Guest Faculty

Philosophy

Cotton University

 Guwahati, Assam, India 

Abstract

Ecofeminism in India is believed to have commenced even before the official articulation of the very term. The term ‘ecofeminism’ was coined in 1974, but the first ecofeminist movement occurred in India in 1973 that is known today as the Chipko Movement. Chipko Movement has its roots in the Bishnoi Movement that occurred in 1730 and was captained by a woman named Amrita Devi Bishnoi. The paper begins with a brief account of the development of the movement of ecofeminism in 20^th century followed by a survey of various environmental movements that took place in India which were in line with the ecofeminist ideologies. Further, as part of its primary aim, the article chronicles similar triumphant instances of conservation of ecology by women in the North-Eastern region of India. The article concludes with an emphasis on the point that the current environmental crises could not be approached in isolation of the crisis concerning women’s position in society. Defending the ecofeminist perspective the article suggests that it is only by uplifting women’s position in the male-dominated societies we can make a substantial change in our orientation towards the environment, and thereby bring a productive change to the environmental crises as a whole.

Keywords: Ecofeminism, Conservation, Environment, Women, North-East India.

Introduction

India has been a rich nation from many angles – it is geographically vibrant with various flora and fauna, different regions inhabited by multi-cultural societies each with their unique traditions, be it language, food, clothing and so on. As is true in other parts of the globe, in India too, women have always played an important role in the development of society. They take care of the family and nurture the younger ones, but above all they are to be considered as the “backbone” of the entire family as everyone depends on them for everything. Due to this, women were greatly respected and regarded. But, the things that women depend on come directly from the nature. Women are regarded to be the inventor of agriculture (Patil 24), and as such they are heavily dependent upon the environment for food, fodder, wood, water etc. In fact, they share an emotional bond with nature just as children share with their parents. Women in India have traditionally been equated with nature due to their qualities like fertility, bountifulness, nurturing and fostering. As held by Ranjan Das, “The Indian culture Symbolize women as ‘Prakriti’ means ‘Nature’ she creates and nurtures the creation to bloom. She signifies ‘shakti’ - the power that drives the system…. Nevertheless, this viewpoint of Indian culture directly linked the women with the nature” (155).

However, despite such a portrayal in which women were highly regarded and admired, unfortunate times came when the status of women in society began waning. With the rigidification of the caste system, the social position of women was relegated to the lowest rank due to which women became the biggest victim of the same (Patil 27). Inevitably, societies that began to be dominated by men started turning a blind eye to their interests. As a consequence, instead of preservation, destruction and exploitation of the environment started becoming the norm. In addition to this, with the start of India’s colonisation and the eventual emergence of industrialisation, the ecology of India which was once so plentiful, began to be overexploited leading to the ultimate destruction of the environment.

Ecofeminism as an ethical perspective came into being based on the analysis of the obvious link between the domination and suppression of women on the one hand and the environment on the other in the patriarchal and the colonial capitalist society. The term ‘ecofeminism’ consists of the two terms – ‘ecology’ and ‘feminism’. It implies the rise of voices against the injustices incurred parallelly upon women and the environment by the male-dominated societies. Women began the resistance first by shattering the prejudices and stereotypes labelled against them and fighting for their rights throughout the different waves of feminism. Over time, as the position of women in societies improved, they began to promote the protection of their “closest friend” – the nature.

The North-eastern region of India has remained mostly an unnoticed terrain even when it is extremely rich in terms of flora and fauna as well as the diversity and culture of its numerous tribal communities. However, the vast forest cover that it originally had has lately been shrinking at an alarming rate due to endless human greed backed by political and capitalist machineries together with the large-scale deforestation in the name of infrastructural development. In such a scenario, do the women of North-Eastern region have any significant role in the protection of the environment as their survival has a shared interest with the preservation of the same? There are, in fact, ample instances in which the women of North-east India, even when they lack behind in many aspects in a polarised male-dominated society, came out to be leaders in protecting the environment. In the following sections of this paper, an attempt has been made to highlight the triumphant instances of the conservation of ecology by women in North-East India.

