The Bangladesh Environmental Humanities Reader: Environmental Justice, Development Victimhood, and Resistance (Environment and Society)

This volume analyses Bangladesh’s human-nature/environment relationships in terms of development victimhood, environmental injustices, and resistance of the marginalized. It demonstrates how the popular GDP-based economic growth model helps governments undertake “development” projects, threatening the environment and livelihood of the poor while benefiting the affluent. It represents the extant environmentalism in the literary works in Bangla, and tales of pollution, depletion; and human-nature/environment symbiosis that shows ways to resist victimhood. Against current environmental challenges and other environmental issues, this volume presents the epitome of how politics, biodiversity, and technology meet in many cross-cutting pathways. Contents 6 List of Figures and Tables 10 Foreword • Scott Slovic 12 Acknowledgments 16 Introduction • Samina Luthfa, Mohammad Tanzimuddin Khan, and Munasir Kamal 18 PART I: INDUSTRIALIZATION, URBANIZATION, AND SPACE 36 PART IA: ENVIRONMENT AND NEW POLITICS OF SPACE 38 1 Growth and Disaster: A Tale of Environmental Disaster in the Time of High Growth in Bangladesh • Anu Muhammad 40 2 Co-management Approach for Nature/Forest Conservation, Corporate Interests, and the Nishorgo Support Project in Bangladesh • Mohammad Tanzimuddin Khan 60 3 Resisting a Coal Mine in Bangladesh and Immigrants in the United Kingdom: The New Agent/Actors in Transnational Environmental Politics • Samina Luthfa 76 4 Pursuing Justice for All: Eviction and Environmental Injustice in Dhaka • Lutfun Nahar Lata 90 5 Rohingya Influx: Impacts on Environment and Local Host Communities in Bangladesh • Mrittika Kamal 104 PART IB: HAZARDOUS WORK ENVIRONMENT 122 6 Ironeaters: A Story of Scrapped Men • Fahmidul Haq 124 7 Work Environment and Its Effect on Job Satisfaction in the Ready-Made Garments Industry in Bangladesh • Zahid ul Arefin Choudhury 134 8 Death of a Thousand Dreams: A Photo Essay on the Rana Plaza Collapse and the Aftermath • Taslima Akhter 152 PART II: WATER, ENVIRONMENT, AND VICTIMHOOD 162 9 Chakaria Sundarbans: A Forest without Trees • Philip Gain 164 10 Critically Understanding Samta: A Tale of anArsenic-Affected Village • Fatema-Tuj-Juhra and Rubiat Afrose Raka 174 11 Kaptai Dam Bor-Porong: The Human Cost of Dam and Development—An Account of Forced Migration • Monzima Haque 186 12 Historicizing Kaptai Dam, Collective Trauma, and Political Awakening in the Chittagong Hill Tracts • Munasir Kamal and Mesbah Kamal 194 PART III: ECOCRITICISM AND CREATIVE SPACE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE 210 13 Ecocentrism and Bauls: Lalon’s and Radharaman’s Meditative Activism • Golam Rabbani 212 14 Rabindranath Tagore and Environmental Justice • Fakrul Alam 224 15 Marginalization of Minorities and the Environment: Bibhutibhushan Bandapadhyay’s Pather Panchali and Aranyak • Shehreen Ataur Khan 238 16 Reclaiming Voice: In Search of Space and Agency in Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay’s Hansuli Banker Upakatha • Sabrina Binte Masud 248 17 Riverine Communities: A Study of Adwaita Mallabarman’s Titas Ekti Nadir Naam and Manik Bandopadhyay’s Padma Nadir Majhi • Qazi Arka Rahman and Faria Alam 260 18 Unequal Justice: Ethnicity and Class in Mahasweta Devi’s Aranyer Adhikar and Selim Al Deen’s Bonopangshul • Soumya Sarker 270 PART IV: BIODIVERSITY, ECOSYSTEM, AND POLITICS OF SUSTAINABILITY 284 19 Plant Biodiversity Management for Nutritional Food Security in Bangladesh • Lutfur Rahman 286 20 The UN Climate Change Conferences: Bangladesh’s Conundrum • Md. Rezwanul Haque Masud 298 Index 312 About the Contributors 318 "This volume presents the case of environmental humanities of Bangladesh, a developing country that experiences rapid industrialization, urbanization, and ecological degradation victimizing the masses. The book highlights ecocriticism, environmental justice, biodiversity, and politics of development and sustainability"-- Provided by publisher