David L. Gosling, Religion and Ecology in India and SouthEast Asia

Ecumenical Review, The, July, 2004 by Ursula King

David L. Gosling, Religion and Ecology in India and SouthEast Asia, foreword by Ninian Smart, London and New York, Routledge, 2001, 210pp., US $32.95, pbk.

As a nuclear physicist and religious studies scholar David Gosling, who worked for many years in India and later at the World Council of Churches in Geneva, is eminently qualified to reflect on the complex relations between religion and ecology in South Asian societies. It is gratifying, too, that this book is prefaced by Ninian Smart, expressing great appreciation for his former student of many years ago. He describes Gosling as "a wise guide" who can show us how the simultaneous concern with science and spirituality found in the Hindu and Buddhist traditions may be an excellent antidote to the contemporary diseases among humankind. This is a strong support, indeed, and may well be part of Smart's last writing, since he died in early 2001.

Most of the nine chapters of this book are based on research in India and thus mainly concerned with the Hindu tradition, but Gosling also undertook some valuable field work in Thailand. His discussion of Buddhism relates primarily to Thai examples, with further material from the Himalayan regions of Ladakh and Bhutan, whereas Sri Lankan Buddhism or Islam in South Asia are not included in his study. Within these boundaries he has assembled excellent data, giving us a book packed with facts and figures, significant personalities and debates in the environmental movements of these regions. "Biased in favour of the present" (p.159), the book nevertheless includes a summary introduction to traditional Hindu and Buddhist attitudes to the environment and reflections about their perceptions of the relationship between humans and nature. Given the immensity of the task, it is inevitable that this book is of wide scope and sweeping summaries which must be further supplemented by detailed in-depth studies focusing on a particular region or burning environmental issue. This is above all a helpful introduction to what is a rich field of great significance, mostly overlooked by Western environmentalist campaigners, and there are few who know the religious and ecological context of Southeast Asia from firsthand experience as well as Gosling. It is most appropriate that Gosling begins his study by firmly establishing the Asian viewpoint, underscoring the close relationship between environment and development, and for this reason he prefers the relational term "ecological" to "environmental". Ecology is here defined as "the study of relationships among organisms and between them and their environment. Our primary concern is with the relationships between people, other organisms such as plants and animals, and the natural environment" (p.4). Gosling examines ecological ideas, attitudes and practices in the Hindu tradition, especially some texts in the Vedas and Upanishads, and the cosmic perspective of the notion of dharma. This treatment remains rather sketchy, and far greater strength is found in the detailed treatment of modern India, from 19-century reformers to modern ecological politics since independence. Of particular interest is chapter 4 on "Struggles for the Forests", especially in the Himalayan hill societies. Readers will learn a great deal about the important Chipko and Appiko movements of resistance where women's participation has played such a vital role. Other chapters look at contemporary debates about bio-diversity, climate change, the threat of environmental destruction, and different political philosophies regarding the abolition of both poverty and envinronmental destruction, from Gandhi to the contemporary Hindu Right. Indira Gandhi is quoted as saying as long ago as 1972: "Will the growing awareness of 'one earth' and 'one environment' guide us to the concept of 'one humanity'? Will there be a more equitable sharing of environmental costs and greater interest in the accelerated progress of the less developed world?" A question to which we have no constructive answer yet even today. Buddhism is treated in parallel manner to Hinduism. There is first a chapter on "Ecology and Buddhism" which examines traditional attitudes and historical developments of Southeast Asian Buddhism, followed by a detailed case study of contemporary Thailand, its monastic reforms, the social and environmental activities of particular personalities and movements, the role of monks, the contribution of Thai lay women and that of what might be called Thai nuns, the mae cbu, who are really lay women ascetics following a monastic way of life. These are all important modern developments, but to discuss them under the heading "The culture of gender", when only women are spoken of, is misleading as it expresses the often made mistake of equating gender with women, as if men were genderless!

A marvellous part of Gosling's research on Thailand is documented in appendix A of this book, giving a detailed list of medicinal plants identified in the precincts of Buddhist temples in Thailand. The Thai, English and Latin. names, the plant family, and the parts of the plants used for the healing of particular ailments are all meticulously listed here, whereas appendix B describes one hundred Indian nongovernmental organizations accredited by the United Nations who participated in the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. These two appendices alone make this book a valuable resource; in addition the last two chapters on "Signs of Hope" and "Expanding Our Horizons" provide much inspiration for further hopeful work. They discuss the patterns of continuities and transformations, what has been achieved and what still needs to be done. With its rich documentation of Hindu and Buddhist insights into traditional ecovisions, and its detailed examination of contemporary environmental policies and measures for greater ecological harmony in Southeast Asia, this is an important study which shows how both religious people and environmental activists are at the crossroads today. Both have to develop collaborative and constructive ways of working together for the well-being of all peoples and the planet itself. Gosling is to be congratulated on the richness and inspiring quality of hiswork--may others become motivated to follow in his path and carry on this important work in the future.