Tribal Women in Chipko Movement
TRIBAL WOMEN IN CHIPKO MOVEMENT -AN APPRAISAL
DEBASREE DE
UGC Junior Research Fellow at Department of History, Jadavpur University, Kolkata.
The women of Chipko movement have added to the world’s consciousness of environmental issues significantly by their slogan of ‘mitti pani aur bayar’. Major afforestation programmes have also been launched as a result of the movement. To celebrate the Chipko week (30th May to5th June) let us spread the message of Chipko to protect our natural resources from the onslaught of corporate capitalism. The wave of women’s movement in India is still enriching itself with the ‘ecofeminism` of the Chipko movement in many ways than one. This struggle of Bhutia tribal women still inspires us when today we celebrate the environment day.
The tribal society has its own history, its own structure and therefore the gender issue is constituted out of the tribal history and tribal culture. Though the tribal society is not homogenous its gender issues are different from the non-tribal society. The emerging discourse of women’s movement also influenced the tribal society. The women’s movement in India can count itself among the lucky ones – an “old” social movement that has played a substantial role in contemporary struggles, ebbing, flowing, and reinventing itself in myriad ways. Thus when we look at the women’s movement in India we shall have to look back at the whole historical forces. To refer to Indu Agnihotri and Vina Majumdar we would say that the women’s movement has gone into several forces. These authors assess the importance of these forces as under –
“In contemporary India the resurgence of the women’s movement and its contours have to be seen in the light of: (1) the crisis of state and government in the 1970s going into the emergency; (2) the post-emergency upsurge in favour of civil rights; (3) the mushrooming of women’s organizations in the early 1980s and the arrival of women’s issues on the agenda; (4) the
DEBASREE DE
UGC Junior Research Fellow at Department of History, Jadavpur University, Kolkata.
The women of Chipko movement have added to the world’s consciousness of environmental issues significantly by their slogan of ‘mitti pani aur bayar’. Major afforestation programmes have also been launched as a result of the movement. To celebrate the Chipko week (30th May to5th June) let us spread the message of Chipko to protect our natural resources from the onslaught of corporate capitalism. The wave of women’s movement in India is still enriching itself with the ‘ecofeminism` of the Chipko movement in many ways than one. This struggle of Bhutia tribal women still inspires us when today we celebrate the environment day.
The tribal society has its own history, its own structure and therefore the gender issue is constituted out of the tribal history and tribal culture. Though the tribal society is not homogenous its gender issues are different from the non-tribal society. The emerging discourse of women’s movement also influenced the tribal society. The women’s movement in India can count itself among the lucky ones – an “old” social movement that has played a substantial role in contemporary struggles, ebbing, flowing, and reinventing itself in myriad ways. Thus when we look at the women’s movement in India we shall have to look back at the whole historical forces. To refer to Indu Agnihotri and Vina Majumdar we would say that the women’s movement has gone into several forces. These authors assess the importance of these forces as under –
“In contemporary India the resurgence of the women’s movement and its contours have to be seen in the light of: (1) the crisis of state and government in the 1970s going into the emergency; (2) the post-emergency upsurge in favour of civil rights; (3) the mushrooming of women’s organizations in the early 1980s and the arrival of women’s issues on the agenda; (4) the
References: • Guha, Ramchandra (1989): The Unquiet Woods: Ecological Change and Peasant Resistance in the Himalaya (Delhi: Oxford University Press). • Kishwar, Madhu and Ruth Vanith (ed) (1984): The Search of Answers –Indian Women’s Voices From Manushi (Horizon India Books) • Rangan, Haripriya (2000): Of Myth and Movements –Rewriting Chipko into Himalayan History. (Delhi: Oxford University Press) • Sen, Ilina (ed) (1990): A Space Within The Struggle –Women Participation in People’s Movements (New Delhi, Kali for Women) • Weber, Thomas (1988): Hugging the Trees: The Story of Chipko Movement (New Delhi: Penguin Books). E-mail i. d: dedebasree14@yahoo.com