Debasis Samaddar
Assistant
Teacher of English
Chowhatta High
School
Birbhum, West
Bengal, India
Abstract:
Although the term “eco-consciousness” is a 20th
century phenomenon, it has long been rooted in Indian literature and
particularly in the literature of the Northeast. While special feelings for
nature is evident in Indian classical literature, Northeast literature has
developed in the lap of nature. Temsula Ao is an important part of this
literature and at the same time she is one of the major eco-conscious voices
from this region. This article intends to trace out the presence of
eco-consciousness in some selected poems of Temsula Ao. In these poems Ao not
only highlights ecological richness of their region, but also reveals ugliness
of modernization that is increasingly destroying human-nature harmonious
inter-relation and at the same time she tries to generate eco-consciousness and
eco-sensibility among her readers.
Keywords: Eco-consciousness, Ecocriticism, Northeast literature,
Temsula Ao
Introduction:
Literature gets proper nourishment in the lap of nature.
Often Literature deals with the power and beauty of nature. However, several
ecological factors and the natural hazards in our environment that are imposed
on humanity has been the centre of attraction of many writers. These ecological
factors are responsible for the emergence of the new branch of literary theory,
called Ecocriticism. Ecocriticism is the branch of study of nature in literary
works that deals with the relation between literature and environment. So,
obviously there is a close relationship between Ecocriticism and literature.
Though Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring”, published in 1962, signposted
the arrival of modern environmental writing, in 1978 the word ‘Ecocriticism’
first appeared in William Rueckert’s essay “Literature and Ecology: An
Experiment in Eco-criticism”. Here he says that Ecocriticism is the “...application of ecology and ecological concepts to
the Study of literature,”( Rueckert, 107). In 1990
Ecocriticism created its separate existence by specifying the relationship
between man and nature.
According to Lawrence Buell “Ecocriticism implies more ecological literacy
than it advocates reformation of literary studies via rapprochement” (Buell,
8). Ecocriticism deals not only with literature
but also with science, sociology, anthropology, psychology, etc. It studies the
attitude of mankind towards nature. Now Ecocriticism has acquired few modern
names like Ecopoetics, Green Cultural
Studies, and Environmental Literary Criticism.
But with the advancement of civilization, irresponsible
human activities are constantly harming nature by ravaging its biodiversity and
ecosystem all over the world. Naturally, Northeast region is not out of this
impact. Here nature’s resources rivers,
forests, mountains, wildlife etc. are severely affected now due to
urbanization, industrialization and modernization. In the present scenario
literature has a major role to play in spreading eco-consciousness and
eco-sensibility among the people.
The literature of the Northeast belongs in the genre of
indigenous literature on the one hand, and in the broader ecocriticism genre,
on the other. Although the term “eco-consciousness” is a 20th
century phenomenon, it has long been rooted in Indian literature and
particularly in the literature of the Northeast. While special feelings for
nature is evident in Indian classical literature, Northeast literature has
developed in the lap of nature. The influence of nature on the Northeast poets can easily
be traced through the opinion of N. Chandra and Nigamananda Das as expressed in
“ Myth and Mystery: Contemporary Poetry in English from Northeast India”
:
Indian English poetry from
North-eastern part of India is rich in enshrining various aspects of the
ecology, of the region. It has been a fashion with the poets of the region to
celebrate the ecological glory of the region and their ecological awareness.
The ruthless act of deforestation and oppression upon the Mother Nature in various
ways by destroying the serenity of the nature, obliterating the natural
environment, killing rare birds and animals and distorting the landscape and
biodiversity, have been sharply reacted upon by these poets. (Chandra and Das,
35)
Temsula Ao is an important part of this literature and at
the same time she is one of the major eco-conscious voices from this region.
This article intends to trace out the presence of eco-consciousness in some
selected poems of Temsula Ao. In these poems Ao not only highlights ecological
richness of their region, but also reveals ugliness of modernization that is
increasingly destroying human-nature harmonious inter-relation and at the same
time she tries to generate eco-consciousness and eco-sensibility among her
readers.
