The Lake of Fire: Sacred Waters in an Era of Climate Apocalypse, with Tulasi Srinivas (Apr. 17, 2024)

When a sacred lake bursts into toxic flames, and the temple at its shore is charred, the resident goddess flees. Where can She go? This talk highlights the paradox between Hinduism’s view of water as female, sacred and sentient, and the endemic pollution of water resources and climate-driven drought in contemporary India, and considers the existential ethics at stake in apocalyptic climate change. It focuses on female poetics of care to think about indigenous Dalit well-diggers’ knowledge of water, and caste legacy knowledge in general. Focusing upon the examination of water as a gendered sacred trope, it illuminates the complex interplay between caste, sexual difference, and the ethical demands of anthropology, floating towards the possibility of a feminist critical Hindu theology as a reparation of the climate crisis in India.

The Lake of Fire: Sacred Waters in an Era of Climate Apocalypse in India

Tulasi Srinivas (Emerson College)

Wednesday, April 17, 2024 from 5:00 to 6:30 pm

Pardee School of Global Studies, 121 Bay State Road, Boston, MA

About the speaker:

Tulasi Srinivas is Professor of Anthropology, Religion and Transnational Studies at the Marlboro Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies at Emerson College. She is a recognized scholar of religion and ecology with a focus on climate justice.