International Research Journal of Education and Technology

Ecofeminism has played a transformative role in environmental humanities by foregrounding the interconnected oppression of women and nature under patriarchal and capitalist systems. Within the Indian intellectual tradition, the ecofeminist writings of Vandana Shiva have been particularly influential in conceptualizing ecological sustainability through women’s subsistence labour, biodiversity conservation, and resistance to industrial development. Yet ecofeminism’s formulation of a universal women–nature relationship often overlooks caste as a decisive axis structuring environmental experience. Dalit feminist scholarship, especially in the work of Sharmila Rege, challenges this universalism by foregrounding caste as a material and epistemological determinant shaping gender, labour, and ecological access.

This paper develops the concept of casteed ecologies as a literary and theoretical framework that understands ecology itself as organized through caste hierarchy. Through a critical reading of Shiva’s ecofeminist texts alongside Rege’s Dalit feminist writings, the study demonstrates that environmental relations in India are inseparable from Brahmanical patriarchy. While ecofeminism frequently spiritualizes nature through symbolic and mythic imagery, Dalit feminist discourse materializes ecology through testimonial narratives, embodied labour, and experiences of exclusion. The paper argues that casteed ecologies reveal how environmental injustice is produced through historical arrangements of purity, pollution, spatial segregation, and caste-based labour. By integrating ecofeminist ecological critique with Dalit feminist standpoint theory, this research proposes a Dalit ecofeminist framework that redefines environmental justice as inseparable from anti-caste politics and social equality.

Keywords

Casteed Ecologies, Ecofeminism, Dalit Feminism, Environmental Humanities, Vandana Shiva, Sharmila Rege, Brahmanical Patriarchy, Environmental Justice.