Temsula Ao is one of the important literary voices from
the Northeast in general and from Nagaland in particular. This retired English
professor from Northeast Hill University is a poet, short story writer and an
ethnographer. As the former Director of North East Zone Cultural Centre, she
tried to provide the cultural richness of this region a national level
recognition. As an ethnographer she worked on the oral tradition of her own Ao
Naga community. Her contribution is no less than of an environmentalist as she
voices not only for the cultural transformation but also for the environmental
degeneration in the Northeast. According to GJV Prasad, “Temsula Ao sings of
her landscape, one that is often an objective correlative for her mindscape and
even more for the community’s ecology – the changes in the land reflect the
damage done to her people, their rootlessness (a sense of uprootedness), their
wounds and pains” (Prasad, xvii). Ao’s poetry is marked by a deep understanding
of eco-consciousness and therefore they can be analysed from the eco-sensitive
point-of-view. In this paper the following poems of Temsula Ao are taken to
discuss: “Lament for an Earth”, “Blessings”,
“Earthquake”, “The Garden”, “Bonsai” “The Bald Giant”,
“My Hills”, “A Strange Place” and “Prayer of a Monolith”.
Temsula Ao’s poem “Lament for an Earth” (Songs that Tell,
45-47) reveals her lamentation over the miserable condition of our planet as a
result of urbanization, modernization
and industrialization. Ao here represents nature as a living organism by using
personification and feminine terms. She laments for the earth where once upon a
time there was a “verdant”, “virgin” and “vibrant” forest which was full of
tall trees that provided cool shades to the birds and animals:
Once upon an earth
There was a forest,
Verdant, virgin, vibrant
With tall trees
In majestic splendour
Their canopy
Unpenetrated
Even by the mighty sun,
The stillness humming
With birds’ cries. (Lines, 1-10)
While on the one hand by using the phrase “once upon an
earth” (Line, 1) Ao creates a fairy tale like effect to portray a picture
of the primitive earth in the reader’s
mind, on the other hand by using the word “virgin” she makes a clear comparison
between the forest and a woman. In the next stanza Ao depicts the present
condition of the forest which was once rich and full of luxury. Losing
“splendour” it has become infertile now. Ao presents the devastation of the
forest by comparing it to a helpless molested girl:
Alas for the forest
Which now lies silent
Stunned and stumped
With the evidence
Of her rape. (Lines, 21-25)
Here Ao also highlights how irresponsible human
activities are encouraging deforestation. Men are constantly destroying forests
for their own material benefits and the tree trunks are taken with the help of
the elephants to the mills which is also a symbol of industrialization:
As on her breasts
The elephants trample
The lorries rumble
Loaded with her treasures
Bound for the mills
At the foothills. (Lines, 26-31)
In this
poem Ao also represents the devastating condition of the rivers. In her
imagination the forest and the river are
as if bound in the bond of sisterhood. Like the elder sister, forest, the
younger sister, river, also becomes the victim of human molestation. Ao
reminisces how once upon a time there was a river whose crystal-clear water was
the shelter of many species of small and big fishes. Its honey like water used
to quench many tired and thirsty deer:
Once upon an earth
There was a river
Gurgling along
With gay abandon
Clear and content
Resplendent
With little fishes
Growing big
With the seasons
The deer at her bank
Timid, tired and thirsty
Lapping each crystal mouthful
As though it was honey. (Lines, 32-44)
But today the crystal-clear water of the river becomes
“muddy”. Its natural flow is chocked, and it becomes infertile. Nothing is left
for tomorrow:
Cry for the river
Muddy, mis-shapen
Grotesque
Chocking with the remains
Of her sister
The forest.
No life stirs in her belly now.
The womb
And the bleaching powder
Have left her with no tomorrow (Lines,53-62)
All of these because of the irresponsible human
activities and of their lack of eco-consciousness.
In “Blessings” (Songs
That Tell, 20-21) Ao criticizes the apparent advancement and development of
human civilization misusing the blessings of nature and the natural resources.
