I work at the intersection of postcolonial and environmental studies of literature. I have earned my PhD in English at the University of Otago, New Zealand. In my thesis, "Hope in the Anthropocene: Eco-Collectivism and Twenty-First-Century South Asian Novels in English," I examine a selection of twenty-first-century South Asian novels in English and argue that these works showcase a new form of community-driven activism, which I term “eco-collectivism.” Prior to the PhD, I completed an MPhil, an MA, and a BA (Honours) in English at the University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh in 2018, 2006, and 2005 respectively. I taught at two universities in Bangladesh for eleven years (from 2009 to 2020), of which the latest was at Daffodil International University, where I was the Head of the Department and an Associate Professor in English. Currently, I am working as a Tutor in English at the University of Otago. I have worked in diverse academic and administrative roles, published widely both in academic and non-academic journals, and presented papers at national and international conferences. Postcolonial and environmental studies of literature are my main areas of research interests. My works have appeared in leading academic journals in my field, including ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, and Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies. Address: Dunedin, New Zealand
In this essay I argue that Aravind Adiga’s novel The White Tiger, while demonstrating the effects... more In this essay I argue that Aravind Adiga’s novel The White Tiger, while demonstrating the effects of “climate coloniality,” suggests the interface between humans and nonhumans to be a crucial site for imagining alternatives to today’s environmentally harmful way of living. I examine how the novel reflects on the encounters between humans and nonhumans and evinces the connections between colonialism and the climate crisis. I consider environmental concerns in the novel, such as pollution, unregulated mining, and consumerism, emphasizing that The White Tiger gestures towards the need to imagine an alternative mode of existence to coexist with other species.
Amitav Ghosh's Gun Island (2019), in addressing the planetary scale of the climate crisis, gestur... more Amitav Ghosh's Gun Island (2019), in addressing the planetary scale of the climate crisis, gestures to the possibility of, and the imperative for, multispecies as well as multi-ethnic and cross-cultural cooperation as a way of facing climate change. The parallel that Ghosh draws between human and animal migrations, resulting from climate change, underlines the novel's emphasis on multispecies climate justice. By connecting the refugee influx into the Western world to the environmental crisis beyond the West, the novel also concerns itself with social, racial, and historical injustices, drawing attention to the role of European colonization and the present-day global capitalism in escalating the climate crisis. I discuss the characteristics of environmentalism that I identify within Gun Island using the term "planetary environmentalism." This kind of environmentalism extends beyond any geographical boundary created by humans, as borders lose their meaning when the future of the whole planet is at threat. I argue that the novel, through planetary environmentalism, raises a cry for multispecies justice as a question of multispecies survival to face the challenges of the planetary crisis caused by climate change.
Bangladesh emerged as an independent nation-state in 1971, but the origin of Bangla poetry of Ban... more Bangladesh emerged as an independent nation-state in 1971, but the origin of Bangla poetry of Bangladesh lies in the partition of India in 1947 when Bangla poetry diverged from its thousand-year-old history to form a separate poetic stream as the Bangla poetry of East Bengal. The creation of Pakistan by partitioning India resulted in the partition of Bengal, where Muslim-dominated East Bengal, today’s Bangladesh, became a part of the newly created state of Pakistan. Although the official march of Pakistan began in 1947, the signs of new Bangla poetry of an emerging nation became visible at the beginning of the 1940s, particularly by Bengali Muslim poets. I call these poets “the poets of transition”, as they not only experienced British colonial rule but also witnessed its end. These poets led Bangla poetry in a new direction in East Bengal in the post-partition period. They gave expression to the complex experience of transition from a colonial to a postcolonial existence. Their poetry bears the mark of colonization on the one hand, and, on the other, reflects the experience of postcolonial reality. In this essay, I argue that this poetry, written in Bangla vernacular, bears the essential characteristics of what is known as “postcolonial poetry”.
