Environmental and Ecological Bases of Indian Traditions: Search for an Indigenous Vision

In the context of developing societies articulating their alternative modes of development, their traditional communities could provide with environmental as well as ecological wisdom that any development process requires. Because their world views, community based knowledge systems, cultural, social and occupational practices are often found to be embedded with such wisdoms. As a matter of epistemic caution, we would consider this wisdom to be in conformity with scientific environmentalism. Methodologically speaking, this is an ethnographic account of certain folk and community based cultural elements, social economic practices, world views and traditional knowledge systems of traditional communities in India which display amazing depth of such wisdom. These traditions in fact constitute the Little traditions (Marriot Mckim, 1955 & 1959 and Singer Milton, 1959). In continuation with the thesis, the next section of this article, depicts the indigenous environmental wisdom as manifest in India’s religious Great traditions from its naturalistic strand as well as spiritual strand anchored on the holy texts of Srimad Bhagavatam and Srimad Bhagavad-Gita. These portray the inbuilt naturism in Hinduism. The last section of the article deals with the eco-cosmologies and nature centric cultural base of three Himalayan communities (Lepchas, Bhutias and Limbus) that revere the Kanchenjunga Mountains (as the sacred summits).