Colonialism and Environment: A Postcolonial Eco-critical Approach towards Dhruv Bhatt’s Oceanside Blues

Abstract

Purpose: The present paper analyses the role of nature in the lives of the tribals while exploring their indigenous eco-customs and traditions that have helped in sustaining their eco-centric approach to life. It also explores the culture-nature dialectic that surfaces the long-lasting conflict between tradition and modernity through a distinctive tribal perspective. Methodology/ Approach: Postcolonial ecocritical approach. Findings: The paper analyzes Oceanside Blues (2001) by Dhruv Bhatt, a Gujarati writer, from an eco-critical perspective while exploring the representation of tribal eco sensibilities and analyzing their eco-ethical imports. The narratives along with sending a lucid message for the survival of ecology, urge the human race to rekindle its communion with nature. Conclusion: The novel in itself is a piece of resistance against the colonial activities that harm the environment as well as the tribal people by seizing their land on their preconceived notion of growth and development that contradicts their cultural values. Nature protests in its own ways like the sea protesting against environmental destruction in the form of a tornado in the region.