The Chipko movement: a pragmatic, material & spiritual reinterpretation

Abstract

The Chipko movement started in March 1974 when women from Reni village in Uttarakhand (India) hugged trees from the Reni forest to prevent them from being felled by the Symonds Company. This paper outlines the historical trajectory leading to these events, describes the movement and some of its consequences, discusses the motivations behind the movement, and examines whether it can be considered feminist. I conclude that the movement had both economic and ecological motivations as the villagers’ relationship to the forest was simultaneously pragmatic (material/economic) and rooted in a genuine desire to protect nature due to ‘deep ecology’ and spirituality. Moreover, I agree with Ramachandra Guha that it was neither feminist nor ecofeminist. However, the perceived reality of the Chipko movement as representing an “environmentalism of the poor” (Guha, 1989) and Shiva’s (1988) ecofeminist interpretation reified these ideas and had real implications in India and abroad.