Reading Tagore’s Red Oleanders through (Ungendered) Ecofeminist Lens

Abstract

Ecofeminist literature and theories call for an end to all forms of oppressions. Since Francoise d’Eaubonne’s introduction of the term ‘ecofeminism’ in the 1970s, the idea has been continuously adopted and adapted. Curiously, Tagore’s play Red Oleanders, appearing some forty-five years before d’Eaubonne’s Le Feminisme ou la Mort, provides us a gender-neutral perspective to ecofeminism and shows how ecofeminist awareness is not (and must not) be limited to gender-specific approach. The present study reads Red Oleanders braiding ecofeminist and gender perspectives to show how Tagore’s notion of ecofeminism is unique and gender-inclusive and then attempts to explore the universal relevance of Tagore’s idea of ecofeminism. The first section explores the gender-neutral ecofeminist approach of the Nandini-Ranjan-Bishu trio (instead of Nandini’s) and explicates their commitment to resist environmental, economic, and intellectual exploitations in the context of mining practices. In so doing, the second section analyses how the triad undoes the essentialist approach to ecofeminism and calls for a non-essentialist take on ecofeminism. The present study is unique as it, for the first time, attempts to situate Tagore’s ungendered vision of ecofeminism in the context of Red Oleanders.