TheDaak review

Theme – Nature and Lives: A Synergy?

TheDaak invites book review submissions on the theme Nature and Lives: A Synergy? for its fifth issue. 

Hāle bātī, ūparre hāsibe,

Madhyamare bhābibe, mera din nikatare.

( The lower leaf falls; the upper leaf laughs.

And the middle one says–My day draws nearer. )

Tribal Odia folk song about the frailty of existence.

The world we inhabit and the sheer work living beings put into this existence is truly remarkable. From the large-scale seasonal migration of birds across continents, to elephants scourging through their lost corridors, or the millions of colonies of ants and bees, to a regular person bicycling to a workshop; survival has never been without difficulty. The one place of convergence where all life becomes one, is in their perishability. All that lives shall die.

Human beings with creative labour since their arrival on this planet have significantly changed and turned this world to meet their needs. They have built one of the greatest economic systems using the most sophisticated scientific and technological tools and also the most complex social-political institutions. Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stomer have tried defining this unique impact of human beings on the environment. The resultant human tenure on this otherwise much older planet has been characterised as the ‘Anthropocene’.

The geological epoch, anthropocene has remained a fairly contested category but nevertheless has brought disciplines across the spectrums together in thinking of alternate epistems to understand human existence. There now has been the realisation that human penchant to make survival easier has come through subordination and violence. This ecological reflexivity is trying to transform institutions, practices and principles through green politics, green struggle and green activism. What was man-nature conflict is now being actively guided towards a multispecies collaboration and synergy with the environment. 

Moving away from desires for environmental management and control; researchers, academicians, politicians and activists are working towards environmental conservation and protection. Attempts are being made to debunk the common notions about nature and reimagine the underlying power relations. Human consumption and production has had to be reimagined to a new understanding of life that challenges existing consumption patterns from fast food to fast clothing. States and multinational conglomerates are being held accountable in the court of public opinion. 

But how far can public policy and public opinion go without the vision? And what vision could there be without the intention? What intention one may ask? The one where human species could see the world not for their greed. Hence, what visions and concerns do we need before we set out to take on the humongous task of being one with the ecological world of which we are just an element? 

Discussions on books that speak to the theme of Nature and Lives: A Synergy?  including questions of climate change and climate crisis, environment and legislation, Indigenous, Community Rights, Climate Displacement and Migration, North-South Divide, Man-Nature Conflict, Multispecies Collaboration, Green politics, Consumption patterns, Food security and environment protection, but not limited to these are welcome.

Please send your book reviews to Submission@thedaak.in The deadline for the same is 30th August 2023. The issue is due for publication on 15th September 2023.

Please note that if you are looking for a book recommendation on the current theme or want to discuss your book with our editorial team, you can write to us at  editor@thedaak.in

Editorial Team 

TheDaak