Abstract
Mohandas Karamchand – “Mahatma” – Gandhi (1869-1948) was an anticolonial freedom fighter and pioneer of experiments in nonviolent conflict resolution who devoted his life to opposing the injustices of British colonialism and cultivating a grassroots nationalism based on pluralism, nonviolence, and self-reliance. Since his death, environmentalists both in India and abroad have infused their philosophies and activist programs with Gandhian principles and modes of political engagement. This dissertation aims to explore a small sample of the many ways in which environmental activists have interpreted Gandhi – both to shape their philosophical, ethical, and political programs and to reshape Gandhi to fit those programs.
Chapter 1 provides an overview of Gandhi’s life, thought, and legacy, laying emphasis on his experimentalist approach to truth-seeking and political action. I argue that this experimentalist lens is essential if one is to understand what Gandhian environmentalism can be and what happens when Gandhian concepts, methods, and imagery are invoked and applied in ecological contexts. Three ostensibly Gandhian environmental activists then serve as case studies.
Chapter 2 explores how Norwegian philosopher and founder of the deep ecology movement Arne Naess incorporated Gandhian tendencies and concepts into the initial iterations of his personal ecophilosophy. I argue that Naess was initially a Gandhian thinker who nonetheless discernibly and gradually distanced himself from certain ideals which some Gandhi scholars deem essential. In chapter 3, I discuss the various frameworks through which ecofeminist Vandana Shiva has expressed her ecological and agrarian vision. I identify a system of analogical reasoning that Shiva uses to draw parallels between Gandhi’s anticolonial struggles and her own present-day struggle against the genetic modification and patenting of seeds. The chapter also shows how Shiva puts her Gandhian ideals into practice through her NGO, Navdanya Biodiversity Farm. In chapter 4, I examine the case of Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand (also known as G.D. Agrawal), who undertook several fasts to protect the Ganges River from hydro-electric dam development. The chapter explores how his fasting contributed to the cultivation of a Gandhian appearance but argues that his practice of fasting is better understood as part of a longer history of political fasting in India. The chapter also explores how both Gandhi and Hindu environmentalism have been coopted by Hindu nationalist organizations over several decades.
Instead of arriving at a definitive understanding of what a Gandhian environmentalism could or ought to be, I allow my case studies to speak for themselves and follow their unique interpretations and adaptations of Gandhi. In part by adopting the spirit of Gandhi’s own experimentalist search for truth, I pursue a way of seeing Gandhian environmentalisms and ecologies that is not beholden to a strictly normative or fundamentalist reading of Gandhi. I argue that Gandhian environmentalism should be understood as a plural, even fragmented phenomenon that exists on a spectrum. I also suggest that, even when environmentalists produce a distorted understanding of Gandhi, they are nonetheless helping to keep his legacy alive.
