The Entanglement of Disability, Animality and Humanness in Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People in the Light of Sunaura Taylor’s Ethical Theories

Abstract

One recent development in the field of disability studies is its intersection with animal studies, as represented in the work of American artist, writer, disability and animal rights activist Sunaura Taylor. In her art and scholarly works, primarily in her book Beasts of Burden (2017), Taylor examines the porousness of human/nonhuman categories in the context of disability studies. Although Taylor is aware of how various discourses animalized certain populations in the past (the colonized, ethnic minorities, or people with disabilities), she insists on showing resemblance and kinship between disabled people and animals. Taylor’s ideas seem to be reflected in Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People (2007), which deals with the problem of environmental catastrophe, consequent health issues of the local population, and animalization of people with disabilities. The paper investigates Sinha’s portrayal of entanglements of the human with the nonhuman in the material sphere, and the emergence of a new type of consciousness, based on a redefinition of one’s connection to the world, which involves reclaiming one’s animality.