Decolonizing Nature: Co-existence, Harmony, and the Vedic Tradition in Aranyaka: Book of the Forest

Abstract

In the present capitalist world system, the human approach to nature is utilitarian: it has been reduced to mere resources whose significance is equivalent to the surplus value it produces for the betterment of a section of mankind. This mechanistic view and commodification of nature is traced back to Western reductionist philosophies that deny agency to nature and the non-human and place humans at the top of the hierarchical ‘Great Chain of Being.’ The non-human turn in the Humanities, inspired by Western Environmentalism, that attempts to deconstruct the anthropocentrism historically embedded in our relationship with nature, has also been criticised for championing human exceptionalism and sustaining the separation between human and the non-human. Rather, many environmental ethics proponents recently advocate fostering empathy, respect, and care to inspire harmonious existence across species boundaries. In this context, Indian Vedic thoughts present alternate forms of understanding the human and non-human entanglements. This paper analyses the graphic novel Aranyaka: Book of the Forest (2019) by Amruta Patil and Devdutt Pattanaik which explores ways of “seeing” the world as interdependent and non-hierarchic through the lens of Vedic ideas. ‘Aranya’ here is not the romantic ‘wilderness’ of Western discourse but a space informed by survival, hunger, and violence where human beings are not conquerors but insignificant pieces in the nexus of existence — a predator, prey, and ally at the same time. This paper shows how such contemporary Indian literary texts are exploring the ‘biocentric’ approach of the Vedic tradition to re-imagine co-existence and harmony in a world overwhelmed by environmental destruction.