Resistance to Hunting in Pre-independence India: Religious environmentalism, ecological nationalism or cultural conservation?

This article presents new evidence with which to evaluate the validity of the popular picture of religious environmentalism in India. It examines accounts of a large number of incidents described in Indian language newspapers, the colonial archive, and hunting literature published between the 1870s and 1940s, in which British and other sportsmen clashed with villagers in India while out hunting. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the colonial sports-hunting obsession was in its heyday, but opposition to hunting across India was also mounting. Rural villagers, in particular, were often willing to become involved in physical combat with hunters, apparently in order to protect local wildlife. Sportsmen often assumed that it was religious fanaticism that made Hindus defend the lives of what they saw as game animals, trophies, and specimens. The article provides evidence that, in addition to religion, a mixture of other motivations explains Hindu interest in the conservation of certain species. Anti-colonial consciousness, assertions of local authority and territoriality, and an environmental ethic can all be identified as being at work. The end result was the increased conservation of certain species of wildlife

Jain Endangerment Discourse

Is Jainism an endangered religion? This article considers the various ways in which Jainism has been projected to be in decline, under threat, and/or in need of protection; and it assesses the steps taken as a result of such perceptions. Examining Jainism’s position as a minority religion in India and abroad, this asks why authors and pundits have often expressed concern for the survival of the Jain community, and if such fears are at all founded. It will also look at some recent attempts at preservation

Perfumed the axe that laid it low: The endangerment of sandalwood in southern India

Between 1950 and 1970, on average over 480,000 Indian sandalwood (Santalum album) trees were harvested annually in the state of Karnataka in southern India. Then, in 1974, it was suddenly discovered that there were only approximately 350,000 standing trees left in the entire state. Overnight, India’s sandalwood industry ground to a halt. The species was on the brink of extinction. Harvesting and trade in Indian sandalwood, long considered the most precious wood in the world, was ineffectively banned. Smugglers could now make more money by felling sandal trees than by poaching elephants for ivory. This article uses the history of sandalwood to assess claims about the nature and impact of colonial and postcolonial forestry, arguing that at least when it came to Indian sandalwood, though European foresters did overexploit the species and also failed to conserve it, the real watershed moment for the species came not during the colonial period but rather in the independence period when industrialisation led to a major endangerment crisis for the tree

Above The Law? Innovating Legal Response To Build A More Accountable U.N.: Where Is The U.N. Now?

This is an issue that has come under increasing scrutiny amid allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by United Nations (U.N.) personnel, including peacekeeping forces, and allegations that peacekeepers introduced cholera to Hait

Idealizing Inhabited Wilderness: A Revision to the History of Indigenous Peoples and National Parks

Whereas most histories of national parks and indigenous peoples have largely focused on dispossession of resident populations in the making of uninhabited wilderness areas, this article surveys the problematic history of the idea of preserving human communities today referred to as ‘indigenous’ in parks. In the very first-ever call for a national park, as well as in frequent proposals for national parks throughout the 19th, 20th, and now the 21st century, protected areas have been envisioned as places of conservation, study, and display not only of endangered species but also of human groups perceived to be endangered. Drawing on cases from the early United States, colonial Africa, Indonesia, and India, as well as on histories of international conservation policies emerging around WWI, the article argues that this alternative conception of what national parks should look like has been pervasive, perennial, and deeply problematic. The problem is not only that indigenous groups have long been perceived as in danger of becoming extinct and therefore paternalistically projected as in need of protection. It is also that these peoples, who have long suffered dehumanizing animal analogies, are envisioned as endangered like wildlife, and in need of protection in parks