The Routledge Companion to Indian Ethics

Purushottama Bilimoria works in the areas of Indian and cross-cultural philosophy, continental philosophy, philosophy of religion, critical thinking and diaspora studies. He is a Distinguished Professor of Law and International Philosophy at O. P. Jindal Global University, and a Visiting Professor at Ashoka University, Delhi-NCR, India. A Principal Fellow at the University of Melbourne, he is also Permanent Fellow of the Oxford Center for Hindu Studies; he was named Lead Scientist (in 2021–2022) of the Purushottama Centre for Study of Indian Philosophy and Culture at Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, in Moscow; Co-founder of Australasian Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy and also serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief of Sophia and Associate Editor Journal of Dharma Studies. They have been a recipient of several awards: Distinguished Fulbright-Nehru Excellence in Teaching and Research Fellowship; Rockefeller Foundation, Templeton Foundation, Ford Foundation, Australia Research Council. His recent publications include Testimony in Indian Philosophy (revised, 2018); History of Indian Philosophy (with Amy Rayner, 2018); Religion and Sustainability (edited with Rita D. Sherma, 2021); Contemplative Studies and Hinduism (edited with Rita D. Sherma, 2021); Contemplative Studies and Jainism (co-edited with R. Sherma and C. Bohenac, 2023); The Routledge Companion to Indian Ethics: Women, Justice, Bioethics and Ecology (with Amy Rayner 2023); Engaging Philosophies of Religion; Thinking Across Boundaries (with Gereon Kopf, 2023); Postcolonial Philosophy of Religion (with Andrew Irvine, 2009, 2024); and under 200 articles in professional journals. A scholastic institution in its own right, he continues to teach and be a mentor at Cal State University (San Francisco and Long Beach, California) and periodically at the University of California, University of San Francisco, Ashoka University, and the University of Melbourne. Amy Rayner is a graduate of the University of Melbourne (philosophy). Amy has worked alongside Purushottama Bilimoria for 15 years, assisting with editing, research and writing. She was the editorial secretary of Sophia and is an editorial assistant for Sophia Studies in Cross-Cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures. She served as Assistant Editor and Project Secretary for publications including Globalization, Transnationalism, Gender and Ecological Engagements (2015); Postcolonial Philosophy of Religion (2009); and Routledge’s acclaimed History of Indian Philosophy (2018). Her experience in Buddhism has ranged from an interest in philosophy and meditation to engagement with social change, education and well-being. She qualified as a Buddhist Chaplain and secular spiritual carer in Canberra, Australia, in 2011 and worked at a Buddhist school and orphanage for children living with HIV in Bihar, India. Inspired by the authors of this book, in 2022, Amy trained and now teaches secular ethics at her local primary school in regional Australia.

List of Contributors xiv

Preface xxiv

Foreword xxviii

Shyam RanganathanIntroduction

1

Purushottama Bilimoria and Amy Rayner

Prologue: India in the World: The Historical Context for Intercultural Ethicality 24

Dipesh Chakrabarty

PART I

Health, Ethics and Public Welfare 35

1 Public Health, Care and Bioethics in Modern India 37

Purushottama Bilimoria2

COVID-19: Lessons in Ethics for Social Assets 54

Om Prakash Dwivedi

3 Biotechnology and Ethics in India 63

Jyoti Dineshrao Bhosale

4 Moral Responsibility and Pharmaceutical Companies 75

Gauri Seth (Verma)

