Hindutva and Sustainability: Through the lens of aggressive development

Waiting in the glittering and shining lobby of the newly established International Airport  at Mopa in Goa for a long flight, my mind drifted back to 2016 when this area was  home to guars and pangolins over vast rocky and rugged terrains of forests and hills.  Even today, one can feel the existence of pristinely natural terrains while catching a  flight, which would turn into a metropolis in the next few years with lavish hotels,  casinos, and malls, all built to fulfill the green building criteria. A dreamy showcase of  future ‘Viksit Bharat,’ resilient to climate change and committed to carbon-neutral  imaginative city concepts at the unrealizable cost of natural ecosystems and natural  rights of lands for the local people. News was published about the felling of more than  50000 trees, primarily cashew nuts, for which forest officials were allegedly forced or  lured to grant permission. This would undoubtedly attract more foreigners and inland  tourists and might create new jobs, but the question is how sustainable these would  be. Will the serenity, the natural beauty, and calm and open landscapes thrive against  the aggressive and invasive urbanity after a decade? Will the state of Goa attract  foreign tourists once the sea-laden landscapes’ natural beauty is transformed into a  concrete jungle? 

The flashback took me to the year-ending time of 2023 when I was in my  hometown, Santiniketan, in West Bengal. I spent my awesome childhood amid hot summers, chilly winters, rocky terrains, and gutsy seasonal rivulets in this place. It is  also one of the busiest tourist spots in eastern India. City dwellers come in search of  serenity and peaceful holidays amid nature, and eventually, forest lands have been  snatched for promoting rural consumerism; the wavy open fields, where the dancing  rains could be seen from a distance, are now full of hotels and eateries; those  incredible narrow laterite roads are now concreted, with ample street lights and huge  hoardings of smiling ministers. Where will nature, the trees, and the birds be a few  years from now? Then, tourists will come for what pleasure?  

Directly, in this era of reincarnated Hindutva, the Hindu concepts of Veer Savarkar  and Swami Vivekananda have been carefully molded to appease the business tycoons  of the country and international traders, to promote the wealthier and influential people,  to allure the middle cast for more glowing life, and crush the poor so that the need for poverty alleviation becomes irrelevant. At least, the rulers and the rich have these  plans in the pipeline, but who knows what nature God has in mind? As such, nature  and its conservation are the soul of the spirituality found in the Hindu scriptures. Unfortunately, we, the people, choose our rulers in this country. Therefore, the onus is  on us to adopt, practice, and vote for sustainable Hindutva, the apolitical ‘Sanatan’  beliefs of Hindutva, the faith in cyclical creation and preservation. Undoubtedly, the  Ram mandir reflects our inclusive beliefs. Still, we must rethink and reboot to identify  the true essence of inclusive and sustainable Hinduism that upholds the importance  of nature and its conservation. May the God Ram open our inner minds on 22nd January 2024.

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