Women, Nature and
Patriarchy: An Ecofeminist
Analysis of Mahasweta Devi’s Novel The Book of the Hunter
Ishfaq Ahmad Baba,
PhD Research Scholar,
Department of English,
Maulana Azad National Urdu University,
Lucknow Campus,
Uttar Pradesh, India.
&
Dr. Huma Yaqub,
Professor,
Department of English,
Maulana Azad National Urdu University,
Lucknow Campus,
Uttar Pradesh, India.
Abstract: Ecofeminism operates as a critical lens that
interrogates the interlinked structures of environmental degradation and
patriarchal control. By theorizing the mutual subjugation of nature and women,
it resists intersecting hierarchies and posits an ethical paradigm of justice,
care, and ecological balance. Ecofeminists also take into the consideration the
suffering of women, subjugation of indigenous people and marginalized strata of
life, simultaneously, depicting the ecological depletion induced bysocial
structures such as patriarchy, colonialism and capitalism.
This research paper explores the fictional
narrative, The Book of the Hunter which
delineates on tribal identity, and environmental decline. This research paper
adopts the frame work of ecofeminism to map the habitational struggle of Shabar
community; particularly the women; induced by gradual destruction of the locale
wherein the tribe dwells. The research paper reflects on the parallel
exploitation of the women of Shabar tribe, the broader socio-environmental
crisis by illustrating how environmental degradation and patriarchal forces
collectively undermine not only indigenous communities and the tribal women but
also distort the nature with same force. It offers a critique of ecological
concerns and struggles of indigenous women and further talks about the
importance of environmental sustainability and preservation of tribal customs
and rituals.
Keywords: Ecofeminism, Tribal,
Anthropocentrism, Androcentric, Environmental degradation.
Ecofeminism is a theoretical and activist movement that
draws a relation between environmental degradation and exploitation of women. Ecofeminism
propounds that both environment and women are oppressed due to patriarchy and capitalistic
forces. The fundamental argument of ecofeminism is to explain that colonialism
and patriarchy treat nature and women as resources to be exploited by their
imperialistic methods and policies that govern the social and market
structures. Ecofeminism focuses on the impact of environmental deprivation on marginalized
communities particularly women in indigenous and rural societies. Ecofeminist
scholars explain how in the scheme of patriarchy, both women and nature appear
as the other. Trish Glazebrook in her paper, “Karen Warren's Ecofeminism”
states:
Environmental and feminist issues have their basis in the
logic of domination that underwrites patriarchy, so feminists and
environmentalists can form an alliance in the face of a common enemy, as it
were, but for the connection between feminism and ecology to be necessary, it
would have to be shown that patriarchy is inherently naturist. (Glazebrook 15)
Ecofeminist
philosophy aims to analyse and provide solutions to issues such as “Deforestation,
water pollution, farming and food production, and toxins and hazardous waste
location must be integrally connected to an understanding of the plight and
status of women, people of color, the poor, and children ...” (Glazebrook 15). Ecofeminism
tries to streamline mainstream environmental policies to shed light on women
and marginalized communities. It exposes the patriarchal hypocrisies and how
capitalists frame policies and narratives to muzzle the fragile voices. Yıldız Merve
Öztürkin her paper “An Overview of Ecofeminism: Women, Nature and Hierarchies” debates
on the passive roles of nature and women in the patriarchal set up:
Since both women and nature are inferior in the
male-centred hierarchy, they have passive and dependent roles. Women are
passive and dependent because they are seen as incapable beings because of
their reproductivity, and it also prevents them from gaining financial freedom.
Giving birth is seen as their natural duty; therefore, the society generalises
women’s dependency on men. On the other hand, since nature is not an active
being intrinsically, it cannot overpower humans. That is, humans are
intellectually more powerful than animals, and it causes a hierarchy between
them and reinforces the dependence of nature. (Merve Öztürk 710).
