Ecofeminism in the Folded Earth: A Critical Study

Abstract

Ecofeminism is a critical framework that examines the interconnected structures of domination that oppress women and exploit the natural environment under patriarchal, capitalist, and colonial systems. Contemporary literature provides a fertile space for exploring these intersections through narrative, emotion, and embodied experience. The Folded Earth (2011) by Anuradha Roy is a significant work of Indian English fiction that foregrounds ecological fragility, gendered vulnerability, and ethical responsibility within the Himalayan landscape. Set in the hill town of Ranikhet, the novel portrays the lives of women, animals, and marginalized communities whose existence is inseparable from the land they inhabit. This paper undertakes a comprehensive ecofeminist reading of The Folded Earth, arguing that Roy’s narrative presents nature not as a passive background but as an active agent shaping memory, grief, identity, and resistance. Women’s bodies and emotional lives are shown to parallel the condition of the land—both subject to surveillance, exploitation, and silencing, yet also capable of endurance and renewal. Through an analysis of landscape, gendered labour, development politics, animal ethics, spiritual ecology, and postcolonial history, the study demonstrates how the novel articulates a relational ecological philosophy grounded in care rather than control. The paper concludes that The Folded Earth contributes significantly to ecofeminist literary discourse by revealing the inseparability of feminist justice and environmental sustainability in contemporary India.