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Exploring Relationships Between Humans and Nonhumans in the Bishnoi Community

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Exploring Relationships Between Humans and Nonhumans in the Bishnoi Community Sacred Trees, Sacred Deer, Sacred Duty to Protect: Exploring Relationships between Humans and Nonhumans in the Bishnoi Community Alexis Reichert A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the MA degree in Religious Studies Department of Classics and Religious Studies Faculty of Arts University of Ottawa © Alexis Reichert, Ottawa, Canada 2015 ii Table of Contents List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ iv Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ vi Introduction: Green Dharma ........................................................................................................... 1 0.1 Methodology: Beyond the Human ...................................................................................... 3 0.2 Theoretical Framework: Beyond the Nature/ Culture Dichotomy ..................................... 7 1. Themes of Kinship, Karma, and Monism: Review of the Literature ....................................... 12 1.1 Hinduism and Ecology: The Interconnectedness of Beings ............................................. 13 1.2 The Bishnoi: A Gap in the Literature ............................................................................... 19 1.3 Romantic Ecology ............................................................................................................. 21 2. Bishnoi Dharma: The Khejarli Massacre ................................................................................. 26 2.1 Guru Jambheshwar: The Tenth Incarnation of Vishnu ..................................................... 29 2.2 Jambhoji’s Precepts: The 29 Rules and 120 Statements ................................................... 31 2.3 Ritual and Devotional Practices ........................................................................................ 33 2.3 A Syncretic History ........................................................................................................... 39 3. The View from Toki Temple: Co-produced Spaces in a More than Human World ................. 41 3.1 Nonhuman Spaces: The Creation and Maintenance of Orans in Bishnoi Villages .......... 43 3.2 Temples, Shelters and Protests: Socio-Economic Dimensions ......................................... 47 3.3 Reciprocity: Local Mythology and Village Life ............................................................... 52 3.4 Embedded Ecology: Examples from External Studies ..................................................... 54 3.5 “To be One is Always to Become with Many”: Humans and Nonhumans Constitute each Other ........................................................................................................................................ 56 4. “If Tree is Cut, we are Cut”: Bishnoi Dharma and Motivations .............................................. 61 4.1 Expressions of Duty and Dharma: Protection of Nature as “Highest Duty” .................... 61 4.2 Expressions of Intimacy: Earth as Manifestation of God ................................................. 65 5. Principles worth Killing for, Principles worth Dying for: Notions of Nonviolence and Sacrifice among the Bishnoi ......................................................................................................... 69 5.1 Radical Inversion: Notions of Sacrifice ............................................................................ 71 5.2 Soldiers of God: Notions of Ahimsa ................................................................................. 76 iii 5.3 Violence as Nonviolence in the Bhagavad-Gita ................................................................ 81 5.4 Ahimsa in Practice: Something Unique ............................................................................ 83 6. Pigs Lie in Filth, Deer Clean their Spot Before they Lie Down: Ontological Structures of Purity and Impurity ....................................................................................................................... 90 6.1 Purity and Pollution in Hinduism ..................................................................................... 92 6.1 Structures of Purity and Impurity: Examples in the Bishnoi Imagination and Lived Tradition .................................................................................................................................... 97 6.2 Moral Hierarchy: Pure and Impure Bodies ..................................................................... 101 7. Generations Divided: The Contemporary Moment ................................................................ 110 7.1 Desertification and Deforestation: Environmental Changes in Rajasthan ...................... 111 7.2 Education Boom and the Emergence of Scientific Discourses ....................................... 114 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................. 121 Appendix A ................................................................................................................................. 126 Appendix B ................................................................................................................................. 127 Appendix C ................................................................................................................................. 128 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 129 iv List of Figures Figure 1 Painting at Khejadali Temple, artist unknown. .............................................................. 26 Figure 2 Bishnoi Man, photo by Alexis Reichert ......................................................................... 28 Figure 3 Bishnoi Woman, photo by Alexis Reichert .................................................................... 28 Figure 4 Rajasthani Blackbuck, photo by Alexis Reichert ........................................................... 29 Figure 5 Popular devotional image of Guru Jambheshwar ........................................................... 29 Figure 6 The geina washes his hands and prepares for havan, photo by Alexis Reichert ............ 34 Figure 7 The edge of the pond and the well-trodden path up the dune at Samrathal, .................. 37 Figure 8 Mukam at sunset, photo by Alexis Reichert ................................................................... 38 Figure 9 The view from Toki Temple, photo by Alexis Reichert ................................................ 41 Figure 10 Central pond in the Chaudhariwali oran, photo by Alexis Reichert ............................ 44 Figure 11 A herd of blackbucks in Rudkali village, photo by Alexis Reichert ............................ 45 Figure 12 The author visits the animal shelter in Mukam, photo by Kirpa Ram Bishnoi ............ 49 Figure 13 Wild gazelles lounge under the shade of a table at Jajiwalli temple, photo by Alexis Reichert ........................................................................................................................ 50 Figure 14 The Starving Tigress, artist unknown. Jataka Tale. Buryatia, 1800–1899. Ground mineral pigment on cotton. Collection of Buryat Historical Museum. ........................ 84 Figure 15 Surjudassji’s pond, photo by Alexis Reichert .............................................................. 86 Figure 16 Young khejari tree, photo by Alexis Reichert .............................................................. 97 Figure 17 Jambha, Rajasthan, photo by Alexis Reichert ............................................................ 104 Figure 18 Bishnoi population distribution, from Jain "Ecotheological," 1. ................................ 128 v Abstract This thesis explores relationships between humans and nonhumans in the Bishnoi community. The Bishnoi are a small Vaishnavite community most densely located in Rajasthan. They are well known in North-West India for defending and protecting the environment; sometimes even sacrificing their own lives to save trees or wild animals. This thesis is informed by the author’s short-term ethnographic study in the winter of 2013. The author combines symbolic and interpretive anthropology with multispecies ethnography in order to explore issues of relatedness, exchange and embodied experience between humans and nonhumans in the Bishnoi community. This research elaborates on central themes that emerged from the fieldwork, including themes of embeddedness, duty, dharma, sacrifice, nonviolence, purity, impurity, and contemporary challenges. This research attempts to treat nonhumans as agents and participants in Bishnoi life, active in their physical and perceptual engagement with the world, and details the centrality of the nonhuman in the constitution of Bishnoi communities and identities. vi Acknowledgements Above all, I want to thank Dr. Anne Valley for her immeasurable guidance and support; for giving me a gentle nudge in the direction of the Bishnoi, for introducing me to India, and for being there along the way, always providing insightful feedback and advice. Her kindness, enthusiasm and wisdom have provided much inspiration and
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