Women, Nature and Patriarchy: An Ecofeminist Analysis of Mahasweta Devi's Novel The Book of the Hunter

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.