Abstract
This is a collection of fourteen essays plus an introduction which focus on the ‘interface of sustainability, ecology and the environment as reflected in literature and culture’. It is an eclectic collection of writers who have critiqued various subjects of literature, ranging from science fiction to ecofeminism and tribal traditions, reflecting ecological crises and environmental challenges. The essays examine the different ways in which the environment has been imagined and described in specific contexts and the resultant change in the global discussion of ecology and the environment. They analyse how literature and culture across time and geography address environmental concerns: the topics have been selected from the diverse fields of literature, ecofeminism, religion, tribal literature, colonial tales and so on leading to the role of communities and their lands. The writers are primarily from India with a few western scholars.
The essays can be divided as follows:
Literature:
‘An Ecocritical Perspective: Tagore’s Gitanjali and Selected Verses’ by Anavisha Banerjee,
‘Forest Fire and Aftermath: Epic Introspection’ by Sarita Sharma,
‘Tales of Spoils, Spoiling Tales: Tiger Hunting in India and the Fictions of the Empire’ by Silvia Granata and
‘Narrating, Naming and Labelling the Environment in Amitav Ghosh’s the Hungry Tide’ by Suhasini Vincent.
Science Fiction:
‘Barricaded Behind the High Walls: The Noir City of Los Angeles in Raymond Chandler’s Phillip Marlowe Novels’ by Debashree Basu, and
‘Ecology and Ecological Concerns in Science Fiction’ by Kunal Chattopadhyay.
Eco-Feminism:
‘Indigeneity and Ecofeminism: A Case Study from the Okanagan’ by Debashree Dattaray,
‘Ecofeminism and Its Discontents: Reading the Flowering Tree’ by Meenakshi Malhotra,
‘Woman and Environment: An Application of Ecofeminism to the Study of Mahasweta Devi’s Short Story “Douloti”’ by Sutanuka Ghosh Roy and
‘The Girl and the Mare: An Ecofeminist Trajectory of Interconnectedness’ by Urmi Sengupta.
Culture:
‘Nature Is Not Trash: The Dynamics of Food and Superstructure in the Eco-theography of Goddess Annapurna’ by Anway Mukhopadhyay.
Tribal Culture:
‘“Angry Gods” and the Ecological Tradition of Karbi Ancestors’ by Dharamsing Teron,
‘Chihorlata: Interweaving Speech Acts of the Dhekaru and Bihor Tribes of West Bengal’ by Dheeman Bhattacharyya and
‘Ecocriticism and Environment: Some Considerations on Adivasis of Odisha’ by Steffano Beggiora.
Instead of reviewing the book in the order of its chapters, I have re-grouped the essays together under the above sub-titles. It would have helped if the editors had done a similar grouping, since one has to go back and forth as one reads the book.
The sub-title of the book says Rethinking Literature and Culture. The essay by Anavisha Banerjee on ‘An Ecocritical Perspective: Tagore’s Gitanjali and Selected Verses’ locates the poet’s Nobel prize-winning oeuvre within an ecological framework. Tagore’s Gitanjali is a reflection of his belief in the universality of the human-nature relationship. For Tagore, God reveals Himself through nature and his writing seamlessly weaves in descriptions of nature which reflect his love for the natural environment. The poet tries to prevent the exploitation of the land. His works reflect his deep knowledge of Hinduism and its relationship with nature, incorporating his personal beliefs and the divinity of trees. The author has described how his many references to nature and especially to plants illustrate his emotions, making his book a work of beauty. This is a very beautiful essay.
In ‘Forest Fire and Aftermath: Epic Introspection’, Sarita Sharma has taken an incident in the Mahabharata which is extremely troubling for both ethical and environmental reasons. This is the burning of Khandva forest which appears in the first book (Adi Parva) of the Mahabharata. The fire and the subsequent cruel killing of the fauna and flora by Arjuna and Krishna are a terrible episode in the epic. The author says that although Vyasa called it itihasa (thus it was), the episode is partly mythical in nature and adds that Professor V.S. Sukthankar called it a later interpolation. The destruction of the Khandva forest is the first phase of the settlement of Indraprastha—modern Delhi—which was burnt down to provide land for agriculture, pasture and for building the capital city for the Pandavas. Iravati Karve said that the aim of burning the forest was the destruction of the Nagas and the consequent acquisition of the land, while D.D. Kosambi believed that iron and fire made it possible to introduce intensive agriculture and grazing in the mid-Gangetic plains.
