The environmental humanities-founded on the indivisible human-environment nexus-focus on socioeconomic inequalities, injustices, and various cultural differences to explain environmental degradation and crises and to propose solutions. The Bangladesh Environmental Humanities Reader: Environmental Justice, Developmental Victimhood, and Resistance presents unique analyses of Bangladesh's environment-development relationships. The book looks at developmental victimhood, environmental injustices, and resistance of the marginalized in Bangladesh. It reflects how the popular GDP-based economic development model motivates governments of Bangladesh to undertake infrastructural and "development" projects, the growth of which threatens environment and livelihood of the poorer sections while benefiting the affluent profiteers. The book also critically engages with environmentalism represented through the literary works in Bangla through tales of pollution, depletion, and human-nature symbiosis, showing ways to achieve social justice to resist victimhood through art. Moreover, agricultural technologies shaped by cultivators-scientists' collaborations are often helpful for biodiversity conservation, notwithstanding those that ruin ecology and livelihood. Against the backdrop of climate change challenges, this book shows how politics and technology meet in many cross-cutting pathways.
Samina Luthfa is associate professor of sociology at the University of Dhaka. Munasir Kamal is assistant professor in the Department of English, University of Dhaka. Mohammad Tanzimuddin Khan is professor in the Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka.
List of Tables and Figures Foreword by Scott Slovic Acknowledgments Introduction Samina Luthfa, Mohammad Tanzimuddin Khan, and Munasir Kamal Part I: Industrialization, Urbanization, and Space Part Ia: Environment and New Politics of Space Chapter 1: Growth and Disaster: A Tale of Environmental Disaster in the Time of High Growth in Bangladesh Anu Muhammad Chapter 2: Co-management Approach for Nature/Forest Conservation, Corporate Interests, and the Nishorgo Support Project in Bangladesh Mohammad Tanzimuddin Khan Chapter 3: Resisting a Coal Mine in Bangladesh and Immigrants in the United Kingdom: The New Agent/Actors in Transnational Environmental Politics Samina Luthfa Chapter 4: Pursuing Justice for All: Eviction and Environmental Injustice in Dhaka Lutfun Nahar Lata Chapter 5: Rohingya Influx: Impacts on Environment and Local Host Communities in Bangladesh Mrittika Kamal Part Ib: Hazardous Work Environment Chapter 6: Iron Eaters: A Story of Scrapped Men Fahmidul Haq Chapter 7: Work Environment and Its Effect on Job Satisfaction in the Ready-Made Garments Industry in Bangladesh Zahid ul Arefin Choudhury Chapter 8: Death of a Thousand Dreams: A Photo Essay on the Rana Plaza Collapse and the Aftermath Taslima Akhter Part II: Water, Environment, and Victimhood Chapter 9: Chokoria Sundarbans: A Forest without Trees Philip Gain Chapter 10: Critically Understanding Samta: A Tale of an Arsenic Affected Village Fatema-Tuj-Juhra and Rubiat Afrose Raka Chapter 11: Kaptai Dam Bor-Porong: The Human Cost of Dam and Development-An Account of Forced Migration Monzima Haque Chapter 12: Historicizing Kaptai Dam, Collective Trauma, and Political Awakening in the Chittagong Hill Tracts Munasir Kamal and Mesbah Kamal Part III: Ecocriticism and Creative Space for Environmental Justice Chapter 13: Ecocentrism and Bauls: Lalon and Radharaman's Meditative Activism Golam Rabbani Chapter 14: Rabindranath Tagore and Environmental Justice Fakrul Alam Chapter 15: Marginalization of Minorities and the Environment: Bibhutibhushan Bandapadhyay's Pather Panchali and Aryanak Shehreen Ataur Khan Chapter 16: Reclaiming Voice: In Search of Space and Agency in Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay's Hansuli Banker Upakatha Sabrina Binte Masud Chapter 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 Chapter 18: Unequal Justice: Ethnicity and Class in Mahasweta Devi's Aranyer Adhikar and Selim Al Deen's Bonopangshul Soumya Sarker Part IV: Biodiversity, Ecosystem, and Politics of Sustainability Chapter 19: Plant Biodiversity Management for Nutritional Food Security in Bangladesh Lutfur Rahman Chapter 20: The UN Climate Change Conferences: An Investigative Study of the Shortcomings Md. Rezwanul Haque Masud About the Contributors
