PSTE TUTORIAL By: Atul Chhabra

MA Development
Studies

Question: “Since it is woman’s work that protects and conserves life in forestry
and in agriculture...the destruction of the integrity of the forest ecosystems is
mostly vividly and concretely experienced by the peasant women.” In the light
of this statement, discuss the relationship between women and nature.
Substantiate your answer with a critical assessment of the feminist discourses.

Answer- Forests in the South Asian region have maintained a different stature all together.
Different religions and cultures are linked to these natural resources in some sense or the other. The
diversity, harmony and self sustaining nature of the forests have been instrumental in forming the
organizational principles that guide the Indian civilization. The forest as the highest expression of
the earth’s fertility and productivity is symbolized as the Earth Mother as Vana Durga or the Tree
Goddess. Why I have written ‘mother’, ‘durga’ and ‘goddess’ in bold is to highlight the gender
which is feminine in all these cases. According to Shiva (1999), “ Nature, both animate and
inanimate, is thus an expression of Shakti, the feminine and creative principle of the cosmos in
conjunction with the masculine principle (Purusha), Prakriti creates the world.” (p. 38). From the
very beginning, women have been seen as the ‘producers‘ of life who have been instrumental not
just in nurturing the children but also in conserving and regenerating the nature.

Contrasting to our views on nature and forests, the Western views have been a lot different. Here
nature has been seen as the environment or a natural resource, whereby the environment is separate
from man. It is put into the ‘surroundings’ category but not in unison with the humans as in the case
of our tradition. This very dualism between man and nature has led to the subjugation and
exploitation of the latter by the former. As a result of this divide between the two and also the
subjugation of nature by man, there is another suppression, which is that of women. This view has
displaced more ecological world-views and brought about a development paradigm which cripples
the nature and women simultaneously. This dichotomy of man dominating woman and nature
generates maldevelopment instead since it makes the colonizing male the agent and model of
‘development’. For women, whose productivity is based on the nature’s productivity, the death of
prakriti is in a direct manner the beginning of their marginalization and devaluation. (Shiva, 1988,
p. 41,42).
Women the Nurturers and men the Marketeers
Women produce and reproduce life not just literally in the biological sense but also through their
social role in providing sustenance, food and water. As the principle of creating and conserving life
is being lost in the world of growing consumerism, it is still conserved in the lifestyle of the forest
dwelling and peasant women. Women bear a very productive relationship with nature because they
not only collect and consume what grows in nature but also make things grow. This organic process
where women and nature work in partnership with each other has created a special of relationship
of women with nature. In both forest and agriculture based economies, it is the women only who
manage the produce of the forests and trees. In areas like Himalayas where the tree fodder is an
important element of agriculture, one can find older women training the younger ones in the art of
lopping and collecting the forest produce. Food gathering and fodder collection has been the
primary work of women over ages and so their effectiveness at managing and renewing the
diversity of the forest comes natural. They transfer fertility from the forests to the fields and to the
animals. Animal waste is transferred as fertilizers for crops and crop by-products as fodder to
animals. They work with forests to bring water to the fields and families. It is this vital partnership
between women and nature that ensures sustainability but is time and again challenged by the
patriarchal project of development brought about through industrialization and commercialization.

Productivity viewed from the perspective of survival is at a great contrast with the productivity of
labor being viewed from the perspective of capital formation. Ideally a ‘productive’ man is the one
who produces commodities for economic gains by using the elements of nature and women’s work
as raw material and gets away with the rest as a ‘waste’. The irony being that the women who are
engrossed in all kinds of conservative, rejuvenating and regenerating activities of producing and
reproducing life are termed as ‘unproductive’. The wealth created by women and nature becomes
invisible while the male labor who is working towards producing the vicious cycle of comfort
providing commodities is seen and recognized over and above the rest. It is the invisible work of
women only that conserves the nature through maintaining ecological cycles and sustains human
life through satisfying the basic needs of food, nutrition and water. But surprisingly the maintenance
of ecological cycles has no place in political economy of commodity and cash flows. It is this
devaluation and de-recognition of nature’s work and productivity that has led to the current
ecological crisis and inequality between men and women. The debt trap which is part of globalized
commodity production and sale destroys the nurturing nature and nurturing economies in the name
of development.
Difficulties faced by women with respect to colonialism by Outsiders and the
Natives
Marginalization of the women first began when the British colonized India. They exploited the
forest reserves of the country and used them as a never ending timber mine to satisfy its monstrous
greed to industrialize. Without even considering the knowledge of local peoples on how to
sustainably manage the forests, they went on to ravage the natural wealth and displaced the local
rights and needs of the people. There was a rapid forest denudation by the British. Teak and Timber
was extracted for the King’s Navy (mainly ship building), Sal and Conifers were exploited for the
railway system. Large amount of deforestation took place in order to increase the area for
cultivation of crops like opium and enhance plantations of tea, all of which bore economic value to
the British. This kind of commercial forestry was equated to ‘scientific forestry’ by such narrow
interests and exemplified the beginning of a patriarchal and reductionist regime. Soon the women’s
subsistence economy based on the forest was replaced by the commercial economy of British
colonialism. It generated poverty at socioeconomic levels for those whose livelihoods and
productivity depended upon the forests.
Ignoring the complex relationship within the forest community and between plant life and other
resources like soil and water, generates instabilities in the ecosystems and self reproducing
resources. This destruction of the forest ecosystem hurts the interests of those groups of society,
mainly women and tribals who depend on the diverse resource functions such as water, herbs,
tubers, fodder, fertilizer, fuel, fiber, etc. from the forests for their survival. Unchecked deforestation
that has taken place over years in the pursuit of patriarchal interests of industrialization and
commercialization have only resulted in the commodification of forests. It has had several
damaging effects such as desertification, flooding, climate change, increased landslides, silting, etc.
which have become challenging issues today. Depletion in the area of forests is making life all the
more difficult for the women who go to forests for collecting firewood to cook food. Time spent in
traveling has increased, making them spend half of their day on this task alone. This creates further
trouble as they get scolded by their family members for getting late or not getting enough firewood.
Longer hours of head loading also is detrimental to their health. To lesser their burden the women
often take their daughters along to help them. This again has a bad impact as the time which should
be ideally spent on their education goes in this task, thus causing no improvement in the poor
education level of the girl child in villages.
In the same way there are problems being faced for collecting water. Since the forest cover helps in
stabilizing the water table, diminution in the forest cover leads to lower water levels causing more
time and labor in obtaining water. Due to difficulties faced in collecting firewood and water,
alterations in the cooking pattern have been observed. Foods that take less time for cooking or
require less water are generally prepared. In certain cases where the access to water and firewood is
even more difficult, it has also been found that people have reduced the number of meals per day.
As a result of these poor conditions, cases of malnutrition and even suicides have occurred. In the
words of Hima Devi, a social worker representing the voice of women, at a demonstration and
protest against auctions throughout the hill districts said “My sisters are busy in harvesting the
kharif crop.....I have come to you with their message. Stop cutting trees. There are no trees for even
birds to perch on. Birds flock to our crops and eat them. What will we eat? The firewood is
disappearing: How will we cook?” This makes us realize how much terrible the lives of these
women and other tribal groups who depend on forests can get as a result of these insensitive
activities conducted by the blind followers of the Western capitalism. What is interesting is that
these problems did not end even after India got free from the British Raj. They have still continued
in front of the very eyes of our policy makers and enforcers but still not enough action has been
taken to at least defend these unfortunate people of the forest who continue to experience the new
colonialism of capitalism, patriarchy and ‘globalization’.

