Vandana Shiva: The Rebirth of Feminine Times

In the First Person

Sofia Steinvorth

In this interview, Vandana Shiva, one of the most well-known environmental activists of our time, speaks of her work in support of organic agriculture, both in her home country, India, and on a global level. The main topics addressed are the indispensable role of women in a caring, human and ecological economy, and the need for us to resist the distortion of the original meanings of words in the language of the market and colonization.

Vandana Shiva

With an immense social and political impact and world-wide recognition of the work she has carried out in defence of organic agriculture, she might well be the most well-known environmental activist of our times. Throughout the past decades, Vandana Shiva has stood out for her unshakeable commitment against GMOs (genetically modified organisms) and the implementation of chemicals in agriculture, which has led her to face some of the most powerful multinational companies of our times – among them Monsanto, Cargill and Bayer – with incomparable courage. Central to her work is the idea of seed freedom. The two core elements that stand behind this belief are nature’s right to develop in its own ways and a farmer’s right to breed seed independently of big corporations’ GMOs and chemicals. Her fight is one against ‘biopiracy’: a term with which she addresses the ambition of corporations to claim patents on seeds and, in consequence, as Shiva argues, on life.

She is active in teaching and public speaking, as well as advising governments and NGO’s on issues related to organic farming. Her focus lies in the preservation of indigenous knowledge, the promotion and conservation of native seeds, and fair trade. With a firm anti-globalization philosophy, her engagement on behalf of the environment and food sovereignty takes on various forms and goes from publishing (her list of publications already counts more than twenty books) to the creation of seed banks through her organization Navdanya in her homeland, India. Through its direct political engagement, Navdanya was among the three bodies that, in 2000, won a long battle in the European Patent Office against the biopiracy of neem (a tree native to the Indian subcontinent and the source of neem oil) by the US Department of Agriculture and the corporation WR Grace. Other achievements were to follow, with a patent claim on Basmati rice by an American company called RiceTec in 2001 and the revoking of Monsanto’s patent on an Indian wheat variety called ‘Nap Hal’.

Acknowledging the global nature of environmental issues and the need for cooperation to respond to our present challenges, one of her in the first person main objectives is the creation of networks that connect smaller environmental movements from all over the world – a task she is accomplishing through the Seed Freedom platform and the organization of the yearly BHOOMI Earth Festival.

Furthermore, Shiva’s work shows a strong connection with women and feminism. Her first book, Staying Alive (1988) examines the marginalization of women in relation to the violation of nature in the Third World and paved the way for her life-long engagement with women’s rights and knowledge. This publication was followed by a report for the FAO (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization) on Women and Agriculture, which was entitled Most Farmers in India are Women. Further inquiring into the crucial relationship between women and the environment, she is the co-author of Ecofeminism (1993), along with the German sociologist Maria Mies. This publication is acknowledged as one of the leading theoretical discussions that address the system of the domination and exploitation of both nature and women through the hegemonic forces of capitalism and patriarchy.

In this interview, Vandana Shiva told us about the main concerns that guide her and how her life experiences have led her to become the activist she is today.

SOFIA STEINVORTH You come from a family of activists: your parents were both involved in the independence movement in India and you have written that your grandfather sacrificed his life for women’s equality.

VANDANA SHIVA Yes, he sacrificed his life for women’s equality through education. The girls back then wanted a college. This was during the 1950s and since it had to be recognized, my grandfather had written to the government saying: ‘Please allow me to make a college.’ He went on a fast to ensure that they’d listen to him, and he died during his fast. Two days after, the president visited to make the college. A little late… but this was soon after independence; everyone was very grand on the idea – you went on a fast when you thought something just had to happen. So, my grandfather gave his life for girls’ education. In the independence movement some of the people who had been active had decided that we would get independence. But if we don’t prepare for the society we want, then the same structures will replicate. This is why my grandfather chose structures for women’s empowerment: building schools for girls.

SS Do you see your own activist career as the continuation of a family legacy?

VS I came to activism actually not as my first choice, but as an imperative. My first choice was being a physicist. Originally, I wanted to be a part of India’s atomic energy commission, but my sister made me aware of the risks of radiation, so I went into theoretical physics. I did a PhD in the foundations of quantum theory. I had really intended to live a life of exploration of science, but when I saw a forest disappear in the Himalaya, I found the Chipko Movement and became a volunteer. [The Chipko Movement was an Indian non-violent social and ecological movement by rural villagers, particularly women, during the 1970s. They hugged and circled trees to impede their government-backed felling.] I am an activist through a sense of duty: to the Earth and to my society.

"Quantum theory is a science that tells you that nature is non-separable; nature is not fixed entities as a lot of classical physicists believe, but it’s potential, in the making, and because of this it’s uncertain."

SS At this time, while you were still studying to become a physicist, you began to be very critical of science as a field. How is our current understanding of science problematic and how do you think it has to change?

Science basically means ‘to know’. In that sense, everyone is a scientist; a different kind of scientist: a woman peasant is a scientist, a cook is a scientist, an artist is a scientist. They are all scientists of their field. In my field, I see science as the exploration of nature. What is called physics today was formerly called natural philosophy. So, what I practice is actually natural philosophy. Very consciously, I went through the foundations of quantum theory to understand natural philosophy. Quantum theory is a science that tells you that nature is non-separable; nature is not fixed entities as a lot of classical physicists believe, but it’s potential, in the making, and because of this it’s uncertain. These are the principles that have guided my own thinking. For me, my science is quantum science: of oneness. My work as an activist in ecology has confirmed those principles of non-separation, potential, and uncertainty.

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