She also criticizes the inequal distribution of natural wealth that arises
class struggle. Proper utilization and equal distribution of natural resources
have also close relation with eco-consciousness. According to Ao the poor
people are blessed :
For they shall inherit
The crumbs
From the rich
Who knowing no hunger
Cannot savour
Of their plenty
Though they possess
The granaries of the earth. (Lines,
3-10)
The phrase, “The granaries of the earth”(Line, 10)
signifies that natural resources are mainly utilized by the richer section of
the society. Ao also considers the blind to be blessed because at least they
are not seeing what the people with eyesight are doing to nature:
Blessed
are the blind
For
they see not
What
they with sight
Have
done to the light. (Lines 11-14)
Temsula Ao in her nature poems not always deals with the
theme of violations done to nature but she occasionally shows the devastating
face of nature also. Urbanization, modernization and industrialization in the
hill areas create ecological imbalance that directly or indirectly acts as a
catalyst for natural calamities like soil-erosion, flood, drought and obviously
earthquake. In the poem “Earthquake”(Songs That Try to Say, 14-15) Ao
warns the society about the rage of nature by using the image of a pregnant
woman who conceives not to bring new life but rather to destroy by bringing out
lava from her womb:
When the earth rumbles
And contorts
To throw up her secret
Like a pregnant woman
After conception,
It is no portent
Of new life.
But of death and disaster
For those who dwell
Upon her swell.
She gapes open
To devour
Toppled towers
And torn limbs,
And incites
Mountains to slide,
Rivers to rise
And volcanoes
To vomit
Lava and deadly ash.
She heaves and hurtles
As if to uproot
The very moorings
Of life. (Lines, 1-20)
Eco-consciousness
not only protests the destruction of nature, but also emphasizes on its
preservation with care. Ao expresses this view in her poem “The Garden”
(Songs that Try to Say, 16):
A slice of the earth
On the ground,
Or firmed in pots
Of any imaginable
Size, shape and colour
Becomes the respectable
For new life. (Lines, 1-7)
[…]
They grow
Goaded by hormone,
Aided by fertilizer
And tended by your loving care. (Lines,
14-17)
When
greenery is gradually devastating by the human activities, Ao argues in support
of the garden. Taking cue from the Naga culture Ao suggests that taking care
of garden is actually serving the God :
The slice of earth
Thus nurtured
Brings forth
Beauties
In praise
Of the GARDENER
Of all gardens. (Lines, 18-24)
Ao’s similar attitude is also reflected in the poem
entitled “Bonsai” (Songs
that Try to Say, 17). Here she criticizes human beings’ inhuman attempt
to control the natural growth of a plant for the sake of their optic pleasure:
Giant trees
Stunted by man’s ingenuity
In search of a new beauty. (Lines, 1-3)
With the advancement of civilization man’s concept of
beauty has also changed. His insatiable hunger for new pleasure and beauty
leads him to interfere in the rules of nature. His dominating quality is
revealed through his futile effort of minimizing the vastness of nature:
Earth’s vastness
Diminished and displayed
In tiny potted space. (Lines, 7-9)
But “bonsai” also symbolizes the imprisonment of modern
civilization. It symbolizes human beings’ increasing detachment with nature,
their hollowness and their lack of eco-consciousness and eco-sensibility.
