In the roots of east-central India, mainly in
Jharkhand, resides the Oraon tribe. Known to worship Sarna Mata, whom the tribe
considers as the Goddess of Earth; is believed to reside in sacred groves. The
groves typically consist of a cluster of primarily Sal trees, along with a few
other species. With constant degradation and degeneration of the groves, caused
due to neglect on the part of the tribe to conserve them; Sarna Mata is said to
have turned unhappy and dismayed.
According to belief, angered by the state of affairs,
Sarna Mata possesses a woman. As the woman she possesses whirls her head in a
hypnotic trance, Sarna Mata’s frustration towards the environmental situation
finds an outlet. After their trances, the women feeling a sense of connect with
the Goddess, are empowered to take religious and political assertions.
As time went by, these trances began to occur more
often, the women devotees took upon themselves to start preserving the groves
and gave rise to an eco-feminist movement in the forgotten interiors of India.
The movement is peculiar in its case as its origin is
from revival of spiritual devotion to the deity. Sarna devi is a pre-sanskritic
goddess and has long been understood as the female neighbour of the supreme
male deity.
Earlier, women of the tribe were not allowed to enter
the sacred groves. They were prohibited from participating in the ritualistic
worship of the sacred groves. Breaking the taboos and forming their own
rituals, today, the Sarna Mata female disciples conduct rituals in the groves
every week. The rituals are held every Thursday, where women devotees enact
acts of symbolism, which the women believe has instilled in them an
environmental consciousness. The rural women have been successful in acquiring
money from the government to build walls around the groves and have implemented
rules that prohibit anyone from cutting down trees. In fact, new saplings have
been planted that are blossoming under the women’s devotional care. Women have
come up with ingenious solutions to carry forward their forestation program.
Sal and Karam are the tree species that the women most commonly plant as they
have a link with the Adivasi myths and rituals. In order to protect the
saplings, the women have started planting Ipomoea hedges – a species that is
toxic to grazing animals. Women in the villages have come up with several
economical methods to protect the groves.
What is significant of the movement is that, groups of
women who care for the groves that are in every village cluster have
decided to move forward with more of such afforestation programs. Socio-economic
empowerment of women seems to be the foremost objective of the movement. Organizing
themselves into groups and forming self-help groups and NGOs, the women from
these villages have also taken to micro-enterprises such as sale of handicrafts
and other activities. One such group of Sarna Mata devotees has reportedly
achieved great success with their mushroom cultivation program. The Sarna
movement is also using the re-sanctifying of natural sites to reclaim the land
that was once used by marginalized communities.
Vandana Shiva, an environmental activist, claims that
a woman has a special connection with nature.
Her daily bread, fuel, fodders and home is obtained from nature and
hence she feels a stronger urge to protect it. With several rural women taking
the responsibility of saving the environment, India is seeing an emergence of
several tribal eco-feminist warriors.
