Tribes as the Defenders of Nature in Hansda Sowvendra Shekhars The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey

Name of Author : Raam Kumar. T & Dr. B.Padmanabhan

Abstract: The centrality of Nature and the issues pertaining to it occupy a significant place in the literary discourses of the contemporary period and the writers prefer to highlight the significance of nature and its kinship with human society. This article attempts to analyse the association of tribal people with Mother Nature and their peaceful coexistence with animals and plants in the jungles of India. Their lives are very much entwined with the Mother Nature as they worship nature as God and never attempt to disrupt the designs of nature. In India, few emerging English Tribal writers bring to light the sufferings of their community and emphasise the necessity of human life in the hills, mountains and forests through their writings. They project that the hills and mountains are very closely associated with their daily lives and believe that they give them their identity and traditional culture. One among those writers is Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar from Jharkhand who belongs to the Santhal community, one of the prominent tribal groups in Eastern India. He is a strong advocate for the preservation of tribal culture and ecological conservation. He vehemently opposes the disturbance caused to the lives of the tribal people because of the unbridled economic activity unleashed in the jungles of India. This paper attempts to analyse how literature, ethnicity, customs and myths of the Santhal tribes have contributed to the betterment of the environment from the view point of the

Keywords : Ecological Consciousness, Nature, Tribal Writer, Santhal Tribes

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