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In this paper I examine the construction of Hinduism as inherently "environmentally friendly" within religions and ecology discourses and how this construction has been appropriated by the Hindu nationalist movement in India to serve ends that are at odds with the pursuit of sustainable development. I begin by tracing the emergence of religions and ecology discourses and the assertion that Asian or Eastern religions are inherently environmentally friendly. This is followed by critiques of this neo-traditionalist approach for being anachronistic and essentialist, as well as for promoting a "myth of primitive ecological wisdom" that can have damaging effects on communities who live close to nature. This is because it reduces them to idealisations to serve other ends and has little impact on effecting policies that can improve their lives as well as addressing anthropogenic climate change. Next, I consider the construction of Hinduism as environmentally friendly within the context of the ascendency of Hindu nationalism. I examine the ways in which the claim to support sustainable development, alongside invoking neo-traditionalist religions and ecology discourse, is at odds with the actual policies pursued by Hindu nationalists, whose Bharatiya Janata Party has been in power since 2014. I will demonstrate that in its bid to spread a particular version of Hinduism across India alongside the growth of the market economy, some traditional livelihoods that are more sustainable than modern alternatives, such as nomadic pastoralism or Adivasi (tribal) economies, and the religio-cultural traditions that surround them, are being undermined and threatened with extinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even after decades of critical scholarship on religion and the Internet, a rapidly changing field and a febrile global political climate demand renewed questions about the relationships between online spaces and gender-related activism. This is particularly the case, in the post-#MeToo era, in relation to women and religion. While digital activism both promotes and challenges gender inequalities, reflecting prejudices apparent in the offline world, women and men continue to create and adapt online spaces that question received wisdom about their roles in religious traditions. We argue that using Nancy Fraser's concept of the 'subaltern counter-public', adapted by Marc Lamont-Hill as the 'digital counter-public', allows us to explore the extent to which digital spaces enable traditional religious authority structures to be challenged in ways that might not be possible in the offline environment. The aim of this Special Issue Section is to provide four detailed case study examples, drawn from Sikhism, Wicca, Hinduism, and Buddhism, across varied geographical and political contexts, in order to examine how women have engaged the digital to create spaces that challenge mainstream narratives about their religious attainment and belonging, raising key questions for the ongoing study of religion online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender discrepancies persist in Buddhist societies and institutions, linked to cultural and religious beliefs and practices that allocate a lower status to women. In some Buddhist traditions, nuns cannot ordain to the same level as monks, most Buddhist archetypes of enlightenment remain male, and men hold positions of power and privilege within the majority of Buddhist organisations. This article focuses on recent controversy surrounding bhikkhuni ordination in the Thai Forest Tradition in Australia and the role of the Internet in these debates. The authors draw on data collected in interviews with key figures in Buddhism in Australia, including Venerable Chi Kwang Sunim, Ayya Nirodha, Ajahn Brahmavamso Mahathera, and Bhante Sujato, recorded as part of the "Buddhist Life Stories of Australia" research project. We argue that the international Buddhist women's movement and its allies are creating and using digital counter-publics to advance gender parity in contemporary Buddhism. Online activism has not only accelerated the pace of progressive social change, but it has also been used by more conservative actors to try to thwart these changes and maintain their authority, although less successfully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The Agenda 2030 commitment to LNOB operates as a form of 'doublespeak' in India. • The Agenda 2030 call to end extreme inequality requires facilitating the 'hegemonic struggle'. • The absence of religion in Agenda 2030 masks the way that religion is leveraged by populists. • Pastoralism is a 'pious occupation' where religion shapes connections to the land and animals. • Religion is an important factor in the hegemonic struggle that the LNOB commitment should enable. