| Summary/Abstract |
Visible in the extant and deep depredations that rural India is experiencing are forms of malevolence. As agendas to promote nature conservation and agricultural productivity gain ground, these iconize the tiger and the tube well and mask the extent to which both are sources of counter-conservation and counter-productivity. Generating cruel distortions in the life-worlds of rural, marginalized communities, these iconic interventions trigger a disassembling of customary practices and knowledge, a resignification of symbolic complexes, and adversarial human-nature relations. Even as the tiger and the tube well are promoted by government agencies and agri-businesses, they render already vulnerable citizens, small and marginal cultivators, Adivasis and children, into sacrificial subjects, denying them citizenship rights and the conditions for life. The resulting malevolence threatens the ecological sustainability, economic viability, citizens’ safety, and overall well-being of India’s marginalized majority.
|