ZOOM LINK: https://zoom.us/j/95474332747?pwd=MkQwVUl1dllyUDNsalVZSW81aHdTUT09

MEETING ID: 954 7433 2747
PASSCODE: 193623

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Mitul Baruah is an Assistant Professor of Sociology & Anthropology and Environmental Studies at Ashoka University, Haryana. He has a PhD with Distinction in Geography from Syracuse University and an MS in Environmental Studies from the College of Environmental Science and Forestry, State University of New York where he was a Ford Foundation International Fellow. Prior to this, he did an MSW from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai with a specialization in Urban and Rural Community Development, following which he worked for several years with the Foundation for Ecological Security, Udaipur as a Team Leader.
Mitul’s research interests include political ecology, water and river governance, hazards and disaster, agrarian studies, island studies, and climate change. Currently, he is making a documentary film on everyday life of the riverine communities in Assam in the context of climate change.

SESSION SUMMARY:

This talk presents a political ecological account of the making and unmaking of the Brahmaputra valley, Assam by centering disaster and vulnerability. It draws on ethnographic research conducted in Majuli river island, one of the largest river islands in the world, located in the middle of the Brahmaputra. Over the years, the Majuli landscape has undergone significant transformations due to the twin processes of flooding and riverbank erosion. The island’s landmass has reduced to less than half in the course of the twentieth century, resulting in large-scale displacement, outmigration, and loss of local livelihoods.
However, these transformations have been slow and incremental, thus often going unnoticed. This talk presents a theory of “slow disaster.” In doing so, it engages with three interrelated issues: the role of the state in the production of disaster and vulnerability, political ecologies of rural livelihoods in disastrous geographies, and the politics of resistance among disaster-affected people. The story ofMajuli is emblematic of the environmental crises facing the Brahmaputra valley as a whole.