Nishi Pulugurtha and Nabanita Sengupta
As one travels in Kolkata these days one gets to see some colour. The spring colours are clearly seen – some orange, some red, a little violet peeping through, some yellow here and there. Inspite of the fact that spring in the city is short lived and is a reminder of the heat that is soon to follow, it is a delight seeing the colours in the urban landscape of the city. Old timers say of how much of the green cover has gone these days, the concrete portion on the rise with rapid urbanization. Teaching Dilip Chitre’s “The Felling of the Banyan Tree” in class one is reminded of the reality of it in our cities. Students respond to what the poem speaks of and note of how they have seen something similar happening in their localities. They go on to speak of global warming, of the changes to the environment that they read about and understand. Most of them reveal concern about the changes and are aware it is up to us to make changes to save the environment.
Literature and poetry have always responded to the world around us. There are several poets who from time immemorial have spoken of nature, of the changes that one sees in nature, of the destruction to nature and the effects of that. William Wordsworth opposed the construction of a railway line in the Lake District arguing that it would take away the natural beauty of the place in “On the Projected Kendal and Windermere Railway” –
“Is then no nook of English ground secure
From rash assault?”
Poetry speaks of issues where prose hesitates. It is not without reason that poets have been considered as the ‘unacknowledged legislators’. They are also the time-keepers, chronicling the journey of existence. Ecopoetry is a kind of poetry that focusses on the environment and our relationship with it, it raises important issues of the environment, of the changes happening. It is part of activism as well, one where each one of us is involved or needs to be involved in some way or the other. The world today has reached a state where ecological awareness is mandatory for survival. Yet the rate of ignorance and indifference among the majority of the human population is alarming. The time has come when we start acknowledging ourselves as a part of nature, a small sub-section of it. We are, because nature is. With this understanding only we can surge ahead towards a sustainable future. Ecopoetry brings these concerns as the central core of poetry. Contemporary Indian poets like Sumana Roy, Vinita Agarwal, K.Satchidanandan and several others have published books of ecopoetry. As Satchidanandan says in an interview in downtoearth.org.in , “Poetry tells without telling so loudly and directly that perhaps we need to change our attitude to nature; we need to get over this consumerist madness”. So ecopoetry is not just about nature. But, and more significantly, it is also about the consumerist attitude that this capitalist world pursues. It is the single handedly significant destructive force that distorts the balance of nature. Ecopoets, by responding to the current eco-politics, contribute to the rising awareness regarding human role in nature.
At the Intercultural Poetry and Performance Library (IPPL), Kolkata we have always concerned ourselves with the social issues and have let our poetry engage with them. Therefore during the Covid period we have had poets responding to prompts like isolation, pandemic, health, and other similar issues. When the streets of Kolkata were burning with protest movements demanding safety for women in the workplace, IPPL had once again responded to the hour by voicing their concerns in forms of poems, now uploaded on the Facebook page of IPPL. So it is only apt that we dedicate one issue to the single most burning concern of the world.
This issue of the IPPL Journal focusses on ecopoetry. We are delighted to have a special feature essay by poet Vinita Aggarwal. An important aspect of Vinita’s poetry has been her concern for the environment and in the essay she writes on human responsibility, the nonhuman world and eco poetry. There are two other essays in the issue which speak on the subject, critically looking at poetry and at the way poetry could be used to draw children into being more aware, more receptive to nature and natural change. The prose section also contains a book review of a poetry collection as well as an interview of the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar winner, Ramesh Karthik Nayak.
The poetry section has poems by IPPL members, all writing on the subject of eco poetry, responding to the theme using a variety of styles and forms. We pride ourselves at IPPL at being able to bring together poets both established as well as budding ones where each is continuously formed by the other. The democratic space provided by the IPPL platforms is reflected in the content of this journal as well. We hope that our readers will enjoy reading this issue of the journal and find meaningful engagements here. We also whole heartedly thank our members who make IPPL the place it is and without whose support this issue could not have been ever made.