About the Author: Vandana Shiva

Vandana Shiva (born 1952) is an internationally renowned environmental activist. She campaigns for biodiversity and against corporate globalization.

  • Her books include Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply, Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability and Peace, Soil Not Oil, Staying Alive and Monocultures of the Mind.
  • She founded Navdanya (1987), a movement for biodiversity conservation and organic farming.

About the essay. She wrote it for the Winter 2012 issue of Yes! Magazine, titled What Would Nature Do? The last section is adapted from her article "Forest and Freedom" in Resurgence magazine (2011).

[Exam Tip] — Remember the three names the essay revolves around: Chipko (the movement), Navdanya (the farm and movement she started) and the Earth University (located at Navdanya, inspired by Tagore).

Summary, Part 1: Learning from the Himalayan Forests and Chipko

Childhood. Vandana Shiva's ecological journey began in the forests of the Himalaya. Her father was a forest conservator; her mother became a farmer after fleeing the partition of India and Pakistan. The songs and poems her mother composed were about trees, forests and India's forest civilizations.

The Chipko movement. Her involvement in ecology began with Chipko, a nonviolent response to large-scale deforestation in the Himalaya.

  • In the 1970s, peasant women of the Garhwal Himalaya came out to defend the forests.
  • Logging had caused landslides, floods and a scarcity of water, fodder and fuel. Since women provide these, they had to walk longer and carry heavier burdens.
  • The women knew the real value of the forest was not timber from a dead tree but springs and streams, food for cattle and fuel for their hearths.
  • They declared they would hug the trees; loggers would have to kill them first.

Her turning point. In 1973, before leaving for Canada for her Ph.D., she went to visit her favourite forest and stream. The forest was gone and the stream had shrunk to a trickle. She became a Chipko volunteer, spending her vacations on pad yatras (walking pilgrimages), documenting deforestation and spreading Chipko's message.

Adwani, 1977. A village woman, Bachni Devi, led resistance against her own husband, who had a contract to cut trees. The women held up lighted lanterns in broad daylight and told the officials, "We have come to teach you forestry." When the forester said forests produce "profit and resin and timber", they sang: "Soil, water, and pure air / Sustain the Earth and all she bears."

Summary, Part 2: Biodiversity, Navdanya and the Rights of Nature

Beyond monocultures. From Chipko she learned about biodiversity and biodiversity-based economies. In her book Monocultures of the Mind she argues that failing to understand biodiversity impoverishes both nature and culture.

  • She began saving seeds from farmers' fields and started Navdanya Farm in 1994 in the Doon Valley, Uttarakhand.
  • The farm conserves 630 varieties of rice, 150 varieties of wheat and hundreds of other species.
  • Biodiversity-intensive farming produces more food and nutrition per acre - so biodiversity is the answer to the food and nutrition crisis.
  • The Navdanya movement (started 1987) has set up more than 100 community seed banks and saved more than 3,000 rice varieties. It helps farmers move from fossil-fuel and chemical-based monocultures to bio-diverse systems nourished by sun and soil.

Rights of nature. Ecuador recognises the "rights of nature" in its constitution. In April 2011, inspired by Ecuador and by Bolivia's Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth, the UN General Assembly held a conference on harmony with nature on Earth Day. It discussed replacing domination - people over nature, men over women, rich over poor - with partnership.

Eco-apartheid. Environmentalist Cormac Cullinan notes that apartheid means separateness. The world ended racial apartheid in South Africa; now we must end eco-apartheid - the illusion that humans are separate from nature.

Summary, Part 3: The Dead-Earth View, the Earth University and Tagore

The dead-earth world view. The "war against the Earth" began with separateness. During the industrial revolution, the living Earth was turned into dead matter and "raw materials". Terra Nullius (empty land for occupation) replaced Terra Madre (Mother Earth).

  • Francis Bacon, the "father of modern science", said science has the power to conquer and subdue nature.
  • Carolyn Merchant shows that this shift - from nature as a nurturing mother to dead matter - suited capitalism: "One does not readily slay a mother, dig into her entrails for gold, or mutilate her body."

The Earth University. Located at Navdanya, it teaches Earth Democracy - the freedom of all species to evolve within the web of life, and the human responsibility to respect other species' rights. It is a shift from anthropocentrism (humans at the centre) to ecocentrism. Popular courses: "The A-Z of Organic Farming and Agro-ecology" and "Gandhi and Globalization".

Tagore's forest. The Earth University is inspired by Rabindranath Tagore, who started a forest school at Shantiniketan (a university from 1921). In his essay "Tapovan" (Forest of Purity), Tagore says India's civilization drew its renewal from the forest, not the city, and that the forest gave India its principle of unity in diversity and democratic pluralism.

What the forest teaches.

  • Unity in diversity is the basis of both ecological sustainability and democracy. Diversity without unity leads to conflict; unity without diversity leads to external control.
  • Enoughness - enjoying nature's gifts without exploitation or accumulation. No species in a forest takes another's share.
  • "Find enjoyment through renunciation, not through greed of possession."
  • The end of consumerism and accumulation is the beginning of the joy of living.

Central Idea

The essay argues that nature is our best teacher. From the Himalayan forests and the women of Chipko, Vandana Shiva learned:

  • the value of biodiversity and the danger of monocultures;
  • that the Earth is a living mother, not dead raw material;
  • Earth Democracy - the rights and freedom of all species;
  • Tagore's idea that forest culture is the true Indian culture, teaching unity in diversity, enoughness, compassion and co-operation.

[Exam Tip] — "Where should we look for lessons in freedom?" Answer: to nature and the forest, as in Tagore's time.