A Better World Can Exist: Hindu Folklores and the Decolonial Imaginaries of a Degrowth Society.

Sammanfattning

Degrowth has emerged as a critical framework challenging the dominant assumption that continuous economic growth is necessary for human progress and well-being. While degrowth offers important critiques of capitalist accumulation, ecological destruction, and growth-oriented development, the field has largely been shaped by Western intellectual traditions and policy discourses. It has also yet to explore alternative imaginary futures that are climate-just and free from current systems of oppression. This raises important questions regarding its ability to function as a genuinely decolonial project. In response, this thesis explores whether alternative ethical and ontological orientations compatible with degrowth may already exist within non-Western narrative traditions, specifically Hindu folklore and mythology. Using narrative analysis as its primary methodology, this study examines three selected Hindu narratives: the Isha Upanishad, Ardhanarishvara, and traditions of ancestral worship. These texts are analyzed through a combined theoretical lens drawing on Frantz Fanon, bell hooks, and Paulo Freire to investigate how folklore can function as a site of ethical orientation, critical consciousness, and decolonial knowledge production. Particular attention is paid to recurring themes of sufficiency, reciprocity, and interdependence. The findings suggest that selected Hindu folklores articulate worldviews that resonate strongly with degrowth principles while also expanding them beyond predominantly Western framings of sustainability. These narratives challenge dominant assumptions regarding ownership, individualism, binary thinking, and extractive relationships to both nature and society. Furthermore, the study argues that folklore should not be understood merely as symbolic or cultural residue, but as a legitimate repository of ethical, ecological, and ontological knowledge capable of informing contemporary sustainability debates. Ultimately, this thesis argues that sustainable and just futures cannot be achieved solely through economic restructuring or policy reform, but require broader cultural transformations in how societies imagine well-being, progress, and human flourishing. By bringing Hindu folklore into conversation with degrowth and decolonial theory, this study hopes to contribute to ongoing efforts to pluralize sustainability discourse and challenge the epistemic dominance of Western frameworks.