The Ecological Being: Anandgram and the Expanded Leprous Body

Abstract

This paper establishes a framework for the reading of an ecological identity by focusing on the author’s sabbatical experience working as a medical student with patients at Anandgram – the Village of Joy – in 1991. Anandgram is a leprosy hospital and rehabilitation center situated on the outskirts of Pune, India. It is home to a unique community of outcasts ravaged by the disease. Despite overwhelming odds, these people have overcome the constraints of a singular identity – that of the leper – and reclaimed a productive future for themselves. The ways that Anandgram’s residents have forged new kinds of existence have far-reaching implications for the built environment through their impact on identity, technology, ecology, culture, materiality, and the production of spaces. With this in mind, the aim is to present a portrait of the leprous body not as a machine but as an “ecological being,” a dynamic model of human anatomy that is in continual flux and deeply embedded with the environment.

Keywords:

• ecological being
• ecology
• anatomy
• leprosy
• Anandgram

Notes

¹ “Leprosy,” by Chris Casaba (2014). Available online: http://allpoetry.com/poem/10981685-Leprosy-by-Kalesa/.

² Rachel Armstrong, “An Unexpected Guest,” in More Women Travel: Adventures and Advice from More than 60 Countries, a Rough Guide Special, ed. Natania Jansz and Miranda Davies (London: Rough Guides, 1995), 310–318.

³ “Dropped foot” is a medical term for nerve or muscle damage that causes people to scrape the front of the foot on the ground.

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⁸ R. Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (New York: Broadway, 2011).

⁹ G. Jones, The Universe of Things (Seattle, WA: Aqueduct, 2010).