Author(s): Shampa Mondal

Abstract: This paper explores the eco-philosophical and non-anthropocentric aspects of Rabindranath Tagore’s short stories Balai and Ghater Kotha, that reasures the relationship between human and non-human worlds. In Balai, the protagonist’s intimate and affective bond with plant life reveals an alternative ontology in which botanical existence is infused with agency, subjectivity, and emotional resonance. The child’s sensitivity to trees challenges dominant anthropocentric hierarchies, aligning with the principles of Deep Ecology, particularly its emphasis on the intrinsic value of all living beings. Ghater Kotha articulates the inner psychological world of Kusum through the point of view of the ghat—an ostensibly inanimate structure that becomes a preserver of memory, desire, and silent witnessing. Here, the inanimate is not lifeless or inert; rather, it emerges as a participant in human experience, questioning the rigid distinctions between animate and inanimate, subject and object. Both stories reveal a continuum of existence where emotional and existential states are mediated through nature and objects, suggesting a relational ontology rooted in interdependence and coexistence. This study asserts that Tagore’s short stories articulate an eco-philosophy that decentralizes the human and reimagines the inanimate as equally living and expressive in order to offer a nuanced literary model for rethinking ecological ethics in the modern age.

Keywords: Eco-philosophical, non-anthropocentric, botanical, emotional, inanimate, ecological

Article Info: Received: 26 Mar 2025; Received in revised form: 22 Apr 2025; Accepted: 26 Apr 2025; Available online: 30 Apr 2025

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.102.66