Download Ecofeminist Concerns Sowmya Dechamma

ECOFEMINiST CONCERNS
Sowmya Dechamma
Abstract : Dealing with ecological crises brings forth many questions in terms of its cultural,
political and economic manifestations. Concerns of ecofeminism vary from the obvious
connection between patriarchy and the subjugation of women and nature to a sustainable
economy that is eco-women-centric. Ecofeminism also offers certain positions from where one
can work towards a shift in power positions. This paper attempts to problematise ecofeminst
spirituality. Spirituality within the parameters of ecofeminisim has diverse stances. Whether and
how ecofeminist spirituality deviates from the mainstream spirituality will be answered
indirectly in the course of the paper.
Dealing with ecological crises brings forth many questions in terms of its cultural, political
and economic manifestations. Do we need to isolate the ‘ecological crisis’ or is it necessary to
prioritise various facets of the same?Where does ecofeminst concerns figure in such a debate?
Concerns of ecofeminism vary from the obvious connection between patriarchy and the
subjugation of women and nature to a sustainable economy that is eco-women-centric.
Ecofeminism also offers certain positions from where one can work towards a shift in power
positions. I contest these positions by attempting to show how irrelevant they are to the
contemporary situation in India and also their precarious position given the current contexts. This
paper attempts to problematise ecofeminist positions and its propositions on spirituality. Whether
and how ecofeminist spirituality deviates from the mainstream spirituality will be answered
indirectly in the course of this paper. Though a discussion on ‘what is spirituality’ is inevitable, I
shall confine the discussion to ‘what is ecofeminist spirituality?’
Spirituality within the parameters of ecofeminisim has diverse positions. For some
ecofeminists, it means a radical change from the male-centered monotheistic religions to a
goddess-centered spirituality. This can mean ritualistic practices and theoretical positions that
facilitate a shift in paradigms towards woman and nature based pantheist religions or
spiritualities. Ecological spirituality also refers to a change in attitude where the value of
‘interconnectedness of life’ is recognized and held sacred. A radical position of non-duality
within this interconnectedness, which celebrates the unity of women with nature as against an
anthropocentric/androcentric life-view, is also strongly advocated within some circles. This
position is more in tune with Deep Ecology’s biocentricism. The female principle, seen as the
life-giving force that exists in all beings and non-beings is venerated. This life-force is connected
to women’s sensuality, their sexual energy and their capacity to provide life and provide for life - a common trait they share with nature. Also, many prevalent studies on ecology and spirituality
urge religious institutions and individuals to make use of their positions to create ecological and
gender awareness. In what terms these can be done needs to be explored scrupulously. My
contention is that none of these positions seriously challenge or provide alternatives to ecological
or gender concerns. I shall first briefly outline ecofeminist viewpoints and then provide a critique
of it in terms of what they can possibly mean, given the contemporary Indian context.
Vandana Shiva and Maria Mies writing against capitalist patriarchy and ‘maldevelopment’,
see it as a result of western scientific advancements. Against this backdrop, they argue that the
relevance of rediscovered spirituality lies in
…the sacredness of life, according to which
life on earth can be preserved only if
people again begin to perceive all life
forms as sacred and respect them as such.
This quality is not located in an otherworldly deity, in a transcendence, but in
everything that surround us, in our
immanence (emphasis mine) (Maria mies
and Vandana Shiva, 1993).
Shiva and Mies also raise the issue of relocating the sacred in the form of Shakti and
prakriti, defined by holism, decentralism, plurality and interdependence (Gabriele Dietrich,
1999). They go on to explain how this kind of spirituality is not divorced from the material world
for women. It is their regard for earth as mother, their respect and celebration of earth’s
sacredness and their resistance to commodification, that has guaranteed the survival of the lifeforms of earth. For Shiva and Mies, this stance erases the line between the political and the
sacred. How their positions do not take note of some serious political considerations, will be
discussed later.