A Brief Sketch of Feminism, Ecofeminism and Ecofeminist Movements in India

Before delving deeper into the instances of ecofeminist movements that occurred in North-East India, it is deemed necessary to look into the emergence of feminism and ecofeminism in India. The general viewpoint of feminist movement is to equalize the gap between man and woman, and bringing an end to the oppression, domination and injustices incurred upon woman by man. The concern of feminism, however, has greatly advanced over the years with the emergence of different waves, each evolving with different issues every time. The first wave of feminism occurred in the mid- nineteenth century in the Western world. The matter initially at hand was legal issues, primarily to secure women’s right to vote, and eventually moved on to raising voices against sexual abuse at every level and arguing more women empowerment and greater gender equality.

Feminist movement in India as it is believed, started when Savitri Bai Phule opened the first school for girls in India in the year 1848, the same year when the first feminist movement happened in the West. And eventually gained momentum after Tarabai Shinde wrote India's first feminist text Stri Purush Tulana and Pandita Ramabai criticizing patriarchy and caste-system in Hinduism and did inter-caste marriage and converted to Christianity, all in between the 1800s and 1900s.

From this comprehensive fold of feminism emerged during the second half of twentieth century an ethico-ecological perspective called ecofeminism which “shows the relationship between Ecology and Feminism” (Sharada and Jyothi 418). Ecofeminism is a branch of Ecocriticism that studies the link between oppression of women and nature. The term ‘ecofeminism’ was coined by French feminist writer Françoise d'Eaubonne in her book Le Féminisme ou la Mort [Feminism or Death] in the year 1974. According to d'Eaubonne, “patriarchy is responsible for the exploitation of women and the destruction of nature” (qtd. in Shah 37). Accordingly, she appeals that the women and environment conservationists must come together to fight against the patriarchal system that encourages hierarchies, domination and unequal socio-economic relations.

Ecofeminism, as matter of fact, is not constituted of one particular theory, but rather has different branches with differing points of view. Yet, they all share a common string that binds them up together which is the view that “there is a close connection between the domination of nature by humans and the oppression of women by men. All of them have the common goal of liberating both women and nature and to create a new society without any hierarchy or environmental destruction as such” (S.Das 8).

Interestingly, ecofeminism in India is believed to have commenced even before the official articulation of the very term. The term ‘ecofeminism’ was coined in 1974, but the first ecofeminist movement occurred in India in 1973 that is known today as the Chipko Movement. The Chipko Movement is considered as the archetype of an ecofeminist movement, that originated in the Garhwal Himalayan region in the present-day state of Uttarakhand. The women of the region, who were the protagonists of the movement, were largely dependent on the forest primarily for fuel, fodder and food for their daily sustenance. However, massive commercial exploitation of the forests that resulted in monumental deforestation occurred during that period made the women to protest in the form of the movement. The women ended up to be the main victims of that massive deforestation as they had to travel long distances to meet their basic daily requirements. Accordingly, they became the forerunners to protect and conserve the forests using a non-violent resistance inspired by the Gandhian principle of non-violence. The resistance took place in the form of them hugging the trees (Chipko in Hindi means ‘to hug’ or ‘to cling to’) and hence famously known as the Chipko Andolan. The women weren't merely resisting the government's decision to hand over control of the forest to logging companies but also opposing the local men who supported this move – husbands, brothers, fathers, and anyone else in that regard. In a wider context, it is also observed that the Chipko movement was also an ecofeminist stance against capitalism and colonialism. By safeguarding the trees, they were safeguarding women's control over production means and the resources essential for their daily lives.

