Vol. 6, Issue 1, Part D (2024)

In the Anthropocene, ecological degradation is a lived crisis threatening human and nonhuman futures alike. The anthropocentric arrogance that shaped modernity—industrial extraction, techno-capitalist expansion, and consumerist excess—has destabilized the biosphere to the cusp of ecocide. Superficial “green” reforms remain inadequate. A radical realignment of consciousness is required: a shift from anthropocentrism to ecocentrism. Arne Naess’s ecosophy (deep ecology) offers such a reorientation by affirming the intrinsic value of all beings and locating ethics in self-realization through identification with nature.
In literature, Amitav Ghosh has emerged as a leading voice of ecological imagination. From the unstable ecologies of the Sundarbans in The Hungry Tide to the planetary anxieties of The Great Derangement and Gun Island, Ghosh dramatizes entanglements of human and nonhuman destinies. His fiction critiques the hubris Naess challenges philosophically while modeling narrative strategies that reimagine interdependence, biodiversity, and ecological memory.
This paper situates Naess and Ghosh within a Gandhian lineage of non-violence and inter-being. It argues that Naess provides a conceptual architecture for an ecocentric worldview, while Ghosh embodies that worldview through narrative, myth, and storytelling. Read together, they illuminate pathways for healing the fractured bond between humans and the more-than-human world.