6. Dr. Prabhakaran Hebbar

Abstract 06

Poetry in Defense of Environment:
Dissent against Globalization in the 21^st Century Hindi Poetry

Historically, Globalization is an extension of the imperialism and in other terms it is the aftermath of the development of industrialization and the revolution in the fields of science and technology. The profit making motive, the growth of the private capital, market oriented economy, industrialization, exploitation of the natural resources are the mimesis of proliferation of the globalization. In the growth of the capital process the human beings has lost the humanitarian considerations and the placental relation with nature.  The mundane advancement has limited the vision of the men to the present. The over exploitation of the nature began to effect the existence of the human beings as one of the species in the world. The degradation of the nature directly affects the common habitat of the creatures and degradation of the Environment. The industrialization, the construction of dams, the usage of fossil fuels, emission of green house gases, loss of bio diversity, shortage of natural resources, mining, pollution are caused to create imbalance in the environment. The poet makes us to remember that death is everywhere, but the life is only in this earth. Gandutra critically observed that the ‘mentality of exploitation the rapid growth of technology, industrialization and exponential growth of the population produced the ecological crisis.’ We are discussing about the sustainable development, that directly implies minimal use and preservation of the natural resources which protect the environment for the better future.

The modern literature, especially the poetry of the twenty first century are reflecting and reverberating the worries and hues of the men and feel that the environment includes the living creatures and micro organisms. The biotic as well as abiotic elements of the nature are interrelated with each other. Kailas Vajpeyi says ‘If we kill a butterfly that is at par with the killing of a flower.’ The poets of the 21^st century feel that the in the wider perspective the environment itself is transformed in to cultural and civilizational patterns. The language itself is the semiotic variety of the nature.  If there is no greenery on the leaves, no doubt the word ‘green’ will not exist in the language. The whole life in the planet is purely depended on environment. The poets pose a question before us that how long can we survive in the world without pure water, without pure air? Can we create the natural resources on demand? They realized that hike in the global warming will cause to sweep the whole flora and fauna from the earth. The degradation in the environment directly affects the livelihood, heath and life on earth. The poets reckoned that man has ignored the balance of the nature for attaining the material growth.

Poetry now a day is being treated as the powerful media of human expression and that is sufficient enough to restructure the human consciousness in the present era. John Dennis rightly observed that the ‘poetry is an art by which a poet excites passion in order to satisfy and improve to delight and reform the mind.’ The reformation in the mental universe is directly related with the outside universe manifested before our eyelids. The poetry of the day is not mean of entertainment, but it serves the role of the herald and it acts as immunization against the inhuman tendencies of the surroundings. It prevents the man from becoming an animal. The poetry germinates the healthy vision and kindles the healthy feeling in the minds of the reader. Many  poetic works are the literary documents of defense of  Environment. I remember the words of Rkveda- ‘The words of thine will resound after ages.’