Another instance that happened long before the Chipko Andolan, is the Bishnoi Movement in the Khejarli village of Rajasthan in the 18^th century captained by a woman named Amrita Devi Bishnoi. It is to be noted that the movement cannot exactly be depicted as an ecofeminist movement. However, it has some serious implications so far as the chief goal of ecofeminism is concerned. The movement occurred when the Maharaja of Jodhpur Abhay Singh ordered his men to cut down trees in that village for wood. An immediate resistance was organised by Amrita Devi for the conservation of the ecology, wildlife as well as the green living. The two prime reasons for this resistance were – firstly, the cultural belief of people of the Bishnoi community for championing the cause of the conservation of trees and wildlife; and secondly, similar to the women of the Garhwal region where Chipko Andolan took place, women of the Bishnoi community too were heavily dependent on the forest for their daily bread and butter. The villagers including women and children, in an attempt to shield the forest from being cut down by the soldiers, hugged and embraced the trees [the strategy of protecting the trees by hugging them during the Chipko Andolan had its roots in the Bishnoi Movement]. The soldiers without paying any heed ruthlessly went on chopping the trees, along with the heads of the people who were hugging them. In the process of this merciless act, about 363 Bishnois laid down their lives solely for the purpose of conservation of the forest in the area. The Bishnoi Movement is thus considered one of the first structured exponents of the conservation of ecology and wildlife that was led by a woman.

Then comes the noteworthy mention of the ‘Narmada Bachao Andolan’. It was a social movement initiated by renowned female environmental crusader namely Medha Patkar, and largely supported by environmentalists, local farmers, and tribals (adivasis) as well as human rights activists, to protest against the erection of the Sardar Sarovar Dam over the Narmada River flowing through the states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. She mobilised massive marches and peaceful protests against the construction of dam which caused thousands of people to be displaced.

All these movements that occurred in mainland India had garnered humongous popularity all over the country and accordingly have echoed in similar resistances in the North-Eastern region as well. The North-East India, as a matter of fact, is regarded to be one of the richest regions in the country in terms of ecology. However, over the last few decades the region has seen a rapid scale shrinking of its wilderness. And, here too, women have come forward to advocate for the cause of the environment and have been playing a key role when it comes to the protection of the ecology as a whole.

Ecofeminist Movements in North-East India

The North-Eastern region of India is nicknamed by the Indian Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modi as ‘Ashtalakshmi’ – translated as the eight forms of the goddess of wealth, due to its unexplored prospective in trade, commerce, natural resources and diverse culture (Press Trust of India). According to the State of Forest Report 2005 released by the Forest Survey of India, “All the North-Eastern States have over 75% geographic area under forest cover” (15). It also identifies the region as one of the 18 biodiversity hot spots of the world because of the abundance in biodiversity. A greater percentage of the area is populated by many important tribes who practice shifting cultivation and with the rising populace over time “the cycle of shifting cultivation has reduced to less than 5 years, resulting in degradation of forests in these areas…. As compared to the 2003 assessment, a loss of 278 km of forest cover has been observed in the region” (16).

According to the latest India State of Forest Report 2021, the North-East region consisting of the eight states namely Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Mizoram constituted 7.98 percent of the geographical area of the country. The forest resources in these States account for 23.75 percent of the total Forest Cover of the country (047). However, due to the recurrent practice of shifting cultivation, which also forms part of the ethno-cultural life style of the tribes living within the region, a sweeping decline of 1,020 sq. km of forest cover in the North-Eastern region can be seen within that period of time.

With regard to the status of women in North-East India, it has been found that this region is comparatively better off than other parts of the country in terms of gender equality. Yet, quite an amount of disparity between men and women still exists in this area despite the prevalence of various ethnic groups who conform to the matrilineal system. In fact, the “Gender gap exists in terms of access to education, employment and health. A large gender gap exists in political participation both at the levels of state and nation” (Mahanta and Nayak 1).

Having said that, here too, women—both tribal and non-tribal—play a pivotal role in the conservation of the environment because of the connection and association that they share with Mother Nature. As has already been mentioned, women have a close bond with the natural surroundings and often suffer most directly from problems related to the environment, and hence women are believed to be champions in environment rehabilitation and conservation. It is also said, “involving women in protecting the environment would help societies develop the sense of responsibility needed to maintain a good balance between humans and the earth’s resources” (Mohan and Sharma 5849). Necessarily, like in the other parts of the country, women in North-East India have exemplified their concern for the environment in numerous occasions too. 

