"Sacred Knowledge and Bio-Piracy: Religious Social Movements Resisting Commodification of Indigenous Biodiversity in India"

The valorization of natural resources represents a growing global concern, particularly in regions with rich but endangered indigenous biodiversity. In India, the intensifying monetization of wildlife, native crops, and indigenous knowledge systems poses a hazard to both ecological integrity and the sociocultural frameworks of native communities. Within this context, religious social movements have emerged as vital agents of aversion, drawing upon spiritual cosmologies that underscore the sacredness of nature.

The core problem of the matter arises from the encroachment of neoliberal developmental policies that commodify biodiversity, marginalizing communities whose ontological relationship with nature is central to their cultural identity and livelihood. This process of commodification has encountered formidable opposition from grassroots religious movements, which have been instrumental in articulating resistance but remain underexplored in sociological discourse. This study focuses on emblematic cases such as the Appiko Movement, Bishnoi Movement, Navdanya Movement, and the Sacred Groves Movement. Through these movements, the paper examines how local ecologies, sacralized through religious narratives, serve as spaces of resistance against external capitalist forces.

Adopting a qualitative approach, this study, integrates ethnographic case studies, archival analysis, and content analysis of key actors involved in these movements. Comparative analysis highlights the underlying diversity in spiritual ecologies and their varying roles in the resistance.

A deeper analysis suggests that these religious movements do more than to protect the environment; they actively sustain indigenous epistemologies and counter the forces of globalization that threaten to homogenize cultural landscapes and indigenously inherited knowledge. The research contributes to theoretical discussions on sociology of religion and environmentalism, illustrating religious movements' capacity to mediate environmental justice and assert the epistemic sovereignty of marginalized communities. The study has implications for the policymakers that acknowledging environmental stewardship's cultural and spiritual dimensions may enhance the efficacy of biodiversity conservation strategies, particularly in Indigenous contexts.