Alternatives Unincorporated

The victims of environmental destruction are often sidelined in eco-theology and environmental discourse. Movements for ecological justice fail to take into account the voice of those at the grassroots. 'Alternatives Unincorporated' presents an environmental ethics that begins with those on the margins. Using the key example of the Narmada Dam in India and the popular resistance movement which built up against the project, the book examines the collective action of subaltern communities in caring for their local environment. The book frames these movements as theological texts that inform a life-affirming earth ethics. The aim of the book is to challenge prevailing social and ecological dynamics and to affirm the interconnectedness of social justice and environmental action.

George Zachariah serves the Gurukul Lutheran Theological College and Research Institute, Chennai, India as associate professor in the field of theology and ethics. His theological and ethical reflections are informed by his involvement in social movements.

"We will not address the basic issues of energy, water, and food security, or face the challenge of climate change, without grassroots movements around the globe. Alternatives Unincorporated belongs heart, soul, and mind to that mandatory effort." - Larry Rasmussen, Union Theological Seminary, New York "Alternatives Unincorporated is not a theological or a social commentary; it is a tutorial in literacy, a grammar on how to read a subaltern language and be enlightened by it." - Vitor Westhelle, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago "Professor Zachariah argues persuasively that we will never turn back the forces that are violating the planet and realize our quest for a more equitable and sustainable future for humankind until we heed the experience of spiritually motivated and courageous resistance movements such as the Narmada Bachao Andolan. The story he tells, and the revelatory message of faith and hope he discerns, are important contributions to current efforts to 'de-elitize' the framework of international order, and will be a source of inspiration for persons everywhere." - J. Ronald Engel, Meadville/Lombard Theological School, Chicago Contextual theologies, in general, tend to ignore the methodological significance of the collective politics of the subjects, and thus lead to an apolitical essentialism in contemporary discourses. The dominant strands of ecotheology and environmental ethics are examples of this common denominator approach, where dominant readings of the crisis of the earth, viewed from apparently nowhere, are presented as meta-narratives, and panaceas are prescribed claiming universal validity and applicability. In spite of the attempts to recognize the interrelationship between ecological justice and wider justice concerns, a methodological commitment to underscore the agency of the victims of environmental destruction seems to be missing in the discourses. This is the context in which a constructive attempt towards an earth ethics from the grassroots becomes relevant. This book, therefore, attempts to construct an earth ethics from the grassroots in the crucible of subaltern political practice, invoking the Narmada Bachao Andolan (the Save Narmada Movement in India) as text, and proposes that the social movements are theological texts. Social movements as discursive sites can inform the construction of an earth ethics that is life affirming, communitarian and liberating. An earth ethics from the grassroots, hence, is the vision of an engaged collectivity of the subaltern communities and their lives on earth in communion with all other living beings. It describes how the subalterns perceive the realities that continue to make them powerless, and reduce all life forms into commodities to be plundered and exploited. An earth ethics from the grassroots envisions the interconnectedness between social justice, differences and environmental degradation. It unmasks the brutal face of development and globalization. It underscores the reclamation of the moral agency of the subalterns as foundational to their political praxis. Earth ethics from the grassroots, therefore, is a vision and praxis to interpret the reality and to change it radically from the subaltern standpoint so that a different world may become a contemporary reality. Subaltern earth ethics is about alternatives: alternatives unincorporated. It further rejects all theological and ethical discourses mediated from detached and disembodied views from seemingly nowhere, and instead proposes alternative narratives informed by the oppositional gaze of the subalterns. Earth ethics from the grassroots is alternative as it subverts the prevailing social and ecological relations. It does not stop there. By demystifying the doctrine of the totality-there is no alternative- earth ethics from the grassroots strives to create alternatives to celebrate the foretaste of a different world and to demonstrate that there are alternatives.

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