©ARC Page | 135 Tarnishing the Purity of Nature = Defloration of Woman: Analyzing Interconnections between Nature and Women in

Abstract: Eco-feminism regards the oppression of women and nature as interconnected and combines the philosophy of feminism with the principles of ecology and environmental ethics. It asserts that all forms of oppression are connected and that structures of oppression must be addressed in their totality. Oppression of the natural world and of women by patriarchal power structures must be examined together. In the first section of the present paper, I shall try to analyze the interconnections between the status of women and the status of non-human nature based on four central claims viz. the oppression of women and the oppression of nature are interconnected; these connections must be uncovered in order to understand both the oppression of women and the oppression of nature; feminist analysis must include ecological insights; and a feminist perspective must be a part of any proposed ecological solutions. The second segment of the paper aims to foreground the eco-feminists issues presented in the poems of Temsula Ao, one of the most formidable poetic voices from Northeast India