abstract

The kinship between nature and literature is age-old. Almost every literary genre such as poetry, drama, fiction and non-fiction has been dealing with themes about nature or environment. However, the twentieth century has witnessed a great number of incidents of degradation of natural environment in the wake of industrial and technological development all around the world. Literature has constantly been recording the ecological disasters caused by human beings. Various fictional and nonfictional writings have criticized human activities responsible for the destruction of nature and supporting ecosystems. Many contemporary writers have written dedicatedly about emerging ecological concerns in their works. Among them, Arundhati Roy is completely devoted to throw light on various ecological issues through her essays. In the history of Indian English Prose tradition, she has achieved an enviable position as an essayist with her political and environment works. In view of this, the present research paper aims to trace the ecological imperialism in Arundhati Roy’s works. This research paper mainly focuses on the destructive aftermaths of numerous development projects on environment as well as on those who live in close association with the environment such as tribal communities. It offers a trenchant critique of imperial forces of neocolonialism which subjugate country’s natural resources; depletion of environment caused by various dam and mining and ostracism of a large number of indigenous people from the places of their natural habitat.