In “My Hills” (Book of Songs, 157-158) Ao laments
at the loss of peace in the North-East region and presents her longing for the
past. She draws the picture of once paradise like state of the hills:
Once they hummed
With bird-song
And happy gurgling brooks
Like running silver
With shoals of many fish. (Lines, 4-8)
But simultaneously Ao also presents the ugly face of her
region that losing beauty of the yesteryear has become a place of social unrest
and even has become unknown to the poet:
But to-day
I no longer know my hills,
The birdsong is gone,
Replaced by the staccato
Of sophisticated weaponry. (Lines,
19-23)
The sky is no longer for the birds now. Instead of
birdsong, the sky is now filled with the heavy sounds of weaponry. The similar
attitude is also expressed by Ao in her poem, “A Strange Place” (Songs
that Tell, 18-19). Here Ao considers the world as a strange place where
nations are fighting for the right of the skies. They hardly care for the birds
and rather they are only concentrating on supersonic jets:
This is a place where
Nations vie
For mastery of the skies
Of birds
Drowned
In the whirr of jets
Travelling
Faster than sound. (Lines, 5-13)
In “The Bald Giant” (Book of Songs,
175-176) the metaphor of a bald giant is used to signify hills and Ao tries to
show the bad effects of deforestation that makes the hills withered. Like the
metaphoric giant who became bald losing his “green cloak”, the hills also
losing their past greenery become bald:
All that is now gone
All of him is brown
From base to crown
And his sides are furrowed
Where the logs had rolled
Once I thought him friendly
But now he looks menacing (Lines, 19-25)
In “Prayer of a Monolith” (Book of Songs,
293-295) the speaker is a monolith, an inanimate object. Using her poetic
imagination Ao expresses the dejection of a monolith, a large single upright
block of rock. She imposes personal entity on it. Separating from its beloved
the rock is uprooted from a deep forest and is placed at the village gate by
some strangers for the beautification of the entrance:
I stand at the village gate
In mockery of my former state.
Once I stood in a deep forest
Proud and content
My beloved of the laughing dimple
Standing by my side. (Lines, 1-6)
The poem ends with the lamentation of the monolith
requesting to the “elements” of nature not to tell its beloved the story of its
disgrace:
O you elements,
When you pass by the forest
And my beloved queries,
Just tell her
I have gone to my glory
But please, please, never
Tell her the story
Of my ignominy. (Lines, 49-56)
By giving life to an inanimate object and telling its
miserable story Ao tries to criticize the exploitative tendencies of human beings
towards nature and their lack of eco-consciousness and eco-sensitivity. The
monolith of this poem which can easily be related to the garden of Vera
Alexander’s essay entitled “Environmental Otherness: Nature on Human Terms
in the Garden”. Vera says, “While decorative and recreational, even
paradisal, the image of the garden also encompasses histories of displacement
and violence: unwanted plants and animals are exterminated for the sake of
aesthetic ideas, and many of the plants assembled in any garden have been
manipulated and uprooted from their natural habitants” (Alexander, 2).
Conclusion:
Therefore, to conclude it can be
said that in the present scenario Temsula Ao, the eco-conscious voice from the
Northeast, is very relevant and she is truly the ray of hope for the
eco-sensitive community. Through her poetry Ao expresses her deep love for
nature and culture and at same time tries to generate eco-consciousness among
her readers. She not only raises her voice against the obliteration of nature
but also emphasizes on its preservation with care.
Works Cited
Alexander, Vera. “Environmental
Otherness: Nature on Human Terms in the Garden.” Otherness: Essays and Studies
4.1, September 2013, Accessed 18 September 2020.
Ao, Temsula. Book of Songs:
Collected Poems 1988-2007, Heritage Publishing House, Nagaland, 2013.
Ao, Temsula. Songs That Tell,
Writers Workshop, Kolkata, 1988.
Ao, Temsula. Songs That Try to Say,
Writers Workshop, Kolkata, 1992.
Buell, Lawrence. “The Environmental
Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing, and the Formation of American Culture”.
London, Massachusets, Cambridge, USA: Belknap Press of Harvard University
Press, 1995.
Chandra N. D., and Nigamananda Das.
Ecology, Myth and Mystery: Contemporary Poetry in English from Northeast India.
Sarup & Sons, New Delhi, 2007.
Prasad, GJV. Introduction. Book of
Songs: Collected Poems 1988-2007. By Temsula Ao, Heritage Publishing House,
Nagaland, 2013
Rueckert, William. “Literature and
Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism.” In The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks
in Literary Ecology, edited by Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm, The
University of Georgia Press, Athens, Georgia, 1996.