Dalit and Adivasi Ecologies:

Representations in Literature and Culture

Dalit ecologies, while recently articulated as a distinct academic framework, are deeply rooted in the lived realities and literary expressions of Dalit communities. The everyday life of Dalits is shaped by an intimate connection with their surroundings, grounded in practices of survival and regeneration rather than domination or exploitation. This relationship with the environment emerges through traditions of productive labour, fostering a sustainable interaction with local flora, fauna, and natural resources. However, these same landscapes that sustain Dalit life also serve as sites of systemic oppression—where exclusion from land ownership, access to water, and participation in environmental governance is justified through centuries-old caste-based hierarchies. Mainstream environmental movements, like the Vrindavan Conservation Project, often led by the upper castes or urban elites, have historically ignored or misrepresented Dalit environmental concerns, failing to engage with issues such as manual scavenging, access to clean water, and land rights (Mukul Sharma’s Dalit Ecologies, 2024). The dominant environmental discourses tend to either romanticize notions of ecological interconnectedness or homogenize environmental responsibility, thereby erasing the unique ecological knowledge and resistance practices embedded in Dalit histories. Dalit literature and oral traditions stand out as powerful narratives of protest and survival, testifying to their environmental subjectivity and underscoring the urgent need to recognize their perspectives within broader environmental debates.

Adivasi ecologies, on the other hand, are characterized by a profound, often spiritual, unity with biodiverse landscapes that form the basis of their traditional existence. These relationships, cultivated through centuries of indigenous stewardship, have faced immense disruption due to colonial incursions, postcolonial state interventions, and contemporary neoliberal policies favouring resource extraction and privatization of knowledge. Adivasis are often romanticized yet politically marginalized in mainstream narratives like those of Narmada Bachao Andolan (Indira Chowdhary in Nandini Oza’s The Struggle for Narmada, 2022); their movements against displacement and ecological destruction are routinely delegitimized or criminalized. State and corporate interests have led to forced migrations, loss of cultural and ecological heritage, and erosion of invaluable traditional knowledge systems. Despite a long history of anthropological interest, the heterogeneity and complexity of Adivasi ecological cultures continue to be underrepresented, frequently generalized under broader rubrics like “subaltern” or “the environmentalism of the poor.” This marginalization has left their eco-philosophies, ethical frameworks, and sustainable practices largely invisible in mainstream environmental imaginations. Widely transmitted through rich oral traditions, Adivasi ecological knowledge holds transformative possibilities for reconceptualizing environmental futures in India, yet remains overshadowed by narratives that obscure distinct caste and indigenous experiences in favour of apparently universal but exclusionary environmental paradigms.

Abstracts of on the following related (but not limited) themes are invited:

●      Impact of Colonial and Capitalist Encounters on Adivasi Ecologies

●      Counter-Cosmologies and Dalit Eco-spirituality

●      Caste of Ecological Commons

●      Caste, Ecologies, Cleanliness and Untouchability

●      Environmental Movements and Adivasi Representations and Resistance

●      Caste and Environmental Imaginations in India

●      Dalits as Minorities, their Migration and Ecoprecarity

●      Adivasi Ecological Knowledge Systems, Ethics and Environmental Justice

●      Dalit Anthropocene and Environmental Futures

●      Adivasi Eco-Aesthetics and Human-and-non-human Entanglements

●      Adivasis and Developmental/Post-developmental Ecologies

●      Adivasi Environmental Stewardship vs. Criminalization

●      Dalits, Adivasis, Land and State Interventions

●      Dalits, Adivasis and Plant and Food Cultures

●      Intersections of Class, Caste, Gender and Ecologies

●      Rural and/or Urban Dalit Ecologies

●      Beyond the Subaltern Ecologies: Adivasi Literary, Oral, Folk and Cultural Ecologies

●      Literary and Media Representations and Dalit Ecologies

●      Tribal Medicinal Ecologies and Medical Humanities

●      Film, Theatre, Music and Performance and Dalit and/or Adivasi Landscapes

●      Interdisciplinary and Comparative Approaches to Dalit and/or Adivasi Ecologies

●      Ethnographic and/or Anthropological Approaches to Dalit and/or Adivasi Ecologies

●      Dalit Cultural Memories of Agrarianism

●      Literary Histories and Ecological Wisdom of Adivasis

Note: Here “Dalit/Adivasi” does not reiterate any binary or hierarchy. Rather it has been used to avoid repetition of overlapping issues. “Dalit/Adivasi” should be read as “Dalit and Adivasi”, or “either Dalit or Adivasi”, or “Dalit or Adivasi. As the environmental experiences  and concerns of Dalits and Adivasis are quite different, it would be advised to avoid finding such similarities, until necessary, in submissions.

The leading international publishers Routledge has been approached. It has expressed a strong interest in publishing this anthology.

Important Dates:

Deadline for abstracts: 31 August 2025

Abstracts of around 300 words should be sent to the below mentioned email–

dalitandadivasiecologies@gmail.com

 Full paper is due by 15 February 2026.

Guidelines for Full paper submission:

• Word limit: Articles should be within 6000 –7000 words, including Notes and Works Cited.
• Title: 12-point Times New Roman
• Content: 12 Font Size (Times New Roman style)
• Spacing: 1.15 line spacing
• Document types allowed: Word Document only (.doc or .docx)
• References: 9th Edition MLA style
• Author(s)’s bio note of 100 words (submit as a separate Word Document file)
• All the full-paper submissions will undergo double blind reviews before they are finally accepted.

Editor

Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Vishwakarma is Assistant Professor in the Department of English, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. He earned his doctoral degree from the Department of English, University of Allahabad. His areas of academic interest include Partition Writings of India and Environmental Humanities. Currently, he teaches ‘Environmental Humanities’ in PhD Course Work Program, ‘Literature of Precarity and Marginality’ and ‘Cultural and Film Studies’ in postgraduate courses. He is also an active member of Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE).

References:

Sharma, Mukul. Dalit Ecologies. Cambridge University Press, 2024.

Oza, Nandini. The Struggle for Narmada. Orient BlackSwan, 2022.