In India, the displacement of Adivasis, tribals, poor, farmers, forest-dwelling and land-based people, and other marginalized communities for development and infrastructure projects like dams, railways, power projects, and bridge construction, or for capitalist accumulation like mining, resource extraction, tourism, and industry, is a common occurrence. The trajectory of such displacement has a long history, starting in the colonial period and being aggravated in the postcolonial period under the Nehruvian model of development. Although such projects are implemented for the sake of the ‘greater common good’ for all, only a few elites enjoy the benefit of these projects, depriving millions of displaced, marginalized people (Roy 1999). Such practices resemble ‘new colonialism’ which drains resources away from those who need them most (Shiva 1988). Besides Adivasis, the forest-dwelling people in India have also been facing a similar fate, as they are displaced from their native areas due to the implementation of conservation projects, and their movements within the forest are often restricted by the Forest Rights Act (Guha 2016). Displacement and imposition of restrictions upon these marginalized communities put their life in jeopardy and put them in a precarious and vulnerable state, implying their lives depend on the hands of others (Butler 2009). This is because these people are ecosystem people, as their survival depends on their surrounding lands and resources (Gadgil and Guha 1995). So, displacing them not only deprives them of their daily sustenance but also strips them of their socio-cultural identity. Additionally, in India, the rehabilitation policy for these displaced people is also questionable, as thousands of them throughout the country have been waiting for an adequate rehabilitation center (Roy 2014). Even when these people receive proper rehabilitation, they face challenges in adapting to the new environment, and many forest-dwelling communities are forced to adopt agriculture, about which they have no experience. Further, such development projects as well as mining often result in the ecological degradation of surrounding areas, and it is the marginalized people who often become victims of such ecological degradation and environmental injustice. In a way, these projects treat the victims and their native lands as ‘discarded’ (Maity and Nayak 2026), forcing them to live with environmental toxicity (Karmakar 2023).

            Notably, these people often express their grievances against such projects mainly through non-violent resistance movements, such as the ‘environmentalism of the poor.’ Even such non-violent movements are often brutally and violently suppressed by the corporate forces, police, and state-sponsored military through brutal torture, rape, and killing, often leading to the creation of a death-world (Dungdung et al. 2022). The lives of these people are not only treated as wasted and disposable but also turned into ‘bare lives’ (Agamben 1998), suggesting they lack any legal protection. Consequently, these lives become ‘ungrievable lives’, and their deaths are not worthy of mourning (Butler 2009).     

            Displacement and the associated vulnerability of marginalized communities are significant themes in regional literary texts written in vernacular languages and in Anglophone literary narratives. However, these texts remained unacknowledged in academic discourse, and it is only in recent years, with the emergence of translations, that they have received scholarly attention (Bhattacharya 2021). This proposed edited volume invites submissions that focus on the vulnerable and precarious lives of marginalized communities in India as a result of development projects, and on their representation in regional literary texts written in vernacular languages (later translated into English), as well as in Anglophone narratives, including graphic narratives. Possible themes or areas include, but are not limited to:

• Regional literature and vulnerable lives
• Development, displacement, and vulnerable lives
• Capitalism, mining, resource extraction, and vulnerable lives
• Forest-dwelling people, conservation projects, and vulnerable lives
• Ecological degradation and environmental injustice
• Resistance, resilience, and environmentalism of the poor
• Vernacular literature, translated version, and marginalized lives
• Anglophone literary narratives and graphic narratives
• Displacement and the issue of rehabilitation policy
• Necrocapitalism, discarded bodies, and vulnerable lives
• Wasted and disposable lives

Submission Instructions

Please submit an extended abstract of no more than 500 words (excluding bibliography) along with a short bio (100 words) as a MS-Word file, Times New Roman 12, spacing 1.5 to: regionalliterature96@gmail.com   

Submission deadline: October 31, 2026.

Intimation of acceptance or rejection: by November 30, 2026

Note: It will be highly appreciated if the potential contributors discuss the aims and scope of their abstracts to avoid repetitive and extensively discussed issues, given that unnoticed and overlooked areas/text(s) should be considered. Thus, if you have any notes of interest, please contact the volume editor via email before the submission of your abstract.

Publisher: The proposal will be submitted to Routledge’s book series South Asian Literature in Focus. The series editors have expressed genuine interest in the idea.

Book Series editors: Goutam Karmakar, Puspa Damai, Payel Pal, and Deimantas Valančiūnas

Book Editor’s bio: Dr. Joydev Maity is a Faculty at the Department of English, Ravenshaw University, Cuttack, Odisha, India. His research articles have been published in many prestigious journals, including the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics (Taylor & Francis), Global South Literary Studies (Taylor & Francis), and South Asian Review (Taylor & Francis). He is also the co-editor of the forthcoming special issue on “Discarded Bodies and the Crisis in Indian Cinema” of the journal Film International (Intellect). His forthcoming edited books include Necrocapitalism and Neoliberal Politics: Contemporary Literary and Cultural Responses (Springer Nature) and Representation of Violence in South Asian Graphic Narratives and Comics (Routledge).

References

Agamben, Giorgio. 1998. Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Translated by Daniel Heller-Roazen. California: Stanford University Press.

Butler, Judith. 2004. Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence. London: Verso.

Butler, Judith. 2009. Frames of War: When is Life Grievable? London: Verso.

Dungdung, Gladson, et al. 2022. “And Red Flows the Koina River: Adivasi Resistance to the         ‘Loot Of Their Land and Resources in Eastern India, 1980–2020’.” Modern Asian    Studies 56: 1642–1671. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X22000099.

Gadgil, Madhav, and Ramachandra Guha. 1995. Ecology and Equity: The Use and Abuse of        Nature in Contemporary India. Delhi: Penguin Books India.

Guha, Ramachandra. 2016. Democrats and Dissenters. Gurugram: Penguin Random House.        India.

Karmakar, Goutam. 2023. “Living with extraction: Environmental Injustice, slow observation     and the decolonial turn in the Niger Delta, Nigeria.” International Social Science          Journal 74 (253): 787-808. https://doi.org/10.1111/issj.12480

Maity, Joydev, and Aryaprava Nayak. 2026. “Ncrocapitalism, Discarded Bodies and      Resistance: Reading Ranendra’s Lords of the Global Village.” South Asian Review: 1-       16. https://doi.org/10.1080/02759527.2026.2673759.   

Roy, Arundhati. 1999. The Greater Common Good. Mumbai: India Book Distributor      (Bombay) Ltd.

Shiva, Vandana. 1988. Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Survival in India. London: Zed     Books.