Ecocentrism in Translated Odia Fiction: A Critical Study of Gopinath Mohanty’s The Ancestor Pratibha Ray’s After the Deluge and Akhila Naik’s Bheda

Abstract

Ecocentrism is a term used by environmentalists and ecologists to refer to a nature-centric outlook as opposed to human-centric that upholds all life forms through interrelationships between natural features and biological organisms. Many writers have effortlessly tried to show this relationship in their text thus giving it a nature-centric perspective which combines all life forms together under one roof. Gopinath Mohanty is a versatile Odia writer, who has contributed to great masterpieces like Dadibudha 1944 (The Ancestor), Paraja 1946 (Common People). This tribal series not only accentuates the culture of various tribes residing in Odisha but also throw light on their inseparable bond with nature. Pratibha Ray is a prolific Odia writer whose classics include Punyotoya (The Hallowed River 1978), Sila Padma 1983 (The Stone Lotus), Aadibhoomi 1993 (The Primal Land). Her masterpiece Magnamati (After The Deluge) paints a life-threatening picture of Odisha’s super cyclone 1999. Akhila Naik is another literary figure from Kalahandi district of Odisha. He has done post-graduation in Odia and has excellence in writing poetry, short stories and novels. Bheda is his first novel. Gopinath Mohanty’s The Ancestor is a date palm tree that is given the stature of God and worshipped. Ray’s After the Deluge, delineates the relationship of human beings with mother earth. In Naik’s Bheda, we come across ecocriticism and a nature-oriented approach though it targets on the plight of poor Dalits. All the three novels shed light on the significance of nature to human beings as it touches upon eco-ethics and deals with the aftermath of ignoring it. My paper makes an attempt to analyze the three texts in the context of eco-centrism which centralises nature by bringing all the life forms together under one eternal roof called earth.