Beyond Ecodisaster: Locating the Ethos of ‘Eco-Emancipation’ in Select Fiction of Ruskin Bond

Abstract

The biblical assertion regarding human credibility of “dominion over all the earth,” the Aristotelian idea regarding the existence of nature, plants and animals as “instruments” to be used for human purposes, Locke’s supposition that “the inferior ranks of creatures” are “made for human use,” and Marx’s depiction of nature as “man’s inorganic body” and “the instrument of his life-activity” have led the Western canon of thought and philosophy to justify the domination of humans over nature and the nonhuman others. Radically shifting from this line of thought, Sharon R. Krause and Romand Coles hold this biased attitude responsible for ecodisaster that, in a persuasive turn, opens towards the ‘manifold’ of ‘eco-emancipation’ that vindicates ‘human and more-than- human assemblages’. As theorised by Krause, the ‘polyface ethos’ of ‘eco-emancipation’ and ‘assemblage’ finds its representations in Ruskin Bond’s short stories. Included in Treasury of Stories for Children, Bond’s texts like “Tiger Tiger Burning Bright” and “Panther’s Moon” critique the ruthless killing of non-human animals and unyielding destruction of forests as signifiers of greater upcoming ecocatastrophe and endorse emancipatory “practices of worldmaking in tandem with…Earth others”. Bond’s novella, Angry River delineates the rage of nature and denotes ecodisaster as an agent of ‘eco-emancipation’ that looks forward to releasing the ecosystem from the speciesist and humanist “entrapment and exploitation that constitute environmental domination” and preventing humans both from exercising domination on nature and from suffering it. My paper seeks to explore how select short stories of Ruskin Bond posit ecodisaster (and even the understanding of upcoming ecocatastrophe) to play a catalytic role in driving home the idea of ‘eco-emancipation’ that champions human attunement and engagement with nonhuman nature and envisions a dynamic world order.