Many western-based ecofeminists, some of them of Indian origin, turn towards eastern
religions and pre-historic goodness of the west in their search for non-male, pantheist
spiritualities. From Lynn White Jr. (Lynn White, 1974), whose seminal essay that traced the
exploitation of nature to the Judeo-Christian tradition of the west, to the present day ecofeminists
who look for alternative religious practices, there has been a constant diatribe against Judaism
and Christianity and to a lesser extent against Islam. Carolyn merchant carries the argument
further saying that it was the ‘divine’ permission from the holy which is to be held responsible
not only for legitimizing and justifying exploitation of nature and women, but also for the
momentum it provided to scientific revolutions (Carolyn Merchant, 1993). This goes well with
Shiva’s ideal location of a pre-capital, pre-colonial, essentially Hindu India before the advent of
modern science. Most western-based ecofeminists also move towards the same and
unproblematically embrace Hinduism. Chandra Alexandre, elaborating on the western
ecofeminists affiliation to neo-spirituality, points out how it can act as a counter-force:
Goddess spirituality of the west is one
counter-force that acts on multiple levels to
undermine manipulative patriarchal identity
branding and control. It is a subversive
tactic in part because it can and does, as
many of us have experienced personally,
transcend national, political and religiocultural interests. With this, the goddess of
the west, however envisioned, can join
together, I believe, with a goddess-centered
spirituality of the east.
Alexandre advocates sakta tantra which, according to her, reveres the immanence of the
spirit, rises above duality, provides rituals and practices for dynamically balanced relationships.
To her, Kali as a supreme goddess is a divine direction to break open abrahmanic faiths. Kali
also becomes a symbol for feminine resurrection to a few feminists and ecofeminists who see a
void in their goddessless spiritual/religious traditions. Hence the tendency to over-estimate the
symbolic presence of goddesses. Also, the symbol does not lead to the separation of myth/belief
from practice, which in India has an unbridgeable gap. This view overlooks how women
were/are excluded from ritual practices that supposedly make men spiritual and the ‘chosen’ for
salvation. It also overlooks the fact that both women and nature were/are considered in terms of
property and as enticing bonds that one had to rise above to attain spirituality. These ecofeminist
positions remain narrow in their approach because they fail to address the heterosexual family as
the core unit of patriarchy and capital accumulation at the cost of ecology. In this context, one
has to say that veneration of goddesses can also be dangerous since Lakshmi, the goddess of
wealth is ardently worshipped; and as already said, deified goddesses and reality are two very
separate entities that are evident in gender-wise and caste-wise distribution of wealth and
property in India.
Conceding that one can see no evidence of goddess indicated political or social power for
women, Rita Gross senses a ‘tremendous respect for the feminine side of humanity and
experience’(Rita Gross, 1993). Prakruthi, according to the Hindu scriptures, and valorized by
Vandana Shiva’s brand of ecofeminism, signifies the eternal female principle representing
substance and nature. And, the source of the female energy, shakti, which when united with
purusha, the male principle -- completes the spiritual realm (Leigh Minturn, 1999). The entire
universe is said to have been created out of their union. Sensual reality is thought to be maya, or
illusion, the only true reality being the invisible spiritual realm. The problem with such
discourses is that once ideas are sorted symbolically in the perceptive level, the resolution of it
never occurs.
Moving to ecofeminist ways of practice, Vasudha Narayanan (Vasudha Narayanan, 2001)
basing her analysis on Shiva’s concept of maldevelopment due to colonial-patriarchal-capitalistscience, argues that positive traits of Hinduism need to be harnessed by religious institutions and
individuals to address ecological crisis and gender inequality -- the connection between those
two which she discerns as alien to hindu society. She cites examples from Satya Sai Baba’s clean
drinking water drive, ISKCON’s collaboration with WWF, World Wild Life Fund for Nature, to
clean river Yamuna and Brindavan, Tirupathi temple trust’s prasadam in the form of saplings as
initiatives towards a harmonious society. These philanthropist and welfarist activities though
obviously not carried out in the name of ecofeminism, but suggested in order to tap religious
resources by some women of ecofeminist concerns towards a balanced society, fail to question
the base of domination, whether ecological or patriarchal. Such ‘charity’ can only popularize the
‘generosity’ of rich upper caste gods and do nothing in terms of systemic changes in societal
structures that are necessary.