In Assam, where the status of women is even lower as compared to the other seven states, there are instances when women, either individually or in group, are striving for the protection of larger ecology. Dr. Purnima Devi Barman, who is also known as Hargila Baideo (Madam Hargila) founded a group of rural women by the name of ‘Hargila Army’ which works for the protection of the Hargila bird as locally known (i.e., the Greater Adjutant Stork). They also work for the conservation of large trees as the birds require large trees to nest. As part of their agenda, the women make patterns on their sarees and stoles that represent the Hargila bird. Dr. Barman received the prestigious Green Oscars Award (also Whitley Award) in 2017 for her unabated work towards the protection of these endangered birds.

Another woman from Assam Rupjyoti Saikia Gogoi has transformed the environmentalist slogan of “reducing, reusing and recycling” into functionality by practising these in real life. She founded an organisation named ‘Village Weaves’ and empowered the local women to gather plastic wastes from the environment and weave them into handlooms and textiles. This does not only give a considerable financial support to the local women but also help in keeping the natural surrounding free from the harmful effects of plastics.

Another animal conservationist Parbati Barua has been conferred with the Padma Shri Award in 2024 for her exemplary contribution in reducing man-elephant conflicts, not only in Assam but also in the neighbouring states. She is the first female mahout in India, also nicknamed as the Queen of Elephants and Hasti Kanya. She trains mahouts over different places as to how to tame and domesticate elephants by emphasizing on understanding the scientific basis of the elephant training protocol.

In Meghalaya, where matrilineal system is prevalent, a woman stood out amongst all others due to her unique contribution towards nature in general and the upliftment of the status of local women in particular. Thrang Timung, the woman leader, has been contributing immensly to save the tradition of silkworm rearing and cotton cultivation from fading its eminence in the hands of cheaper and easily available products at modern markets. Women of the Umden, a cluster of small villages in the Ribhoi district to which Timung belongs, are makers of organic silk and cotton. This place is renowned not just for its organic silk but also for its philosophy that encourages a lifestyle deeply rooted in nature in contrast sharply to the high-energy consumption lifestyle prevalent in today's world. Timung formed a self-help group (SHG) through which she kept up her age-old tradition of practicing cocoon cultivation and spinning along with her friends from the village. Quite surprisingly, these women also live with numerous insects including worm, flies, spiders and cockroaches by feeding them and taking care of them throughout day and night.

In Nagaland, also known as the Falcon Capital of the world, a journalist turned environment conservationist Bano Haralu founded her way to save the migratory Amur falcons that flocked at their annual stop Doyang reservoir after flying thousands of miles from Serbia, before further continuing their journey to South Africa, their final destination. Her journey as an environmentalist has started after she overheard a rumour that these Amur falcons are being hunted on a large scale. As she investigated, she and her team were surprised to see that huge numbers of Amur falcons being slaughtered and massacred mercilessly for meat and sale in the whole state. Taking into account the fact that India being a signatory to the Convention of Migratory Species, Haralu felt the urgency to take a step to bring an end to this pathetic state of affairs. Haralu’s resolution was successful when a ban was imposed on the hunting of the Amur falcons and the declaration of these birds as a source of ‘pride’ for Nagaland.

Another two young ladies of Dimapur district of Nagaland, Sowete-u K. Letro and Bendangwala Walling have set an example among environmental conservationists with their eccentric strategy to create awareness about the proper disposal of electronic waste, that is, the e-waste management system. They started off in 2018 with the setting up of the first e-waste collection centre in the state called ‘e-Circle’ sanctioned by the Nagaland Pollution Control Board. They went into schools, offices, repair shops and other institutions, collecting e-wastes along with sensitizing people about the proper disposal of e-wastes, which if not disposed off properly will lead to many adverse effects on the environment.

Again, a 12-year-old Manipuri girl Kangujam Licypriya has lately been in news for her participation as a delegate at the United Nations Climate Conference 2023 (COP28) held at Dubai. She spoke at the Conference against the use of fossil fuels and held a placard stating “End fossil fuels. Save our planet and our future.” She also participated at the 2019 UN Climate Change Conference in Madrid. In 2019, she initiated a march at the India Gate in Delhi called the ‘Great October March’ to persuade the government for prompt action on climate change. She has also been a regular visitor in some of the renowned climate related conferences all over the world where she raises her voice against a number of burning issues that are taking a heavy toll on the environment.

