School of Social and Political Science

Description

Over the past decades, the Himalayas have witnessed an unprecedented scale of anthropogenic interventions – primarily hydro project infrastructure increasingly foiled in the language of ‘green’ development. These are usually multiscale projects involving various stakeholders that operationalise the bureaucratic language of ‘transition’ and ‘sustainability’. The considerable conglomerate is part of these projects that help them realise cost analysis. However, as proposed in this paper, it introduces new and unique changes to the physical landscape and to shared ecological sociality. This shared ecological sociality emerges in places and contexts where humans forge longstanding relationships with the natural landscape, the non-human kins – evoking a sense of loss and reign of fear that permeates when a change is introduced. The disaster in the fragile landscape of the Himalayas is deepened by the intertwined effect of the climate crisis and anthropogenic intervention – where ecological sociality suffers a long-term impairment.  This paper weaves together narratives of loss from the Himalayan disaster in Uttarakhand to situate how hydro companies seek immunity through the nefarious use of compensation and memorials. It captures the unsettling and often long-term impact of disasters interspersed with complicated migration, labour, and caste histories. By drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted at various periods between 2021-2023 and through an engagement with emergent scholarship within the region, this paper argues that the emergent crisis of climate change cannot be removed from the localised, place-based anthropogenic intervention, which often cascades the intensity and scale of disaster. Furthermore, the detailed narratives of loss help situate the complex web of shared vulnerability – tied intimately to techno-managerial language that hides the shared ecological sociality. 

The session will be chaired by Prof. Mihaela Mihai, Politics, University of Edinburgh. 

Full details of the talk will be announced shortly.