Social and Cultural Perception of Ecocriticism in Contemporary India

Abstract

Ecocriticism is defined as the study of literature in terms of physical environment. Here, the idea of ‘physical environment’ includes the cultural, geographical, psychological and the ecological elements presented or described, in a major or minor form, in a literary work. By means of the philosophy of deep ecology, ecocriticism makes the readers ecologically conscious; this is that consciousness which is no more found in the conscious mind of the most of the people living in this industrialised world where anthropocentricism has dominated every other philosophy. Today, the world is standing on the brink of the worst ever environmental crisis. In such a situation ecocriticism is gaining attention, and unlike other critical theories, ecocriticism is not limited to only the literary world, but when a layman interacts with this subject, even he understands and appreciates its constructive purpose. However, the future of a practice relies on how a society and the prevailing culture perceive that practice; hence, to understand the future and the scope of ecocriticism in India, finding out the social and the cultural perception of ecocriticism in contemporary India will be a task of great importance.