Earth and Equality: Ecofeminist Perspectives from the Central Himalayas of Uttarakhand

Feminism is an ideological movement that aims to respect women's experiences, identities, knowledge, and powers and to make all women realise their full rights, which are gradually being assimilated even among the women of the third world. The new ideolical term eco-feminism is an insight that emerged in the 1970-1980 s in European countries, and is emerging all over the world as an ideological movement, as a powerful movement taking nature and the exploitation of women in parallel. Ecofeminism is an ecological critique of feminism. It opposes the patriarchal system that is based on the exploitation of women and the environment. It is a response to all the ideological dualities of nature being subservient to culture and woman being subservient to men. This paper is an attempt to explore the co-relationships, oppression and ideological responses of women's ecology in the central Himalayas, especially in Uttarakhand, and also to explore new dimensions of Eco feminine.