Despite its long and vibrant history in India, literature about the environment remains on the fringes of

public discussion, thereby affecting how we engage with ecological issues

Fissured lands, unquiet woods, hungry tides, creatures great and small — nature has long stirred creative
minds in India. For instance, it is difficult to isolate RK Narayan’s stories from the fictional town of Malgudi
situated along the banks of the river Sarayu, close to the Mempi forest. Within his fiction, Narayan weaves
in the influence of the natural surroundings on the characters.

Literature about the environment takes many forms, from fiction to non-fiction to poetry, pulling you to a
specific place, reinforcing the interconnectedness between living beings and their environment. It discusses
environmental protests like the Chipko movement through various social and historical lenses. It can present
scientific research as prose that lies at the intersection of science and the human experience within natural
surroundings. Sometimes, it may just be an intimate ode to nature, such as a particularly tender poem by
Rabindranath Tagore: “On the day when the lotus bloomed, alas, my mind was straying, and I knew it not/
My basket was empty and the flower remained unheeded.”

From words to action

On its own, literature — to quote WH Auden — “makes nothing happen”. However, by engaging with
literature about the environment, it is possible to galvanise broad-based societal concern and instigate
change. For instance, in the summer of 1962, The New Yorker serialised a long piece of writing by marine
biologist and renowned author Rachel Carson. She wrote about the environmental disaster unleashed by the
indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides, especially DDT. By fall, it had been published as a book, Silent
Spring, which caused a furore in the US. Readers were horrified by the revelations in the book, and the
powerful lobby of chemical companies was determined to discredit the exposé.

The uproar led the then President John F Kennedy to set up a Science Advisory Committee to examine the
issues raised by the book. When the committee’s report vindicated the book and its author, the government
was forced to reconsider its national pesticide policy, leading to DDT being banned. Silent Spring became
an epic in the modern environmental movement, highlighting the unquestionable merit of environmental
literature in stirring meaningful discussions that can inspire long-term change.

Silent no more: In 2013, students of a government school in Kozhikode, Kerala, staged a play based on
Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, widely considered to be a landmark in environmental literature -
BusinessLine

In India too, literature — from Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses to Perumal Murugan’s One Part Woman —
has often inflamed passions and spurred widespread debate. However, despite the strong presence of nature
in Indian literature, the influence of literature on environmental consciousness in India remains largely
unexplored. Murali Sivaramakrishnan founded the India chapter of the global Association for the Study of
Literature and Environment (ASLE) in 1992, in order to meet a “growing demand for exploring the role of
literature in environmentalism.” He points out that contemporary Indian literature concerning the natural
environment has generally not provoked a reaction from the public, unlike in the West.

“Religious intolerance, political power-structures and their impact on imagination consume much of the
public’s attention. On the other hand, environmental writing has evolved only fairly recently so it could take
some time to reach the forefront,” he says.

Missing readers
Would it be possible to argue that India’s widespread poverty and illiteracy are the underlying reasons for
the low environmental consciousness and lack of public engagement with nature writing? Historian and
writer Ramachandra Guha disagrees, “A concern for roti-kapda-makaan is important, but that does not make
literary interest in the natural environment irrelevant. A great deal of folk poetry, music and art is inspired

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by the natural world.” This view is echoed by environmental journalist and author Bahar Dutt, who points
out that for centuries, nomadic communities have travelled from village to village sharing stories drawn
from folklore and mythology that often refer to the natural world. “It is easy to consider a discourse on the
role of literature in environmentalism as an elitist preoccupation. But let’s not forget that the literary
tradition is not just print. It is also oral,” she adds.

In print, literature on the environment is hampered by the worry that it may not appeal to the lay reader. One
of the reasons for this is that the readership for books published in this field is imagined to be decidedly
academic. For instance, Oxford University Press (OUP) India has a formidable list of titles on the
environment. Sugata Ghosh, director of academic publishing at OUP, says, “The books we publish generally
feature scholarly analysis and use an interdisciplinary approach to a subject, and thus the readership mostly
consists of academics, researchers and policymakers among others.” He, however, adds that over the past
year they have started publishing similar books for the trade market too.

Guha, who co-authored Ecology and Equity: The Use and Abuse of Nature in Contemporary India with the
renowned ecologist Madhav Gadgil, says, “Some of my books may cater to readers with a more serious
interest in the environment, but others, such as my global history of environmentalism, can be understood
even by high school and college students.”

