DECOLONIZING NATURE: AN INDIGENOUS ECOFEMINIST APPROACH TO AMITAV GHOSH’S SELECTED FICTION

Embrose Singh; Monika Jaiswal

doi:10.29121/shodhkosh.v7.i10s.2026.8085

Authors

Embrose Singh Research Scholar, Department of English, School of Education and Humanities, IFTM University, Moradabad, India
Dr. Monika Jaiswal Assistant Professor, Department of English, School of Education & Humanities, IFTM University, Moradabad, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29121/shodhkosh.v7.i10s.2026.8085

Keywords:

Indigenous Ecofeminism, Ecocriticism, Colonialism, Patriarchy, Anthropocene, Ecological, Justice, Indigenous Epistemologies, Marginalised Women, Decolonization, Environmental Humanities, Capitalist Expansion, Human-Nature Relationship

Abstract [English]

This paper examines the intersections between marginalised women and colonised landscapes in the selected fiction of Amitav Ghosh. Avoiding the traditional paradigms of ecocriticism, the study uses an indigenous ecofeminist approach to decipher the way in which western imperialistic modes of operation and capitalist expansion repress, in a systematic way, the natural environment but also native women. This paper uses case studies from The Hungry Tide, the Ibis Trilogy and The Glass Palace to discuss the deep-rooted ecological sensibility of all the indigenous female characters residing on the margins of people of power, including patriarchy and colonialism. Such characters not only passively represent ecological decay, but also resilient carriers of indigenous ecological knowledge. This study contends that Ghosh's fiction is decolonizing the traditional notion of 'wilderness' by calling into reverse attention to the act of violence forced by consumption of nature and the consumption of women. In the end, the paper shows that achieving ecological justice in the Anthropocene is impossible without going against those colonial and patriarchal forces which at the same time exploit natural ecosystems and indigenous female bodies, thus setting Ghosh's work as an important contribution to the current discussion on the environment around the globe.

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