Center for the Study of Hindu Traditions

The Relevance of Gandhi to Environmental Studies, a lecture by Professor Makarand Paranjape.

Professor Paranjape will also be leading a class discussion on Hindu Traditions in Singapore (April 11, 2:30 pm, Room 117, Anderson Hall).

In his talk, Professor Paranjape will be discussing two approaches scholars have taken in considering the relevance of Gandhi to environmental studies. Some scholars look for statements, nuggets, and comments on the environment by Gandhi, which could then be the basis of some kind of ecological theory. On the other hand, historians like Vinay Lal actually contend that Gandhi had little to say about nature or about ecological concerns as we understand them, but that the kind of life he lived could be the basis for extrapolating a sustainable way of life. Professor Paranjape suggests that combining both approaches would be helpful and will begin the discussion, as Rajni Bakshi does, with “Bapu Kuti,” the house Gandhi lived in in his ashram at Sewagram in central India. He will then consider some more specifically Gandhian ideas on ecology, sustainability, and planetary futures, as well as look at the impact of Gandhi on the environmental movement in India.Professor Makarand Paranjape currently holds the ICCR Chair in Indian Studies, South Asian Studies Programme, National University of Singapore. He is also Professor of English, Centre for English Studies, School of Language, Literature, and Culture Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Professor Paranjape has held a number of fellowships in several universities; he was previously the Homi Bhabha Fellow for Literature in India; Shastri Indo-Candian Research Fellow, University of Calgary; IFUSS Fellow, University of Iowa; Mellon Fellow, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin; and Shivdasani Visiting Fellow, Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, University of Oxford. He has also been a Visiting Professor at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and the Universitat des Sarlandes.

Professor Paranjape is the author or editor of several books including Decolonization and Development: Hind Svaraj Revisioned (1993); Nativism: Essays in Literary Criticism (Sahitya Akademi, 1997); In Diaspora: Theories, Histories, Texts, Editor (2001); Sacred Australia: post-secular considerations (2009); Altered Destinations: Self, Society, and Nation in India (Perth: University of Western Australia Press, 2010); Bollywood in Australia: Transnationalism and Cultural Production (Perth: University of Western Australia Press, 2010); as well as the author of several volumes of poetry and fiction.