Women since the inception of mankind were treated
unfairly by men. Patriarchy has historically devised different roles for women
aligning them with domesticity, caregiving, and emotional labour to keep them
engaged as subordinates. Ecofeministic discourse critically deliberates on
socio linguistic construct of women by identifying the terminology adapted by
the patriarchal framework to demean their physical, psychological, political
and economic status. The description of female gender using terms such as
“nurturer” “mother” “caretaker” etc. is a linguistic apparatus of male
hegemony. These man-made discourses allowed patriarchy to exploit both
environment and women.Bronwyn James in her article “Is Ecofeminism Relevant?”
states:
Ecofeminists assert that both women and nature have been
mutually degraded and devalued.... Central to this assertion lies the
assumption that women are closer to nature than men are. Although there is
consensus among ecofeminists that women's close association with nature is
grounded in their biological function of reproduction… (James 8-9).
Women and nature are colonized by man to extract
resources under the garb of legal, cultural and conscious justification to keep
them deprived as inferior and subservient to man. Rosemary Radford Ruether; one
of the pioneers in the field of ecofeminism, in her paper “Ecofeminism: First and
Third World Women” explains the paradigm of exploitation as:
…the cultural-symbolic patterns by which both women and
nature are inferiorized and identified with each other as an ideological
superstructure by which the system of economic and legal domination of women,
land, and animals is justified and made to appear "natural" and
inevitable within a total patriarchal cosmovision. Ecofeminists who stress this
socio-economic analysis underlying the patriarchal ideology of subordination of
women and nature also wish to include race and class hierarchy as well. (Ruether
35).
Apart from Scio-economic control; the advent of
scientific knowledge brought with itself modern discourses and technology that
helped patriarchy to further control the narrative against women and nature
providing men the authority of exploiting women and plundering natural
resources thus enabling them to become master of women and natural resources. Vandana
Shiva in her book Staying Alive Women: Ecology and Survival in India (1988)
describes scientific knowledge as “a patriarchal project”:
At a deeper level, scientific knowledge, on which the
development process is based, is itself a source of violence. Modern
reductionist science, like development, turns out to be a patriarchal project,
which has excluded women as experts, and has simultaneously excluded ecological
and holistic ways of knowing which understand and respect nature's processes
and interconnectedness as science. (Vandana Shiva 14).
Therefore, we can argue that man with the help of
technology and modern scientific knowledge created avenues to subordinate both
nature and women and exploited them for maintaining the patriarchal and
gender-based bias. The impact was also felt by the marginalized groups and
indigenous communities. Women and nature suffer despite the fact that they provide
sustenance to survival of mankind. Ecofeminism considers women more liberal and
spiritual than their male counterparts because she bears the compassion and
care for biodiversity. The dominating nature of man taught him selfishness and
manipulation of resources; therefore, he believes himself the centre of great
chain of being and enjoys the impunity to exploit nature and women. Greg
Garrard in her book Ecocriticism observes that ecofeminism underlines
the point that it is not just anthropocentrism which has done great harm to
nature but also androcentric dualism which has bestowed superior position to
man thus giving them the power and authority to exploit both women and nature:
Deep ecology identifies the anthropocentric dualism
humanity/ nature as the ultimate source of anti-ecological beliefs and
practices, but ecofeminism also blames the androcentric dualism man/ woman. The
first distinguishes humans from nature on the grounds of some alleged quality
such as possession of an immortal soul or rationality, and then assumes that
this distinction confers superiority upon humans. The second distinguishes men
from women on the grounds of some alleged quality such as larger brain size,
and then assumes that this distinction confers superiority upon men. (Garrard
26).
Suffering of Tribal Women and Forest
Denudation inThe Book of the Hunter
Indian society has a rich tapestry of social and cultural
customs as an effect of tribes, traditions, languages, ethnicity and religions.
