Politics of the Anthropocene and Climate Crisis in India: Seeking Socio-Ecological Transformations

This book focuses on the complex and contested nature of transformation in India, from a social and political ecology perspective.

Given that the age of Anthropocene is increasingly threatening to undermine the present world order, the countries in the Global South are at the forefront of debates on transformations. By examining issues pertaining to land, labour, and urbanisation from an interdisciplinary perspective, the chapters in this book break down the notion of the Anthropocene into useful analytical categories that represent both the disruptive and constructive natures of the transformation debate. Drawing on empirical research, each author focuses on a particular state or region in the East Coast, East, and Northeast of India to show how states and communities seek transformation sometimes in competition and/or contestation with each other. The authors in this volume illustrate that although all stakeholders seek transformation, their ideas and discourses nevertheless reflect their situated ethics and unique knowledges of their local, regional, and national contexts.

Politics of the Anthropocene and Climate Crisis in India will be of interest to students of environmental politics, environmental sociology, political ecology, and South Asian studies more broadly.

Purendra Prasad is the Fulbright-Nehru Visiting Chair in the School of Public Policy at University of Massachusetts Amherst and Professor of Sociology at the University of Hyderabad, India. Prasad’s research spans critical agrarian studies, environmental studies, political economy of health and development, and urban studies. As part of a multi-country project, his recent work investigates wealth accumulation and the role of business elites in India. His latest book is Equity and Access: Health Care Studies in India (Oxford University Press, 2018).

Lalatendu Keshari Das is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India. His area of research spans agrarian studies, gender studies, political ecology. His recent work looks at the practices of organic and natural farming in the Eastern Ghats of Odisha, India. Lalatendu is the recipient of Development in Practice Practitioner and Early Career Researcher Prize for 2024.