This book is the first to provide an in-depth examination of Indian writer-activist Mahasweta Devi’s environmental vision as seen in her literary and critical writings. The book offers a detailed reading of nineteen of Mahasweta’s literary texts, along with many of her critical works, all of which were originally written in Bengali, and most of which have been translated into English. Ali approaches these works from the perspective of the Environmentalism of the Poor to foreground how marginalized people understand the environment through their immediate lived experiences of it, and how, for these communities, environmentalism is an everyday survival imperative. The study situates Mahasweta’s select novels, novellas, short stories, critical essays, opinion articles, and a play in their particular historical, socio-political, and economic context to explore how intersecting markers of identity, such as ethnicity, caste, class, and gender, shape the environmental experiences of marginalized communities. It positions Mahasweta’s literary works as vital to understanding the complex interplay of power, capital and environment in the postcolonial context.

Sk Tarik Ali is Assistant Professor in the PG Department of English at Hooghly Mohsin College, India.