India, a home of 1.5 billion populations, presents a binary of socio-cultural
situations experienced by its inhabitants. Anthropologists and the Constitution
of India identify a special class of people denoted by the term tribals or
Adivasis residing within the boundaries of the state. The people living in
modernised or industrialised urban topographies enjoin the luxurious living
with rest of the world in every walk of life. However, the life of a tribal
presents a completely different picture. The reason for categorising the
tribals as a different set of people from the rest of the nation can be
observed in their manner of living, their habitation, their food habits, their
agricultural practices and in their customs. According to tribal co-operative
marketing development federation of India limited:
The areas inhabited by the tribal constitute a
significant part of the under developed areas of the country. India’s
population includes nearly one hundred million tribal people. The two main
regions of tribal settlement are the country’s northeastern states bordering
China and Burma, and the highlands and plains of its central and southern
regions. The latter is home to more than 80 per cent of the tribes, which
differ from the northeastern tribes in ethnicity and in having experienced greater
“intrusion of the Indian mainstream and of the pan-Indian model of the state,
society, economy and culture”. There are also differences in the extent to
which the tribes interact with non-tribal communities. While the northeastern
tribes are usually isolated communities, the tribes in peninsular India may at
times coexist with non-tribal people.
The tribals despite living a life of backwardness and
social aloofness are being praised world-wide for being the caretakers of
nature and natural resources. Frameworks such as ecocriticism and ecofeminism
are being developed across the institutions which take into consideration the
role of Adivasis (particularly the women) in preserving and balancing the
eco-system and biodiversity.
Mahasweta Devi was an Indian Bengali writer and an
environmental activist, who worked tirelessly for the rights and empowerment of
the tribal people of West Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh states
of India. She won prestigious awards such as the Sahitya Akademi Award,
Jnanpith Award and Ramon Magsaysay Award. The Government of India also
conferred upon her Padma Shri and Padma Vibhushan Awards. These honours stand
testimony to her struggle for the forest-people.
The novel The Book of the Hunter is
a seminal work on tribal and environmental issues. The novel explores the
relationship of the tribals with the environment and the apocalyptic decline of
tribal customs and their way of life. The text also highlights the erosion of
eco-customs and the plight of indigenous women. The story is set in the 16th
century medieval Bengal. The book draws inspiration from the epic, poem
‘Abhayamangal’ better known as ‘Chandimangal’ written by great medieval poet
Kabikankan Mukundaram Chakrabarti. The novel deals with the ‘Hunter tribe’
known as ‘Shabars’ who lived and survived on forest environs and its resources.
Mahasweta Devi explores the slow erosion of Shabars and their tribal way of
life as forest land was frequently cleared to make way for settlements. The
novel also highlights the struggles and sacrifices of Shabar women.
The novel unfolds the story of
Ararha town and the dwelling of Shabar’s“…beyond the town of Ararha, there was
the huge jungle called Chandir Bon, at the edge of which lived a tribe of
hunters or Akhetiyas” (Devi 41).Novel has a charming setting to present binary
tussle of development against the age-old eco-beliefs of Shabar tribe. On the
one hand we see the anthropocentrism of the city folks and on the other hand we
see the age old eco-customs and biocentrism of the tribal people or the
‘hunters’. Elaborating on this clash of biocentrism vs. anthropocentrism Malcolm
L Hunter Jr et al. in their paper, “The Complementary Niches of Anthropocentric
and Biocentric Conservationists” observe:
…people who are strongly anthropocentric care only about
the welfare of humanity; all other species are resources to be exploited. They
would be content in a world dominated by domestic species as long as there was
sufficient food, water, and oxygen and whatever other elements of nature are
necessary to provide people with healthy, happy lives. Conversely, people who
are strongly biocentric consider Homo sapiens no more intrinsically important
than any other species. Because of the overwhelming threats people pose to other
species, biocentrists would prefer a world with a far lower human population
living lifestyles that greatly reduced humanity's impact on wild species, even
if it compromised their material well-being.(L. Hunter et al.642).
