Browsing by Author "Kaikkonen, Heidi"

In my Master's Thesis, I have researched interviews made by the leader of the Tarun Bharat Sangh organisation, Rajendra Singh, between the years 2001, 2002, 2009, 2012, 2014 and 2015. Rajendra Singh has been working with environmental issues in Rajasthan, India, since the year 1984, and he has been awarded with several awards for his work. My research method is rhetorical analysis, which means that I look at the interviews of Rajendra Singh, and analyse what type of rhetorical devices he uses when presenting his arguments. My research aims to answer the question, what kind of persuading and empowering rhetoric does Rajendra Singh use when talking about the environmental issues of India and their solutions, and what kind of argumentative positions does he take in relation to public power, society and media. It is also my goal to see, whether there has been any change in his position during these years, and are there stylistic differences in those interviews that he has answered in Hindi and those that he has answered in English. By researching Singh's argumentative positions, I want to find out the core message of these interviews - in other words, what is Singh's solution to solving water-related environmental issues in India. I want to see whether a community-based conservation of the environment and going back to the past is the only cure for these issues, or what kind of solutions does he propose. In order to analyse Singh's rhetoric, I utilize the list of rhetorical devices presented by Arja Jokinen (1999). These devices, however, are not sufficient to analyse Hindi language material, so I have added the concept of religious rhetoric. Religious rhetoric is used commonly in India when there is a need to appeal to people when discussing environmental issues. Singh uses different kinds of persuading and empowering rhetorical devices to get his audience to support his positions. He argues, that our current lifestyle is not sustainable and that we should question our current habits and strive for a self-sufficient basis of life. He believes that taking care of the environment is everyone's responsibility, and that we need co-operation between societies and the government, in order to solve India's environmental issues in a sustainable way. Development and conservation belong together, and India should also utilize it's native wisdom by looking for solutions in traditional methods.