The author gives a different interpretation to the term Nagas: were they snakes or the Naga tribe? She concludes that Nagas were snakes because Arjuna and Krishna originally went into the forest with their wives and other women to spend a day of leisure. It was only after the advent of Agni, who wants to devour the Khandava forest, that the massacre begins. Arjuna uses the incident to ask for and receive from Agni a chariot, four horses and inexhaustible arrows. In this story, the Vedic Indra and Agni were friends yet opponents, with Krishna as a central deity. The author has turned this into an era of ‘theological budge’ in Hinduism in order to accommodate emerging trends of Vaishnavism, which was the only possible way to protect Hinduism and Sanatana Dharma from the trend of non-violence, promoted by the Buddhists and Jain ideologies, and thereby amending the sacrificial practices prevailing in Hinduism. She says that divine characters were used to either cover the actions of the Kshatriyas who caused ecological damage to Khandava, but put the ethical burden on Fire (Agni), disguised as a Brahman or to project Kshatriyas as an all-powerful class. The burning of the forest, according to the author, is to demonstrate the strength and valour of Arjuna and suggest future events: the forthcoming destruction in the great Kurukshetra war. Only seven survived the burning of Khandava; similarly, only seven Pandavas survived the great Mahabharata war. The author says that while that Vyasa approached the Khandava dahana in a novel way, she sees the element of ecocriticism in the episode since the author of the epic is distressed over the massacre and cannot accept the murder of the animals and other inhabitants of Khandva. He has inserted the myth of Agni in order to hold destiny responsible for the bloodshed. The forest becomes the centre of the ecological warfare. This article critiques the event in a very novel and distinct way; this is truly an instance of ecocriticism within the literature.
‘Tales of Spoils, Spoiling Tales: Tiger Hunting in India and the Fictions of the Empire’ is a scholarly criticism of colonial hunting—especially of the tiger—that was celebrated as a symbol of British imperialism, superiority and identity. Silvia Granata analyses three stories to suggest conflicting views that question colonial narratives. B.M. Croker’s ‘A Free Will Offering’ (1995) describes a London ‘dandy’ who changes into a brave hunter when confronted by danger—even if it is an old and lame tiger. In contrast, the natives are cowardly, superstitious and helpless and suitably impressed by the brave sahib. Grant Allen’s ‘The Adventure of the Magnificent Maharajah’ (1898) paints a picture of a selfish barbaric maharaja and superstitious villagers. The writer acknowledges that tiger was ‘desperately frightened of his human assailants’. The last story by Saki of ‘Mrs Packletide’s Tiger’ (1911) is a critique of a hunt carried out for all the wrong reasons—for hunting trophies to show off in England. Granata demonstrates that the short story format is effective in its brief intense sketches meant to create empathy in the reader. There is also a gradual evolution in the attitude towards tigers in the late nineteenth century, which evolved from the killing of the animal to obtain a trophy of a cunning vermin, to the animal as a tragic victim of imperialism.
The writings of Amitav Ghosh are a voyage of discovery of the desecration of the environment in the colonial period. Suhasini Vicent’s essay on ‘Narrating, Naming and Labelling the Environment in Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide’ highlights Ghosh’s opinion that human lives are valued less than the tigers in the Sundarbans. In the name of preservation, the government favours tigers rather than their helpless prey who are the human beings living in the Sundarbans. According to the author, the displaced communities are at the mercy of both the environment and an insensitive government and Ghosh tries to discover, identify and protect the interconnected ecosystems by focusing on the interdependence of humans and animals. However, this is an argument that is difficult to accept. The tiger has been pushed out of most of its traditional habitats in the country and is a victim of the human displacement of the animals that is leading to man-animal conflict. This is a very important article in that it posits the situation of humans living in animal sanctuaries, but it does not show sufficient sympathy for the displaced animal.
‘Barricaded Behind the High Walls: The Noir City of Los Angeles in Raymond Chandler’s Phillip Marlowe Novels’ by Debashree Basu is a study of the urban environment of Los Angeles, a city known for its violence, insecurity and ethical problems. The author studies the city from an ontological point of view, contrasting various properties of the domain and settlements and says that the city is a trigger for evil, which is, for the most part, all pervasive and irreversible. In this contaminated environment, crime is the ‘sinister partner’ responsible for tragic outcomes, and the detective is a ‘lone crusader’ walking through dark streets in a doomed city that is beyond redemption. This article is a philosophical study of the nature.