Mahasweta Devi through her sensitive portrayal of Shabars
brings out the daily struggles of this biocentric tribe as opposed to the
anthropocentric people living in Ararha town, who for materialistic desires are
hell bent to erode the forests and exploit its resources which has pushed the
life of Shabars on the edge of extinction. The society was rapidly changing its
core values and the environmental principles were least taken into
consideration. The feminine eco-conscious attitude and manner of life remains
undeterred despite the hooliganism of patriarchal anthropocentric discourses
and actions. The stark contrast between the point of views of male and female
psyche is highlighted by the novelist in portrayal of Jagdiswari’s
contemplation stating, “Shehad never seen any of this before, never seen houses
of the type built here, never seen such a high dyke around the drinking-water
pond, never seen anything made of red clay like that. Or such white sands below
such crystal-clear water.” (Devi 41). The character of Jagdiswari is a metanarrative
through which the author portrays the triviality of patriarchal discourse. She
despite being a Brahmin didn’t care for the social norms put forth by the
Brahminical patriarchal set up. She easily intermingles with the Adivasi women,
and is compassionate for them. She shared food and clothing with them. The
eco-conscious ideology of tribals is reflected at another instance when the
Shabars cannot bear the sight of developmental sites taking over their
environmental habitat, they simply vacate the place and go somewhere else,
“When this town Ararha grows larger and the forest is cut down, you’ll see them
abandon their settlements and go somewhere else.” (Devi61)
.
Alongside environmental degradation
the novel highlights the plight of Shabar women and their exploitation at the
hands of town’s people and within tribal society. The symbol of indigenous
women’s struggles in the novel is Shabar prince Kalya’s young wife Phuli who is
often referred in the novel by Brahmin priest Mukunda as, “such a shameless
girl.” (Devi51). Here the very description of Phuli by the priest Mukunda is
indicative of social-subversion achieved by the higher social strata through
the language.
The highest jungle deity among Shabar’s is Abhayachandi;
a female goddess, yet we witness in the novel that women in Shabar tribe are
exploited in all possible ways as nature is devastated by men to satisfy their
greed. It is the goddess of the jungle who guides and leads Shabars like a
mother, “and to everyone and everything! The forest, the animals, the birds,
and the Shabars—she gives them all courage and keeps them under her wing.”
(Devi 53). Still the women of the tribe hardly possess any rights to execute
their wishes, they are supposed to abide men in every domain of life.
Kalya’s mother Tejota is the leader of Shabars and is a
true symbol of environmental wisdom, “there’s nothing that the old woman
doesn’t know.” (Devi55). She embodies wisdom and compassion like mother earth
does for its species ---- rejuvenating, recycling and healing to keep the life
possible on earth. She has the wisdom and knowledge to lead her clan like a
philosopher. She also acts as doctor as she has knowledge of herbal medicine
and treats both animals and humans, “…a nail from the gate of the elephant-shed
had got stuck in the sole of its foot. Tejota pulled it out and put medicine
bark on it…she’s really a wise old woman!” (Devi 55). But the Brahmin priest is
so biased that he refuses to acknowledge the traditional ecological wisdom of
Tejota, “Mukunda did not believe that a forest-dwelling Shabar could know much
about anything.” (Devi 55). This shows how patriarchy relegates nature and
tribal women. Tejota as a woman leader is dedicated to environmental protection
and follows eco-guidance in letter and spirit, “The forest itself is our
mother.” (Devi 73). The novel rejects the shallow claim of patriarchy that
women are not equipped for leadership roles. Through the character of Tejota,
Mahasweta Devi establishes that women are gifted with greater consciousness of
the environment and prove to be better guides in disseminating environmental
wisdom.
