Perceptions of Climate Change from North India

Aase J. Kvanneid is an anthropologist currently working as an associate professor of Global Development Studies at the University of Agder and as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Cultural Studies at the University of Oslo. Her main areas of research are the societal aspects of environmental and climate change, and she is currently researching the empirical embeddedness of sustainability and transcendental visions in Asia.

''In this sensitive, intimate ethnography, Aase J. Kvanneid approaches the compelling immediacy of global climate change from multiple perspectives gathered during fieldwork in a Himalayan foothill village. Her book illuminates diverse ways that local traditions and interpretations interact with outside expertise as human beings confront planetary crisis.''~ Ann Grodzins Gold, Emerita Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion and Professor of Anthropology, Syracuse University."India’s fundamental problem with climate change is also the world’s fundamental problem. Research tends to relegate the ordinary man and woman to a reductionist oblivion in which they become hapless victims, unable to see the larger picture or be agents of their own destiny. Kvanneid’s study helps us rethink this image, and this volume constitutes an important contribution to our collective conversation".~ Arild Engelsen Ruud, Professor of South Asia Studies and Head of Research at the South Asia Department at the University of Oslo."In this probing work, Aase J. Kvanneid offers a compelling and richly textured ethnography of climate change from a small village in the Shivalik Hills, India. The book powerfully weaves discussions about broader political-economic transformations alongside detailed accounts of people's everyday experience of ecological crisis in this marginalized region of South Asia. The beautiful and moving book provides a subtle and important contribution to the new anthropology of the Anthropocene, and is essential reading for everyone interested in the radical changes posed by the climate crisis in South Asia and beyond"~ Ursula Münster, Associate Professor and Director, Oslo School of Environmental Humanities, University of Oslo.

• Prologue Introduction Climate Change in IndiaA Scientifically Social Climate ChangeWriting Climate Change A Note on Methodology A Choice of Words and How They Flow References Endnotes Chapter 1: Climate Change Expressions Social Principles of Differentiation in Rani Mājri Class in Rani Mājri Caste in Rani Mājri Gender in Rani Mājri References Endnotes Chapter 2: Waterworn Becoming Rani Mājri: A Kuhl Story Time Beyond Living Memory Time Remembered Contemporary Rani Mājri Water-rights Unirrigated Development References Endnotes Chapter 3: Governing Awareness On Global-Local Gaps and Frictions Junctions Junction 1: Governing Bodies Junction 2: Governing Forest Junction 3: Governing Soil and Water Development TrajectoriesA History of Management Disconnected Development References EndnotesChapter 4: Divine Jurisdictions Deciduous Land Management Settled Deities Placeless Beings Auspicious Placemaking Negotiating Village Territories References Endnotes Chapter 5 Climate Identities Being Climate Change Aware Life in the "Greenery" Deprived of Science, Bestowed with Eco-Sensitivity? Climate Change as a Discourse References Endnotes Chapter 6: A Dance of Global Warming Environmental Retribution for the ‘Wrong’ Progress On Reductionism and Disempowerment Concluding Remarks References Endnotes