Ecocentric Vision: A Study Of Amitav Ghosh’s Novel The Glass Palace

Abstract

Environmental destruction has been a burning issue from the last few decades. The ego-centric attitude and rational thinking of man has led to the imbalance of the entire environment and its surroundings. The Glass Palace, a novel by Amitav Ghosh selected for the study, explores environmental concerns, expose human actions, technological advancement, and industrial development responsible for the degradation of environment. Besides environmental degradation, the novel deals with its’ inclined themes like war; migration; exile; history; and colonial exploitation. Focusing on British invasion in Burma, the present research work raises question about nature’s exploitation by colonisers and the local people in the form of teak, rubber trade and depicts the conflict between humans and the environment leading to its tragic end during the occupied Burma. The research work delineates the oppression of man by man, environment by man, and reject the cruelty of man over animals for their personal motives. It tries to develop a counter-discourse to give voice to non-human “other”, and studies the mutual-dependence of man and nature on each other, unbalancing of nature, and loss of bio-diversity.