Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Akdeniz İnsani Bilimler Dergisi, cilt.15, sa.1, ss.181-192, 2025 (Hakemli Dergi)
Heat and Dust (1975) by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala challenges narratives of European resiliency by presenting India’s climate as a tool of anti-imperial resistance in opposition to British colonialism. The physical and mental collapse of colonizers in the tropics, known as tropical invalidism, is employed in this essay to illustrate the fragility of colonial ideology and the unsustainable nature of imperial rule. Drawing on the framework of racialized medicine and colonial disease, this paper attempts to show how Jhabvala reworks environmental imagery (disease, heat, and dust) to undermine myths about European adaptability. Because of their bodies' vulnerability due to India’s climate, characters like Olivia, Douglas, and Chid represent the paradox of colonial power and undermine assertions of racial and cultural superiority. Since even these locations are unable to halt the settlers' decline, the novel's hill stations — which are frequently idealized as havens — further underscore the pointlessness of escape. In addition to questioning colonial narratives, Heat and Dust reinterprets India’s ecology as a tool of resistance by emphasizing tropical invalidism. This research offers a new lens on postcolonial studies by bridging the divide between colonial medical history and literary analysis, demonstrating how Jhabvala’s environmental themes undermine imperial power.