Toxic Grounds, Stolen Lands: The Anthropocene, Industrial Dispossession, and Adivasi Resistance in Indra Sinha's Animal's People and Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar's The Adivasi Wil Not Dance

Abstract

The extractive logic of modernity has always rendered the landscapes and communities as sites of exploitation and destruction. Anthropocene, industrial capitalism and environmental destruction converge most smoothly at the margins, subjecting both the landscapes and the communities to the worst possible effects of this inextricable trio. This paper examines the convergence of anthropocene, industrial capitalism and environmental destruction in Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People and Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar’s The Adivasi will not Dance, arguing that the Anthropocene as a category of planetary crisis can be best understood in the post-colonial context where industrial extraction for human advancement takes the space of prime importance. Reading these two texts through the frameworks of Anthropocene theory and post-colonial ecocriticism, particularly Rob Nixon’s concept of ‘slow violence’ and subaltern studies forwarded by Gayatri Spivak and others, this paper argues that both these narratives cannot be exclusively defined by anthropocentricism; rather can be best understood by the concept of ‘stratified anthropocentricism’ where the ecological catastrophes are borne by the marginalized castes and communities of the society. Both these texts stage the Adivasi and subaltern bodies as the site where the violence of industrial capitalism become visceral. Based on these frameworks, this paper contends that the ‘toxic grounds’ and ‘stolen lands’ are not incidental settings but active protagonists featuring the sad story of dispossession spearheaded by corporate and state powers. The paper also intends to explore how the texts resist reducing the communities to ecological ruins. Drawing on the theories of Anthropocene, environmental justice and Adivasi studies, this paper argues that these texts reframe the epoch not as a story of undifferentiated human agency but one of industrial dispossession, where resistance becomes a means of reclaiming land, story and selfhood.