Unraveling Dichotomies in The Indian Ocean World

Abstract

Today’s world is predominantly governed by a binary order that has estranged human beings from their natural environment. However, a fundamental paradigm change and ecological vision are increasingly being put forward by intellectuals and artists in order to sustain a viable planet. On the geographical and geostrategic levels, too, the changing force fields are inducing a reassessment of prevailing worldviews. The Indian Ocean is one such case in point. The literature, visual art, and concepts from Mauritius considered in this article problematize the culturally produced attitudes of human beings vis-à-vis their environmental counterparts, and question simplistic binaries such as land/sea, human/nonhuman, etc. They place emphasis on fluidity rather than rootedness, on connection rather than disjunction, and suggest new perspectives and modes of being. Informed mostly by an animistic cosmovision based on yogic notions that date back to pre-Vedic times and have condensed into what may be described as contemporary “Indian thought,” these novels and artworks explore alternative relationalities and reframe ontologies whereby environmental empathy, bonding, and interchangeability are expressed. This paper discusses the reconfiguration of the geopolitical framework as well as that of the imaginary and argues that a shift in perception is the key to redefining the relationship between the human and the more-than-human world.