ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the Hindu ideas of self and its relationship with nature. The Hindu sensitivities about being connected to nature have been analysed through the Hindu religious concepts of Dharma, purpose of human life and unity of all beings, which are both secular and non-secular categories and, thus, construct a distinct category of ethics which is quite different from that of Western notion of meta-ethics. The paper explores the Hindu religion as a possible source of ethics and moral values and their role in guiding the Indian statecraft for environmental action in pre- and post-independent India. The chapter concludes that the renewed emphasis on morality and Hindu ethics to deal with climate change, though rhetorically, by the government of India in recent time acknowledges the importance of Hindu religion in environmental action.
