What happens when environmental damage affects not only public health, but the religious practices of an entire culture? This was the question addressed by David Haberman and Kelly Alley in Monday's panel discussion titled "A Flood of Opportunity: Polluted Sacred Rivers and Religious Environmentalism in India."
Kelly Alley, Alumni Professor of Anthropology at Auburn University, began the panel by addressing the fact that "environmental justice is not an indigenous term in India." Alley is the author of several books about environmentalism in India, including On The Banks of the Ganga: When Wastewater Meets a Sacred Water. India's attitude towards environmental activism has been developing alongside its growing problems with pollution. However, the attitude toward environmental action has been drastically different than that of the United States.
One of the aims of India's new constitution was to distribute justice throughout the country and classes, and Alley emphasized the difference between our own Supreme Court and that of India. She focused on the engagement of India's citizens with their judicial system. In particular, Alley talked about lawyers, doctors, and locals who worked together to bring legal action against factories dumping waste into the Ganges River. Although citizens have won many cases, a court ruling in India is far from a guarantee that action will be taken. Many court rulings have supported the environmental movement, but the reality of India's pollution problem has not changed very much in the past 15 years. The World Bank has given India the funds to create sewage treatment plants, but Western technology is incompatible with India's situation.
Alley concluded by saying that there is far from enough money in India to support expensive waste treatment plants, and that water quality is only deteriorating as its population booms. "All kinds of people have made lives on the river, their entire culture depends on the quality and flow of the river," said Alley. India's culture is far more integrated with its environment than culture is in the United States.
David Haberman, professor of religious studies at Indiana University, continued the discussion of cultural practices and environmental activism. He addressed the interaction of the Hindu religion and the Yamuna River, a major tributary to the Ganges. Environmental justice implies social justice in the United States, Haberman said, whereas in India environmental justice can mean justice for the environment itself. While activists in the United States look forward to the impact environmental degradation will have on future generations, many religious environmentalists in India feel it is their responsibility to protect the Yamuna for its own sake. Historically, the Yamuna has been believed to be the physical embodiment of a goddess who gives aid and prosperity to her devotees.
Now, ancient rituals and beliefs are interrupted by pollution that leaves the river black and revolting to those who worship it. "The only water that reaches us has passed through a factory or a human body," read Haberman, quoting a Yamuna devotee living downstream of Delhi. For some devotees, activism is a necessary service to their goddess. In some cases, it is their only hope for keeping their cultural practices intact.
Devotees of Yamuna feel that she is sick, and some even have come to believe that she is dying. Haberman stressed that in the United States, we also view our environment as fragile. However, the motivation of activists in India is the preservation of their culture itself. A human call has arisen to aid the environment; to sustain the force that has sustained its people throughout history. For more than 3,000 years "Mother Yamuna has given us so much," a religious leader told Haberman. "Now she asks for our help."
-- by Nora Grenfell '12
Kelly Alley, Alumni Professor of Anthropology at Auburn University, began the panel by addressing the fact that "environmental justice is not an indigenous term in India." Alley is the author of several books about environmentalism in India, including On The Banks of the Ganga: When Wastewater Meets a Sacred Water. India's attitude towards environmental activism has been developing alongside its growing problems with pollution. However, the attitude toward environmental action has been drastically different than that of the United States.
One of the aims of India's new constitution was to distribute justice throughout the country and classes, and Alley emphasized the difference between our own Supreme Court and that of India. She focused on the engagement of India's citizens with their judicial system. In particular, Alley talked about lawyers, doctors, and locals who worked together to bring legal action against factories dumping waste into the Ganges River. Although citizens have won many cases, a court ruling in India is far from a guarantee that action will be taken. Many court rulings have supported the environmental movement, but the reality of India's pollution problem has not changed very much in the past 15 years. The World Bank has given India the funds to create sewage treatment plants, but Western technology is incompatible with India's situation.
Alley concluded by saying that there is far from enough money in India to support expensive waste treatment plants, and that water quality is only deteriorating as its population booms. "All kinds of people have made lives on the river, their entire culture depends on the quality and flow of the river," said Alley. India's culture is far more integrated with its environment than culture is in the United States.
David Haberman, professor of religious studies at Indiana University, continued the discussion of cultural practices and environmental activism. He addressed the interaction of the Hindu religion and the Yamuna River, a major tributary to the Ganges. Environmental justice implies social justice in the United States, Haberman said, whereas in India environmental justice can mean justice for the environment itself. While activists in the United States look forward to the impact environmental degradation will have on future generations, many religious environmentalists in India feel it is their responsibility to protect the Yamuna for its own sake. Historically, the Yamuna has been believed to be the physical embodiment of a goddess who gives aid and prosperity to her devotees.
Now, ancient rituals and beliefs are interrupted by pollution that leaves the river black and revolting to those who worship it. "The only water that reaches us has passed through a factory or a human body," read Haberman, quoting a Yamuna devotee living downstream of Delhi. For some devotees, activism is a necessary service to their goddess. In some cases, it is their only hope for keeping their cultural practices intact.
Devotees of Yamuna feel that she is sick, and some even have come to believe that she is dying. Haberman stressed that in the United States, we also view our environment as fragile. However, the motivation of activists in India is the preservation of their culture itself. A human call has arisen to aid the environment; to sustain the force that has sustained its people throughout history. For more than 3,000 years "Mother Yamuna has given us so much," a religious leader told Haberman. "Now she asks for our help."
-- by Nora Grenfell '12
