Ecocritical Reading in Select Works of Rabindranath Tagore

Abstract

Ecocriticism, as an interdisciplinary field of study, has added significant facets to literary criticism. We notice that the recent ecocritical philosophies have been reflected with gravity in Rabindranath Tagore’s works before it was recognised as a discourse. The eco-consciousness that he carefully cultivated in his life was portrayed with great emphasis in his literary and artistic creations. Tagore believed that literature could be a useful tool to reduce environmental disasters and promote the ecosystem by developing consciousness through it. Tagore deemed that the rocky and cruel earth was made habitable only by growing trees. Tree to him was the life founder. So he always sought the development of a close bond between men and trees. With his mystic and spiritual perception of nature, he tried to relocate man’s position in nature. His plays like ‘Raktakarabi’, ‘Muktodhara’, ‘Srabangatha’, a good number of poems, and his paintings show his ideas about deep ecology, shallow ecology, ecofeminism, social ecology, ecophobia, and the other aspects of ecocriticism. Segregation of humans from nature is declined in the concept of deep ecology. In some of his writings and lectures, Tagore defended the notion of kinship between man and nature. The idea, that human beings, should take care of nature for their own sake, is related to shallow ecology, and Tagore as the defender of nature worshipped it as a source of regeneration.