Decolonizing Forest: The Myth of <i>Panjurli</i> and <i>Guliga</i> in <i>Kantara</i> (2022)
Colonial ideologies reduce nature to a repository of extractable resources and portray the Indigenous communities’ religious understanding of nature as primitive and unscientific. Decolonization foregrounds the silenced Indigenous epistemes that critique exceptional human paradigms of colonial moder...
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MDPI AG
2024-10-01
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| author | Anandita Saraswat Aratrika Das |
| author_facet | Anandita Saraswat Aratrika Das |
| author_sort | Anandita Saraswat |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Colonial ideologies reduce nature to a repository of extractable resources and portray the Indigenous communities’ religious understanding of nature as primitive and unscientific. Decolonization foregrounds the silenced Indigenous epistemes that critique exceptional human paradigms of colonial modernity. This paper examines how traditional religious rituals function as a method of decolonization and discusses their exclusion from Western academia. It focuses on <i>Kantara</i>’s cinematic representation of the Indigenous ritual of <i>Bhoota Kola</i> and the worship of forest deities, <i>Panjurli</i> and <i>Guliga</i>, in the coastal areas of southern Karnataka and Kerala. These rituals emphasize the agency of the environment, where the forest, humans, and deities are porous and permeable. This non-anthropocentric understanding of humans questions the dominance of the secular narratives of posthuman theories in Western academia. Rituals foster ecological behaviours and highlight multispecies relationality, providing alternatives for sustainable futures. In emphasizing Indigenous religious practices, the paper undisciplines the Eurocentric study of religion and questions the disciplinary boundaries between scientific thought and Indigenous knowledge. Thus, this paper argues for the inclusion of regional cinemas from the Global South in Western academia to foreground Indigenous epistemes that undiscipline the study of religion and science. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-31fa4deae3584d2fa8ac6bbed92230cc |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2077-1444 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-10-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Religions |
| spelling | doaj-art-31fa4deae3584d2fa8ac6bbed92230cc2024-11-26T18:19:13ZengMDPI AGReligions2077-14442024-10-011511130710.3390/rel15111307Decolonizing Forest: The Myth of <i>Panjurli</i> and <i>Guliga</i> in <i>Kantara</i> (2022)Anandita Saraswat0Aratrika Das1School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Indore 453 552, IndiaSchool of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Indore 453 552, IndiaColonial ideologies reduce nature to a repository of extractable resources and portray the Indigenous communities’ religious understanding of nature as primitive and unscientific. Decolonization foregrounds the silenced Indigenous epistemes that critique exceptional human paradigms of colonial modernity. This paper examines how traditional religious rituals function as a method of decolonization and discusses their exclusion from Western academia. It focuses on <i>Kantara</i>’s cinematic representation of the Indigenous ritual of <i>Bhoota Kola</i> and the worship of forest deities, <i>Panjurli</i> and <i>Guliga</i>, in the coastal areas of southern Karnataka and Kerala. These rituals emphasize the agency of the environment, where the forest, humans, and deities are porous and permeable. This non-anthropocentric understanding of humans questions the dominance of the secular narratives of posthuman theories in Western academia. Rituals foster ecological behaviours and highlight multispecies relationality, providing alternatives for sustainable futures. In emphasizing Indigenous religious practices, the paper undisciplines the Eurocentric study of religion and questions the disciplinary boundaries between scientific thought and Indigenous knowledge. Thus, this paper argues for the inclusion of regional cinemas from the Global South in Western academia to foreground Indigenous epistemes that undiscipline the study of religion and science.https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/15/11/1307decolonizationIndigenous knowledgeposthumanismscienceundisciplining |
| spellingShingle | Anandita Saraswat Aratrika Das Decolonizing Forest: The Myth of <i>Panjurli</i> and <i>Guliga</i> in <i>Kantara</i> (2022) Religions decolonization Indigenous knowledge posthumanism science undisciplining |
| title | Decolonizing Forest: The Myth of <i>Panjurli</i> and <i>Guliga</i> in <i>Kantara</i> (2022) |
| title_full | Decolonizing Forest: The Myth of <i>Panjurli</i> and <i>Guliga</i> in <i>Kantara</i> (2022) |
| title_fullStr | Decolonizing Forest: The Myth of <i>Panjurli</i> and <i>Guliga</i> in <i>Kantara</i> (2022) |
| title_full_unstemmed | Decolonizing Forest: The Myth of <i>Panjurli</i> and <i>Guliga</i> in <i>Kantara</i> (2022) |
| title_short | Decolonizing Forest: The Myth of <i>Panjurli</i> and <i>Guliga</i> in <i>Kantara</i> (2022) |
| title_sort | decolonizing forest the myth of i panjurli i and i guliga i in i kantara i 2022 |
| topic | decolonization Indigenous knowledge posthumanism science undisciplining |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/15/11/1307 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ananditasaraswat decolonizingforestthemythofipanjurliiandiguligaiinikantarai2022 AT aratrikadas decolonizingforestthemythofipanjurliiandiguligaiinikantarai2022 |