Studies have pointed out that it is indeed women who are the worst victims of ecological
deterioration. But, how concretely does spiritual ecology or ecofeminist spirituality address
deterioration? It is obvious that the goddess symbol asserts a) the female power, b) the female
body, c) the female will and d) women’s bonding and heritage (Carol Christ, 1996). Apart from
these individualist, ideological and psychological effects, can goddess based spirituality evoke
responses that can seriously pose a challenge to existing male religion and ecological
exploitation if not to patriarchy and to androcentricism? As Nivedita Menon puts it, will this
spiritual awareness translate into organized agitation? It is important to note that the Hindu right
wing has been able to successfully tap the spirituality of Indian women without disturbing the
family system (Nivedita Menon, 1999). Among women, spirituality has been politicized without
even creating the smallest of ripples in hegemonic structures of Hindu family and society. And as
Gabriele Dietrich points out, goddesses in India have been manipulated into housewives,
domesticated consorts and into communalized versions of undomesticated, unspousified devis -projected by some extremists during the freedom struggle and resurrected today by communal
organizations (Gabriele Dietrich, 1999). This spirituality therefore doesn’t possess a potential to
overcome repressive social, economic and political structures that are the needs of the hour.
Ecofeminists usually turn to the eastern religions, specifically to brahmanical Hinduism in
search of a goddess-centered spirituality. This valorizes selective Hindu values and essentialises
‘hindu’ as a homogenous category. Goddess worship and nature worship is traced to tantric and
brahmanical rituals and a ‘glorious era’ for women and nature is located in the context of ancient
vedic/brahmanical texts. The myth of the ‘glorious era’ though broken by many historians is still
conveniently held sacred by many ecofeminists and right wing extremists. The result is the
creation of an ‘allowed space’ for women and nature and a slight shift in focus or digression
from actual concerns. The fact that less than one percent of Vedic text is about women and that
there are hardly any women scholars of Sanskrit, a language and knowledge reserved for ‘pure’
men is often ignored. More importantly, these propositions do not highlight the lived experiences
of women and their relation to nature. The history of women who fall outside the purview of
‘sacred’ texts never gets mentioned. It is all the more important to point this out since it is this
‘outsider woman’ who would have had a dynamic relation with nature. Since perceptions among
Indians about the spiritual, goddess, god and the sacred have never been homogenous, the effort
to find answers in a past by reconstructing it is an imaginative effort of people who are driven by
new crises of our times. Also, shakti, the feminine principle based on upper caste Hindu terms,
offers no respite to the religious diversity of India. Therefore, other than essentialising women
and nature as homogenous categories, the life-force or female principle that connects women and
nature is a problematic proposition because it doesn’t concern itself with the historic and social
constructs of women and nature.
Bina Agarwal further problematises the nature-women-spiritual connection in such an
ideological realm and recognizes the problem of essentialising third world and its women. She
feels the need to critically question many such ideological constructs to which ecofeminism falls
prey.
It is critical to examine the underlying basis
of women’s relationship with non-human
world at levels other than ideology, such as
through the work women and men do and
the gender division of property and power,
and to address how the material realities in
which women of different
classes/castes/races are rooted might affect
their response to environmental
degradation (Bina Agarwal, 1999).
Acknowledging Vandana Shiva’s work on how capitialist colonialism has affected our
ecological economics, Agarwal points out the fact that her work is not clear about ‘how and in
which historical period the concept of feminine principle in practice affected gender relations or
relations between people and nature’(Bina Agarwal, 1999). Even if one attributes the present
evils of our society to capitalism, colonialism and western models of development, the
unproblematic assumption that Hindu India was eco-women-centric and sustainable prior to all
the above is highly questionable. The social and economic injustice prevalent in terms of caste
hierarchies remains unaddressed -- i.e. ecologically patriarchal society based on caste division of
labour, is perfectly compatible on these lines of argument (Menon Nivedita, 1999). The fact that
pre-colonial India’s sustainable economies were based on the caste division of labour that was
blatantly exploitative is neglected. This is much needed since relations among men, women and
ecology in India still defined in terms of hierarchies of caste and class. Hence the New
Traditionalist’s move towards a pre-colonial India can only harm the interests of dalit and
feminist movements.
