ABSTRACT
Above is my translation of a popular saying among Bishnois of Rajasthan, the desert state of India. In this chapter, I argue that Bishnois demonstrate an overlap of religious, personal, and ecological attitudes. “Dharma” is a term used interchangeably both by the founder and the followers of the Bishnoi community. The legends preserved by their poets and hagiographers for several centuries continue to inspire Bishnois to protect the trees and animals even at the cost of their personal lives. Most of them are not aware of the Western scientific discourse about “global warming” or “biodiversity.” For them, their tradition, based on the words and life of their guru, is the main reason for their environmentalist activism. This is much beyond the recognition of bio-divinity based on the Hindu cosmology or Hindu texts. Unlike other Hindu communities, the dharma of Bishnois is not limited just to the Hindu scriptures or rituals but also includes natural resources, as is evident from the examples of their activism that I survey in this chapter. Here is a glimpse of the most well known example about the Bishnois.