Dutt, on the other hand, thinks that this issue can be addressed by including new voices in the field. “Every
time we speak of literature on the environment, we tend to mention the same scientists and academicians,
giving the sense that the field is restricted to a limited number of people,” she says.

Starting with children’s literature

When it comes to drawing in a wider public to literature on the environment, it is odd to see the neglect of
children’s literature. Children are saddled with environmental studies in school but little effort is made to
use literature as an effective means to introduce them to environmentalism.

Author Zai Whitaker, who is also one of the founders of the Madras Crocodile Bank and the Snake Park,
corroborates, “I believe children’s literature is neglected, when in fact it is absolutely pivotal to the
environmental movement. When we meet student groups here at the Crocodile Bank, it is obvious that their
knowledge and interest levels have increased and I am sure EVS is part of it. But our education system
remains bureaucratic and textbook-based. To inculcate eco-values, you need to take students outside, sit
under trees, be amazed at the colours of the birds and snakes, get wet crossing streams. I was a facilitator for
environmental literature during a workshop on children’s literature in Thiruvananthapuram years ago and I
think many more such [initiatives] are needed to encourage children’s writing in this field and bring it up to
another level.”

Unless children are inspired, discourses of the kind induced by Silent Spring may never be realised in our
country. It is also worth noting that the simplicity with which environmental concerns are discussed in
children’s literature makes it easy for anyone to access it. One of Guha’s favourite reads is the poem ‘The
Elephant and the Tragopan’ from Vikram Seth’s Beastly Tales from Here and There. “Although the poem is
written for children, it can be enjoyed by all age groups. The motivating theme of the poem — the
conservation of water — is framed in such a way that you want to read it again and again.”

Literature in translation
India has a rich body of regional literature on the environment, such as the work of Sambalpuri poet and
writer Haldhar Nag, the Kannada poet Dattatreya Ramachandra Bendre or the Malayali poet and activist
Sugathakumari. Many of these works are an outcome of environmental movements of the ’70s and ’80s like
the Chipko Movement, Silent Valley Protests and the Narmada Bachao Andolan, that struck the collective
imagination of common people, especially those living in the heart of such strife. Unfortunately, a lot of
such literature has remained restricted to local geographies. Sivaramakrishnan says, “Much before Rachel
Carson wrote Silent Spring, obscure writers in India had already been writing on environmental struggles in

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their native languages. Unfortunately, their writing was not in English and, hence, it was not widely
available or discussed.”

However, the problem is not limited to translation from the regional languages into mainstream languages,
especially English. It also extends to making the large body of environmental literature in English available
to the masses in their native languages. “In a country like ours, language becomes an obstacle, thus limiting
the information to only about 10 per cent of the society — the section that is proficient in English. I feel it is
our responsibility to make our rich content available to a wider audience and increase awareness among
other sections of the society,” says Ghosh.

To address the situation, some publishers — Tulika Publishers, Chennai and Orient Blackswan — are
looking at translations from and into regional languages. For example, OUP has launched an Indian
Languages Publishing Programme that will initially make its titles available to Hindi as well as Bangla
readers, and gradually expand to include other languages. However, the dynamics of publishing translations,
whether in English or in regional languages, are also tricky because publishers need to grapple with
everything from selecting the text to be translated and maintaining the quality of the translations, to
marketing the translated book.

A slow and steady wave

India may still be on the lookout for the unprecedented success of Silent Spring. However,literature on the
environment continues to be published by mainstream publishers as well as organisations such as the Centre
for Science and Environment (CSE), The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and Kalpavriksh, raising
hopes for the future. As Ghosh lets on, “Our books, particularly in this genre, like Talking Environment by
Vandana Shiva have always received an extremely positive response from readers. There are fantastic books
from publishers that have been able to create a space among the broader readership and are increasingly
becoming popular.”

Prominent voices, such as M Krishnan, Ramachandra Guha, Madhav Gadgil, Amitav Ghosh and Mahesh
Rangarajan have greatly enriched and impacted literature on the environment, while literary festivals, such
as Tata Literary Live and the Jaipur Literature Festival, regularly feature discussions and panels on ecology,
nature, and conservation. For example, the World Book Fair in Delhi this year was themed on environmental
issues such as climate change, global warming and water pollution. Sumant and Asha Batra of the Delhi-
based NHP Centre have also founded ‘Fellows of Nature’, a community of nature writers, to build interest in
writing and reading this form of literature.

