ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the equation between nature, nation and gender in the nationalist context. Developing the argument that both nature and nation were feminised and deified as mother and mother goddess in the nationalist context, the chapter deploys feminist perspectives to critically examine this on a fourth axis science. By looking at the relationship of the scientist J. C. Bose to these categories, the chapter unravels the complex relationship of the Indian scientist to nation, nature, gender and science. It is argued that due to being a sakta, Bose had a symbiotic relationship to nature, and consequently to science, thereby presenting an ‘alternative’ to Western modes of relating to science and nature. The chapter submits that this alternative was cast in patriarchal constructions of both science and nature and views the associations of mother with nation and nature within larger feminist critiques of science. It argues that while these sleeping metaphors set an alternative paradigm to the Western modes of relating to nature through science, they reproduced patriarchal constructions of the same. This chapter is an effort at grafting feminist perspectives on (a) science and (b) nationalism with post-colonial perspectives on science and modernity.
