EXPLORING HUMAN-NATURE BILATERAL RELATIONSHIP: AN ECOCRITICAL STUDY OF CHETAN BHAGAT’S REVOLUTION 2020

Abstract

The burgeoning trend of expressing ecological imagination in literature accentuates the significance of nature and the environment in human existence. Throughout history, there has been a reciprocal interaction between humans and nature. However, the contemporary era is facing serious ecological challenges owing to humans’ anthropocentric behavior towards nature. Consequently, there arises an imperative for ecocritical inquiry to cultivate eco-consciousness among the masses, nurturing intellectual acumen, spiritual enlightenment, and physical well-being. The study, through a qualitative paradigm, analyzes Chetan Bhagat’s Revolution 2020 from an ecocritical perspective. It aims to irradiate human-nature bilateral relationship and the multifaceted role of nature in the selected text. It foregrounds the dualistic nature of the human-nature relationship, characterized by mutual beneficence and maleficence. On one side, humans exhibit a beneficent attitude towards nature, expressing their profound love, panoptic admiration, and nostalgic sentiments for it. Conversely, they harm nature with their anthropocentric behavior, pollute it through unethical practices, and mitigate its worth by means of verbal depreciation. Similarly, nature’s attitude towards humankind, on the one hand, is benign in the form of its healing, soothing, guiding, and purifying power. In contrast, it unleashes its caustic character in the shape of inclement weather conditions, killing capacity, and natural disasters. In summation, the study concludes that harmonious human-nature bilateral relationship is inevitable for the survival and well-being of both entities and suggests similar investigations in other literary genres and art forms.