The indigenous women were skilled craftswomen possessing
problem solving abilities ranging from household chores to doing midwife
activities, “There’s no midwife like Gopali. Have no fear. And once the baby is
born, drink the herbal concoction Tejota makes and your body will feel all
toned again she’ll give the ingredients for the concoction to any pregnant
woman who asks” (Devi 84). As the tribals always stayed outside the fold of
developed society they have discovered plethora of indigenous medicinal
practices to deal with all sorts of day to day ailments and diseases. However,
tribal practices were discredited by colonizers not only to set their
dispensaries in forest areas to provide medical facilities to their colonial
officials but also to extract natural resources from their areas and to make
tribals feel backward and ignorant. David Hardiman while explaining about the
healing practices among tribals in his paper, “Healing, Medical Power and the
Poor: Contests in Tribal India” remarks:
The myths and legends of the tribal people reveal that
they suffered from a wide range of ailments - endemic as well as epidemic - in
the past. They were left largely to their own devices when ill, with most
healing being carried out by relatives and neighbours using herbal and other
folk remedies who used herbal remedies, cauterisation, divination and exorcism,
treated the more intractable cases. These people were highly respected and had
considerable social power. These forms of indigenous healing have continued and
evolved, and are still practised very widely in tribal areas to this day.
Today, some of these healers practise a hybrid form of healing that combines
ritual with various quasi-allopathic or complementary medical practices. In
general, colonial officials, missionaries and the western- educated Indian
elites have been un- sympathetic towards such practices, though in recent years
drug companies as well as forest officials have sought to exploit their
knowledge of herbal remedies. (Hardiman 1405).
The Shabars are hunters, the jungle people they believe
in abiding the forest laws, yet Megha; the father of Kalya and husband of
Tejota goes against the forest rules by killing a doe, “Megha had killed a doe,
and that’s why Danko never bestowed Megha with his knowledge.” (Devi56). This
again proves that it is men who transgress natural laws however, the ones who
protect environmental sanctity of any community are women yet they are the
worst sufferers in the hands of patriarchy.
Sustainable environment is the
lifeline for the human survival on the earth. It fulfils all needs of man, “She
gives us fruits, flowers, tubers, leaves, wood, honey, resin, medicine herbs,
barks, leaves and roots, even animals to hunt. She gives us everything, keeps
us alive—doesn’t that make her our mother?” (Devi73). Nature and women are
alike they serve man in every possible way to make his life colourful and
comfortable. In return, man never acknowledges their role in his life but only
exploits them to fulfill his needs and ever-expanding desires. Marlene Dixon in
her paper, “On the Super-Exploitation of Women” delineates on pathetic
situation of female sex:
The subjugation of the female sex was based on the
transformation of their socially necessary labor into a private service for the
husband which occurred through the separation of the family from the clan. It
was in this context that women's domestic work came to be performed under
conditions of virtual slavery. (Dixon2).
The Shabars were not just a scattered community, but a
group who had environmental laws to guide their lives and had customs like the
people of Ararha town. They also celebrated lot of festivals and performed
rituals for different occasions, “it was customary to erect a new birthing hut
for the delivery. The new mother took a ritual bath for Shasthi puja on the
sixth day after the birth. Then there was a ritual on the twenty-first day and
the birthing hut would be demolished.” (Devi 90). However, with the arrival of
colonizers tribal customs and rituals were dehumanised forcing them to shift
from place to place in search of shelter. This process of dehumanization and
forced exile of tribals enabled colonizers to plunder the forest resources.
Most of these tribal rituals were performed by tribal women and hence women
were doubly marginalized with the advent of colonization.
