Reading and Discussion Questions
Why does Vandana Shiva criticize development?
Why is Shiva’s discussion of patriarchy and patriarchal categories necessary to her analysis of development?
Make a chart of the contrasting categories.
Vandana Shiva is a scientist and yet she criticizes what she calls modern reductionist science as part of the patriarchal project. Explain what is wrong with science from her standpoint.
What values does Shiva think are inherent in our supposedly value-free science?
How does Shiva call upon the work of Carolyn Merchant?
What does Shiva want to put in the place of science? Why does she assign a special status to the traditional knowledge of Indian women?
Shiva does not want to reject rationality. Rather, she defines two opposing rationalities. What are these? How can we choose between them?
How does Shiva link the violation of nature and the violation of women?
Shiva suggests that most work on 3rd World women and ecology has emphasized the extent that women are victims of environmental degradation. Explain how Shiva wants to offer a different analysis that put the traditional knowledge of women and the present creative activism of women at the forefront.
In calling for a recovery of the feminine principle, is Shiva presupposing that men and women are actually different?
How is a specifically Gandhian view of oppression incorporated into her analysis?
In India what has the traditional significance of forests been?
How were forests utilized under British colonialism? Why didn’t this change after Indian independence?
What was the Chipko movement? Why does Shiva see it as
a central representation of her main thesis about the traditional knowledge of
women and their creative activism?
In this chapter Shiva offers a detailed critique of the Green Revolution. What was the Green Revolution? How is the Green Revolution being promoted today?
Make a list of the major problems that Shiva sees with the Green Revolution.
How did the role of women in agriculture in India change with the Green Revolution?
Does Shiva in any way accept that the methods of the Green Revolution produce more food? Why or why not?
Why does Shiva see the use of water as perhaps the most crucial environmental issue for India?
How does Shiva Shiva argue the Indian women’s
traditional management of water was effective?
General Discussion
Questions on Staying Alive
How does Shiva’s critique of development compare with Gandhi’s critique of development?
Does Shiva’s analysis offer a new understanding of the meaning of feminism and what might count as a feminist issue?
How do you evaluate the central relationship that Shiva sees between women and ecology? What to you make of the criticism that Shiva essentializes women?
Is it correct to categorize Shiva as an ecofeminist? Is it accurate to say that she is a socialist feminist? Since Shiva is a Gandhian, how should this figure into our understanding of her thought?
Most important of all, do you agree with Shiva or with parts of her analysis? Why or why not?
Current Study of Navdanya
Please review the website of Navdanya paying special attention to the available issues of The Seed.
What is the mission of Navdanya? What are some of the main activities of Navdanya?
What is the concept of Earth Democracy? What do you think about this?
Does Shiva's current activism as described on this website and in the film we viewed grow out of the analysis in Staying Alive? Are there differences? Has her feminist critique of science remained the same? Has her view on the importance of the role of women remained the same?
Author: Hollace Graff
Oakton Community College
Updated: May 26, 2009