Perhaps our literature — like many other things in our diverse and dynamic society — should be viewed as
part of a great wave of influences quietly shaping our attitudes to the natural environment, one step at a time.

Meghaa Aggarwal works in children’s publishing and also writes features on education and environment

Published on June 01, 2018

Literature goes green

Pursuing English literature at the college level is often thought to be about revisiting giants who once
walked the earth. Across disciplines, including the humanities, courses with contemporary relevance and
those tailored for job markets have been introduced to woo students of the 21st century. Obviously, English
literature and language studies have not merely stood and watched. Be it English for mass communication,
copy writing or Dalit writing, feminist writing, post-colonial literature and human rights, these have all
found their way into the syllabus.

A relatively recent addition to these new lines of exploration is the study of literature and the ecology or
literature and the environment. What do students and scholars of literature have to do with the environment?
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“As literature engages with life and everything in the world, it must also engage with the environment,” says
Murali Sivaramkrishnan, head, department of English, Pondicherry Central University. The department
offers, “Green Voices,” as an elective and a soft course. As professor Murali says, “eco-criticism,” is fast
becoming a buzzword in the academic circles in India.

Green lens
Simply put, eco-criticism is the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment,
which necessitates looking at literary studies though a green lens. To understand what this branch of study is
founded on, Cheryll Glotfelty, University of Nevada, spells out succinctly: when “… literary scholars began
to ask what their field has to contribute to our understanding of the unfolding environmental crisis.” While
literature has always engaged with nature and the environment from a creative and aesthetic approach
(through poems on nature and more), eco-criticism demands a close critical look at nature and the
environment.

Literature and ecology/environment is best associated with the Association for the Study of Literature and
Environment (ASLE) in the U.S. which states that the course is, “for those interested in the natural world
and its meanings and representations in language and culture.” ASLE has various affiliate bodies in the
world, with two such in India alone. The ASLE-India chapter (whose newsletters are published from
Puducherry) and the Organisation for Study of Literature and Ecology (OSLE) with key office-bearers from
Tamil Nadu.

VDO.AIVDO.AI

Like their international counterparts, these bodies have published papers, books, and regular newsletters,
apart from conducting conferences to promote interest in the study of literature and environment.

According to Suresh Frederick, head, department of English, Bishop Heber College, Tiruchi and vice-
president, OSLE, a few institutions in India have already been offering the course for quite some time. At
the Madras Christian College, it has been part of the curriculum for a decade. “Recent conferences by
English literature departments in India have deliberated on literary studies with an ecological approach,” he
says.

While the course is an elective, it may soon turn into a core course in universities, feels professor Murali,
president of ASLE, India. Increasing environmental debates and a growing consciousness on environmental
issues by citizens have only fuelled interest in study of literature and ecology. By studying inter-
relationships between nature, culture and environment, eco-criticism also explores facets like eco-feminism,
eco-poetics and eco-justice.

Relevance
The study of literature and environment holds good as an elective for students from other disciplines as it is
essentially an interdisciplinary branch which integrates philosophy, life sciences, ethics and feminist
thinking.

Students of environmental engineering, ecology and sciences have also taken up Green Voices at
Pondicherry University in the past. For would-be activists, nature photographers and green engineers, an
understanding of eco-criticism can give a creative and critical approach towards the environment, rather than
a purely scientific one. Not being bound by disciplines, it can help students to broaden their horizons on
environmental issues.

“It is as important for literary scholars to talk about environment as about human rights or women’s
writing,” says Mr. Murali. “Eco-criticism can provide a new perspective on environmental issues. When
perceptions differ, finding alternative solutions is possible.”

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 An Ecocritical Approach to Indian Writing
Dr. Reetinder Joshi
Professor of English, SCD Govt. College, Ludhiana
Dr. Gurpreet Kaur
Assistant Professor of English, Sri Guru Granth Sahib World University, Fatehgarh Sahib, Punjab

Abstract
This research paper aims to study the ecocritical aspects in the fiction of Indian authors likeBhabani
Bhattacharya, Kamala Markandya, AmitavGhosh, Raja Rao, R. K. Narayan, Ruskin Bond, and Anita Desai.
Since ages literature is well known for reflecting society, contemporary issues and human activities. There is
an abundance of literature which uses nature and landscape as its background. Man and nature interact on
various levels, beneficial or mutually destructive. At the same time the continuous interference of man in
natural activities has posed a threat both to himself and to the environment. If this is not attended to, it will
lead to irreparable damage.

