Femininity and motherhood interwoven with earth and nature

Hans India

3 days ago

Contributions to the world of literature. His book 'Woman-Nature Interface: An Ecofeminist Study' is a collection of essays that critically explore the interconnectedness of women and nature, particularly through an ecofeminist lens. Ecofeminism, as a feminist movement, is a recent branch of feminism that intertwines feminism and environmentalism to discuss women-nature connections in terms of degradation, exploitation, and injustices that lead to the oppression of women and the domination of men in patriarchal society. Similarly, Giri's book presents women's narratives entwined with ecology and environmental concerns, foregrounding societal norms that exercise unjust dominance over both women and the natural world.
The book weaves together nature, mother, woman, and the creator of all living beings. As nature, in recent times, is ravaged indiscriminately by mankind and faces a severe threat of extinction, so too is a woman's existence at stake due to the patriarchal value structure that subordinates women's position to men in society. Destabilizing conventional attitudes toward women and nature, Giri's book seeks the preservation of both, championing the feminist movement's goal of achieving equality.
The idea that women are identical to nature is also foregrounded through the actions and outlooks adopted by women towards nature. The book explores how women have launched numerous movements demanding better protection of natural resources, environmental conservation, as well as economic equity and social justice. In this connection, women are found to show comparatively greater awareness toward nature and the environment than their male counterparts. Women's soft corner for nature, as reflected in many past records in books, magazines, and newspapers, proves that women are closely connected to nature and have maintained this bond since time immemorial. Throughout history, women and the environment have been closely bound and interconnected, as evidenced by the immortalization of women as powerful symbols of nature: Mother Earth, Earth Goddess, Artemis in Greek mythology, and Mother River in Chinese history.
Giri's book touches on almost every aspect that can be included in women-nature studies. It includes extensive discussion of many literary texts such as Katherine Mansfield's 'Prelude,' Anuradha Roy's 'Folded Earth,' Kamala Markandya's 'Nectar in a Sieve,' K. R. Usha's 'Monkey Man,' Kalidasa's 'Shakuntala,' Margaret Mitchell's 'Gone with the Wind,' Dvija Kanai's 'Mahua the Gypsy Girl,' Anita Desai's 'In Custody' and 'Fire on the Mountain,' and William Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' and 'The Taming of the Shrew.' However, the uniqueness of this book lies in its inclusivity. Though most of the essays are literary in nature and explore the woman-nature relationship in reference to literature from the past, some essays make this book interdisciplinary by studying the woman-nature relationship through other branches of learning such as history, philosophy, geography, economics, and political science. Apart from literary texts, topics such as the feminization of agriculture and its implications, the social position of pastoral and urban working females, and the impact of globalization on women and nature are also discussed. This book will surely help scholars in further studies of feminism and ecology from ecofeminist perspectives.
(Seneca Laureate Dr. Jernail Singh Anand, is an eminent poet, columnist and environmental activist whose name adorns the Poets' Rock in Serbia.)