Invoking Hindu spirituality today she also opens up the possibility of an appropriation by the
Hindu Right. What Vasudha Narayan sees as positive initiatives can also be seen as co-option. I
see it as further justifying hegemonic institutionalised powers. The angry goddess or the
disillusioned mother earth of ecofeminists can be looked at as a passing phase provoked by
irrational, emotional women. A feminist goddess though ideal, is too far an ideal and in all
probabilities, will remain an ideal. The immediate concern is to consider the actual living
relations of people struggling for survival, especially women, to that of the ecology they work
with. The question of how these communities identify themselves with the ecology they interact
with is very important. Do they visualize their relation with ecology as sacred? If so, is it sacred
in terms of female principle? And, do they connect this principle to their sensual, sexual energies
and the life-force of women and nature? This un-viable neo spirituality therefore is strongly
disconnected from the people for whom ecofeminism makes its claims. This is precisely so
because it is unable to make even minimal changes in their entrenched livelihoods.
A force that can easily appropriate spirituality in its fold is the globalised market. This is
already prominent with both right wing forces and capital forces vying for profit through yoga,
meditation, spiritual healing centers, natural/traditional health practices and much more. A
globalised spirituality is the last thing we need at this juncture. Other than these problems, there
exist certain paradoxes within ecofeminism as a discourse:
a) The celebration of non-duality/unity and the emphasis on interconnectedness and
interdependence. Critique on deconstruction is prominent amongst essentialist-spiritual
ecofeminists, who also call for an ‘interconnectedness of life’(Charlene Spretnak, 1997). How
can sublimity/unity that calls for a spiritual salvation augur with interdependence?
b) Neo-spirituality at best can operate at individual levels, as a radical humanist effort to displace
ideological bases. Since sustainable economy is all about community living, how does one fit
these two together among people of diverse beliefs and traditions?
c) The goddess invoked is she a unified female power or power unified? Isn’t that centralisation
as opposed to the emphasised decentralised life?
d) ‘Interconnectedness of life’ emphasises human relations with nature/ecology. How can one
define interconnectedness among human beings in terms of caste/class/religious beliefs? The
failure to address these is where Shiva basically flounders.
Considering these, questioning sacredness for me ceases to be a prioritised need in the material
lives of women and men struggling for survival. As Bina Agarwal and Gabriele Dietrich argue,
there is a need to relate ecological struggle and struggle against patriarchy/caste system in terms
of material, productive economies. Instead of grappling with how religious space can be
exploited to provide ecological spaces to larger communities, our resources need to be channeled
towards a more secular-material, ecological space.
REFERENCES
Agarwal, Bina. (1999) ‘The Gender and Environment Debate’ in Nivedita Menon ed. Gender
and Politics in India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi.
Alexandre, Chandre. ‘Ecofeminism and Tantra: A Brief Look at Similarities and Possibilities’.
Christ, Carol. (1996) ‘Why Women Need the Goddess?’ in Carolyn Merchant ed. Key Concepts
in Critical Theory : Ecology, Rawat Publications, Jaipur.
Dietrich, Gabriele. (1999) ‘Women, Ecology and Culture’, in Nivedita Menon ed. Gender and
Politics in India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi.
Gross, Rita. (1993) as quoted in Leigh Minturn, Sita’s Daughters: Coming out of Purdah. The
Rajput Women of Khalapur Revisited, Oxford University Press, New York.
Menon, Nivedita. (1999) Introduction in Nivedita Menon ed. Gender and Politics in India,
Oxford University Press, New Delhi.
Merchant, Carolyn. (1993) The Death of Nature, Zed Books, London.
Mies, Maria and Vandana Shiva. (1993) Ecofeminism, Kali for Women, New Delhi.
Narayanan, Vasudha. ‘Water, Wood, and Wisdom : Ecological Perceptions from the Hindu
Tradition’ in www.daedalus.amacad.org/issues/fall2001/narayanan.htm
Spretnak, Charlene. (1997) ‘Radical Non-duality in Ecofeminist Philosophy’ in Karen J.Warren
ed. Ecofeminism: Women, Culture and Nature, Indiana University Press, Bloomington.
White, Lynn. (1974) ‘The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis’, in David and Eileen Spring
eds. Ecology and Religion in History, Harper and Row, New York.
Contributor
Sowmya Dechamma : Presently teaching in the Dept. of English at Jamia Millia Islamia, New
Delhi. Is pursuing her doctoral study at the University of Hyderabad on ‘An Ecofeminist Critique
of Indian Texts’.