Tag: Environmental justice

Living with Oil and Coal: Resource Politics and Militarization in Northeast India

By Dolly Kikon

Photo: Dexter Fernandes

The nineteenth-century discovery of oil in the eastern Himalayan foothills, together with the establishment of tea plantations and other extractive industries, continues to have a profound impact on life in the region. In the Indian states of Assam and Nagaland, everyday militarization, violence, and the scramble for natural resources regulate the lives of Naga, Ahom, and Adivasi people, as well as migrants from elsewhere in the region, as they struggle to find peace and work.

Anthropologist Dolly Kikon uses in-depth ethnographic accounts to address the complexity of Northeast India, a region where boundaries and borders are made, disputed, and maintained. She mainly explores the social bonds established through practices of resource extraction and the tensions these relations generate, focusing on peoples’ love for the landscape and for the state, as well as for family, friends, and neighbors. Living with Oil and Coal illuminates questions of citizenship, social justice, and environmental politics that are shared by communities worldwide.

Read the book here.

Ashish Kothari

Image: By A. Kothari, “A touching moment with a Bonnet macaque baby”, Athirapally Falls, Kerala, Nov 2023.

Ashish Kothari is, in his words, “an Indian environmentalist working on development”, passionate about the environment and wildlife. In 1978-79, he helped found Kalpavriksh, a non-profit organisation in India which deals with environmental and development issues. From that time onwards, he has been associated with peoples’ movements like Narmada Bachao Andolan and Beej Bachao Andolan. He also helps coordinate national and global networks like Vikalp Sangam and Global Tapestry of Alternatives, and has been a member of different international commissions on environmental protection.

Kothari is the author/co-author and co-editor of about 30 books, and writer/co-writer of about 600 articles, most of which are available on his blog. He worked on a plethora of topics, including biodiversity, energy and climate, education, COVID-19, and social justice – complementing them with a wide range of artworks.

Explore Kothari’s works on his blog here.

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