An Eco-critical Study of The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh

Abstract

Nature has been centrally featured in many literary and other artistic works. In literature, both man and the physical condition he is surrounded by have been described in great length since times immemorial. The fashion in which the surroundings have been represented has evolved along with the evolution of human behaviour. The relationship between man and nature has been mostly depicted in writing in a very pleasant and delightful way. It is only recently that the threat on nature and the stress it is under has managed to grab the attention of writers. The blatant misuse of nature and its bounty for man‟s selfish gains has finally been getting the attention it deserves in media. It also gave birth to the novel concept of eco-criticism – the study of the relationship between literature and nature.
Eco-criticism is a section of research which is booming. It studies, collects and preserves hypotheses and opinions presented by many writers which are specifically concerning man and environment he lives in. In the past, literature used nature for symbolism. It was usually in the background while the centre-stage was taken by the complexity of human relationships and culture. The issues of the degrading natural environment had more severe implications than how innocuously they were portrayed in the writings. Though there are some literary works which concentrate solely on environmental impact, they are few and far in between. More often than it is used only as a setting to create a particular ambience in the minds of the readers. “Just as feminist criticism examines language and literature from a gender-conscious perspective, and Marxist criticism brings an awareness of modes of production and economic class to its reading texts, ecocriticism takes an earth-centered approach to literary studies.” Cheryll Glotfelty (xviii) 

Expansion under the guise of „development‟ has been a major reason for the global degradation of the condition of the environment. It has also been an influencer on the society created by man and the way nature has been portrayed by the people who experienced this period of imperialism. Indian origin writers such as Kiran Desai, V. S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie and Vikram Seth have through their writings broached the subject of eco-criticism under the effect of expansionism. However, there is one author who has dived deep into eco-criticism in his writings. Amitav Ghosh has presented the relationship between man and nature in many of his works. He expertly crafts tales of diaspora, journeys to one‟s homeland, ambiguity in social identity while maintaining a strong outlook on nature. In his writings, nature is in the foreground as much as his characters.
This research paper is dedicated to studying the delicate dance between man and nature in Amitav Ghosh‟s novel  he Glass Palace (2000). In the book, Ghosh discusses the catastrophic ecocultural effects of the British invasion of South Asia. It is a classic example of eco-criticism in the way it investigates and unfurls the brutalization of the landscape of the Indian subcontinent and the ramifications on the people and their habitat which changed permanently.