Abstract
In this thesis, I examine a selection of twenty-first-century South Asian novels in English to argue that these works bring forth the idea of a new form of multispecies collectivism, which I term “eco-collectivism,” as a basis for hope in the Anthropocene. I define eco-collectivism as the way humans attempt to survive collectively with nonhumans in the face of the climate crisis, adopting an alternative mode of existence. I develop this concept through my study of the selected novels which highlight the need for multispecies collective ways of surviving the climate crisis, underlining the importance of multispecies environmental justice. The five novels I study are (i) Animal’s People (2007) by Indra Sinha (India), (ii) The White Tiger (2008) by Aravind Adiga (India), (iii) The Bones of Grace (2016) by Tahmima Anam (Bangladesh), (iv) The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (2017) by Arundhati Roy (India), and (v) Gun Island (2019) by Amitav Ghosh (India). I do not claim that each novel offers hope or yields the idea of eco-collectivism, but each of them, in their unique ways, contributes to my formulation of the concept. While The White Tiger and The Bones of Grace show the need for eco-collectivism, Animal’s People, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, and Gun Island demonstrate its characteristics. I postulate that eco-collectivism combines the ethos of ecological and social justice and calls for a collective effort and mutually caring co-existence of humans and nonhumans to survive the climate crisis and to create a better future together. Drawing on theories of postcolonial ecocriticism, emotions (particularly hope), and multispecies connectivity, my study evinces how the novels, written against the backdrop of societies ruptured by environmental violence, interrogate neoliberal ideologies of individualism, consumerism, and anti-environmental development, foregrounding the struggles of those at the margins victimized by environmental injustice. I maintain that the local environmental damage that the novels foreground is inseparable from the global climate crisis, shedding light on how historical and ongoing exploitation and injustice, caused by both colonialism and neoliberalism, increase the climatic vulnerabilities of the postcolonial countries represented by my selected texts. In this study, therefore, I identify and explore the novels’ insights into the complex connection between the history of colonization, neoliberal globalization, and the Anthropocene. In the process, I examine environmentally-inspired emotions like despair, grief, sadness, anxiety, anger, and solastalgia, while arguing for the possibility of hope through eco-collectivism. The study underlines how the works envisage an alternative mode of existence, reformulating the “human” (Anthropos) of the Anthropocene as custodians rather than masters of the nonhuman world, at the same time recentring nonhumans in our ecological thinking.