Keywords: Ecocriticism, contemporary issues, society, Indian fiction.

Literature and environment are always intertwined in a strong relationship as is evident in the works
of writers through the ages. The consciousness of writers has brought the two disciplines, ecology and
literature, together again and again. Their intention has been to admire nature as a guide, guardian and
mother (Wordsworth), as a supernatural force (Coleridge), or in more contemporary texts to save the earth’s
environment which is being destroyed due to man’s mishandling.

Work has been done on ecocriticism or ‘green studies’ in USA and UK. For ecocritics the nineteenth
century developments in literature are significant. American and British Romantic writers took a particular
interest in nature as a subject. Henry David Thoreau’s Walden (1854) and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Nature
(1836) are the defining works in the field of ecocriticism. Don DeLillo, a contemporary American author has
in his Underworld (1988) highlighted the issue of managing dumping of waste which is leading to
deterioration of environment. If we peep into the history of Indian literature we find many prominent writers
contributing in this direction.

The word ‘ecocriticism’ was first used by William Rueckert in his essay “Literature and Ecology: An
Experiment in Ecocriticism” in 1978. He defines ecocriticism as “the application of ecology and ecological
concepts to the study of literature, because ecology (as a science, as a discipline, as the basis for human
vision) has the greatest relevance to the present and future of the world” (1996: 107). Peter Barry added a
chapter titled “Ecocriticism” to the second edition of his Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and
Cultural Theory (1995). Thomas K. Dean considers Eco-criticism as “a study of culture and cultural
products (art works, writings, scientific theories, etc.)… in some way is connected with the human
relationship to the natural world”. He extends his explanation of ecocriticism as “a response to needs,
problems, or crises, depending on one’s perception of urgency” (Dean 1994 p. 1). Ecocriticism is a field that
bridges the gap between literature and science.

This research is an attempt to explore the representation of nature, as landscape as well as metaphor.
It will attempt to look into the various ways in which nature has merged in and has been imagined by
different writers in India. At the onset of the 21st century, nature forces us to bring it to the centre stage. We
must attempt to address the issue of nature in this highly technical and commercial world, through an
exploration and analysis of modern Indian literature.

We find impressions of nature study in the fiction of some post-World War-II, Bengali writers such
as, Manik Bandopadhayay, Advaita Mallabarman and Samaresh Basu in A Boatman of Padma(1936), A
River Called Titash (1950) and Ganga (1957), respectively. All these novels are about rivers which both
5
support life and sometimes become destroyers of fishermen and boatmen. These tradesmen through their
labor and struggle for livelihoods reshape the riverine environment into a vibrant arena of social life. All the
three novels depict the day to day struggle for survival and how this process of interdependence and
cooperation between the fishermen, boatmen, small farmers and their river centric environment affect each
other’s existence. But, as Raymond Williams aptly points out, “when nature is separated out from the
activities of men, it even ceases to be nature in any full and effective sense” (16).

Bhabani Bhattacharya’s So Many Hungers (1947), is a deeply moving work of art. We find in it an
element of keen observation of men and life. It is about pain, fear, misery, hunger, suffering and sacrifice,
largely due to man-made famine leading to the death of millions. He talks about the most horrifying real
event in the history of India i.e., the Bengal famine of 1943. It is a heart-rending representation of the hunger
for food, starvation and ultimate death, the other face of nature. It is a lacerating account of the naked horror
through cumulative details and absorbing description. It is about the suffering of the two families living in
the village of Baruni and Calcutta due to the famine. The characters believe that they have been punished for
their sins committed in the past. He deals with a similar theme in He who Rides a Tiger.

We also find impressions of ecocriticism in Kamla Markandya’s Nectar in the Sieve. But here the
perspective is opposite, being the other face of nature. This fiction deals with ‘The Flood,’ i.e. nature trying
to control humans, it being in the destruction state. This leads to the poor and pathetic conditions of the
victims of flood. When it became a threat to human lives, it is then that it became a matter of global concern.

