Day: December 25, 2021

ECOFEMINISM

Ecofeminism or ecological feminism is the most important approach within ecocriticism and ecological activism. The writings of Annette Kolodny gave impetus to what has come to be called ecofeminism. The term ecofeminism was coined by French feminist Francoise d’Eaubonne in 1974. It is a branch of ecocriticism and feminism that examines the connection between women and nature. Eco feminism can be considered as the analysis of the role attribuntasies of the natural environment, by male authors. It also includes the study of specifically feminine conceptions of the environment in the neglected nature writings by female authors. According to Pramod K Nayar, ecofeminism argue that patriarchal society’s values and beliefs have resulted in the oppression of both women and nature. He also says that it ignores
women’s work, knowledge and situatedness. The situatedness of women is her immediate location in nature, where the relationship of woman with environment is far more intimate than that of man’s. In simple terms this philosophy examines the ways both nature and women are treated by patriarchal society. The earlier binaries in Western thought and literature was that of nature versus culture. Further eco feminists interrogate the effect of gender categories. That is the masculine culture as objective, rational, mind and public and feminine as subjective, emotional, body and private. And these binaries are used in order to demonstrate the ways in which man is equated with culture and woman with nature. Images like “mother nature” indicate two things. They are the naturalization of woman and feminization of nature. Thus it illustrates how men dominate nature and women as exploitable objects. The works of Vandana Shiva, Mary Mellor, Ariel Salleh has generated nuanced readings of the relationship between gender and nature.Ecofeminism can be classified into two, radical ecofeminism and cultural ecofeminism. One of the assumptions of radical ecofeminism is that the dominant patriarchal society equates nature and women in order to degrade both. In fact, in it’s emergence, ecofeminism tends to be radical revealing practices of patriarchal domination of both. So radical ecofeminism targets the historical and cultural
backgrounds that equates the feminine and nature with negative and commodifiable attributes, while men have been elevated as capable of establishing order. Such a socio economic structure easily facilitates the exploitation of women and nature, for cheap labour and resources.
Cultural ecofeminism promotes an association between women and the environment by focusing on the more intimate and organic relationship between them. As per the anthropologically assigned gender roles women are nurturers of family. Culture ecofeminism has roots in nature based religions, goddess and nature worship. It is a way of redeeming both the spirituality of nature and women’s instrumental role in that spirituality. The cultural myths and
spirituality of Native America, Australia and African tribal populace underscores this mutual bonding between women and nature. Because they are built on a mother goddess instead of omniscient father God.
Vegetarian ecofeminism, materialist ecofeminism and spiritualist ecofeminism are some of the new branches of ecofeminism. A major theme within ecofeminism is the belief that there is a strong connection between the domination of women and the domination of nature, and that both must be eradicated in order to end oppression. Vegetarian ecofeminism aims to include the domination of not only the environment but also of nonhuman animals to the list. Materialist ecofeminism connects institutions like labour, power and property as the source of domination
over women and nature. This belief stresses that the sphere of production that is men and factory is dependent on the production of reproduction ( women and family). Materialist ecofeminists thus call for quality in labour distribution, the recognition of the contribution of women’s work.And they suggest to expand the very definition of ‘work’ to include women’s work. In spiritualist ecofeminism, a turn to myth and theology is advocated against materialism because of the
importance given to women, nature and all forms of life. They argue that pre-modern culture have always treated nature with respect and give importance to women’s knowledge, female body and female sexuality. Thus this philosophy turned to Native American religions, godess worship in Hinduism and other native cultures. Vandana Shiva, glorifies Vedic period of Indian History, for its emphasis on symbiotic values in her work Staying Alive (1989).

