its sanction in the Genesis for man to “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth”, and for engendering the artificial separation of humans from nature. Christianity's unsympathetic views on birth control have been held significantly responsible for the HIV/AIDS pandemic and for limiting women's rights. Hinduism is often seen in India as complicit in sanctioning untrammelled consumption. For example, eminent writer Jug Suraiya12 (2007) advises his middleclass readers to go on a “gilt trip”, rather than a “guilt trip” in the weeks leading up to Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. He insists that austerity is the core belief of Semitic religions; he writes (2007): “In the Indian tradition, on the contrary, far from being a sin, wealth is a goddess, Lakshmi, to be rejoiced in and not shunned.” He reassures his readers that they are only doing their “bit for Lakshmi” by indulging in hedonistic behaviour. As for Islam, it is seen oftentimes, particularly in the popular imagination, as incompatible with development altogether because of the repression of women in many Islamic cultures. N.H. Ammar points, for instance, that most of the socio-legal discussion on Islam revolves around the 34th Koranic verse (Ayah) of the Al Nisa (Surah) chapter on the treatment of women, which apparently gives divine sanction to some of the worst forms of repression of women. These are all important, serious charges, and it is too easy to dismiss these concerns against religion by resorting to charges of essentialism, for religions clearly can and do have destructive impacts. The main issue then is not denying or countering these claims but exploring the possibilities for religion as an enabling and empowering force in people's lives, by refreshing some of the latent tenets of religion in a contemporaneous manner, such as what Gandhi's neo-Hinduism did for Hinduism. And if the charges were all indeed true, then it would seem that the 'development crisis' is in many ways intimately interwoven with religion, and to decouple environmental and social problems from religion would be problematic. Religion is then a critical category of analysis in articulating and implementing development solutions, and with its massive grassroots presence, must in fact, be invited to assist in enabling sustainable development. Eric Kauffman13 in his book, Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth? (2010), makes a strong case that the proportions of the religious populations worldwide will soon outstrip the secular citizens and that engagement with religion at all levels of international policy is thus imperative. Lynn White argued that if the cause of environmental problems lies in religious ideologies, then the solutions must rise from the same source. Furthermore, selective institutionalisation of religious messages can also cause the sustainability problem. Central to the worship of Lakshmi in Hinduism, for instance, is the emphasis on enlightened spending and experience of materialism, in a manner, assists selfrealisation, which is consonant with sustainable consumption. The Christian Genesis also advances the notion of 'stewardship', which is a theological belief that humans are responsible for the world, and should take care of it. In a particular global context however, these messages become narrowly interpreted and discriminatively adopted, thus leading to problems, instead of solutions 12
Suraiya, J. 2007. Why Diwali is Such a Gilt Trip. The Times of India Retrieved 4 November, 2011, from http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Sunday_Specials/Why_Diwali_is_such_a_gilt_tri p/articleshow/2515779.cms 13 Kauffman, E. 2010. Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth? Demography and Politics in the Twenty-first Century. London: Profile Books.
53