Patriarchy and Environmental Precarity: An Ecofeminist Study of Tishani Doshi’s Poetry

Doshi's poems explore the climate and bodies of women who are subjected to analogous forms of violence, erosion, and silence. This research article argues that Tishani Doshi's poetry challenges idealised images of nature and femininity, unveiling how women and the environment are abused under the hierarchy of patriarchy and capitalist structure in India. By applying the ecofeminist thought of Vandana Shiva, Val Plumwood, and Ariel Salleh, this paper presents that Doshi's treatment of nature is far more critical than mere sentimentalism. She understands the exploitation of nature to be structural and cyclical, rather than incidental. In this relation, the fortified language of Doshi's poems is steeped with rhythm and imagery that protest the convergence of economic, gendered, and colonial violence exercised upon the land, and more significantly upon women. The positive side of this convergence, however, is that the language encapsulates layers of resistance: the memory of the oppressed and the solidarity and love of the women. Consequently, Doshi's poems highlight that the reclamation of nature and gender justice is a simultaneous and inseparable process that requires a disintegration of the controlling logic that renders both women and nature disposable.