
The Criterion: An International Journal in English
Indian Literature
Beyond the Human: Animal Agency and Forest Ethics in Jungle Nama
Abstract
This research paper delves deep into the environmental and moral dimensions of Amitav Ghosh’s Jungle Nama, focusing on how the text reconceptualises non-human life as conscious, ethically significant and agentic. Jungle Nama uses the legendary and mythic landscapes of the Sundarbans to underscore the agency of the forest and its creatures, and to draw attention to the harmful outcomes of unchecked human greed. Adopting an ecocritical lens, this paper employs the theoretical framework of Eduardo Kohn’s “How Forests Think” and Deborah Bird Rose’s “Wild Dog Dreaming: Love and Extinction”, along with Val Plumwood’s critique of Western dualism, to know how Ghosh constructs an ecosystem that responds, perceives and withstands ecological imbalance, human greed and exploitation. Also, it will examine how characters like Dokkhin Rai, Bon Bibi, and Dukhey are not merely actors or participants in the moral tale but embody deeper ecological structures. Dokkhin Rai, as the forest spirit, Bon Bibi, as the guardian angel of kinship and balance, and Dukhey as a modest and submissive sad lad willing to attune, adopt and humanise rather than dominate, dictate and control. Lev Shestov’s existential ecology further enriches and deepens this reading by placing faith and trust in a higher power rather than in logic and rationality, which are means in a volatile environment. Further, this paper draws parallels with contemporary issues regarding Antarctic krill to show the continued pertinence and urgency of the text’s warning. Ultimately, this study argues that Jungle Nama is an environmental allegory that urges us to reconsider the boundaries between the human and the non-human, culture and nature, and so on. By granting voice, autonomy, and ethical dimension to the forest and its inhabitants, Ghosh invites readers to imagine a world governed not by control but by mutuality, stewardship, and ecological ethics.
Keywords
Animal Agency, Environmental Justice, Hyper-separation, Semiosphere, Anthropocene
How to Cite
Nandita Solanki. “Beyond the Human: Animal Agency and Forest Ethics in Jungle Nama.” The Criterion: An International Journal in English, vol. 17, no. 1, Feb. 2026, pp. 243-252. ISSN: 0976-8165.