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development pledged to 'leave no one behind' (LNOB). This article suggests that LNOB can be a form of 'doublespeak', susceptible to being used to mask ideologies and policies that worsen social, political and religious divisions. Despite stated commitments to LNOB, both Agenda 2030 and the Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of India adhere to narrow models of development that fail to address and exacerbate the growing problem of religious and other inequalities. This article argues for reclaiming LNOB's radical potential by conceptualising it as an empty signifier that takes on meaning through the hegemonic struggle to articulate what 'left behind' means. It develops this argument through a case study of Hindu Nationalist developmental normativity and two mobile pastoralist communities in Gujarat: Hindu Rabaris and Sufi Muslim Fakirani Jats. The empirical data show that in Gujarat's marketised neo-liberal land regime, mobile pastoralism as a livelihood is increasingly stressed and liable to be constructed as 'left behind'. Simultaneously, the Hindu and Sufi religious practices that shaped pastoralists' relationships with land and animals are being transformed and, framed by the BJP government's promotion of a Hindu nationalist religious identity, are shifting towards adoption of communal Hindu and Muslim identities that exacerbate social and religious inequalities, with particular effects on women. The paper concludes that LNOB has potential to tackle religious and other inequalities and generate a more radical and democratic politics of development if the range of demands that are met by this 'empty signifier' is broadened to challenge the hegemonic representations that dominate, and religion's centrality in this struggle is recognised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a 'turn to religion' by global development actors over the past couple of decades. This article examines the extent to which this is evidence of a paradigm shift or simply business as usual. The first part of the article will examine the nature of this 'turn to religion', including how it has been debated and conceptualized within academic research. I examine the usefulness of the concept of 'religious engineering' (the focus of this thematic issue) as a way of helping us broaden approaches to the 'religion-development nexus' beyond a focus on the relationship between formal international FBOs and secular global development institutions. The second part of the article develops the concept of 'religious engineering' with reference to the work of Pierre Bourdieu. I argue that the concepts of habitus, field and capital help de-centre the focus of attention from global development institutions to other fields of religion-development intersection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, drawing on the work of the development sociologist Norman Long, I make the case for an actor-oriented approach to understanding the 'turn to religion' by global aid actors over the past couple of decades. I ask, is the 'turn to religion' evidence of the emergence of post-secular partnerships or are faith actors being instrumentalized to serve neo-liberal development goals? I argue that neither option captures the whole story and advocate that the study of religion and development needs to move beyond a binary between the 'turn to religion' as either evidence of post-secular partnerships or of the 'instrumentalization' of religion by the secular global aid business, and instead to think about how faith actors themselves encounter and shape development discourses and frameworks, translate them into relevant formats and strategically employ them. Alongside the adoption of an actor-orientated approach, I build on the work of Lewis and Mosse, Olivier de Sardan and Bierschenk to view international faith-based organizations (IFBOs) as development brokers and translators. This approach allows me to articulate the distinctive role that many members of IFBOs report they play as intermediaries who shift register between the secular development language and the faith-inspired language of their local faith partners. I take the engagement of faith actors with the new Sustainable Development Goals framework as a case-study to explore this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religion is a major cultural, social, political, and economic factor in many official development assistance (ODA) recipient countries. After decades of being ignored by global development processes, greater portions of development aid are now channeled via faith-based organizations, and religion is increasingly recognized as a human resource rather than just an obstacle to development. This essay explores the role that faith actors are playing in the Sustainable Development Goals process. It is based upon findings from a research project funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)—"Keeping Faith in 2030: Religions and the SDGs." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the United Kingdom, there is evidence that faith-based affiliations, ideas, actors and organisations play a role in public health (PH) that has been neither properly recognised nor integrated into mainstream health systems (November, 2014). Discourses on faith and improving health outcomes have been particularly focused on 'seldom heard' groups, including 'Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic' (BAME) communities (November, 2014; Jain, 2014; Burton et al., 2017; Muhammad, 2018). In this paper we first present findings from a qualitative scoping study carried out in the UK cities of Leeds and Bradford, between 2014 and 2015, which examined Places of Worship (PWs) as BAME PH settings. We carried out 19 semi-structured interviews with purposively selected respondents, and three focus groups. Second, we develop a theory that originates from one in the sub-discipline of 'health geography' concerned with 'therapeutic landscapes', applying it to our research findings on PWs as BAME PH settings. The paper argues for the recentring of religion and faith settings back into the therapeutic landscapes literature, reflecting evidence that faith-based affiliations, ideas, actors and organisations are relevant to the pursuit of health and wellbeing. We also contend that a therapeutic landscapes framework provides a way of making the health relevance of PWs visible to both health practitioners and to members of PWs. We argue that PWs act as therapeutic places (i.e. specific transformative sacred sites) as well as therapeutic spaces (i.e. settings that provide adjuncts to formal PH promotion services), and are often part of therapeutic networks included in 'kinship groups and networks of care provided by family, friends, therapists and other agents of support' (Smyth, 2005: 490). This approach allows us to see how influences on health behaviour are not just confined to biomedical settings, but that the 'healing process works itself out in places (or situations, locales, settings and milieus)' (Gesler, 1992: 743). • Faith-based actors and organisations play role in BAME public health. • Examines places of worship as BAME public health settings. • Recentres religion and faith settings into therapeutic landscapes literature. • Influences on health behaviour are not just confined to bio-medical settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its popularity and appeal for many, ecofeminism has been criticized for essentializing and romanticizing women’s roles as close to nature, thereby reproducing colonialist and biologically determinist discourses that contribute to discrimination. In response there have been attempts to defend ecofeminism, arguing that such critiques are hyperbolic and that we need ecofeminism more than ever (Philips and Rumens 2016). In a climate of renewed interest in ecofeminism, I ask why is it that some faith traditions are represented to a far greater extent in ecofeminist literature than others? I pick up on this discrepancy within ecofeminism’s engagement between different religions through examining Buddhist responses to gender and ecology. In the article I adopt a theory of ultramodern Buddhism, developed by Halafoff and Rajkobal (2015), to understand Buddhism in the contemporary era. Three main research questions are addressed: (1) to what extent has ‘green Buddhism’ been gendered?; (2) why has there has been virtually no attempt to bring together feminist analysis with responses to Buddhism and environmentalism? Why have they been approached separately?; and (3) in what ways are Buddhist women (and men) combining gender analysis and environmentalism in practice in reference to or outside the framework of ecofeminism? To better understand why a Buddhist ecofeminism has not been named and claimed by Buddhists in either the West or Asia, there is a need for local-level empirical studies that examine subjective understandings of relationships between gender and environmentalism in the lives of ultramodern Buddhist practitioners rather than assuming a standard ecofeminist position as the primary reference point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until recently the ‘heritage industry’ in England overlooked buildings of minority faith traditions. Little has been written about this ‘under-represented’ heritage. Drawing on data from the first national survey of Buddhist buildings in England, we examine the ways in which Buddhist heritage is beginning to be incorporated into the state-funded ‘heritage industry’ as well as how Buddhist communities in England construct heritage through these buildings. First, we draw upon spatial theory in the study of religion to examine three dimensions of minority faith buildings in England and what this tells us about the communities involved: ‘location’ (i.e. the geographical location of the buildings); ‘space’ (i.e. what the buildings are used for and their relationship to local, national and transnational scales); and ‘place’ (i.e. what types of buildings are selected by different communities and why). We then turn to theories of memory that have become popular within the study of religion as well as heritage studies. Religion understood as ‘a chain of memory’ plays an important role in heritage construction via faith buildings, and an analysis of faith buildings, their spatial dimensions and role in ‘memorywork’, helps us think through the dynamics of modern religious belief in a multicultural and post-Christian setting. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