The Hungry Tide is a survey on an endangered eco system—the Sunderbans in the Bay of Bengal. It
is written by a versatile contemporary writer, Amitav Ghosh. The Sunderbans in the Bay of Bengal are some
islands which people share with animals. The condition of their living is much inferior to
animals. The predicament the inhabitants suffer due to unwanted, unexpected tidal surges and tiger attacks
show a serious ecological calamity on earth. The purpose is to create an awareness to help prepare action
plans for the safety of the settlers.

Ghosh says that the environmental decline in the Sundarbans in his lifetime has been very obvious
and very shocking (Ferdous&Rutsch 51). Birdlife, fish and crabs, and certain trees and plants have become
extremely rare and their absence is clearly felt. The loss of marine mammal populations is part of this
“catastrophe” (51). He feels there is “incredible urgency” to these ecological issues and this comes out very
clearly in the novel, contributing significantly to its ecological tone (51). One of his characters, Nirmal,
watching his beloved landscape, is in no doubt that it is in terrible decline:
Age teaches you to recognize the signs of death… Now it was as if I could see those signs everywhere, not
just in myself, but in this place that I had lived in for almost thirty years. The birds were vanishing, the fish
were dwindling and from day to day the land was being reclaimed by the sea. (215)

Amitav Ghosh talks about the precarious life of people living in the Sundarbans. Christopher
Rollason describes the novel as:
[an] exploration of the vast field of human communication, testing both its possibilities and its limits as the
characters seek to cross multiple barriers – the barriers of language, religion and social class, those between
human beings and nature, between traditional and cosmopolitan India, between urban and rural, between
India and the wider world. (2)
Thus, Amitav Ghosh’s novel is an ideal example of a contemporary author grappling with literature’s
potential to address ecological issues.

Similarly, Raja Rao, one of the most eminent writers, has used the environmental setting in
Kanthapura depicting the relationship between man and nature. He uses rivers and mountains to emphasize
the importance of nature in man’s life. The river, the temple and ‘Malgudi’ have an indispensable place in
R.K. Narayan’s fiction. Moreover, Malgudi has been a background to about ten novels by Narayan,
becoming the ‘Hero’ in the words of Prof. Iyengar (Saxena 26).

6
 We also find glimpses of nature in the fiction of Ruskin Bond, who lived in the lush green scenic
environment of Dehradun and Mussoorie. His short stories reflect his ardent belief in the nurturing aspect of
environment. In the stories for children like, ‘An Island of Trees’, ‘No Room for Leopard’, ‘Copperfield in
the Jungle’, ‘The Tree Lover’, ‘The Cherry Tree’, and ‘All Creatures Great and Small’, which truly follow
their titles, explores themes like deforestation and its after effects, saying no to hunting, and the relationship
of man and nature. He is sympathetic towards nature, be it living or non-living.

Another important writer of this age writing about nature is Anita Desai. We find a strong presence
of animals, plants, birds and external images of landscape in her psychological novels. It is interesting to
note that in her Cry, the Peacock, we are taken into the mind of the character through the external landscape.
This novel is a story of a lady Maya, who is not happy after her marriage. She compares herself with a
peacock, which fights with its male partner before mating. Sadly this novel ends with Maya pushing her
husband off the roof resulting in his death. In her Clear Light of Day, Monisha, the female protagonist, feels
herself to be encaged like a pitiable bird. Finally, to gain freedom, she has to commit suicide. Anita Desai
has also discussed the problem of inhumanity towards animals and has used the landscape, especially the
mountains of Kanchenjunga, to tell the changing circumstances or the mood in The Inheritance of Loss. The
sad mood of a child is reflected through Kanchenjunga, which is believed to have paid for the brutality of
human beings by losing its beauty. Her novel is suitable for ecocritical study.

Thus, writers like Bhabani Bhattacharya, Kamala Markandya, Amitav Ghosh, Raja Rao, R. K.
Narayan, Ruskin Bond, and Anita Desai, through their literature, have drawn attention towards depiction of
natural beauty as well as nature’s disastrous face in the form of natural calamities like flood, famines, etc.
These writers desire to speak for the natural world in literature. Many of them tried to describe what man has
done to despoil nature but few come up with suggestions as to how we can overcome or reverse the damage
that has been done. Is man and the writer a mute witness, or just a sensitive observer, or can he suggest what
to do now? In our race towards modernity, are we capable of saving our natural landscape or is it doomed
for destruction? Finally, it is, to a great extent, to be decided by man which face of nature he wants to see.
Wordsworth could never have seen this face of nature which the Indian writer sketches in these texts.

***
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