Gender Ideologies and the support for the Feminine principle

In a gender based ideology, the categories of ‘masculine’ & ‘feminine’ are not socially or culturally
constructed but on the other hand are regarded as biologically determined. Under the gender
ideology, masculinity is considered to be superior to femininity and the concept of women as the
‘other’. In this asymmetrical relationship, femininity is ideologically constructed as everything that
is not masculine and must be subjected to domination. According to Shiva (1988) “De Beauvoir
accepts the patriarchal categorization of women as passive, weak and unproductive. He subscribes
to the myth of man- the-hunter as a superior being.” (p. 49). Maria Mies holding on from the other
strand argues that the relationship of man-the-hunter with nature was necessarily violent,
destructive and predatory, in sharp contrast to the relationship that woman-the-gatherer or cultivator
had and that the activity of men was only a small part of sustenance. Contrasting to the views of
Beauvoir who saw liberation as masculinization of the world, as defined within the categories of
gender ideology, Herbert Marcuse sees liberation as the feminization of the world but they both
however agree to the notion of feminine and masculine as natural, biologically defined traits having
an independent existence.
However there is a third concept of liberation that is trans-gender. It recognizes that masculine and
feminine as gendered concepts, are only ideologically determined as is the association of violence
and activity with the former and non violence and passivity with the latter. Rajani Kothari observes
that “The feminist input serves not just women but also men.” Though distinct, they remain
inseparable in dialectical unity, as two aspects of one being. The assimilation of the feminine
principle is based on the factor of inclusiveness. According to Shiva (1988) “It is the recovery in
nature, woman and man of creative forms of being and perceiving. In nature it implies seeing nature
as a living organism. In women..., as productive and active. Finally, in men the recovery of
feminine principle implies a relocation of action and activity to create life-enhancing, not life-
reducing and life-threatening societies.” (p. 53)

Women’s resilience in action

The most celebrated initiative taken up by women will have to be the great Chipko movement. The
women of Garhwal in pursuit of protecting their forest lands from commercial exploitation clung to
the trees without caring for their own lives to protect the trees from being cut. This methodology
and philosophy of Chipko spread across to all directions- In Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka,
Rajasthan, Orissa, central highlands and many more parts of the country. The women have taken
several measures and actions to curb different kinds of negative issues pertaining to forests and
nature. With confidence in their strength being exemplified via Chipko movement, they have tried
to raise voice in many more situations of injustice against environment. Women throughout India
have resisted the expansion of Eucalyptus because of its destruction of water, soil and food systems.
Women in Uttarakhand also began an anti-alcohol movement aimed at controlling addiction of
alcohol among men who earned money by felling trees. They had realized that it was the same
patriarchal force in action that was creating a cash economy along with destitution and drunkenness
in the name of development. Cases such as those of Mahila Mandal Dal allocating duties among
village women to guard the forests in the instance of a corrupt forest guard are a showcase of their
remarkable resilience to protect the forests.
Chipko women showcase a responsible, aware and non-violent alternative to the violence of
reductionist forestry measures. Their efforts as true silviculturalists and forest managers yet again
re-enforce the fact that women share a special bond with nature and work towards producing a
sustainable and happier life.

References:
Shiva, V. (1988). Women in Nature. In V. Shiva, Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and
Survival in India (pp. 38-54). Delhi: Kali For Women.

Shiva, V. (1999). Women in the Forest. In G. A. James, Ethical Perspectives on

Environmental Issues in India (pp. 73-110). Delhi: APH Publishing corporation.
Agarwal, B. (1995). The Woodfuel Problem. In S. Corbridge, Development Studies: A
Reader (pp. 200-216). London: Edward Arnold.