Postcolonialism is a body of discourse that critiques the ‘Empire’. Its chief
concerns are the experiences of exclusion, ‘othering’ and resistance under
colonial power centers. It “addresses itself to the historical, political,
cultural, and textual ramifications of the colonial encounter between the west
and the non-West, dating from the sixteenth century to the present day.” (Waugh2006:
340).
Postcolonial
ecological writing is a resistance against the colonial gaze on nature and the
rampant destruction of the natural world. Under the mask of development and
progress, there was the terrible face of the colonial agenda of exploring and exploiting
nature and thereby degenerating it. All the colonies, including India, have a
long history of this experience.
Nature has a significant place in Indian traditional values.
It has been worshiped and revered since time immemorial. Basic Indian ethos
teaches to be compassionate to nature and to be in complete harmony with it. It
propagates the idea that human beings and nature share a bond of mutual
understanding, respect and inter-dependence. The Indian scriptures written
thousands of years ago speak of the preservation of nature, environment and the
entire ecosystem. The Upanishadas, which
are said to be the repositories of Indian philosophy, say:
Let there be peace in the world of vegetation,
Let
there be peace in the world of medicinal herbs,
Let there be
peace in the sky,
Let there be peace in the sea,
Let there be
peace in the space.
It is quite interesting to
note that an animal or a bird or any such object from the world of nature is
attached to almost all the Hindu deities: a bull and a snake with Lord Shiva, a
rat with Lord Ganesha, a peacock with Lord Kartika, a tiger with goddess Durga
and so on. This is very much significant of people’s traditional reverence for
the animistic world. This reverence for nature is also reflected in people’s
worship of the natural objects like the Sun, trees, rocks, rivers, fire and
many animals. People worshiped those forces and natural agencies from which
they were benefited by getting energy and life force. It was reciprocity, a way
of showing gratitude to the benevolent nature. This is the very concept of Deep
Ecology and this has been practiced with all sanctity and sincerity in Indian
society since time immemorial.
Then the British came and there started a new history in India.
the colonial gaze of profit and prosperity has started exploiting nature. In
the name of progress and development, nature was made to degenerate to the
deepest extent. The age-old values regarding nature and its sanctity were
shaken of which the colonized people had to be mute spectators. They were the
‘other’ compelled to live in the periphery and whose voice was obviously
unheard.
People
gradually started sensing the loss of nature as an aftermath of colonialism.
They began to suffer due to the ecological imbalance. Population growth,
environmental pollution and resource depletion have posed great threats to
human civilization. To cope with the changing scenario in the environment,
people started undertaking various projects like plantation, resource
management etc. This is what basically Shallow Ecology is all about. It is
predominantly a postcolonial concept.
Postcolonial
ecological writing in English from India’s Northeast constitute an important
discourse. Many of the writers deal with the issues how nature was destroyed,
how traditional values became dilapidated , how ecology of this pristine region
was degenerated during the colonial period. Mamang Dai’s The Legens of Pensam can be
said to be one of the representative
postcolonial ecological writings. Arunachal Pradesh is one of the
twenty-five biodiversity hotspots of the world where there are twenty-six
tribes with one hundred and ten sub-clans
with rich culture and tradition, various species of flora and fauna,
rivers, hills, forests and valleys. “Isolation has so far been the best
protection for the pristine ecology of Arunachal. But Mamang, through the
nineteen chapters of the book upholds how the myriad shapes of pristine ecology
and changes during the colonial period and the tribes life reflect both the
cosmic and toxic consciousness. The animistic faith of the people here and
their co-existence with the forest ecology and natural world depict the matrix
of many mysteries.” (Das 2011: 163). Dai’s novel is an account of the ‘virginity’
of the land in the pre-colonial era and also its erosion during the colonial
regime. There is a conscious exploration through the tribal myths and legends,
rites and rituals in order to restore the traditional values. The revival of
tradition only, as the novel consciously tries to project, can help in
retaining an identity. It may also help in developing an ethic that inspires
and teaches to live ecologically.
Desmond L
Kharmawphlang, the poet from Meghalaya echoes the sentiment of the colonizer in
one of his poems entitled “The Conquest”:
I never get
tired of talking about my
hometown.
in
summer the sky is pregnant,
swollen
with unborn rain.
later
came the British
with
gifts of bullets, blood-money
and
religion.
