Ecology at the margins: epistemic and environmental injustices in Rohan Chakravarty’s comics

ABSTRACT

The philosophy of colonial modernity inspired by the epistemology of Western Enlightenment has fostered a dualistic view of the human and non-human world, in which the former has been accorded a position of privilege and power to signify, while the latter is marginalised as silent and subservient ‘other.’ This ‘othering’ has been instrumental in perpetuating a capitalist episteme of progress and aggravating varied forms of environmental injustices. The present article explores Rohan Chakravarty’s comics as the first of its kind in the realm of Indian comics to deliberate critically on the politics of ecological ‘othering’ that results from capitalist modernity and the discourse of ‘Anthropocene.’ The article argues that Chakravarty’s comics subvert the dominant epistemologies of capitalism and probe the necessity of re-centring the margins inscribed by Western capitalist parameters. Drawing insights from Fricker’s theories of ‘epistemic injustices,’ this study contends that a reversal of dominant thinking and epistemic expressions is needed to challenge the commodification of ecology and the non-human world. Chakravarty’s comics, in attributing a distinctive voice and agency to the world of environment and animals, assert the essentiality of acknowledging the ontological value of all forms of planetary life and prioritise the notion of collective well-being.

KEYWORDS:

• Epistemic injustice
• Anthropocene
• ecology
• pluralism
• planetary solidarity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).