From the earliest days of Buddhism in Britain, individuals and communities have sought out buildings to provide locations where they might practise and teach Buddhism. In this paper, we focus on this neglected area of the study of minority faith traditions in Britain. Our research, which was commissioned by Historic England, examines how Buddhist communities have used buildings and what this tells us about how a minority tradition is initially established and how it subsequently changes and develops. In this context, we suggest that buildings are more than bricks and mortar and provide a richly rewarding analytical lens to tell stories about migration, socio-economic status, religious diversity and integration and the complexity of processes around secularisation and religious change, as well shifting policy agendas in the UK that have begun to take faith seriously. This contributes to deepening the picture of the migration and adaptation of Buddhism and Buddhist practice across the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue of Contemporary South Asia comprises a selection of six papers presented at the 27th Annual Conference of the British Association for South Asian Studies (BASAS) held at the University of Leeds, 3–5 April 2013. The papers in this special issue represent a fraction of what was presented at the 27th BASAS conference. However, they reflect well the diversity within BASAS in terms of the career stage of members, the breadth of contexts studied and the range of disciplinary approaches to the study of South Asia. While there was no explicit theme driving the selection of papers for this edition, an emphasis did emerge upon thinking about the reproduction, embodiment and resistance of authority and marginalization through examining the specific role that location and space play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes stock of current thinking about the nature and distinctiveness of faith-based organisations (FBOs) in development. Since the 1990s, public policy-linked scholarship from the USA has sought to define and categorise FBOs. More recently, many donors have increasingly chosen to work with and fund such organisations, giving rise to discussions about how FBOs working in development should be defined and classified, and how their contribution to development should be assessed. While many of the available studies portray FBOs as having comparative advantages over so-called secular organisations, this paper concludes that such a generalisation over-simplifies reality, particularly in the absence of convincing evidence. Further assessments of the characteristics, roles, and activities of all types of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are needed to assist in the choice of development partners and to test claims of distinctiveness and comparative advantage. Réflexion sur les organisations à base religieuse dans le développement : où en sommes-nous et quelles sont les étapes suivantes ? Cet article fait le point sur la réflexion actuelle concernant la nature et le caractère distinct des organisations à base religieuse (OBR) dans le développement. Depuis les années 1990, la réflexion théorique en matière de politiques publiques venue des États-Unis a cherché à définir et à catégoriser les OBR. Plus récemment, de nombreux bailleurs de fonds ont de plus en plus souvent décidé de travailler avec ces organisations et de les financer, ce qui a donné lieu à des discussions sur la manière dont les OBR qui travaillent dans le secteur du développement devraient être définies et classifiées, et sur la manière dont leur contribution au développement devrait être évaluée. Bien que nombre des études disponibles décrivent les OBR comme étant dotées d'avantages comparatifs par rapport aux organisations soi-disant laïques, cet article conclut que cette généralisation simplifie excessivement la réalité, en particulier en l'absence de données convaincantes. Des évaluations supplémentaires des caractéristiques, des rôles et des activités de tous les types d'organisations non gouvernementales (ONG) sont requises pour faciliter le choix de partenaires de développement et pour mettre à l'épreuve les revendications ayant trait au caractère distinct et à l'avantage comparatif. Pensando sobre organizações baseadas na fé no desenvolvimento: até onde chegamos e o que vem a seguir? Este artigo organiza ideias atuais sobre a natureza e distinção de Organizações Baseadas na Fé (OBFs) no desenvolvimento. Desde a década de 1990, bolsa de estudo ligada a políticas públicas dos EUA tem buscado definir e classificar as OBFs. Mais recentemente, vários doadores têm cada vez mais escolhido trabalhar com tais organizações e financiá-las, estimulando o debate sobre como as OBFs trabalhando na área de desenvolvimento devem ser definidas e classificadas e como sua contribuição para o desenvolvimento deve ser avaliada. Embora muitos dos estudos disponíveis retratam as OBFs como tendo vantagens comparativas sobre as chamadas organizações seculares, este artigo conclui que tal generalização simplifica excessivamente a realidade, particularmente na ausência de evidências convincentes. Outras avaliações das características, funções e atividades de todos os tipos de Organizações Não-Governamentais (ONGs) são necessárias para ajudar na escolha de parceiros de desenvolvimento e testar reivindicações de distinção e vantagem comparativa. Analizando las organizaciones basadas en la fe en el desarrollo: ¿dónde estamos y qué sigue? Este ensayo examina las ideas actuales sobre el carácter y lo distintivo de las organizaciones