Ecocriticism and Postcolonialism - Sunday Reading

Hello Readers !

On 10th November 2020, an online talk session was organized by the English Department, MKBU. Dr. Devang Nanavati was invited as a speaker to talk on "Ecocrotical Thinking: Sitanshu Yashaschandra's Tree Once Again". It was quite thoughtful and productive talk session with Devang sir and students got many new points to ponder about ecocriticism and postcolonialism.

* Literary Expressions - Ecocriticism

Sitanshu Yahashschandra has written many Gujarati poems. "Jatayu", "Vakhar" and "Odysseus nu Halesu" are the collection of his poems. 'Tree Once Again' is basically an English translation of a Gujarati poem 'ફરી પાછું વૃક્ષ'. The poem is a part of a collection of poems Odysseus nu Halesu published in 1974. The poem is translated into English by Devang Nanavati, the speaker himself. A blog link was shared earlier by Dr. Dilip Brarad sir for references about this talk. Click here to visit.

The poem 'Tree Once Again' gives much of the material to think about ecocriticism. The way literature has given space to nature in works has much to do with the binaries such as nature/culture, man/nature. 

In this blog, postcolonial reading of ecology is mentioned.

* The Reference of postcolonialism.

Postcolonial studies also opens many strands of thoughts to read the ecocriticism in depth. If one looks at nature with the lens of postcolonialism, one gets a question in mind that can nature be seen as a colonized subject ? If it is so, then how humans have taken the control over nature is worth to think about. Though, the human agency has imaginarily taken the thought of control over nature as granted. The process of colonizing the land requires human power, efforts and most importantly one needs to know the language of the the colonized subject, here, people.

Why nature is seen as the subjugated entity ? Perhaps our reading of nature is being mistaken. We have several example to look into it. Some of them, are cited here.

[Chipko Movement] is one of the evident example. Power dynamics works as the undercurrent of colonizing the land and other bodies of ecology. The word, legitimization is interesting to read. Bureaucrats and officials legitimize their policies through advertisements, and highlighting the numbers of beneficiaries from various schemes.

The Chipko movement in India, for example, which is largely organized by women, has been traced back directly by Vandana Siva to beginnings initiated by Mira Behn, one of the closest to Gandhi. Shiva has argued that national colonization brought with it a colonization of living natural resources such as the forests, and then a mental colonization in its prescription of technological and market oriented responses to farming and environmental issues. (Young, 100)

Vandana Shiva strikes on the governments schemes as follows:

As usual, in every scheme that worsens the position of the poor, it is the poor who are invoked as beneficiaries. - Vandana Shiva

[...] individuals such as Hima Devi and Sunderlal Bahuguna moved from village to village, spreading the word and advising on methods. Although some people moved into leadership roles, as in most grassroots movements that did not achieve a public prominence comparable to the party leaders of conventional political organizations. The Chipko movement was the product of collectives of activities. together they achieved widespread and remarkable success in preventing deforestation in their own areas throughout the Garhwal Himalayas. From then on, the Chipko movement moved deliberately towards the conservation of the forest as an ecosystem as well as a social system. (Young, 104)

Colonization of common land through privatization, and colonization through the introduction of exotic tree species, work in the same direction against the interests of local people, making their lives literally on sustainable by taking away their means of livelihood. Finally, such schemes are usually administered through local bureaucratic organizations, which profile the local pageantry into the clutches of corrupt alliance of the forces of power, privilege, and property. (Young, 105)

One more example of NBA - Narmada Bachao Andolan can be read in this way.

Thanks.

Works Cited:

Young, Robert J. Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction. OUP Oxford, 2003.

References:

Loomba, Ania. Colonialism-postcolonialism. 2nd ed., PDF, Routledge, 2005.

Shiva, Vandana. Ecology and the Politics of Survival: Conflicts Over Natural Resources in India. SAGE Publications Pvt., 1991.

Weber, Thomas. Hugging the Trees: The Story of the Chipko Movement. Viking, 1988.