Abstract
This paper examines the ecocritical dimensions of selected works of Ruskin Bond, one of the greatest writers of fiction from India. Bond’s enchanting stories are woven with the splendid Himalayas as background, and his works clearly show his deep love for animals and nature. Through an analysis of his novels, short stories, and essays, this paper demonstrates how nature is not merely a decorative background in Bond’s works but a power that influences the personality of people. Bond’s call to recognize man-nature interdependence is aimed at preserving life, and his writings serve as a stronger influence on environmental consciousness than many confirmed environmentalists of the present day.
Keywords: Ruskin Bond, ecocriticism, nature writing, Himalayas, environmentalism, man-nature relationship
Introduction
A prolific author and storyteller beloved by children and adults alike, Ruskin Bond is an Indian author with British descent who is very popular for his versatile writing and elegant style. Born in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh on 9th May 1934, Bond grew up in Jamnagar, Dehradun and Shimla. His career in writing spans forty long years with achievements in different genres including novels, short stories, essays, and poetry. Bond’s first novel The Room on the Roof (1956), written at the age of seventeen, won him the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1957. He received the Sahitya Academy Award for English Writings in India in 1992 for his novel Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra (1991) and Padmabhushan from the Government of India in 1999.
Nature as Companion
Bond finds a companion in nature. Every drop of rain brings joy for him, chirping of birds is a source of happiness. He carefully observes the movements of squirrels and is overjoyed in feeding sparrows. As S. Mohanraj observes, Bond seems “obsessed with landscapes, the hilly terrain, water spots, mountain streams, cool lakes and ponds and huge trees in particular rhododendrons, deodars and sals; flowering plants-petunias, nasturtiums and marigolds changing seasons and birds and animals” (119).
Bond himself stated: “If someone were to ask me to choose between writing an essay on the Tajmahal or on the last rose of summer; I would take the rose — even if it was down to its last petal” (Singh 20). This reveals the enchantment he discovers in the tiny things of nature.
Bond’s Naturalistic Approach
Ruskin Bond is very naturalistic in his approach towards nature. He wants to view nature in its purest form and wanted everything in his garden to grow naturally. In The Book of Nature, he writes about preferring a garden that is “a little untidy, unplanned, full of surprises” rather than the methodical garden described by Bacon in his essay Of Gardens. He finds delight in wild beauty: “Wild roses give me more pleasure than the sophisticated domestic variety” (160).
Bond’s characters, though living on the margins of civilized life of modern cities, never feel drawn to urban amenities. Kishan Singh, the tunnel watchman in The Tunnel, says: “It is safer in the jungle than in the town. No rascals out here. only last week, when I went into the town, I had my pocket picked; leopards don’t pick pockets” (88).
Love for Animals
Bond’s love for animals, birds and insects strengthens his ties with nature. In Big-cat Tales, Bond depicts a situation where a leopard strays into a tunnel when a mail train is scheduled to pass through, and all his sympathies are with the leopard. In The Young Vagrants, Bond describes an encounter with a tiger which does not harm him because he has no evil intentions. He deals with animal subjects in works such as Grandfather’s Private Zoo (1967), Tigers Forever (1983), and Night of the Leopard (1979).
The short story “Tiger Tiger Burning Bright” in Time Stops at Shamli and Other Stories shows Bond’s concern for the extinction of tiger population. The title, taken from William Blake’s Songs of Experience, uses the beautiful description of the tiger to fictionalize a thought-provoking story of a lone tiger’s battle for survival.
Bond and Wordsworth
Bond’s love for nature is in tune with Wordsworth. Both had their own experiences which constituted the sources of their poetic thoughts. In The Prelude (1850), Wordsworth describes how his senses of beauty were moulded in the lap of nature during his childhood and boyhood. Similarly, Bond in his various works explores his own relationship with the mountains.
Conclusion
Having lived in the lap of nature all his life, Bond has a deep and abiding love for nature, particularly the flora and fauna of the majestic Himalayas. He is pained by the environmental degradation of the hills and the melting of the forest cover due to felling of trees. Bond is a true environmentalist who propagated conservation and protection of wildlife. In almost all his works nature forms a background. The concern was genuine, but the world was blind to it. Today we can witness how right Bond was.
Works Cited
- Bacon, Francis. Essays. London: Every Man’s Library, 1996.
- Mohanraj, S. “Eco-phile.” The Creative Contours of Ruskin Bond: An Anthology of Critical Writings. Ed. Prabhat K. Singh. New Delhi: Pencraft Publications, 1995. 119-124.
- Bond, Ruskin. The Young Vagrants. Bombay: IBH Publishing Company, 1981.
- Bond, Ruskin. An Axe for the Rani. Bombay: Hindi Pocket Books, 1972.
- Bond, Ruskin. The Book of Nature. New Delhi: Penguin India, 2004.
- Wordsworth, William. The Prelude. London: OUP, 1956.