Volume V Special Issue IV October 2025

Name of Author : L. Virgin Francy

Title of the paper : An Ecocritical study of Indigenous struggles in The Adivasi will not Dance

Abstract: Hansda Sowvendra Shekhars The Adivasi will not Dance offers a piercing portrayal of environmental degradation and cultural dispossession experienced by the Santhal community in Jharkhand. Through the voice of Mangal Murmu, a Santhal musician, the story reveals the slow, invisible violence inflicted by mining, industrialization, and the commodification of indigenous identity. This paper presents an ecocritical and humanist reading of the story, analysing it through the theoretical frameworks of Cheryll Glotfeltys ecocriticism, Rob Nixons concept of slow violence, Linda Tuhiwai Smiths decolonizing methodologies, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivaks theory of the subaltern. By examining the intersections of ecology, culture, and resistance, the paper argues that Shekhars narrative transforms environmental degradation into a discourse of human dignity and indigenous protest. Murmus refusal to dance before the President becomes a symbolic act of ecological and cultural reclamation, asserting that the struggle for land and identity is inseparable from the struggle for justice.

Keywords : Ecocriticism, Indigenous resistance, Slow violence, Decolonization, Humanism, Cultural commodification

DOI :

Page Number : 35-38