Another article that comes within the domain of science fiction is Kunal Chattopadhyay’s ‘Ecology and Ecological Concerns in Science Fiction’ which traces the history of science fiction by addressing the violence of consciousness in time, space and the universe. The author traces the origin of science fiction to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein which, according to the author, delineates human passions in a comprehensive and commanding point of view. She traces science fiction to the industrial revolution, which promoted applied science even as it changed human beings and their environment. Thereafter, the writer takes up Karel Capek, who created an image of the potential dangers of science creating artificial lives and intelligence that could go out of human control and threaten life on earth. The other important writers of science fiction discussed by the writer are Edgar Alan Poe, Jules Verne, Edward Bellamy and Edgar Rice Burroughs. The writer traces science fiction to Christian dogma, ecology and anti-science fiction, which creates ecological damage and transform powers of globalisation in a constantly changing world. Finally, the writer ends with H.G. Wells who promoted human ecology, combining biology, economics and philosophy in order to shape the future. He says that the world is exploited by monopolies and industries and hopes that humans could create a better future for themselves. The writer has given short summaries of several other science fictions, writers and books, which cannot all fit into a book review.
Ecofeminism is a topic that troubles several writers in this volume. Debashree Dattaray’s ‘Indigeneity and Ecofeminism: A Case Study from the Okanagan’ concerns the ecosystem in a case study from Okanagan in British Columbia, Western Canada, where native Okanagans, who relied on local flora, are educated and empowered through their own history and culture. She dissects the philosophy and writings of Okanagan activist Jeannette Christine Armstrong, an indigenous activist concerned with rights of land democracy and aboriginal education system. Okanagan philosophy is rooted in their land, community and language and Armstrong’s activism aims to take them back to their roots.
Yet another ecofeminist article is Meenakshi Malhotra’s ‘Ecofeminism and Its Discontents: Reading the Flowering Tree’ where she tries to explain terms, such as mother earth, mother nature and so on. She relates it to an imagery of rape and violence using terms, such as ‘rape the land’ and ‘tame nature’ which are used in radical feminism. The death and the revival of nature are fundamental to the ecological crisis according to the writer and women are the natural custodians of nature and the environment. She analyses Vandana Shiva’s description of the exploitation of the land by commercial forestry, which sees not the utility value but only the monetary value of forest produce. She contrasts the two economic perspectives on productivity and value. For women, tribals and other forest communities, the forest is a complex ecosystem which produces water, food, fertiliser, fuel, fibre and so on. According to Shiva, the enhancement of life emerges from the forest and feminine principle, while the destruction of life comes from the factory and the market. She critiques modern science and technology as a patriarchal colonial project and argues that violence against nature is basic to industrial development. Thereafter, Meenakshi analyses A.K. Ramanujan’s The Flowering Tree where the woman and the tree are identified with each other. A poor Indian woman has a unique gift of being able to transform herself into the flowering tree, but this leads to her exploitation and suffering at the hands of her husband. The dominant idea is the importance of and empathy with nature, which cannot save her.
In ‘Woman and Environment’, Sutanuka Ghosh Roy applies ecofeminist theories to Mahasweta Devi’s short story Douloti which is about the degradation and disempowerment of an indigenous community. This is about Douloti, who is a bonded labourer living within a dysfunctional and disintegrating world of violence. The writer believes that women suffer oppression in a time of male hegemony and the importance of material wealth overrides the importance of ecology. The land vanishes along with the fields and homes, while society becomes more unequal as nature is destroyed relentlessly. Devi posits two views of nature. One is human-centric and the other where nature is just a resource for human life. The author points out that her goal is to improve humanity through demolishing the inequalities in society and preventing the destruction of nature. Ecofeminism is an important narrative of Devi’s short stories.
