Who is entitled to save the Ganga? Hindu Nationalism and Environmental Protection Who is entitled to save the Ganga? Who is entitled to save the Ganga? Hindu Nationalism and Environmental Protection
Abstract
This paper aims on examining the current attempts of the Hindutva organisations to hijack the environmental discourse and use it to mobilize the public on religious and communal bases. After a brief summary of the main ideological strands and movements in contemporary Indian environmentalism, a special attention is paid to the attempt to appropriate the Ganga movement in Uttarakhand by the VHP and other Sangh Parivar organisations.
With references to the previous campaigns in the 1980s and 1990s where the water of Ganga was used, their strategies and tactics are examined and discussed, followed by the central question: Why this time the Hindu Right has been not successful in capturing the public imagination and seizing the environmental agenda to transform it into a broader social movement?