Ecofeminist Resistance and the Politics of Survival in the Selected Works of Kamala Markandaya, Indira Goswami, and Sara Joseph

Publication Details

Publication Date

10/10/2026

Volume / Issue

Vol 1, Issue 5 (2026)

Article No.

035

Journal

British Journal of Contemporary Research

DOI

https://doi.org/10.67693/BJCR-LZ9B4HPW

Received

16 Sep 2026

Views

22

Downloads

17

Abstract

Ecofeminism offers a critical framework for examining the interconnected oppression of women and the exploitation of the natural world. Within Indian literature, this relationship becomes especially visible in narratives where women’s lives are shaped by land, water, agriculture, animals, poverty, and systems of social power. This paper examines ecofeminist resistance and the politics of survival in Kamala Markandaya’s Nectar in a Sieve, Indira Goswami’s The Moth-Eaten Howdah of the Tusker, and Sara Joseph’s Gift in Green. Although the three novels emerge from different linguistic, regional, and cultural contexts, they converge on questions of gender, ecology, poverty, patriarchy, economic exploitation, and community survival. Markandaya represents Rukmani’s struggle with agrarian insecurity, drought, hunger, poverty, and industrial transformation; Goswami associates women’s restricted lives with the exploitation and symbolic captivity of animals; and Joseph foregrounds the destruction of land and water and the emergence of collective ecological resistance. The paper argues that survival in these texts should not be understood merely as passive endurance. Rather, everyday acts of care, persistence, memory, dignity, and community protection can become forms of resistance to structures of domination. Through a comparative ecofeminist reading, the study demonstrates that environmental justice and gender justice are closely interconnected and that literary representations of women’s survival can illuminate wider struggles over land, resources, power, and ecological belonging.

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This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License . Free to read, share, and adapt with attribution.