Rereading Nature, Reproduction and Motherhood: Towards an Alternative to Development

RE-READING NATURE, REPRODUCTION ANDMOTHERHOOD: TOWARDS AN ALTERNATIVETO DEVELOPMENT M S Sreerekha This paper is an attempt to critically look at some of the important debates within feminist debates on ecofeminism, by specically focussing on different schools of feminist critiques of development,and these include socialist feminists to eco-feminists. It is wellacknowledged that the concept of femininity and motherhood and its dened relationship with nature has played an important role in feminist critiques of development. And the nature/culture binaryin western theories of knowledge has had an important role incontributing to this relationship. However, Feminist epistemologieshave debated for long the origin and history of binaries in westerntheories of knowledge and its contribution to the concept andpolitics of development. Feminist critiques of development havecontributed important fundamental challenges to the nature/culture binary and also to the production/reproduction binary,which provided an in depth understanding and critique of thenorm and normality around nature and the ‘human’ nature.Feminist critiques of development in general took the position thatthe failures of development established a clear connection betweenecological crisis and capitalist growth. The paper argues that thechallenges raised by categories of race, caste and class are onceagain extremely relevant in contemporary times in order to bringany meaningful changes towards rereading nature/culture binaryor relationship and its impact of the politics around reproductionand motherhood which are fundamental to any ideas and thoughtstowards rethinking development.