This work examines the part that Hindu and Buddhist traditions could play in resolving the ecological problems facing the Indian sub-continent and South East Asia. The study is of global significance - the creation of more sustainable relationships between people and the natural world is one of the most urgent social and environmental problems of the new millennium. David Gosling bases his arguments on extensive fieldwork, framed by the socio-political context of religious change in the regions. He looks at the religions both historically and from a contemporary perspective.

This new text is a detailed study of an important process in modern Indian history. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, India experienced an intellectual renaissance, which owed as much to the influx of new ideas from the West as to traditional religious and cultural insights.

Gosling examines the effects of the introduction of Western science into India, and the relationship between Indian traditions of thought and secular Western scientific doctrine. He charts the early development of science in India, its role in the secularization of Indian society, and the...