The Marginalized Vs. The Civilized: An Ecocritical Approach to Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s Aranyak

Abstract

Ecocriticism is a worldwide emergent movement which pleads for a sustainable development of all organisms. This revisionist movement criticizes the anthropocentric attitude of the humans which is a hindrance to a sustainable future. Today even in the twenty-first century when we witness a rapid growth of science and technology, the marginalized people are still being deprived of their equal rights to survive. They are yet to have a taste of true development even in the developed or developing countries. They are more ecological when the so called civilized people have put our ecology at stake. They are dedicated to their roots, yet they are being exploited by the capitalistic society. They even fall an easy prey to the state sponsored terrorism. Ecocriticism advocates development of every individual in close proximity with nature. The present paper seeks to explore the cultural clash between the civilized and the disadvantaged regarding their attitude to nature as evidenced in Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s Aranyak-Of the Forest. Care for nature which is the basic approach to Green Studies is the focus of this study. In view of the global environmental crisis, the article seeks to care the wounds of the dispossessed for a sustainable future of human as well as the non-human.