Politics in India

By – Supriya

India one of the world’ s largest democratic countries , is a Union of 28 States and 7 Union Territories. The country is a Sovereign , Socialist , Secular , Democratic Republic with a Parliamentary system of government. The Republic is governed according to the Constitution inaugurated on January 26,1950. India was a dominion under the British colonial rule for a period of over 200 years till 1947.On August 15,1947, India became independent after years of struggle , under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, popularly known as the Father of the Nation . The Indian Constitution , the world’ s lengthiest constitution (with 395 articles and 12 schedules) was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26th November 1949 and came into force on 26th January 1950. The constitution created a Sovereign Democratic Republic which was officially named ‘ Bharat’ that is India ,a Union of States. India is a federal system, a system of government in which power is divided by a constitutional arrangement between national and local units of government . The Constitution provides detailed lists of division of the legislative powers between Central and State government. The residual powers of legislation remains with the Union. India has the biggest number of people with franchise rights and the largest number of political parties , which take part in election campaign . In the 2009 General Elections to the 15th Lok Sabha, 406.9 million voters actually voted out of 714 million eligible voters and an average of 15 candidates completed for each of the 543 territorial constituency seats. Elections are held at different levels. The two major election levels are at national level, after which the national government is established and at the state level, after which the state governments are established. Elections are also held for city, town and village councils. In the 2009 General Elections , the UPA was able to put together a comfortable majority with support from 322 members out of 543 members of the House. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is a ruling coalition of center – left political parties heading the government of India. The seeds of coalition governance were sworn for the first time in 1989; until then a single party rule of Congress dominated the political landscape at the Centre. The coalition is led by the Indian National Congress (INC) , which is currently the single largest political party in the Lok Sabha ( the lower house of the parliament of India).
Though in the 2004 elections , 335 members supported the UPA , as opposed to 332 in 2009 , however ,in the 2009 elections UPA alone had a plurality of over 260 seats as opposed to 218 seats in the 14th Lok Sabha. Hence the government emerged to be more stable than the previous one. External support came from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) , Samajwadi Party (SP) , Janata Dal (Secular) (JD(S)), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and other minor parties. Besides Congress , other political parties in India are the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP – Indian People’s Party) , the Janata Dal ( People ‘s Party) , the Samajwadi Party ( Socialist Party), and the Bahujan Samaj Party ( BSP – Party of society ‘ s Majority) which attempts to ascend to power on the crest of an alliance of interests uniting Dalits , Backward Classes , Scheduled Tribes , and religious minorities. There are different political issues in Indian politics. Some are of national level and some of regional levels. Some communities just demand more economical and social rights for their communities. While others demand more autonomy for their cultures within the Indian States. With all its problems , India survives as a single state with democratic character . But a number of political problems still exist and remain unsolved in India. On 22 May 2009, Manmohan Singh was sworn in as the Prime Minister at the Ashoka Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan . Apart from being the Head of the Union ( Federal) Government, Prime Minister is also in – charge of the Ministries not specifically allocated to the charge of any Minister like Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions ; Ministry of Planning ; Ministry of Railways; Department of Atomic Energy ; and Department of Space. INC ‘s President , Sonia Gandhi, serves as the Chairwoman of the UPA. The Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers are drawn from members of the UPA. Other important cabinet ministers are Pranab Mukherjee , Minister of Finance ; Sharad Pawar , Minister of Agriculture and food Processing Industries ; A .K.Antony , Minister of External Affairs and Kapil Sibal , Minister of Human Resource Development and Minister of Communications and Information Technology.
Political awareness should be created among the masses and this can be done by imparting the right kind of education and also inspiring the youth to join the politics. Both the tasks are great challenges , as the youth seems to be totally disillusioned by the way the Indian political system works and how education till date has failed to achieve the desired ends. Yet, the situation is not as bleak as one imagines it to be. Things are gradually changing with the way political parties are realising the need of change of leadership from the old to the young. Moreover, the voter of today is not as naive as before. The results of the past few general elections have taught the parties that the public answers and avenges their grievances during the time of elections . All we need is to persistently pursue the path of change through constitutional means and refrain from electing corrupt leaders of criminal background. We also need to promote free and fair elections . The latest instance of the elections held in Bihar in 2006 can be cited. The process seems to have begun . There are many flaws that are still remaining and a lot needs to be done. But a beginning has been initiated , all we need is to continue to travel on the road to development , education and awareness in order to stabilize and develop a mature polity in the country.

THANKYOU !

Loose Tongues

Words Coming Out of Mouth Images, Stock Photos & Vectors | Shutterstock

An important quote before the start of the article that reads as and l quote “Be sure to taste your own words before you speak them out”. This article speaks about the topic that often is in the limelight but is later forgotten with time. 

Today an article of mine aims to bring light on one of the most saddening and disturbing yet many common incidents. We must acknowledge and bring some change even though it angers and disgusts us. 

