Bioregional Integration in Select Novels of Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay

Abstract

A report published by World Meteorological Organization on the eighth of August, 2023 declared July 2023 the hottest month ever recorded. The month is estimated to have been around 1.5 degree centigrade warmer than the average for 1850-1900. Global warming is now a harsh reality. Since, at least, the beginning of the 1970s environmentalists have been blowing the whistle to stop destroying the rivers, water bodies, forests, habitats and the ecosystems. One such group of environmental thinkers and practitioners, the bioregionalists, focused on mitigating these environmental issues at the local scale called bioregions. A bioregion is a geographically demarcated notional area that shares common physical features, climate, flora and fauna, and place-oriented culture. Bioregional thinkers believe that ecological issues can be sustainably managed within the periphery of a bioregion. To live a sustainable bioregional life one must be aware of the characteristics of the place. The lifestyle and livelihood should be tailored according to the environmental specifics of a bioregion. Among the inhabitants of a place where the dwellers are strongly connected with the natural world around them bioregional awareness may naturally grow; but it must be spread among the inhabitants where the citizens are aloof from the bioregional features of the places they are living in. Literature with bioregional intent possesses the potentials to spread bioregional consciousness among the readers. Some of Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay s works have been found to display inherent bioregional consciousness. In this thesis, titled Bioregional Integration in Select Novels of Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay , three novels by Bibhutibhushan namely Pather Panchali (1929), Aranyak (1938) and Ichamati (1950) have been explored from bioregional perspectives to understand the specifics of bioregional living in the locales of these novels. newline