5 Mental Illness and Mental Health Justice 86

Purushottama Bilimoria

6 Embryo Ethics: Traditional Hindu Perspective 99

Piyali Mitra

7 Abortion, Reproductive Rights and the Unborn: Between Tradition and Modernity 108

Purushottama Bilimoria, M. K. Sridhar and Arvind Sharma

8 Female Infanticide: Ethics of Death in the Shadow of Motherhood and Childbirth in India 121

Purushottama Bilimoria and Renuka Sharma

9 The Theatre of Surrogacy: Ethics of Surrogacy in India 135

Kelly Amal Dhru and Purushottama Bilimoria

10 Dying with Dignity: Sallekhanā vis-a- vis Euthanasia – Normative, Bioethical and Legal Ramifications 142

Purushottama Bilimoria

PART II

Ecology, Sustainability and Spirituality 159

11 Ethics of Genetic Modification: Commerce without Morality and Science without Humanity – A Gandhian Response 161

Gunjan Pradhan Sinha

12 Ethics, Science and Sustainability: A Gandhian Alternative 170

Bidisha Mallik

13 Climate Change and Development Ethics after Amartya Sen 184

Lindsay Dawson

14 WATER: Rites, Rights and Ecological Justice in India 197

Purushottama Bilimoria and M. K. Sridhar

15 Protection of the Indian Coastal Ecosystem through Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notifications: An Analysis 211

M. Sakthivel and Nagma Khan

16 Sustaining Dharma, Sustainable Ecology: Dharma as Rural Environmental Ethics 223

Pankaj Jain

17 On Understanding the Tribe Person’s Worldview 233

Sujata Miri

18 Yoga as Therapeutic Animal Ethics 239

Kenneth Valpey

19 Animal Justice and Moral Mendacity 252

Purushottama Bilimoria

20 You Are What You Eat: Animal and Dietary Ethics in the Early Indian Traditions 264

Nishant Upadhyay

21 Nature and Humans in the 21st Century: Some Reflections 277

Manoranjan Mohanty

PART III

Engaged Ethics and Ecofeminism 281

22 Dharma Morality as Virtue Ethics 283

Nicholas F. Gier

23 Engaged Jainism: Jaina Ethics in a Living Universe 292

Christopher Key Chapple

24 Buddhist Spirituality and Social Activism in the 20th–21st Centuries 302

Sallie B. King

25 Ecofeminism from a Buddhist Critical Perspective 313

Rita M. Gross

26 Caregiver vs. Citizen? Reflections on Ecofeminism from Kerala State, India 322

J. Devika

27 Humanizing the Feminine Earth: An Ecofeminist Perspective on the Corporeal Nature 335

Meera Baindur

28 Ecofeminism and Hindu Tantra 350

Rita Sherma

PART IV

Ethics and Politics: Contexts and Applications 361

29 Ethics and Politics in Tagore, Coetzee and Certain Scenes of Teaching 363

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

30 Towards an Ethics of Location 378

Morny Joy

31 The Question of Universalist Justice: Transnational Encounters in Feminism 387

Sara Ahmed

32 Activating the Imagination: Harmony, Justice, and Gender in Tagore’s Thought 394

Esha Niyogi De

33 Violence and Humanity: Or, Vulnerability as Political Subjectivity 402

Anupama Rao

34 From Victim to Survivor: Then and Now Interviews with Flavia Agnes 413

Flavia Agnes and Amy Rayner (Interviewer)

35 Marking Time: The Gendered Present and the Nuclear Future 424

Kumkum Sangari

36 The Gandhian Touch: Morals in Politics 435

Devaki Jain

37 Approaching Gandhian Metaethics: Some Methodological Issues 444

Samiksha Goyal

38 Globalization, Gandhi and Free Trade 454

Sanjay Lal

PART V

Women and the Limits of Traditional Ethics 461

39 Women and Ethics in Hindu Thought and Practice 463

Mandakranta Bose

40 Women and Values in Traditional India: A Feminist Probe 471

Anindita Niyogi Balslev

41 Normalization of Dowry 479

Praveena Kodoth

42 The Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA): Gandhian Ethics and Feminist Ethics in Action 489

Margaret A. McLaren

43 The Emergent Moral Agent: A Feminism-Buddhism Exchange 498

Vrinda Dalmiya

44 Gandhian Ethics and Feminist Perspectives: In a Somewhat Different Voice 508

Bindu Puri

45 Is Controlled Śakti to the Bharatanāṭyam Practitioner as Uncontrolled Śakti Is to the Devadāsī? 518

Sandra Sattler

Index 527