Urmi Sengupta’s ‘The Girl and the Mare: An Ecofeminist Trajectory of Interconnectedness’ demonstrates that women and nature are connected by a common history of male domination and exploitation. She studies Greta Graard’s Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature (1993), where nature is dead and animals are merely bodies for human use. Farmers sell redundant horses to feed foxes, but foxes are raised and bred for their fur. There is no legal or moral concern in human beings and the welfare of animals and the interest of sentient beings are totally ignored as the interest of human beings become primary. This is a part of the nineteenth century belief that animals lived only for the utilisation by and benefit of human beings. In this article, feministic care is applied to animals in order to understand the greater concern of women about the treatment of animals, making them more compassionate towards animals than men, although this is neither universally true nor visible. Sengupta has studied a few articles where the women identify animals as a path of self-realisation and experience of oppression.
Anway Mukhopadhyay’s ‘Nature Is Not Trash’ is the story of the evolution of Goddess Annapurna as a source of food and its structure. The writer defines the eco-consciousness of Tantra, which respects both natural physicality as well as rationality. Annapurna is the basis of all spiritual and material experiences. Annapurna is a bridge between nature and culture, between food and the kitchen, and between the raw and the cooked. The Indian version of ecofeminism combines the quality, feminism and spiritual traditions of India, of which Annapurna is a representative. In ritual, she is often transformed into the goddess of wealth who bestows material prosperity; if food is not the greatest of material prosperity, what else is it? Her greatest gift is the abundance of food. Adi Shankara, in his hymn to Annapurna, united nature and spirit whereby Annapurna is a giver of both wisdom and food.
‘Angry Gods’ by Dharamsing Teron describes the ecological tradition of the Karbi for whom the hills, mountains and rivers are the abode of spirits who are protective deities whom they worship. They have totems and taboos which illustrate their philosophy of coexistence of humans with numerous animals and plants, protective deities and spirits. Karbis are a patriarchal society organised by five exogamous clans with sub-clans. Karbi is dominated by territorial deities with special divine powers and certain places are identified as ‘angry gods’ making them sacred with several taboos. Arnam Keso or sacred groves play an important role in conservation. Some of these are very small patches of forest. Unfortunately, many of them are disappearing due to uncontrolled exploitation or poor protective measures.
‘Chihorlata: Interweaving Speech Acts of the Dhekaru and Birhor Tribes of West Bengal’ by Dheeman Bhattacharyya is the outcome of the research of two communities—Dhekaru and Birhor—in West Bengal. The author identifies the changes imposed upon indigenous tribes by industrialisation and how that has impacted their life. Many tribes were forcibly dislocated from their traditional homelands to urban centres and deprived of their traditional practices, such as hunting, fishing and food gathering. This has resulted in the loss of the history of aboriginal people who worship their land and trees. The exploitation of our tribes is an ugly chapter both in the colonial and post-colonial periods of India. The poverty that we see all over the country has been imposed on tribal people who are dispossessed of their lands and are forced to live in urban conglomerations where their survival skills are totally inadequate. What is left for them are their oral traditions. On the other hand, these tribes once had great skills. Dhekarus, for example, knew how to melt metal and even supplied armaments against the British who labelled them as criminals for their knowledge. The decline of these tribes has resulted in the disappearance of their knowledge system. What is required is the accommodation of tribal voices in public discourse and a rethink of the models of development that come out of academia.
Finally, we come to Steffano Beggiora’s essay on ‘Ecocriticism and Environment: Some Considerations on Adivasis of Odisha’ which discusses the Adivasis of Odisha. According to the writer, colonial writing, romanticism and the relationship between the Adivasis and the environment are memories of a pristine past. However, it does not take into consideration the indigenous knowledge systems which include botany, pharmacology and land use. By studying community traditions, we could learn about sustainable living. The author explains how current problems, such as climate change, deforestation and the uncontrolled population growth in villages result in dramatic changes in their societies, forcing them to rethink their culture. These tribes are a part of an oral tradition which they have inherited. The Saoras, for example, have popular songs to celebrate nature. These songs also contain messages of common benefit which draw on traditional knowledge and even include recommendations for the correct materials for constructing a house, an essential prerequisite for a lasting marriage and so on. Thus the oral tradition is an important corpus of the indigenous cultural heritage of India. While much of it is disappearing, a little is known and has been studied by Beggiora in Odisha.
The fourteen articles in this book highlight the interconnectedness of ecology and human lives and how writers in the twentieth century have addressed environmental challenges, such as land use, animal welfare and the destruction of flora. They have demonstrated the different ways in which the environment is perceived, discussed and internalised and provided possible ways to deal with the current problems faced by marginalised societies.