Spectre of Scarcity and Hunger: Indian Literature and the Idea of Famine

This book explores Indian English writing and English translations of Indian works through the framework of famine. It examines literary representations of famine across time, from ancient and medieval India to colonial and contemporary times. The chapters in the volume contribute to the contemporary debates on climate action and ecological crises. The volume will be of interest to scholars and researchers of South Asian studies and literature.

About the Author

Shubhanku Kochar teaches at the University School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi. He specialises in African literatures in English and eco-criticism. His latest publications are Environmental Post-Colonialism: A Literary Response (2021, Lexington Books), Literature from the Peripheries: Refrigerated Culture and Pluralism (2023, Lexington Books), and Pastoral and Anti-Pastoral: Representation of City and Village in Literature (2024, Ibidem/Columbia University Press). His forthcoming books are Beyond the Ocean: Literature History and the British Empire and Poverty and Pollution: Environmental Casteism and Dalit Literature , both to be published by Springer. His poems have been published in Protagonist , a popular literary magazine.

Shehnaz Kabir has been awarded with a doctorate degree by the Department of English at Jadavpur University. Her latest publications include "Negotiating Identities in the Indo-Caribbean Diaspora: Queer Bildungsroman and Gendered Spaces in Select Novels of Shani Mootoo" ( The IACLALS Journal , 2020) and "Commodification of Identity: Dissecting the Coolie Body in the Indo-Caribbean Diaspora" ( New Literaria , 2021). Her paper "Gendered Negotiations and Role of Female Agency in Select Indo-Caribbean Fiction" is published by Springer. Her areas of interest include hydro-colonialism, indenture trade, diaspora literature, material cultures, and postcolonial studies.