The initial title of Orwell's *Nineteen Eighty-Four* was *The Last Man in Europe* which was chang... more The initial title of Orwell's *Nineteen Eighty-Four* was *The Last Man in Europe* which was changed to its present one by chance and circumstances, especially on its publisher’s suggestion. That title indicates what the author wanted to warn the world againt. After its publication, both leftist and rightist opinion used this novel as a weapon to attack each other. This paper tries to examine the warning that Orwell presents in this novel by drawing a hellish world to show that any kind of totalitarian regime is inhuman in nature and forces its subjects to utter humiliation, defeat and total submission of self, and that if the world continues to run in its present way, such a world is very likely.
The Partition of India in 1947 brought about massive dispersion and migration of people across th... more The Partition of India in 1947 brought about massive dispersion and migration of people across the borders of today’s India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and led to the diasporic existence for the people of this region who lost their homelands. As the Partition took place on the basis of religion, people of both religious groups, Hindus and Muslims, had to leave their homelands in search of places determined for them according to their respective religious identities. A large number of Muslims of West Bengal, consequently, migrated to Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) leaving their homeland. Apart from the hurdles of the new economy and culture, they were tremendously affected by the questions of identity and belonging. They could neither take Bangladesh as their home nor could return to West Bengal that they left. They emerged as a diasporic community in post-Partition India. Hasan Azizul Huq, a prominent writer of Bangladesh, portrays the life of the migrated people of West Bengal in Bangladesh in their formative period as a diaspora. The characters of his works dealing with migration represent the unacknowledged diasporic community of post-Partition India who are kept invisible or ignored in diaspora studies mainly because of political reasons. This paper attempts to bring them to visibility as a diaspora through a close examination of their life, as portrayed by Huq in his stories, against the backdrop of the established diaspora theories in the historical context of the Partition.
After the Partition of India in 1947 when Pakistan was created as a homeland for the Muslims, the... more After the Partition of India in 1947 when Pakistan was created as a homeland for the Muslims, the Bangla poetry of Bangladesh emerged in the eastern part of Bengal, then East Pakistan, as a distinct line in the thousand-year old poetic tradition of Bangla language. On one hand, the poets of this period had colonial experience behind them, and, on the other hand, they faced a new situation of oppression by the West Pakistani rulers. For this reason, the postcolonial situation of the Bangla poetry of Bangladesh is marked by colonization, oppression and resistance. Moreover, the surge of Pakistanism that was behind the creation of Pakistan inspired the writing of Islamic poetry at the beginning of the emerging stage. This also gave a new dimension to the Bangla poetry of Bangladesh. This paper is an attempt to probe into the emergence of the Bangla poetry of Bangladesh and its postcolonial negotiations.
In this essay I argue that Aravind Adiga’s novel The White Tiger, while demonstrating the effects... more In this essay I argue that Aravind Adiga’s novel The White Tiger, while demonstrating the effects of “climate coloniality,” suggests the interface between humans and nonhumans to be a crucial site for imagining alternatives to today’s environmentally harmful way of living. I examine how the novel reflects on the encounters between humans and nonhumans and evinces the connections between colonialism and the climate crisis. I consider environmental concerns in the novel, such as pollution, unregulated mining, and consumerism, emphasizing that The White Tiger gestures towards the need to imagine an alternative mode of existence to coexist with other species.
Amitav Ghosh's Gun Island (2019), in addressing the planetary scale of the climate crisis, gestur... more Amitav Ghosh's Gun Island (2019), in addressing the planetary scale of the climate crisis, gestures to the possibility of, and the imperative for, multispecies as well as multi-ethnic and cross-cultural cooperation as a way of facing climate change. The parallel that Ghosh draws between human and animal migrations, resulting from climate change, underlines the novel's emphasis on multispecies climate justice. By connecting the refugee influx into the Western world to the environmental crisis beyond the West, the novel also concerns itself with social, racial, and historical injustices, drawing attention to the role of European colonization and the present-day global capitalism in escalating the climate crisis. I discuss the characteristics of environmentalism that I identify within Gun Island using the term "planetary environmentalism." This kind of environmentalism extends beyond any geographical boundary created by humans, as borders lose their meaning when the future of the whole planet is at threat. I argue that the novel, through planetary environmentalism, raises a cry for multispecies justice as a question of multispecies survival to face the challenges of the planetary crisis caused by climate change.
