Contextualizing Environmentalism in South Asia: Contributions and Relevance of Rabindranath Tagore

Abstract

This paper tries to locate the failure of successful environmental policy implementations in this region by challenging the ontological paradigm of creating a ‘real world’ within the bounds of a single universal rationalism (i.e. post-enlightenment European ideals). Here, we argue on the need to accept the reality of a multipolar and multidimensional world, so we could provide different solutions for the challenges of environmentalism in different parts of the world, based on their historical evolutions and philosophical foundations. In this respect Rabindrath Tagore’s ideas are of vital significance. From his entire creative world, we can discover Tagore’s deep empathy for nature. He had merged the ideas of environmentalism with the tradition of India. Even being a chief advocate of using scientific technology for human progress, he had entirely rejected the idea to do so at the cost of natural environment. In one of his famous plays, ‘Mukhta Dhara’, he has severely criticized the technocratic tendency of contemporary civilization. The paper seeks to explore the Tagorean idea of Environmentalism and suggest few policy imperatives based on the same. In addition to this, the paper also seeks to investigate how far indigenous outlook is successful in case of initiatives of environmentalism. The research methodology here is inductive in nature. It is constructive and interpretive respectively for ontology and epistemology.