This book presents a fascinating, ethnographic account of the challenges faced by communities living in Majuli, India, one of the largest river islands in the world, which has experienced immense socio-environmental transformations over the years, processes that are emblematic of the Brahmaputra Valley as a whole.
Written in an engaging style, full of the author's insider perspectives, this insightful volume explores the processes of flooding and riverbank erosion in Majuli, including re-configuration of the island’s geographies, loss of local livelihoods, and large-scale displacement of the population. The book begins with an examination of the physical geography of Majuli and its ecological complexities, leading to discussion on the role of the state in water governance and hazard management, as well as popular resistance by the rural communities on the island. The book focuses on livelihoods as a way of offering economic context to living in challenging environmental conditions and examines the interactions between the state and a whole host of non-state actors, and the everyday, arbitrary functioning of the bureaucracy in a hazardscape.
This volume is an invaluable resource for scholars interested in political ecology of hazards and vulnerability, water and hydraulic infrastructure, rural livelihoods and agrarian questions, state theorizations, island studies, and resistance and social movements, as well as those with an interest in northeast India more generally across various disciplines.
Author(s): Mitul Baruah
Series: Routledge Studies in Hazards, Disaster Risk and Climate
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 170
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
List of figures
List of tables
Acknowledgments
List of abbreviations
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Slow disaster
1.2 Popular resistance
1.3 The research processes
1.4 Navigating the field: The insider/outsider dilemma
1.5 The election season and fieldwork
1.5.1 Field notes: September 23, 2013
1.6 Outline
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 2: The making and unmaking of Majuli
Becoming an island
The slow disaster of flood and riverbank erosion
The vanishing geographies of Majuli’s wetlands
Of displacement, outmigration, and rehabilitation
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 3: The disastrous state
A brief history of flood control and riverbank protection in Assam
Flood control and the protection of riverbanks in Majuli
Infrastructure-induced vulnerability in Majuli
Decoding the disastrous state
Beyond accumulation of capital
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 4: Livelihoods, ruined
The agrarian crisis
Beyond landholding
The crises in the fishery sector
The decline of the pottery industry
Constructing a new landscape of livelihoods
Livelihood diversification
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 5: The unquiet island
Rethinking petitions as a form of protest
Of popular struggles: Cases from two riverside villages
Everyday resistance
Rituals as resistance
The hidden transcripts
On the absence of a mass movement in Majuli: Some preliminary thoughts
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 6: Afterword: Between despair and hope
The 2016 election and after
Thinking like a chapori
Notes
Index
