The Hindu, February 26, 2012
Of roots and hues
by sangeeta barooah pisharoty
Mukul Sharma talks about “Green and Saffron”, his latest book that argues how Hindu nationalism has forged a bond with Indian environmental politics
“Green and Saffron.” The intriguing name of the book keeps its promise. In fact, it opens for you a trail of discourses that you know exists, but has hardly been bunched to help get a 360 degree view.
New Delhi-based journalist-author Mukul Sharma “Green and Saffron”, his latest book, (published by Permanent Black), is hinged on the baseline that environmentalism and politics can't be seen as disconnected from each other. To drive home the point, he narrows the canvas to focus on popular movements like the ones propelled by Anna Hazare and Sundarlal Bahuguna, or the protest against Enron, attempts to regenerate Vrindavan's riverine hygiene by internationally-funded NGOs, among others. He reasons how these movements and the issues they have espoused have forged a bond with saffron ideology.
“This forging of bonds constitutes a major aspect of hinterland political life which neither academics nor journalists have seriously analysed,” states the former director of Amnesty International. He dedicates one complete chapter of the book to deliberate “on Nazi Germany and fascist appropriations of environmentalism in Europe to contextualise Hindu conservative nationalists within a larger universe.”
Here, Sharma takes up a few questions to throw more light on the subject of the book and his arguments. Edited excerpts:
Why did you choose the subject of the book?
The book has emerged from intersections between my interest in contemporary environmental issues and movements in independent India and a concern with the development of Hindu nationalist ideology and politics in the same period. These two can be regarded as significant markers of contemporary India. However, most of the prevailing academic or journalistic paradigms tend to treat the two as discrete and autonomous. I have explored the interrelationships between the two, by specifically focusing on some prominent environmental initiatives in different regions of the country. I argue that there is a ‘greening of saffron' when Hindutva organisations make nature conservation part of their political ideologies and agendas. The other side of the same coin shows a ‘saffronising of green', which happens when environmental movements and organisations make Hindutva's cultural politics a fundamental aspect of their environmental discourse. Though there are critical differences with the Indian situation, I have also explored how in a wider historical and geographical contexts, biological explanations and ecological justifications have been used to support right-wing politics.
The book also looks at Anna Hazare's environmental initiatives in Ralegan Siddhi. Many of his tools of change however, echo ultra-nationalism.
The moral authority of Anna Hazare is necessarily complex and variegated. Its' success is at times also an interactive process between the leader and the masses. However, crucial to his authority and movements is the absolute absence of many of the defining ideas of modern democracy. His activism is not concerned with democracy, diversity and social justice but with a clean, corruption-free country within a stable order of a nation. It openly proclaims its disdain for democratic processes if not for democratic institutions themselves. On a narrow political plank, it leads him to attack China and Pakistan, criticise migrants in Mumbai and endorse the political claims of Hindu nationalists. There are several conflict points, like emphasis on personal authority and unquestioning affirmation of the leader, authoritarian moralism, patriotic commitment expressed in the most jingoistic terms and an implicit exclusion towards Muslims and Dalits. It seeks to achieve reforms as the assurance of community and national interest based on a strong, enlightened, and beneficent leader and his small team.
Your book says environmental movements being hijacked by hinterland politics has not been seriously analysed.
Examining Hindu nationalism mainly in relation to communalism, culture, and religion is insufficient. In our time, this political programme encompasses a wide range of new themes as well as non-market and non-materialist issues, including those pertaining to the environment. True, Hindu nationalist forces are scattered and often inconsistent when taking up environmental issues; true also that their electoral dividends are not heavily dependent on their cultivation of an environmental constituency. Likewise, it is true that environmental groups and movements with a tendency towards authoritarianism and communalism are only a few among very many. All these truths notwithstanding, the important point is that this kind of environmentalism has gained a far wider acceptance in India and elsewhere, in theory and in practice. The impact of this convergence cannot therefore be gauged only by analysing electoral gains and extreme manifestations during apocalyptic moments of upheaval. They must also be seen at the macro level of changes in political-environmental discourse.
What next?
I am working on Dalit environmentalism, caste and ecological politics in India.
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