The methods and cultural knowledge applied by indigenous
women at the time of child birth were more effective than the process prevalent
in upper caste society, “Mukunda’s wife said faintly, when Shibu and Shiuli
were born, I had pains that rose and fell, they almost killed me…and this
time…” (Devi 91). But all the tribal methods and cultural practices were
discarded and jeopardised with time by colonizers and upper castes. Tribal
practices were dehumanised and, in this way, tribals were put to subjugation
and forced to move from place to place. The midwife used to suggest fruits and
vegetables to the mother for her good health after childbirth and used to
perform all kinds of rituals to save the child and the mother from any kind of
harm. They used to take care of the mother till she recuperates, “My
daughter-in-law can stay with you until you get your strength back” (Devi 92). This
explains that indigenous people had a method and practices for everything. The
pivotal work was done by indigenous women to maintain their culture and customs
but with time they were robbed of such customs and forced to be without work
and their whole lifestyle was disturbed. Similarly, the forest resources that
helped our ecology to sustain our lives were robbed and plundered unsustainably
by man to fill its materialistic greed.
Dehumanization and coercion of women by their counter parts
is one of the major debates in Mahasweta Devi’s novel under discussion. Phuli’s
husband’s cruelty towards her is explicitly visible when she recounts the
trauma that she undergoes at the hands of her husband, prince Kalya; “But he
wouldn’t listen to me. He’ll just beat me, asking, why didn’t you bring home
rice? Why didn’t you cook a pot of it? My, how his punches hurt!” (Devi 75).
The correlation of feminine abuse and environmental exploitation by men can be
observed at another instance when Kalya demeans his wife with phallogocentric
remarks; “didn’t your father carry off five deer skins and a wild boar for
himself.” (Devi 51). This is how patriarchy controls both nature and women by
declaring itself their master and by exploiting them at will. Kalya got gifts
and appreciation from elders for killing animals, “Kalya is a great warrior and
hero, you know. He wasn’t yet fifteen years old when he killed his first tiger.
He brought it to show to the king and he got clothes and two gamchhas as a
reward.” (Devi 59). This shows how men exude power and control over nature and
women through male centric narratives of violence, exploitation and dominance.
He used to beat her on silly things to show dominance
over her, “I know. Kalya has beaten you…just like that. He said, ‘you roasted
rabbit, why didn’t you roast some bengchishak with it?’”. (Devi 96). The
book is full of instances where we see Kalya dominating Phuli inside home and
outside in the jungle he kills wild animals to satisfy his manly ego of being a
brave hunter, “if you went out hunting, you’d come back with tiger. You’d say,
‘why should you sell all the skins? I want to sleep on a tiger skin, with my
head on the tiger’s head.” (Devi 99).Since childhood Kalya had a great
fascination for animal domination which symbolizes the male desire of
controlling environment. The novel narrates how Kalya, “dragged six-year-old
Phuli over by the hair, saying, ‘This is going to be my wife, you hear that
ma.’” (Devi99). Kalya used to dominate Phuli since childhood like she was an
object of entertainment for him, “… Kalya had grabbed her by the hair and
dragged her home, screaming, aren’t you, my bride? How can you play with those
boys?” (Devi 128). The novelist by such nuanced incidents has highlighted the
powerlessness of female gender and how patriarchy treats them as objects to
satisfy men. Phuli had to bear dual trauma of marital violence as well the
management of domestic responsibility.
The climax scene in which Phuli dies
is the metaphorical and symbolic representation of indigenous and marginalized
woman’s death in the hands of patriarchy. She is forced to commit suicide due
to male-dominated narratives. Her role in society is squeezed and she is just
objectified to decorate the male world, and at the end we see her so weak that
she couldn’t survive without male support because she was never made
independent but was always given patriarchal crutches to survive:
Phuli’s naked body was floating on the water, her hand
and feet were tied up in the two edges of the sari, and a corner of the cloth
was clenched in her teeth. Who knows exactly how, but Phuli had managed to tie
up her own hands, pulling and tugging with a sari held in her teeth. (Devi
147).
Mahasweta
devi’s novel The Book of the Hunter explores the themes of environmental
degradation, gender marginalization and tribal resistance. The novel critiques
the colonial and caste-based prejudices prevalent in our society. The narrative
highlights the impact of anthropocentric and androcentric worldviews on ecology
and women and calls out capitalist and feudal forces for the disruption of
relationship between environment and man.
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