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AGRA AHMEDABAD BENGALURU COIMBATORE DEHRADUN GUWAHATI HYDERABAD
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RANCHI VARANASI
Debashree Dattaray and Sarita Sharma for the Introduction and
Editorial selection 2018
Individual contributors for their respective essays 2018
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First published 2018
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Contents
ROBERT P. GOLDMAN
DEBASHREE DATTARAY and SARITA SHARMA
ANAVISHA BANERJEE
ANWAY MUKHOPADHYAY
DEBASREE BASU
DEBASHREE DATTARAY
DHARAMSING TERON
DHEEMAN BHATTACHARYYA
KUNAL CHATTOPADHYAY
MEENAKSHI MALHOTRA
SARITA SHARMA
SILVIA GRANATA
STEFANO BEGGIORA
SUHASINI VINCENT
SUTANUKA GHOSH ROY
URMI SENGUPTA
Foreword
I was delighted to have been asked by Drs Debashree Dattaray and Sarita Sharma to contribute a few words to preface their wide-ranging and timely collection of essays on Ecocriticism or the study of literature and cultural performance with an eye towards examining environmental issues, conservation of natural resources and the ways in which human, social and political structures impact a variety of environments and the peopleindigenous or otherwisewho interact with and are affected by them.
My pleasure in working through this thought-provoking volume is heightened by my having some very small claim to have been in at the creation as it were as the two young scholars who have put this work together both as editors and authors, actually met in my advanced Sanskrit seminar at the University of California at Berkeley in the Fall of 2013 when Dr Sharma was a Postdoctoral Fellow under my supervision and the sponsorship of the UGCs C.V. Raman Post Doctoral Fellowship and Dr Dattaray was a Fulbright-Nehru Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Ethnic Studies.
Our seminar that fall focused on reading a variety of Sanskrit stric and literary texts that shed light on the universal phenomenon of social hierarchy and, given Dr Sharmas interest in the role of the environment in Sanskrit literature and Dr Dattarays concern with the culture and marginalization of indigenous people in India and worldwide, our group was engagedboth in and after classin a variety of lively conversations during which the two scholars conceived the idea of putting together an edited volume covering a broad range of social and ecological issues suggested by literary, environmental and ethnological studies focusing on both South Asian and world scholarships.
The present volume is the fruit of these earlier conversations and later communication with students of Ecocriticism around India and beyond. It is noteworthy for the diversity of issues and concerns it brings to the study of society and environment. On the literary side, it ranges broadly from Dr Sharmas original analysis of the Mahbhratas Kh avadahana episode to Debasree Basus fascinating examination of the noir ecoscape of Philip Marlowes Los Angeles with Silvia Granatas wonderful exploration of the literature and sociology of tiger hunting in colonial India, Sutanuka Ghosh Roys ecofeminist reading of a story by Mahasweta Devi and Suhasini Vincents analysis of Amitav Ghoshs representation of the environment in his novel The Hungry Tide . From the perspective of ethnography and social activism, we have Dr Dattarays enlightening study of the environmental role of women among the Okanagan First Nations community of Canadas British Columbia, Stefano Beggioras work on the divss of Odisha and Dharamsing Terons study of the environment and the representation of ancestral spirits among the Karbi.
All things considered, this volume presents an embarras de richesses to those interested in and concerned with the pressing issues of the day around environmental degradation, social inequality, discrimination against women and the marginalization of indigenous people. Drs Sharma and Dattaray are to be congratulated on their labour in bringing it to fruition.
Berkeley, California
R OBERT P. G OLDMAN
Acknowledgements
A joint venture always has a dauntingly long list of institutions and people to thankand this volume is no exception, especially given the interdisciplinary and inter-institutional background of the editors.
We would both like to acknowledge the role of the Fulbright-Nehru Visiting Scholar Fellowship and the C.V. Raman Post Doctoral Fellowship, University Grants Commission under Indo-US 21st Century Knowledge Initiative, which provided the much needed funding to make the academic visit at University of California, Berkeley in the Fall of 2013 possible for both editors, respectively and thereby initiate the conversation around Ecocriticism. The Doe Library at Berkeley has been a phenomenal source of primary and secondary material for the project, as have the libraries at the Jadavpur University and University of Delhi.
This project would not have been possible had it not been for the relentless encouragement, scholarly guidance and absolute generosity of spirit bestowed upon the editors by Professor Robert P. Goldman (Catherine and William L. Magistretti Distinguished Professor, Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley) and Dr Sally J. Sutherland Goldman (Senior Lecturer in Sanskrit, Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley) during the time spent in Berkeley in the Fall of 2013 and beyond. We shall always cherish their support and friendship. We are also very grateful to Professor Goldman for the Foreword to this volume, which in many ways foregrounds the key issues that the volume focuses upon.
Colleagues and friends at the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies and at the Department of Ethnic Studiesboth at University of California, Berkeleywho provided inspiration for a vibrant academic exchange and made us feel at home, far away from home deserve our special thanks.
We gratefully thank our contributors for providing their insights into critical debates around Ecocriticismacross diverse spatial and temporal dimensions. We are indebted to Manjusree Nandy and Ms Nomami Nandy for meticulously formatting and proofreading the manuscript in its initial stages.