basadas en la fe (OBF) en el desarrollo. Desde los años 90, el ámbito académico estadounidense vinculado a las políticas públicas ha intentado definir y caracterizar a las OBF. Recientemente, varios donantes han decidido colaborar con estas organizaciones y financiarlas, dando pie a debates sobre la definición y la clasificación de las OBF que trabajan en desarrollo y sobre cómo su aporte al desarrollo deberá evaluarse. Muchos estudios afirman que las OBF cuentan con ventajas comparativas que no tienen las organizaciones laicas, pero este ensayo sostiene que tal afirmación es demasiado simple frente a la realidad y no cuenta con evidencia concluyente. Se requieren evaluaciones adicionales sobre las características, los roles y las actividades de todo tipo de organizaciones no gubernamentales para poder seleccionar contrapartes para el desarrollo y validar afirmaciones sobre idiosincrasias y ventajas comparativas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consideration of the role that religion plays in women's lives in developing contexts can be important in understanding ways of approaching their “strategic gender needs”. Rather than rejecting religion for its inherent patriarchy, styles of “religious feminism” have emerged across the globe. These argue for reinterpretations of religious systems that are consistent with the “core” values of the tradition as well as various types of feminist thinking. The aim of this paper is to discuss the emergence of a transnational movement across Buddhist traditions and countries that is concerned to make full ordination an available option to women in contexts where it is currently prohibited. While becoming fully ordained is considered to be the most suitable way of becoming enlightened and escaping future rebirths, a strong theme within the movement is the argument that gender hierarchies within Buddhism have a broader cultural impact upon social attitudes that disempower women and limit their development. Dialogue between members of Buddhist communities across the world has encouraged reflection upon and a challenge to unequal and oppressive gender hierarchies within the Buddhist tradition and within Buddhist societies. This paper explores four “international” events/examples that enable information exchange as well as the flow of material support between women from different traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to present and interpret the findings of a recent questionnaire-based survey amongst staff working in higher education, which was concerned to explore the impact of cultural and religious diversity upon their working practices. We were also interested to find out in which areas staff felt that they required support. Many staff are concerned that they cannot work effectively because they do not have sufficient knowledge about different cultures and religions. Others are worried that they may unwittingly discriminate against a student on cultural or religious grounds from a position of ignorance. The paper argues that HEIs have a responsibility towards both students and staff to couple the financial and policy driven requirements of widening participation and internationalisation with adequate training and institutional support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the recent emergence of a movement in Thailand that aims to critique and transform patriarchal values supported by the Theravada Buddhist tradition by introducing female ordination (bhikkhuni ordination). The paper argues that there is a relationship between the low status of women in Thai Buddhism and the inferior status of women in Thai society. The introduction of female leadership roles in Thai Buddhism could play a role in balancing the gender hierarchies within the tradition as well as in society more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the observation that rights-based approaches to development have tended to ignore the ways in which religion and culture shape understandings of human rights. Although religious traditions often act against the pursuit of human rights, there are also areas of overlap and consensus. The first part of the paper suggests that the absence of a research agenda within development studies on 'religion and development' has meant that a significant indigenous mechanism for pursuing rights has been overlooked. Drawing upon examples from India, the second part of my discussion then asks whether a language of social justice based upon the concept of duty is more appropriate than one based upon rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The year 2006 marks the 20th anniversary of the British Association for South Asian Studies (BASAS), and the organisation continues to enjoy a strong membership drawn from among South Asianists both in the United Kingdom and abroad. This is the third year that papers from the annual BASAS conference have been included in an edition of Contemporary South Asia . While neither the conference nor this edition sought to elicit participation from scholars working on particular themes, a number of cross-cutting issues do emerge within the following contributions. In particular, several of the papers focus upon the ways in which the marginalised in Indian society