Natasha Chawla

University of Oxford

"Forgotten Seeds: A Poet-Philosopher's Hope"



Biography

Natasha Chawla is a PhD student at the University of Oxford in the Faculty of Theology and Religion. Natasha's research looks at the differing attitudes to nature within religions at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century when the industrial revolution was beginning to take root across the world. Her thesis focuses on the Indian polymath Rabindranath Tagore, and his view of humans, nature and modernity from an eco-philosophical standpoint. Natasha is also the editor of the Journal of the Oxford Graduate Theological Society (JOGTS).

Paper Abstract

Since the 1970s, Western-centric scholarship within 'Religion and Ecology' has employed an eco-theological standpoint to re-examine ancient texts and Indigenous societies for ecological foresight and solutions. This body of work has presumed a thorough understanding of the underlying issues and made a clarion call for the 'greening of religion'. However, two apparent limitations present themselves. Firstly, substituting one form of consumption (religious or material) to a seemingly more sustainable form is a short-term solution rather than an actual transformation of our understanding of and relationship with our environment. Secondly, indigenous knowledge manifests from indigenous metaphysics. Excavating convenient practices and bypassing an understanding or acceptance of the metaphysical basis is limited and colonial in its approach. In order to find alternative resources and to contribute to long-term solutions, this paper utilizes an alternate cosmology and metaphysics – outside the Western emphasis that currently dominates scholarship. For this, I look to the polymath Rabindranath Tagore, whose implicit environmental philosophy can be seen not only in his literary, philosophical and scholarly outpourings (and associated pedagogical approach – his "method of nature") but also in his social commentary that still influences environmental thinkers today. In Tagore, we find a universalist and humanist who was not against progress but sought to progress in line with nature and the environment. This paper concludes with a consideration of how Tagore's unwavering 'spiritual ecology' might be a hopeful forgotten seed in healing and restoring balance and harmony within nature.