“Man Na Raṅgāye”: Embodied Austerity and Leadership Praxis During the Climate Crises
“Man Na Raṅgāye”: Embodied Austerity and Leadership Praxis During the Climate Crises Posted on 15th May, 2026 (GMT 01:35 hrs) DEBAPRASAD BANDYOPADHYAY ⤡ AKHAR BANDYOPADHYAY ⤡ ABSTRACT On 10 May 2026, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged Indian citizens to adopt sweeping austerity measures—restraining petroleum use, reviving work-from-home, minimising non-essential foreign travel, postponing gold purchases, reducing imports of edible oils and chemical fertilisers, promoting natural farming and Swadeshi consumption, and preferring public transport, carpooling, and EVs—amid West Asia tensions, rising oil prices, and forex pressures. This paper delivers an uncompromising critique of these imperatives, examining their genuine ecological co-benefits in the climate crisis alongside the cross-traditional philosophical demand for ācaraṇa (embodied praxis) drawn from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Imam Abu Hanifa, Gandhi, Kant, Marx, Tagore, and Kabir; the glaring contradictions with the Prime Minist...