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VOL. 2, ISSUE 3 (2026)
Negotiating nature, gender and power: An eco-feminist comparative study of selected novels of Mahasweta Devi and Namita Gokhale
Authors
Dinesh Kumar, Amita Rani
Abstract

Eco-feminism offers a significant theoretical framework for examining the interconnected relationships among gender, nature, power, exploitation and resistance. It challenges systems that dominate both women and the natural environment and draws attention to the ways in which patriarchal, capitalist, colonial and developmental structures produce ecological and social inequalities. Indian literature provides a particularly rich field for such an investigation because questions of environmental exploitation are frequently connected with caste, class, tribal identity, displacement, poverty and women's marginalization. The present research paper comparatively examines the representation of nature, gender and power in selected works of Mahasweta Devi and Namita Gokhale. The primary texts selected for the study are Mahasweta Devi's The Right to the Forest and Chotti Munda and His Arrow, and Namita Gokhale's The Book of Shadows and Things to Leave Behind. Although the two writers differ considerably in narrative style, geographical setting and literary concerns, their works reveal the complex ways in which women and marginalized communities negotiate structures of power. Devi's fiction foregrounds tribal communities, land alienation, forest rights, state intervention and resistance, while Gokhale explores women's bodies, memory, gendered violence, social conventions, identity and the relationship between individual existence and cultural landscapes. The paper argues that an eco-feminist reading of these works reveals nature not as a passive backdrop but as an active cultural, political and ethical presence. The study further demonstrates that women's oppression and ecological exploitation frequently emerge from similar structures of control, while resistance becomes a process of reclaiming land, identity, memory, bodily autonomy and community. The comparative analysis establishes that Devi and Gokhale contribute to a broader Indian eco-feminist discourse in which ecological justice and gender justice are deeply interconnected.

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Pages:24-29
How to cite this article:
Dinesh Kumar, Amita Rani "Negotiating nature, gender and power: An eco-feminist comparative study of selected novels of Mahasweta Devi and Namita Gokhale". World Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development, Vol 2, Issue 3, 2026, Pages 24-29

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