Environmentalist, Philosopher
NAME – Vandana Shiva
PROFESSION– Scientist, Philosopher, Physicist, Writer, and Educator
BORN – 5/11/1952
PLACE OF BIRTH – Dehradun, Uttarakhand
FATHER’S NAME – N/A
MOTHER’S NAME – N/A
SPOUSE – Jayanta Bandopadhyaya ( divorced)
SIBLINGS – N/A
CHILDREN – N/A
EDUCATION –
She was educated at St. Mary’s Convent High School in Nainital
She graduated with bachelor of science ( Physics ) at Panjab University in Chandigarh
She has done Masters in the philosophy of science at the University of Guelph, Canada.
Received her Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Western Ontario
AWARDS –
Right Livelihood Award (1993)
Sydney Peace Prize (2010)
Mirodi Prize (2016)
Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize (2012)
BACKGROUND –
Vandana Shiva is an Indian scholar, environmental activist, food sovereignty advocate, ecofeminist, and anti-globalization author. She has authored more than 25 books. She is often referred as “Gandhi of grain” for her activism associated with the anti-GMO movement.
She is a top-notch physicist. During her Ph.D., she wrote a thesis titled “Hidden variables and locality in quantum theory” in which she discussed the mathematical and philosophical implications of hidden variable theories that fall outside of the purview of Bell’s theorem. While challenging unfair movements and monopolisation of seeds, she wrote many famous books.
Her first book, Staying Alive (1988), helped in changing the perceptions of third-world women. She examined the position of women in relation to nature – the forests, the food chain, and water supplies – and links the violation of nature with the violation and marginalization of women in the Third World.
She is a hardcore environmental activist. She does not budge to anyone while she gives her views about advances in the fields of agriculture and food. She have fought through her activist campaigns in the fields like Intellectual property rights, biotechnology, bioethics, and genetic engineering.
She has assisted grassroots organizations of the Green movement in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Austria to oppose the advances in agricultural development via genetic engineering. She founded the Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology in 1982 which led to the creation of Navdanya in 1991, a national movement to protect the diversity and integrity of living resources for the promotion of organic farming, and fair trade.
Later she challenged the biopiracy of neem, basmati, and wheat.
MAJOR INITIATIVES-
Shiva toiled continuously to promote biodiversity in agriculture to increase productivity, nutrition, farmer’s incomes, and her work was recognized as an ‘environmental hero’ by Time magazine in 2003. Her work on agriculture started in 1984 after the violence in Punjab and the gas leak in Bhopal from Union Carbide’s pesticide manufacturing plant.
SEED FREEDOM
Shiva supports the idea of seed freedom and rejects the idea of allowing corporate patents on seeds. She has campaigned against the implementation of the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement which had broaden the scope of patents to include life forms. Shiva has criticized the agreement that it only favors the corporate sector.
GOLDEN RICE
Golden rice is a variety of rice produced through genetic engineering to biosynthesize beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A, in the edible parts of rice. Shiva claims that Golden Rice is more harmful in her explanation of what she calls the “Golden Rice hoax”.
She explains that it will bring a further dispute to plant genetic engineering where public relations exercises seem to have replaced science in the promotion of untested, unproven, and unnecessary technology. She is against it because she thinks that it is a recipe for creating hunger and malnutrition, not solving it.
ECOFEMINISM
It is a philosophical and political theory and movement which combines ecological concerns with feminist ones resulting from male domination of society.
Shiva plays a major role in the global ecofeminist movement. According to her 2004 article “Empowering Women”, a more sustainable and productive approach to agriculture can be achieved by reinstating the system of farming in India that is more centered on engaging women.
RTI –
She filed an RTI to know how many seeds the Cotton Research Institute had released and why farmers are not buying it
ACTIVISM TIMELINE –
1982 -She founded the Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology.
1992- Ecofeminism
1994 – Seed Freedom
1998 – Shiva was also protesting against Bt cotton program in India, calling it “seeds of suicide, seeds of slavery, seeds of despair”, claiming she was protecting the farmers.
ARREST/DETENTION- N/A
CONTROVERSIES/CASES –
In 1999, ten thousand people were killed and millions became homeless when a cyclone hit India’s eastern coastal state of Orissa. US government donated grains and soy to help the victims of the disaster. In one of her interviews, Shiva claimed that the United States has been using the Orissa victims as guinea pigs for genetically engineered products.
They lead to a major discord between Michael Specter ( American Journalist ) and Vandana Shiva. She was accused of plagiarising other’s content and findings. Birendra Nayak alleged that Shiva copied verbatim from a 1996 article in Voice Gopalpur in her 1998 book “Stronger than Steel”, and that in 2016, she plagiarized several paragraphs of an article by S Faizi on the Plachimada/Coca-Cola issue published in The Statesman