Postcolonial Ecospheres: Environmental Principles, Policies, and Politics in South Asia

Edited by

John C. Ryan, Subhadeep Paul & Goutam Majhi

To understand the current terrestrial, aquatic, atmospheric, and socio-cultural crises of the Anthropocene, it is crucial to consider the histories of globalization and imperialism. A Western ‘development paradigm’ often propounds ideas of climate denialism. As a result, many nation-states and geospatial regions within the Global South are impacted by environmental devastation, resulting in ecological racism and related victimizations. To establish a more symbiotic alliance with the more-than-human, the practice of deep ecology is imperative but theories such as ‘environmentalism of the poor,’ postulated by Ramchandra Guha and Joan Martinez Alier, (1997; Guha, 2000; Martínez-Alier, 2002) and ‘liberation ecology’ (Peet and Watts, 2004) advocate the proportionate dispersal of environmental benefits. In fact, Guha observes that, “The destruction of the environment clearly poses the biggest threat to marginal cultures and occupations like that of tribals, nomads, fisherfolks and artisans, which have always been heavily dependent on their immediate environment for their survival.” Guha further argues that gender issues are crucial to consider, adding that “the maximum impact of the destruction of biomass is on women. Women in all rural cultures are affected, especially women from poor landless, marginal and small farming families.”

The concept of Anthropocene crystallizes the planetary crisis caused by “human action” (Chakraborty 2009). This idea entangles human and natural histories. The emergence of modern capitalism, as a relatively new socio-economic paradigm characterized by a reliance on market dynamics, took place in the nineteenth century. The development paradigm expedites ecological degradation since it essentially requires an anthropocentric focus on capitalism. Nature becomes commodified, leading to forms of violence inflicted on humans and more-than-human beings. This epoch has alternatively been termed the ‘Capitalocene’ by Jason W. Moore and  Donna J. Haraway. As per Moore, the “Capitalocene signifies capitalism as way of organizing nature – as a multispecies, situated, capitalist world-ecology.” Yet capitalism under the garb of green capitalism tends to perpetuate ecological destruction. Biocolonization is an emerging trend through which the Global North strives to advance capitalistic aims at the expense of environmental integrity. 

The aim of the proposed book is to explore how postcolonial factors underlie climate refugeeism, environmental racism, severe deforestation, wildlife endangerment, and the extinction of species with a special emphasis on South Asia. In Staying with the Trouble (2016), Donna J. Haraway postulates the ‘Chthulucene’ as a new epoch in which humankind will make kinship ties with more-than-humans, relinquishing the status of ‘superiority.’ The proposed book will examine postcolonial factors underlying ecological catastrophes as well as solutions and responses to resistance to the Anthropocene and Capitalocene. Contributions will analyze a range of cultural materials – fiction, poetry, film, media, communications, and heritage objects – with a geo-political focus on South Asia. Potential contributors should aim to address the interconnections between postcolonialism and environmentalism in South Asian texts of diverse kinds.  

This proposed edited book Postcolonial Ecospheres: Environmental Principles, Policies and Politics in South Asia seeks to critique a range of cultural materials with a focus on South Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) including, but not limited to, the following thematic emphases:   

1. Environmentalism and postcolonial studies in South Asia
2. Representations of climate change in South Asian texts
3. Environmentalism and children’s literature in South Asia
4. Environmentalism and transhumanist/posthumanist concerns
5. Graphic novels and ecological issues
6. Films and environmental concerns
7. Environmental issues in teaching-learning processes
8. Environmentalism and video games
9. Environmentalism and queer studies
10. Environmentalism and the digital world
11. Environmental issues in advertising and marketing
12. Environmental justice and race
13. Environmental justice and language
14. Environmental aesthetics and phenomenology
15. Ecotourism and postcolonialism in South Asia
16. Animal and plant studies in South Asia

We solicit original abstracts of 500 words and bio-notes of contributors of 100 words each, sketching the proposed chapter and how it would fit into the volume, both thematically and structurally. We welcome abstract submissions from contributors who have undertaken critical research in South Asian ecocritical discourse and allied fields. The editors of the Brill series ‘African and Asian Anthropocene: Studies in the Environmental Humanities’ have expressed interest in the edited collection. The selection of abstracts will follow a review process. Complete chapter drafts will then be subjected to review prior to official acceptance by the book’s editors.

Key Details:

1.         Last date of submission of abstracts: March 1, 2023

2.         Confirmation of abstracts acceptance: March 10, 2023

3.         Chapter draft submission: July 1, 2023

Please direct abstracts and queries to John Ryan john.c.ryan@scu.edu.au, Subhadeep Paul                              subhadeeppaul@bankurauniv.ac.in and Goutam Majhi goutammajhi78@gmail.com

Editors’ Bios

John Charles Ryan, PhD, is adjunct associate professor at Southern Cross University, Australia, adjunct senior research fellow at the Nulungu Institute, Notre Dame University, Australia, and adjunct faculty member in Environmental Studies at Susquehanna University in the US. His research focuses on Aboriginal Australian literature, Southeast Asian ecocriticism, the environmental humanities, ecopoetics, and critical plant studies. His recent publications include Global Perspectives on Nationalism (2022, Routledge, co-edited), Postcolonial Literature of Climate Change (2022, Brill, co-edited), Environment, Media and Popular Culture in Southeast Asia (2022, Springer, co-edited), Introduction to the Environmental Humanities (2021, Routledge, coauthored), and The Mind of Plants: Narratives of Vegetal Intelligence (2021, Synergetic, co-edited). His poetry collection, Seeing Trees: A Poetic Arboretum (2020, Pinyon, with G. Phillips), explores the idea of consciousness in plants. In May–June 2022, he was an interdisciplinary writer in residence at Oak Spring Garden Foundation in Virginia, United States.

Subhadeep Paul is presently Assistant Professor, Department of English, School of Literature, Language and Cultural Studies, Bankura University, West Bengal. He has previously taught at the P.G. Department of English, Maulana Azad (Govt.) College, Kolkata. He was a co-director of a Two-Year Major Research Project (2016-18) entitled “Discoursing the Homeless Elderly: Tropes, Desires, Containment” (funded by the I.C.S.S.R., in collaboration with The University of Swansea, U.K.). He co-edited Anxieties, Influences & After: Critical Responses to Postcolonialism & Neocolonialism (Worldview Publishers, in association with Wimbledon Press, UK, 2009) and authored Finite Sketches, Infinite Reaches (Writers Workshop, Kolkata, 2009). His forthcoming co-edited volume Beyond the Hetreonorm: Interrogating Critical Alterities has been endorsed by Lexington Books (Rowman & Littlefield).   

Goutam Majhi is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of English, Sadhan Chandra Mahavidyalaya (affiliated to Calcutta University), West Bengal, India and a Doctoral Scholar at the Department of English, Bankura University, West Bengal, India. He has translated a Bangla novel Manthra by Abhijit Choudhury into English. He is the recipient of the National Teaching Excellence Award conferred by International Benevolent Research Foundation in 2017. His forthcoming co-edited volume entitled Beyond the Heteronorm: Interrogating Critical Alterities is endorsed by Lexington Books (Rowman & Littlefield). His forthcoming translation compendium entitled 200 Years of Bengali Children’s Literature: A Journey (1800-2020) is endorsed by Anthem Press.