Sacred Ecology: Cosmologies, Ecologies and Rituals in Colonial India (1886-1936)

This volume delves into the colonial past and identifies papers on nature and natural phenomenon that were deemed ’primitive’ and ’superstitious’ by those who narrated them and analyzed them in the pages of the Journal of the Anthropological Society of Bombay, published from 1886 to 1936; the period covered by the papers that have been reproduced in this volume. However, they have been recast in the contemporary framework of environmentalism, indigenous wisdom and critical reflections on Western science and scientific methodology. The positivist method or western rationalism was propagated during the exact time of the publication of these articles, through the political hegemony of colonial rule. Each of these papers was presented to criticise ’primitive’ cultures and obscurantist thinking. Yet, each presents wisdom and knowledge about nature, which, if followed, would have averted much of the environmental distress that the world is facing today. These papers have been reproduced with a purpose, a purpose to show that real knowledge was thrown away as garbage. The volume invites critical rethinking and advocates a revised version of rationalism, reconceptualisingnature as sacred, moving away from anthropocentrism towards nature-centrism.

Subhadra Channa is a retired professor of anthropology from Delhi University. She has twelve books and more than eighty papers to her credit. Her awards include two Fulbright teaching fellowships, Charles Wallace and several visiting professorships, as well as the Distinguished Teacher Award from Delhi University. Presently she is the Co-editor of the journal Reviews in Anthropology.
Lancy Lobo was Director of the Centre for Social Studies, based in Surat. He was the founder and director of the Centre for Culture and Development, Vadodara, for 20 years. He was an International Visiting Fellow at the Georgetown University, Washington, DC. He has authored, co-authored, and co-edited 30 books and scores of mimeographs and articles. Currently, Research Director at the Indian Social Institute, Delhi.