Environmental injustice or Environmental discrimination or
Environmental inequality occurs when a certain powerful and dominant
group of people has a hold of environmental resources and the
marginalized community is deliberately left to live on the leftovers or
scarcity. This scarcity is a marker of the status of the marginalized
groups/communities in the world. Nature never discriminates among its
individuals because of race, caste, creed, class, gender, skin color,
etc. However, power politics in the ‘world-society’ set-up leads to
injustice and inequality of resources. The articulation of environmental
injustice finds its articulation in literary spaces which forms an
imperative focus of the various organizations and institutions and thus
cannot be ignored. The present work explores and investigates the
expression and articulation of environmental inequality in literature in
the context of environmental racism and environmental casteism.
Environmental racism and environmental casteism is a form of
‘institutional discrimination’ which leads to the domination of
white/upper castes on the environmental resources and disposal of
harmful waste in communities of colour and low castes.
Everyone has the right to enjoy the bounties of nature. One should
not be distanced from fresh water and air because of skin colour, race,
caste, class, gender or creed. Every government must take care of the
basic needs of the citizens without being biased. Unfortunately, since
they arrived in the New World, blacks have not only been exposed to
political and social exclusion but also to environmental threats. Racist
policies of the dominant white society ensured that blacks stayed in
vulnerable neighbourhoods and localities from slavery till the present.
On the other hand, whites have been enjoying more healthy and clean
surroundings thereby giving birth to the idea of white being clean and
black being dirty, as Carl Zimring puts it. Subsequently, blacks succumb
to diseases, death, and disintegration, both physically and
psychologically. After the enactment of civil rights, one comes across a
new agitation rampant in American streets. This movement was largely
organized by blacks along with other marginalized groups such as native
Indians, Hispanics, and Asian Americans. These groups were demanding
Environmental Justice. They argued that white America had not treated
them well. Their neighbourhoods were converted into junkyards of
industrial waste; consequently, their existence was at stake. They were
fighting for political representation so that they could decide their
fate. The protest aimed to stop the dumping of industrial waste due to
which they and their children had become vulnerable to diseases and
death.
African American writers demonstrate through their writings blacks
struggle for the basic amenities of life which were not possible because
of dirty and unhygienic environment. They, at times covertly and at
other times overtly, demand and plead for Environmental Justice for
their characters, thereby for the entire black community. They highlight
how blacks thrive physically, materially, and spiritually once their
vicinity is changed to a neat and clean surrounding.
The environmental movements that are popular at present are mostly
Eurocentric and/or dominated by the concerns of whites. All the major
environmental movements have somewhat marginalized the communities and
people on the fringes of society, like blacks, Hispanics, and other
ethnic groups, by focusing only on the mainstream Western culture. In
recent times, there has been an attempt to provide a counter-narrative
to Eurocentric environmental movements by writers and researchers like
Carl Zimring, Robert Bullard, Luke Cole and Sheila Foster, Carolyn
Finney, Dorceta Taylor, Harriet Washington, etc. Similarly, African
American writers like Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Richard Wright, Zora
Neale Hurston, James Baldwin, Ishmael Reed, Fredric Doughlas, Alex
Haley, etc., have also challenged the mainstream environmental movements
through their writing—by unveiling the acts of environmental racism
perpetrated against black communities.
Dalits in India form the most neglected and marginalized section in
India because of ‘casteism’ and ‘caste system’. ‘Dalit’ is a Sanskrit
word which means crushed, broken, oppressed, etc. It is a self-adopted
term by the scheduled castes of India as this marginalized section of
Indian society feels that terms like ‘Ati[1]Shudra’, ‘Scheduled Castes’
or ‘depressed classes,’ etc., connote ‘derogation’. According to
Sukhadeo Thorat, the problem of Dalits is socio-cultural-political as:
“they occupy a low position in the Hindu social structure; their
representation in government services is inadequate; they are
inadequately represented in the fields of trade, commerce and industry;
they suffer from social and physical isolation from the rest of the
community, and there is general lack of education development amongst
the major section of this community” (Dalits in India 2).
However, this social, cultural, and political marginalization forms an
undeniable link with environmental casteism. Manual scavenging, cleaning
the dirt and menial jobs are forced on Dalits due to caste divisions.
Access to natural resources such as clean air, clean water, healthy
living, etc., is denied to them which results in environmental casteism.
Hence, the issue of Dalits is socio-cultural-political-ecological in
nature. Many Dalits writers like Baby Kamble, Urmila Pawar, Bama,
Viramma, Om Prakash Valmiki, Balbir Madhopuri, Sharankumar Limbale,
Kancha Illaiah, Daya Pawar, Jyoti Lanjewar, Hira Bansode, etc., in their
writings, have represented the Dalits’ socio-ecological derogation and
lived experiences of discrimination because of environmental casteism.
Many prominent Dalit leaders and reformers like Jyotirao Phule, Dr. B.R.
Ambedkar, Periyar, etc., have found that caste ideology and caste
structures give rise to environmental casteism and domination by the
few. They worked towards better living conditions for Dalits
persistently and relentlessly. Many critics like Joel Lee, Mukul Sharma,
etc., have affirmed that Indian environmental movements and academic
environmental histories are dominated by mainstream and are fixed in
casteism which has overlooked the unfair distribution of natural
resources. This results in environmental casteism faced by Dalits
unaddressed both in literary as well as public discourse.
The edited book will be divided into two parts:
Part one will have the following sub-categories (The possible topics might include but are not limited to):
- African American environmentalism
- African American aesthetics and the environment
- Environment as African American solace
- African Americans and environmental injustice
- African Americans and the environmental crisis
- African American identity and the environment
- African Americans and eco-racism
- African American poverty and the environment
- African Americans, religion, and the environment
- African Americans, culture, and the environment
- African Americans and democratization of environmental resources
- African American leaders’ legacy and the environment
- African American women and the environment
Part two will have the following sub-categories (The possible topics might include but are not limited to):
- Dalit environmentalism
- Dalit aesthetics and the environment
- Environment as Dalit solace
- Dalits and environmental injustice
- Dalits and the environmental crisis
- Dalit identity and the environment
- Dalits and eco-casteism
- Dalit poverty and the environment
- Dalits, religion, and the environment
- Dalits, culture, and the environment
- Dalits and democratization of environmental resources
- Dalits leaders’ legacy and the environment
- Dalit women and the environment
The book aims to chart out the literary
discourse around the sub-themes. Therefore, all these sub-themes are to
be addressed through literature.
The work will be an edited book. Writers and activists, scholars, and
academicians are invited to contribute their papers/articles for the
project.
Abstracts (250-300 words) in English with a short bio note (50 words) as a Word document or pdf must be emailed to: shubhankukochar@outlook.com, by January 05, 2024.
The date has been extended to January 05, 2023
-Note: Springer has shown interest in publishing this book
Editors:
- 1. Name : Shubhanku Kochar (Ph. D)
Affiliation: Department of English, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Dwarka, India.
2. Name : Parveen Kumari (Ph.D)
Affiliation: Department of English, Central University of Jammu, Jammu, India.
