Climate Change as Civilisational Discourse: Hindu Nationalism, Emotional Narratives, and Environmental Governance in India

This paper examines how climate change is rearticulated within far-right politics through the construction of a civilisational and moral environmentalism that has direct implications for minority inclusion and democratic belonging. Using India as a case study, it argues that Hindu nationalist politics promote a form of green nationalism that frames environmental concern as a marker of cultural sovereignty, moral order, and civilisational superiority. Rather than rejecting climate change, far-right actors strategically mobilise environmental narratives to legitimise majoritarian rule while marginalising religious minorities. Building on existing literature on far-right environmentalism, political emotions, and civilisational politics, the paper conceptualises climate change as a site of emotional and symbolic boundary-making. It demonstrates how environmental narratives draw on pride, reverence, resentment, and moral superiority, constructing an image of the Hindu nation as inherently ecological and ethically advanced. In contrast, religious minorities, particularly Muslims, are implicitly or explicitly portrayed as culturally inauthentic, environmentally irresponsible, or misaligned with the nation’s moral ecology. These emotional framings not only marginalise minorities but also actively reshape hierarchies of belonging and legitimacy. Methodologically, the paper adopts an interpretive qualitative approach that combines discourse analysis with affective analysis to examine how climate change is articulated within far-right politics. Rather than treating climate narratives as neutral policy statements, the analysis focuses on how they construct moral hierarchies, mobilise emotional repertoires, and stage civilisational belonging through symbolic, visual, and performative practices. The study will examine speeches and statements by Hindu nationalist leaders, party manifestos, parliamentary debates, and official government communications on climate change and environmental protection, alongside visual and performative narratives surrounding environmental initiatives. They are analysed to show how climate politics cultivate emotional attachment and moral authority for some, while generating alienation, anxiety, and exclusion for others. By extending debates on far-right environmentalism beyond Euro-American contexts, this paper contributes to an understanding of how religious nationalism and civilisational discourse function as key mechanisms of environmental mobilisation in the Global South. By demonstrating how affective narratives of pride, grievance, and moral order actively shape far-right engagement with climate politics, it advances scholarship on political emotions. Moreover, it contributes to comparative debates on populism and environmental conflict by showing how climate change becomes a symbolic and emotional site for reinforcing majoritarian identity and challenging democratic pluralism. Examining India as a critical case, the paper demonstrates that far-right environmental politics are not limited to denial but involve the strategic reconfiguration of ecological concerns into exclusionary projects of national and civilisational belonging.