Bangladesh emerged as an independent nation-state in 1971, but the origin of Bangla poetry of Ban... more Bangladesh emerged as an independent nation-state in 1971, but the origin of Bangla poetry of Bangladesh lies in the partition of India in 1947 when Bangla poetry diverged from its thousand-year-old history to form a separate poetic stream as the Bangla poetry of East Bengal. The creation of Pakistan by partitioning India resulted in the partition of Bengal, where Muslim-dominated East Bengal, today’s Bangladesh, became a part of the newly created state of Pakistan. Although the official march of Pakistan began in 1947, the signs of new Bangla poetry of an emerging nation became visible at the beginning of the 1940s, particularly by Bengali Muslim poets. I call these poets “the poets of transition”, as they not only experienced British colonial rule but also witnessed its end. These poets led Bangla poetry in a new direction in East Bengal in the post-partition period. They gave expression to the complex experience of transition from a colonial to a postcolonial existence. Their poetry bears the mark of colonization on the one hand, and, on the other, reflects the experience of postcolonial reality. In this essay, I argue that this poetry, written in Bangla vernacular, bears the essential characteristics of what is known as “postcolonial poetry”.
The initial title of Orwell's *Nineteen Eighty-Four* was *The Last Man in Europe* which was chang... more The initial title of Orwell's *Nineteen Eighty-Four* was *The Last Man in Europe* which was changed to its present one by chance and circumstances, especially on its publisher’s suggestion. That title indicates what the author wanted to warn the world againt. After its publication, both leftist and rightist opinion used this novel as a weapon to attack each other. This paper tries to examine the warning that Orwell presents in this novel by drawing a hellish world to show that any kind of totalitarian regime is inhuman in nature and forces its subjects to utter humiliation, defeat and total submission of self, and that if the world continues to run in its present way, such a world is very likely.
The Partition of India in 1947 brought about massive dispersion and migration of people across th... more The Partition of India in 1947 brought about massive dispersion and migration of people across the borders of today’s India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and led to the diasporic existence for the people of this region who lost their homelands. As the Partition took place on the basis of religion, people of both religious groups, Hindus and Muslims, had to leave their homelands in search of places determined for them according to their respective religious identities. A large number of Muslims of West Bengal, consequently, migrated to Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) leaving their homeland. Apart from the hurdles of the new economy and culture, they were tremendously affected by the questions of identity and belonging. They could neither take Bangladesh as their home nor could return to West Bengal that they left. They emerged as a diasporic community in post-Partition India. Hasan Azizul Huq, a prominent writer of Bangladesh, portrays the life of the migrated people of West Bengal in Bangladesh in their formative period as a diaspora. The characters of his works dealing with migration represent the unacknowledged diasporic community of post-Partition India who are kept invisible or ignored in diaspora studies mainly because of political reasons. This paper attempts to bring them to visibility as a diaspora through a close examination of their life, as portrayed by Huq in his stories, against the backdrop of the established diaspora theories in the historical context of the Partition.
After the Partition of India in 1947 when Pakistan was created as a homeland for the Muslims, the... more After the Partition of India in 1947 when Pakistan was created as a homeland for the Muslims, the Bangla poetry of Bangladesh emerged in the eastern part of Bengal, then East Pakistan, as a distinct line in the thousand-year old poetic tradition of Bangla language. On one hand, the poets of this period had colonial experience behind them, and, on the other hand, they faced a new situation of oppression by the West Pakistani rulers. For this reason, the postcolonial situation of the Bangla poetry of Bangladesh is marked by colonization, oppression and resistance. Moreover, the surge of Pakistanism that was behind the creation of Pakistan inspired the writing of Islamic poetry at the beginning of the emerging stage. This also gave a new dimension to the Bangla poetry of Bangladesh. This paper is an attempt to probe into the emergence of the Bangla poetry of Bangladesh and its postcolonial negotiations.
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