protection schemes. The actual environmental
history of India and the inspiration for its mod-
ern practices are founded on distinctly Western
notions that were created by imperialists and
continued by the Indian elites after indepen-
dence in +gq.
36
Somehow in the construction of orien-
talist narratives, modern India slips under
the radar. Rather than attempt to construct
an Indian identity from orientalist romanti-
cism, scholars should attempt to understand
hrst how the Indian elite sees itself. The roots
of this self-image are surprisingly Western and
colonial. The British justihed imperialism by
the progress it brought to the Indian empire.
Science, technology, industry, scholarship, and
even history justihed the acquisition and main-
tenance of imperial power. This justihcation of
power through technical knowledge continued
under the postcolonial elites. Nehru justihed an
independent state of India through the estab-
lishment of industries and the development of
technical knowledge by and for Indians.
37
The
postcolonial elite pursued modernity despite
glaring poverty, illiteracy, and inequalities by
investing substantial sums of the national state
budget into the Bhabha Atomic Research Cen-
tre, the Indian Institute of Sciences, and, in the
+ggos, a satellite-launching industry and the
development of nuclear weapons. The political
need to justify power through symbols of techni-
cal knowledge drove the Indian elite to promote
and sell science the way consumer products are
sold in any market economy.
38
q. 8aird and Ames, Asicn 1rcJiticns, q-.
. Lvelyn 8aring Cromer, McJern lqypt (New ork:
Macmillan, go8), q6.
6. Gregory A. 8arIon, "Lmpire loresIry and Ihe Ori-
gins oI LnvironmenIalism," Icurncl c[ listcrircl Gecq-
rcphy z) (zoo): zg-z.
). Nilan|ana GupIa, "lmages oI CommuniIies and
CommuniIies oI lmages: 1he kole oI 1elevision in
lndia," in Cclcnicl cnJ Pcst-rclcnicl lnrcunters, ed.
Niaz Zaman, lirdous Azim, and ShawkaI Russain
(Dhaka: UniversiIy Press, ggg), gz.
8. Ashis Nandy, 5rienre, leqemcny, cnJ viclenre
(New Delhi: OxIord UniversiIy Press, gg), ).
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This Nehruvian model has undergone
vital changes. It modeled itself hrst on its im-
perial predecessor and then on a Stalinistic
social model with its giant northern neighbor
by advocating development, progress, and
technological prowess through centralization.
More recently, India moved farther away from
this model, emphasizing a hybrid of Indian self
with Western other, to a new transnational iden-
tity that is in form and substance entirely West-
ern.
39
The postcolonial elites still justify power
through technical knowledge. Software devel-
opment has now overtaken satellite launches as
a milestone of progress and a ticket to the elite
Western club of nations. The elites have merely
modihed the colonial and Nehruvian justihca-
tion for power. In this justihcation, however, any
sense of self and colonial other, any lingering
nostalgia for the East or sense of difference,
has faded from view.
The state-owned television broadcaster
Doordarshanboth transcribes and enables
this transition. Through electronic images and
sound it records the evolution from the Neh-
ruvian vision of a community of communities
under the umbrella of a single Indian identity
(many languages, one literature) to a mono-
lithic globalist identity in which Indian ethnic-
ity, religion, and culture are subsumed and
absorbed by the West. At hrst projecting a mo-
dernity . . . through the agency of the confed-
eration of the nation-state like its Soviet neigh-
bor to the north, it also projected programs
and images that highlighted the application of
technical knowledgein the case of West Ben-
gal, a new port; the Soviet-built Metro Rail in
Calcutta; and the Hoogly Bridge.
40
The Indian self-conception has now taken
one foot out of tradition and stands fully within
the Western orb. In the +gSos and +ggos, Doord-
arshan projected images of individual consum-
erism and a Western lifestyle as the dominant
cultural icon. American serials replace Indian
serials, advertisements overwhelm any state-
sponsored educational schemes, and Star TV,
Rupert Murdochs satellite television service,
wholly Western, now competes with Western-
ized state-sponsored television. If Anderson is
correct at least in his assertion that the mem-
bers of even the smallest nation will never know
most of their fellow members, meet them, or
even know of them, yet in the minds of each
lives the image of their communion, then the
new media self-image cannot be separated from
the Indian self-image.
41
Global identity has be-
come Indian identity. The justihcation of power
through Western knowledge among the postco-
lonial Indian elites has completed the task of
Westernization initiated by imperialism.
Orientalist scholarship has close afhnities
to Nehruvian state building that characterized
Indian politics and the uncontested power of
the Congress Party. However, the Indian elite
and middle class decisively dropped this model.
The attempt to deconstruct the term Hindu by
promoting a vision of a community of communi-
ties, a federation of identities that hts the Neh-
ruvian model, is no longer tenable. The objec-
tion to the term Hinduism is based on a political
allegiance that is now a fragment of outdated
political posturing that hnds no echo among
those who identify, strongly, as Hindu.
The issues that surround orientalism will
recede along with the old distinctions of East
and West. The Nehruvian model of a Hinduism
consisting of unrelated communities and the
ascription of ecological values to Hinduism and
other Eastern religions have become increas-
ingly outdated and of little value. One does not
have to agree fully with Michael Hardt and An-
tonio Negri in Empire that modernization always
has a positive result to agree that the new global
economy has instilled its own logic, symbols,
and values over much of the Earth and that
this empire of capitalism has eroded traditional
identitiesfrom social classes to nation-states
and increasingly to transnational diaspora com-
munities.
42
We continually hnd the hrst world
g. GupIa, "lmages oI CommuniIies," gq.
qo. lbid., g6.
q. As quoIed in ibid., g8. See 8enedicI Anderson,
lmcqineJ Ccmmunities kejerticns cn the Oriqin cnJ
5precJc[ Ncticnclism, rev. ed. (Nework: verso, gg), .
qz. Michael RardI and AnIonio Negri, lmpire (Cam-
bridge, MA: Rarvard UniversiIy Press, zoo).
. .
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in the third, the third in the hrst, and the sec-
ond almost nowhere at all. Even representative
democracy has been neutralized or, if you like,
expropriated by television and mass commu-
nications. The subcontinent is no longer the
third world, nor is most of Asia.
43
Whether globalism is a good thing, as
Negri asserts, or a catastrophe, as many envi-
ronmental scholars claim, it is driven predomi-
nantly by Western interests. A new and vibrant
elite in the subcontinent that brooks no divi-
sion between East and West outdates oriental-
ism. While there is resistance to globalism at
many levelsin parts of Africa, in much of the
Islamic block, and in local traditions that refuse
to die quietlythere is clearly one dominant
world culture, and it is Western. Romanticizing
Hinduism as a Nehruvian other replete with a
store of Eastern ecological treasures divorces
the scholar from the perceptions of the subcon-
tinent postcolonial elites and the populations
they rule.
q. 1hese remarks are Irom an inIerview wiIh Negri
by Mark Leonard. See Mark Leonard, "1he LeII Should
Love GlobalisaIion," New 5tctesmcn o (z8 May
zoo): ).