These are a few among many other examples of the contribution of women to environmental conservation and also to the welfare and upliftment of their fellow women. Prestigious Jnanpith Awardee from Assam Indira Goswami, popularly known by her pen name Mamoni Raisom Goswami, also holds a noteworthy position in the list. She is famous for her literary expressions of the sense of ecofeminist disquietude through her many award-winning stories. As mentioned by Sadaf Shah, “in her fictional writings, Goswami has shown great ecofeminist concerns by bringing out close connections between women and nature. In her novels Pages Stained with Blood (2001), The Man from Chinnamasta (2005) and a short story collection The Shadow of Kamakhya (2001), Goswami has shown great concerns for women and nature” (38).

Women as Prakriti or Nature

Women in India, to be true, were considered as Prakriti (which means Nature) and worshipped as Shakti (which means Power or Energy) since time immemorial. A quotation from Indira Goswami’s The Blue-necked God makes the traditional depiction of women as Prakriti and Shakti very clear: “Yashoda is making some gifts for cows and Radha is giving birth to nature by planting trees and flowers. These trees and flowers were transforming the whole environment of Vrindavan by healing the sorrows and griefs of the people. Like a selfless mother, nature nurtures the whole humanity without any selfish motive” (qtd. in Shah 40).

However, if we look specifically at the current state of India in general and North-East India in particular, the same depiction of women as Prakriti and Shakti cannot be accepted as true. As has been pointed out earlier, in the long course of India’s history of social evolution, the place of women degraded to a considerable extent which is reflected in the paucity of education, healthcare facilities, political participation and many such areas presently. In such a scenario “if we can create equal space for women to contest election even at the level of local governance in the form of Gram Panchayat, it helps to ensure better community life where gender balance and gender justice can be achieved through the ideals of harmonious coexistence and cooperation” (Banerjee and Mukhopadhyay 664). And from an ecofeminist point of view, it is imperative to accept the equal status of women in society not only to bring about a cohesive social existence but also to facilitate a wider awareness regarding the equal status of the environment among humanity.

Nevertheless, women in North-East as well as India as a whole are working their own way out to get their contribution recognised in every field. And with the course of time there can be seen an improvement in accepting women and their multifaceted roles in the society, be it as an environmental conservationist, a career-oriented and ambitious businesswoman, a political leader or a philanthropist. They have been successful in proving their mettle in whichever field they pursued.

Lately, there has been a growing consciousness regarding the tremendous rate of destruction in the realm of the environment and its disastrous impacts on Mother Earth, whose fury could be seen in ways like erosion, landslides, artificial flooding etc. North-East India being one of the most seismically active zones, people here nowadays are getting more aware regarding the protection of the environment and invention of sustainable ways of development to avoid such disasters. Similarly, there have also been continuous effort for the upliftment of the status of women at various levels through endless struggle for women rights and justice. It must be so, as women and the environment must equally get the attention that they have so long been longing for.  

Conclusion

Many writers with an ecofeminist inclination regard woman and nature as synonymous. So, if the nature of women and Mother Nature are considered as analogous, it is high time that with the development of women’s position in the male dominated societies, we also develop practical ways to sustain Mother Nature. However, merely formulating theories and policies will not help – awareness must be created to implement the same while acknowledging at the same time the roles that women play in the conservation of nature. There are different types of feminist movements which have different demands. But we can assume the ecofeminist concern to be common amongst all, as the oppression of women is viewed in parallel to the oppression of nature and as they both represent the only creative forces both in the human world as well as the world outside humanity. 

To conclude, it is important to understand the fact that development is necessary to make our lives more comfortable, but not at the cost of the environment itself that gives us a reason to live. Parallelly, there is no scope for advancement in societies without giving women the equal amount of respect as that of men. Women must be given due share of participation and progress in all spheres of life which can eventually facilitate a holistic growth and wellbeing both in the society as well as in the environment.

Works Cited 

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