Ecoprecarity: An exploration of Sarnath Banerjee’s all quiet in Vikaspuri

Ecocritical texts aim to create a sense of ecological awareness through the exploration of the interdependence of nature and humankind. Ecoprecarity is a central theme of all the ecocritical texts. Banerjee’s All Quiet in Vikaspuri can be read as a part of the burgeoning field of climate fiction. This paper examines the idea of Ecoprecarity manifested in the vision of barren land, polluted rivers, dusty/smoky air throughout the text. Woven into this segment of Ecoprecarity is also the portrayal of wastelands of the decadent sublime to generate the idea of a strange and unnatural kind of nature also known as 'ecological uncanny' in the post-catastrophic setting. Banerjee explores a relation/unseen link between the post-apocalyptic future of Gurgaon and the precarious present of the other cities like particularly Delhi. He employs the juxtaposition of the old lost world with the contemporary altered world as a structural feature of his narrative, both visual and verbal. The paper also intends to illustrate how the water crisis/wars in Delhi is the spitting image of the anthropogenic water crisis in India. Particular emphasis is given on the idea of ‘Short-termism’ policies and rampant privatization of natural resources which triggers the water crisis. Banerjee illustrates the traces of ‘slow violence’ in social and environmental terms behind the name of development or economic progress.