ECOFEMINISM – A TIME IMMEMORIAL INDIAN CONCEPT

Indian society has always been a patriarchal one. Beginning from the age of Vedas and Upanishads, women were considered inferior to men. It isn’t that the old ones depict women of that stature, but their retellings too do the same. Here is one example:

“Gods do; Goddesses are. Gods are active; Goddesses are passive. Goddesses may be knowledge, wealth and power but it is Gods who are knowledgeable, wealthy and powerful. Thus the male form of divinity represents the subject. The female form represents the object.”²

(Page No.:31)

In this case, though the author tries to bring out the idea that men and women are complementary to each other, it actually seems to be like women supplement men, and do not complement.

            Similarly, in many retellings of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, women are portrayed to be acquired and used by men just like the way men do to land. A few of the instances include:

            In a few of the Mahabharata retellings, there is a scene where Lord Agni requests Arjun to put a forest to flames, an act which was opposed by Lord Indra. Out of his respect for Lord Agni, Arjun burns the entire forest. Here, men seem to destroy their environment at their own whims and fancies. Similarly, the city of Indraprastha was said to be built by the Pandavas only after killing the wildlife that was living at the khandav forest. This, again, proves how men have taken nature and the ecosystem for granted in destroying and exploiting them.

“The forest was still burning around us when my husbands called me to the makeshift canopy that had served as our home since we arrived in Khandav. There weren’t any animals left in the wilderness of Khandav – not since Arjun set the forest on fire.”³

(Page No.:141)

            On the one hand, men have exploited the land; on the other, they have done the women. The first generation of the women characters of the Mahabharata – Amba, Ambika and Ambalika – were acquired by Bheeshma. They weren’t chosen, but were literally acquired and were taken to the Kuru kingdom. Another instance is when Draupadi was supposed to choose all the five Pandavas as her husbands. She was never given a chance to think or a choice to make. She was put in a position where she had to marry all the five, and they were rules laid for her to live – every year she had to live with one husband and she would regain her virginity by the end of every year. She did not even have the liberty to be with the person she liked. This is one of the greatest oppressions a woman had been put into.

            Fate’s biggest punishment to Draupadi was not just she getting married to five husbands, but she being disrobed in the court in front of everyone present there. This has been beautifully illustrated in two retellings:

“Draupadi’s humiliation is witnessed by all the kings of the earth. But none step forward to help her. This dramatic episode draws attention to the tragedy of laws that in their dispassionate execution forget the resson dharma exists in the first place: to enable the weak to thrive.”⁴

(Page No.: 127)

            The next is from a woman’s point of view:

“Their notions of honour, of loyalty toward each other, of reputation were more important to them than my suffering. They would avenge me later, ye, but only when they felt their circumstances would bring them heroic fame. A woman doesn’t think that way. I would have thrown myself forward to save them if it had been in my power that day.”⁵

(Page No.:195)

            These instances prove how women have always been just objects for men than having played the roles of their counterparts. This is the kind of society that has been prevailing from that day till now. Men have never treated women and nature with great respect. Though women are considered to be Goddesses in certain parts of our country, men still continue to regard women and land as sources of fertility. The present day India is the best example to defend this idea. Though we boast off as Indians for living in a safe, secure nation, women cannot still travel alone anywhere, for they might be exploited by men. Unless and until men consider the Mother Nature as their own mother and the sisters of others as their own sisters, India can never be a developed nation – a nation worthy of happy, civilized survival.

            To understand a woman, one must understand nature, and vice-versa. This is explained through the following lines:

“Sharon Doubiago asserts that ‘ecology consciousness is traditional woman consciousnesses. Women have always thought like mountains, to allude to Aldo Leopold’s paradigm for ecological thinking.”⁶

(Page No.: 27)

WORKS CITED:

1.      Garrard, Greg. Ecocriticism. (Page No.: 26) Routledge Publishers. 2011. Print.

2.      Dr.Pattanaik, Devdutt. Myth=Mithya. Penguin Books India. 2006. Print.

3.      Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee. The Palace of Illusions. Picador Publishers India. 20018. Print.

4.      Dr.Pattanaik, Devdutt. Myth=Mithya. Penguin Books India. 2006. Print.

5.      Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee. The Palace of Illusions. Picador Publishers India. 20018. Print.

6.      Garrard, Greg. Ecocriticism. Routledge Publishers. 2011. Print.

SSincere thanks to RAGHAVI NARAYAN, India.