seek to secure their livelihoods and to express their identity. Other papers engage with broader political themes from independence to the current day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religious environmentalists argue that religious traditions teach that the Earth is sacred and that this has traditionally served to exert control over how people interact with the natural world. However, while the recognition of "bio-divinity" is a feature of many religious traditions, including Hinduism, this is to be distinguished from religious environmentalism which involves the conscious application of religious ideas to modern concerns about the global environment. Religious environmentalism is a post-materialist environmental philosophy that has emerged from the West and has its roots in the eighteenth century European "Romantic Movement." Using the example of sacred grove preservation in India, this paper assesses the extent to which claims that Hinduism is environmentally friendly are the product of an elite middle-class environmentalist ideology and hence of little relevance to the majority of Hindus. However, the fact that discourses about sacred grove preservation have become common within discussions about the conservation of biodiversity in India might suggest that religious environmentalism does have a broader relevance. While religious institutions have, on the whole, paid little attention to environmental issues in India, one area where ecological causes have made an impact is within Hindu nationalist groups such as the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP). This paper concludes with a discussion of the similarities between the historicist strategies of the Hindu Right and religious environmentalism, and discusses the anti-Tehri dam campaign where representatives of both have been involved in protest activity to protect the River Ganges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since May 2000, the authors have been co-operating on researching a series of radio documentaries about the river Ganges in India. In addition to the radio series are a number of projects running alongside, including the development of educational material for inclusion in schools' curricula, a website, a book and a travelling science museum exhibit. The project as a whole is in its early stages and the authors do not expect to begin recording until 2003, with the actual broadcast date likely to be 2005. The present article includes a discussion of the time-scale needed for the research, technical limitations, radio versus other media, and a synopsis of research carried out so far in three—'Gomukh to Haridwar: from the mythic origins of the Ganges to the technology of the Raj', 'Kanpur and its tanneries', and 'Banaras and understandings of purity and pollution'—of the planned five separate programmes. The article concludes with a discussion of two emerging themes; science and environmentalism, and religio-cultural views of purity and pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many environmentalists draw upon religious teachings to argue that humanity ought to transform its relationship with the natural world. They maintain that religious systems teach that the earth is sacred and has an intrinsic value beyond its use value to humanity. However, whilst many cultures have religious practices or teachings associated with the natural world, such traditions of nature religion ought to be distinguished from religious environmentalism. This paper suggests that religious environmentalism is limited because it is a product of Western ideas about nature, in particular a 'romantic' vision of nature as a realm of purity and aesthetic value. Although in India, for example, people worship certain trees, this is not evidence of an inherent environmental awareness, if only because such practices are very ancient and pre-date concerns about a global environmental crisis. Moreover, many people in developing countries, such as India, are directly dependent upon the natural world and cannot afford radically to alter their behaviour towards nature to accommodate religious environmentalist goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the intersection of religious faith and the 'fight against modern slavery' in the UK, as yet unexplored in sociological literature. Analysis of faith-based organisations' activities in this area challenges understandings of a postsecular rapprochement between faith and secular actors – where postsecular is used by some scholars to refer to the re-emergence of faith in the public sphere, and where we understand rapprochement to mean the placing of equal value on faith-based and secular worldviews. Our research reveals that faith-based organisations in the anti-trafficking/modern slavery third sector operate on a 'dual register', secularising as they professionalise their public face, while retaining religious distinctiveness when engaging with co-religionists. We argue that, rather than evidence of a genuine two-way postsecular rapprochement, it seems that faith-based organisations in this sector are prioritising secular modalities, meaning the learning process is one-sided rather than complementary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]