Authors : Dilip M. Bawane and Shriram G. Gahane
Page Nos : 14-17
Description :
The field of subaltern studies is interested in looking into environmental problems. As an additional thought, it considers the environment to be a marginalized problem. When used to the political objectives of post-colonial neoliberal nationalism, the term "subaltern" refers to the interconnected hegemony and exploitation of subalterns and the natural world. Many authors and activists have worked to raise public consciousness about environmental issues through their writing and activity. Women in India have a long history of leading environmental initiatives, and their efforts predate ecocriticism's establishment as a Western academic discipline. Indian English writer Arundhati Roy, an outspoken ecofeminist and advocate for the rights of marginalized people, has grown increasingly concerned about environmental degradation and the oppression of subalterns. This paper uses Arundhati Roy's most recent novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, as a case study to illustrate the non-anthropocentric perspective on nature as shown in the novel. It highlights the struggles of transgender, other women on the margins, and revolutionary women in order to expose the exploitative tendencies of an elite-dominated society. Old birds and animals are dying off because of immoral modernization, rehabilitation, and scientific technology, as the author reveals. This paper seeks to examine, from a subaltern perspective, how embracing nature might alter the gendered problems that have been institutionalized in relation to the silence of the subaltern, and other forms of non-human life.