A
steady conquest to the sound of
guns
began.
Quite
suddenly, the British left.
There
was peace, the sweet
smell
of wet leaves again.
(Kharmawphlang 2003: 134).
Birendra
Kumar Bhattacharyya’s novel also portrays the doubts and conflicts of the local
people with regard to the colonial rule. In his novel Love in the Time of Insurgency, the conversation between two
characters has a hint on the Janus-faced
colonialism:
“But don’t
you see how Christianity and education have widened our outlook, released us
from the bondage of a superstitious and parochial existence?” Khating asked
impatiently. “ Thank god for Reverend
Pettigrew and Dr Brock. They opened schools and churches in the villages and
gave us new ideas, and the benefits of
modern medicines and machines. The government has set up a modern
administration, built roads, ended things like head-hunting. Are these not the
very things that we wanted? We want builders, not destroyers and cranks.”
“Pettigrew!”
Ngazek barked out. “He comes here and makes us all cowards. You call his work,
work? Because of your ideas people will no longer remain real Nagas. To be
modern means aping your masters. Puny white men. Puny black men. Mental slaves.
You see the sahibs laugh at you when you ape them. They don’t consider you
their equals. Are you not ashamed of it?”
(Bhattacharyya 2005: 36) .
Arup Kumar
Dutta’s seminal book on the ‘Brahmaputra Ecology’ can also be studied from a
postcolonial standpoint. There are many places in the book where postcolonial
ecological writing has strong presence. It is a historical as well an
anatomical study of the river Brahmaputra. It studies the politics, economics,
tradition and culture centering the river. The impact of colonialism on the
river and thus on the entire ecosystem centering it is observed:
The natural
vegetation of the basin is as diverse as the terrain, changing from alpine
meadows and steppes of the Tibetan ranges to the tropical evergreen, mixed
deciduous forests and tropical savanna of tall reeds and grasses of the plains.
Within the century, due to increased colonization and consequent
man-induced changes such as
deforestation as well as denudation of hillsides for shifting-cultivation, the
natural vegetation of the region has suffered a sea-change for the worse. Both
in Arunachal and assam the once dense tropical forests have been woefully
depleted due to wanton felling of trees. Though experts differ on the extent of
depredation caused by exploitation bu man, his contribution towards ecological
imbalances leading to climatic aberrations cannot be denied. (Dutta 2005: 82-83).
These writers
are writing with a consciousness. Their work present before us a myriad,
mesmerizing world of nature, and, at the same time, echo a conscious voice of
resistance and assertion. Contemporary writing in English from India’s
Northeast negotiates varied issues simultaneously. It has to fight against the
very notion of ‘Northeast’, a stereotypical construct, has to assert an
identity, has to create a ‘space’ and a ‘place’ for itself amidst political and
cultural hegemony. It is quite interesting to note that the ecology of the
region is one of their strongest weapons for all such negotiations. The
writings in English from this region, having serious ecological concerns, can
be seen as essentially a postcolonial discourse. It presents a critique of the
colonial perspective of, and the colonial attitude towards, the environment. It
is important to note that Sally Morgan says in My Place (1987), as referred to by Elleke Boehmer, “The trouble
is that colonialism isn’t over yet.” (Boehmer 2005:246). Contemporary writing in English from
India’s Northeast is a literature of resistance against this neo-colonialism.
Because of a consciousness, this body of ecological writing is canonical.
***********
Work Cited
Bhattacharyya, Birendra Kumar.
Love in the Time of Insurgency.
New Delhi: Katha,
2005.
Boehmer, Elleke. Colonial
& Postcolonial Literature. New York: OUP,
1995(2005).
Dai, Mamang. The
Legends of Pensam. New Delhi: Penguin, 2006.
Das,
Nigamananda. Matrix
of Redemption: Contemporary Multi-Ethnic
English Literature from North East India.New Delhi:
Adhyayan Publishers, 2011, pp. 162-175.
Dutta, Arup Kumar The Brahmaputra. New Delhi: National
Book
Trust, (2001 92005).
.
Kharmawphlang, Desmond L.
“The Conquest” : Anthology of
Contemporary Poetry from the Northeast. ed.
K. S. Nongkynrih & R. S. Ngangom. Shillong: NEHU,
2003, pp. 133-139.
Waugh, Patricia. Literary
Theory and Criticism. New Delhi: OUP, 2006.
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