This is the ninth talk in the Prof. Avadhesh Kumar Singh Memorial Lecture Series delivered by  Professor Prashant Sinha on "Industrialization and Ecology: It All Ends in Smoke". Professor Sinha is the former Head of the Department of English, Pune University. He hold s a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, USA and has taught at the Patna University, Ramja’s College and at Hindu college. His publications include eight authored/ edited / co- edited books which are favourably reviewed in India and abroad. In the present lecture, Prof. Sinha links the Victorian novels and the Industrial Revolution from the point of how this revolution ushered in a number of problems, disrupting human lives and radically changing ecology. With a close study of the British Fiction of 19 th century, Prof. Sinha draws our attention to the fact on how these novels were alive to the challenges brought in by the pollution of air, land and water due to the rapid industrialisation . Prof. Sinha shows us how Charles Dicken’s Hard Times and Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South focus on the ecological changes that resulted from the process of industrialisation. He also shows the relevance of the depiction in these novels to the contemporary India which is in the midst of industrialisation and urbanisation. He also emphasises the need to learn the lessons from the past in order to strike a balance between our desire for development ( which is often understood as a need to conquer nature ) and the need to live in harmony with nature.

The following is the link for the YouTube lecture:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mGiHwB3DNo