Confronting the Global
As local residents report and scientific evidence shows, the Kullu Valley is warming up. This chapter analyzes practitioners’ interpretations of and engagement with the changing climate, as well as Haḍimbā’s centrality to their reasoning in this regard. It presents the holistic worldview held by Haḍimbā’s devotees, namely their notions about dharma and cosmic interconnectedness and the ways this worldview underlies their thoughts about and actions concerning the changing climate. It also traces how villagers associate the weather irregularities with the socioeconomic transformations that have taken place in their lives in recent years, following the introduction of modernity, capitalism, and tourism in the region, as well as their creeping doubts concerning the very validity of their holistic worldview. The chapter illustrates both the continuities and the shifts in how followers perceive Haḍimbā’s command over the weather and her agency more broadly.