You might all be wondering about what topic I am trying to speak about and bring into the limelight. The topic I am talking about is the comments that politicians, actors, and every other person makes about rape. I am sure every one of you just had a memory flash of at least one such incident.

The purpose of this article is not to pinpoint anyone or name anybody but to question the very idea and purpose of making such comments or statements. It is mind-boggling and shocking to even believe that these people are not aware of the kind of anger, pain, disgust, and even the horror the people of this country experience when these so-called rich, influential, and successful people make such horrible and lewd comments. 

Jharkhand engineering student burnt to death after being allegedly gang- raped | Indiablooms - First Portal on Digital News Management

Understanding these events:

Let us take the most recent incident that took place in our country where a Congress MLA and an ex-speaker from Karnataka in the Karnataka Assembly made a derogatory statement and quote “There is a saying that when rape is inevitable, lie down and enjoy it. That is exactly the position which you are in,” This statement is not even a month old. It happened on December 16th, 2021. The worst and the shocking part have not even arrived yet. The speaker of the assembly during that time also had a laugh about it and so did other party members in the assembly and continued with the assembly. This assembly was to discuss the farm laws that have no connection regarding rape. The idea, motive, and purpose to make such a comment has to be a negative one. 

This is not even the first derogatory comment this year. Imagine if we had to sit and go back just 2-3 years. We would realize making sexist and horrible comments about rape has become very common. 

The thing that these politicians, actors, or anybody else who make such comments does not understand is that they have a lot of power and influence over other people around them and society. Therefore, the saying that these people need to remember is not the ones like the MLA say but the ones such as “With great Power comes Great Responsibility ”. There are various other sources that such things are shown and taught to people like movies, shows, etc which are doing the job of passing such messages so the last thing anybody wants is even real people like politicians who have been voted, actors and actresses who are loved to make such comments and spread the wrong message to the society. The pain, anger, and disgust should not just be limited to the people who made such comments but also the people who were okay with it and let it go away. These people also play a very important role in keeping intact such ideas and perspectives about any topic and not just rape. 

An apology is not sufficient: 

We are all aware of what happens after anyone makes such comments and rightfully so there is an outcry about it. There is an apology made by the person through various networks and media platforms. This apology is taken into consideration and then the matter is let go away. Yes, the people are glad that there is some apology and acceptance for their actions but that is not enough if the same thing keeps happening again and again in some way or the other. An apology is not enough because after accepting your mistake you should also make it a point to responsibly believe in it and make sure to educate and bring about awareness to people around you so that nobody else makes such a mistake. Another thing that needs to be taken into consideration and understood is that once the person has given an apology, the outcry, and the anger should not stop there. According to my thinking, it should continue until there is some change in the societal thought process, and the people who make such comments are responsible for bringing about the change. 

Stricter rules, regulations, and laws

The first and the most important thing that needs to be done are to bring about stricter and sterner laws towards the committing of a crime like rape. Second is filing complaints against actors, politicians or anyone else for that matter is not enough. We still live in a country where rich and influential people have control over the process of things that happen through money. Bribery, corruption, and exploitation also play an important role in matters as such and simple complaints will not do the job. There have to be stricter and better rules to deal with and take actions against people who make derogatory and hate-filled comments and statements about rape. The necessity to fasten this process is not just increasing amounts of rape cases but also the amount of such sexist and disgusting statements that are made are increasing in society. It is also important to bring about stricter rules so that people understand that actions of behaving and saying things that are hurtful and questionable are not acceptable in society by the people. The people who make such comments need to be held responsible and made to pay a price that brings about some kind of change in them.  

People need to understand that jokes are meant to be harmless and funny. Making jokes about rape is nowhere close to funny. Making jokes, statements need to be thought through, and only then should people speak after considering everything. There is a saying that says that “Think twice before you speak” this needs to be kept in mind of people and should especially be kept in mind by people who hold a lot of power, strength, and influence over people and the society that they are part of directly or indirectly.  

To conclude it is time for people to speak up, bring about awareness, and create a change in society by not hiding and speaking about things such as rape so that the taboo, superstitions, negative and bad ideas, perspectives, and thought processes about rape is erased from the society and the world becomes a better place to live for everybody.   

References

  1.  Google search for images