Who gets watered—and who gets scorched?
From plants to people, the language of “weeds” reveals how power works quietly through naming, exclusion, and control.
A reflection on belonging, order, and resistance.
Potted Plants and Weeds: Power, Belonging, and the Violence of Order
I have been emotionally drafting this blog post at the back of my mind ever since I came across a Facebook post on a seminar on seaweeds by Prof. A. Biju Kumar, Hon’ble Vice Chancellor, KUFOS, Keralam.
But what lingered was not the seminar.
It was a word.
“Weeds.”
A word that appears harmless.
A word that we use without thinking.
A word that quietly carries a politics of life and death.
What Is a Weed—Really?
The term “weed” immediately produces a familiar image:
unwanted
parasitic
useless
disruptive
Traditionally, weeds are defined as:
“herbaceous plant[s], not valued for use or beauty, growing wild and rank, and regarded as cumbering the ground or hindering the growth of superior vegetation” (Harlan, 2012).
But look carefully.
This is not a definition of a plant.
It is a definition of value.
A weed is not something that is.
It is something that has been judged.
The Secret Power of Weeds
If we suspend our judgment and look at weeds biologically, something extraordinary appears.
Weeds are not weak.
They are hyper-capable.
They produce hundreds of thousands of seeds
They disperse through wind, animals, water
They reproduce underground through rhizomes
Their seeds can lie dormant for more than five years
They germinate strategically—not all at once
They are:
adaptive
resilient
mobile
intelligent in their timing
They thrive in uncertainty.
They flourish in disruption.
And this is precisely what unsettles us.
The Anxiety of Control
The anxiety around weeds is not really about plants.
It is about control.
Weeds violate a deeply human logic — especially a capitalist one:
optimize time
maximize productivity
regulate growth
eliminate excess
Weeds do the opposite.
They grow too fast.
They spread too far.
They exceed expectation.
They sabotage the fantasy that the world can be neatly ordered for human benefit.
The Language of Threat
To manage this discomfort, we turn to language.
We call weeds:
invasive
alien
out of place
threat
These are not innocent words.
They belong to a vocabulary of:
war
discipline
exclusion
The term “invasive” itself carries a powerful implication:
something foreign that has intruded into an established community.
In ecological studies, invasive species are seen as:
“disturbances… that may upset the ‘normal’ workings of a biotic community.”
But what is “normal”?
And who defines it?
As scholars in cultural geography and political ecology remind us:
“the idea that a species does not belong is not a matter of empirical fact… but… largely a function of ideological convictions about what is (or even might be) natural.”
In other words, belonging is not discovered—it is declared.
When Ecology Becomes Social Theory
At this point, the discussion shifts.
Because the language of weeds begins to resemble the language used in the human world.
Particularly in systems of power.
The World of Potted Plants
Every institution—whether it is:
a university
a workplace
a bureaucracy
a political system
— has its own ecology.
And within this ecology, two kinds of life are carefully produced.
1. The Potted Plants
These are:
well-contained
carefully maintained
aesthetically pleasing
predictable
They:
follow rules
do not disrupt
align with institutional expectations
reproduce the system as it is
They are watered.
Protected.
Displayed.
They are the ideal subjects of power.
2. The Weeds
And then there are the others.
Those who:
ask uncomfortable questions
refuse compliance
challenge hierarchy
exceed prescribed roles
They are labelled:
difficult
disruptive
unprofessional
“out of place”
Their presence is not managed—it is contained, cut, or erased.
How Power Works Quietly
Power does not always operate through visible punishment.
It works through:
exclusion from opportunities
denial of recognition
subtle delegitimization
silent prohibition
No official order is issued.
But doors close.
Spaces shrink.
Visibility disappears.
This is how weeds are scorched — not always violently, but systematically.
Social Examples: Recognizing the Pattern
This logic is everywhere.
In academic spaces:
Students who conform are rewarded
Those who question structures are marked as “problematic”
In workplaces:
Employees who maintain hierarchy are promoted
Those who resist exploitation are isolated
In gendered spaces:
Women who comply with norms are celebrated
Women who express anger are labelled excessive
In caste society:
Dalit assertion is often seen as “aggressive” or “out of line”
Silence is rewarded; resistance is punished
In all these cases, the pattern is the same:
Potted plants are nurtured.
Weeds are disciplined.
The Moral Code of Order
The discourse of weeds reveals a deeper moral framework.
A world obsessed with:
discipline
purity
proper order
The vocabulary of ecology — pollution, threat, invasion — mirrors the language of:
caste exclusion
racial hierarchies
anti-immigrant politics
Those who see themselves as guardians of order deploy:
war metaphors
cleansing narratives
elimination strategies
And when elimination fails, something more subtle emerges:
invisible prohibition.
A marking of certain lives as:
undesirable
excessive
illegitimate
The Violence of Categorization
At the heart of all this lies a simple act:
naming.
To call something a weed is to:
deny its value
question its belonging
justify its removal
But as we are reminded:
“A weed is a plant not valued for utility or beauty, but it is not a historically stable category…”
Usefulness is unstable.
Beauty is unstable.
Value is unstable.
What we call a weed today may be essential tomorrow.
Progress and Its Dark Twin
Paul Virilio captures the paradox of human systems:
“When you invent the ship, you also invent the shipwreck… Every technology carries its own negativity” (Virilio, 1999).
Every system produces its own failure.
Every order produces its own excess.
Weeds are not anomalies.
They are the shadow of control itself.
Rethinking Invasion, Rethinking Belonging
If the category of “invasive” is socially constructed, then we must ask:
What are we really defending?
Nature?
Or a particular idea of order?
Recent work in political ecology urges us to:
unsettle dominant narratives
recognize multiple ways of worlding
move beyond elimination toward coexistence
This requires:
acknowledging harmful relationships
committing to repair
rethinking balance
The Final Question
And so we arrive at the most unsettling question of all:
Who decides what belongs?
In ecosystems.
In institutions.
In society.
And what happens when those labelled as “weeds” refuse to disappear?
A Closing Thought
Weeds are not just plants.
They are a theory of power.
They reveal how systems operate:
by naming
by classifying
by excluding
But they also reveal something else.
Life does not submit easily.
It grows.
It spreads.
It returns.
Perhaps the real question is not:
Why do weeds exist?
But:
Why do systems of power fear what cannot be contained?
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