In the Earthrise Stories, Priya Sarukkai Chabria declares: ‘I write stories of Earth’ (p. 19). Her stories are encapsulated in a chakravyuh of time and space, following a non-linear, non-chronological, cyclical perspective of looking at the Earth and its many inhabitants. A unique text in its own right, Chabria’s book covers multiple issues that have plagued the planet across time and space―beginning with the evolution of multiple species under natural circumstances to the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the present day. The scientific theory of evolution undergoes an evolution itself as humans become the primary intervening agents in redefining the world order. The human is simultaneously recentered and decentered in the text―human beings have, under the guidelines of capitalism, destroyed species, biotas, climate. Chabria terms the mass depredations on Planet Earth caused by capitalist enterprises as ‘Capitalocene-Anthropocene Greed’ (p. 84). But even as humans have caused much damage to the Earth through many geological periods, they are simply a part of the ecosystem, which houses within itself a diverse group of millions of species. Chabria provides the audience with a plurality of perspectives in her text. Two midges in the South Pole of Antarctica enquire into the condition of human beings (p. 94). The characterization of human beings by a species considered insignificant offers a revision of the dominant world order created by us. In Chabria’s text, all species are accorded equal importance and representation. We hear stories of Earth from midges, birds, and other animals, who too have witnessed the stories of the Earth through time and space. As the animal speaks, the human is decentered.
Perhaps the most powerful and poignant piece of Chabria’s text is intertwining Earth stories with Indian mythologies, to reimagine the most well-known stories from apocalyptic, climatic or environmental perspectives. Pishachas, flesh-eating demons in Indian folklore are reconceptualized as survivors of a nuclear winter they caused on their planet (p. 61). The stories of Pishachas come with a warning to the human race; they represent the future of our civilization. We are the Pishachas we fear. Ramayana is revisited as an inter-galactic war, with Rama, Sita and Hanuman as beings of the Earth, who are caught in an inter-planetary warzone with the malicious Ravana. The clever revision of mythological tales draws the readers in; the familiarity of the stories makes the revision more pronounced: what if civilizations were annihilated previously because of large-scale wars? What if planetary extinction is a vivid reality that has previously happened in a distant past, and may happen in the near future? Have humans already made this mistake once, and paid a hefty price for it? These stories force readers to confront the reality of our precarious world, even as they correlate war with environmental degradation. The issue Chabria raises in her text is incredibly pertinent in the present day. As the Earth remains plagued by multiple wars across various regions, one cannot take a privileged position because no living being is truly privileged on account of the ecological imbalance, depletion of resources, and loss of multiple species that wars perpetuate. Humanity suffers the cost of war equally, if not now, then in the future.
Chabria’s text is ultimately a genre-bending fiction that includes an eclectic variety of literary pieces, including speculative fiction, myths, satire, reports, even a fictional examination paper set for students on climate, endangered species and the Earth! Chabria addresses multiple interlinked topics that truly make the text a compilation of stories from Earth, including the history of colonization, the drastic development of colonization into capitalism, the evolution of technology and its impact on the planet, etc. For readers today, who are increasingly looking into posthuman, or environmental perspectives, Chabria’s text offers a timely and relevant reading of the debates, theories, and ideologies surrounding the same. The stories of the Earth are the stories of humans, and readers are confronted with many thought-provoking ideas, based on not only our planet, and fellow species, but also our very own being. Earthrise Stories serves ultimately as an important reminder that the human is miniscule in the infinite cosmos, and an inflated sense of entitlement and ego by our species must be replaced by humility and acceptance of a harmonious planetary balance.
Pakhi Jain is a Ph.D. Scholar in the Department of English, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. She is currently working as a guest faculty in Gargi College, University of Delhi. Her areas of interest include childhood studies, gender studies, colonial and postcolonial studies, environmental studies, and archival studies.