Overview

This volume analyses Bangladesh’s human-nature/environment relationships in terms of development victimhood, environmental injustices, and resistance of the marginalized. It demonstrates how the popular GDP-based economic growth model helps governments undertake “development” projects, threatening the environment and livelihood of the poor while benefiting the affluent. It represents the extant environmentalism in the literary works in Bangla, and tales of pollution, depletion; and human-nature/environment symbiosis that shows ways to resist victimhood. Against current environmental challenges and other environmental issues, this volume presents the epitome of how politics, biodiversity, and technology meet in many cross-cutting pathways.

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9781498599139

Table of Contents

Reviews

Drawing together the work of contemporary Bangladeshi scholar-activists and ecocritical readings of classic works of Bengali literature, this unique collection brings a rich vein of work in political ecology and environmental humanities to a wider audience. Baul lyrics responding to the British colonial 'poisoning' of fertile lands are subjected to ecocritical readings alongside contemporary documentaries concerned with the toxic shipbreaking industry. The protagonists in classic Bengali novels who become implicated in destructive forest clearances can be read alongside scrutiny of contemporary 'conservation' alliances between donor agencies, oil multinationals, and international NGOs. The historical breadth and disciplinary span of this work will be welcomed by many political ecologists and scholars of the environmental humanities. --Paul Gilbert, University of Sussex Bangladesh is at the confluence of the most critical challenges of our time: climate change, environmental and biodiversity degradation, population growth, forced migration, and the imperatives of economic development. This volume assembles a score of chapters by Bangladeshi scholars who employ a broad range of perspectives and cases to develop a compelling account of the environmental predicament of Bangladesh and the efforts of its citizens to survive, resist and overcome. These inspiring insights into the struggle to realize environmental justice in Bangladesh deserve to be widely read.--Christopher Rootes, University of Kent

Bangladesh is at the confluence of the most critical challenges of our time: climate change, environmental and biodiversity degradation, population growth, forced migration, energy poverty and the imperatives of economic development. This volume assembles a score of chapters by Bangladeshi scholars who employ a broad range of perspectives and cases to develop a compelling account of the environmental predicament of Bangladesh and the efforts of its citizens to survive, resist and overcome. These inspiring insights into the struggle to realize environmental justice in Bangladesh deserve to be widely read.--Christopher Rootes, University of Kent

Author Information

Samina Luthfa is associate professor in the Department of Sociology, University of Dhaka. Mohammad Tanzimuddin Khan is professor in the Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka. Munasir Kamal is assistant professor in the Department of English, University of Dhaka.

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