Gorky Chakraborty – författare

Northeast India, apart from being the rainiest in India, is drained by two large river systems of the world – the Brahmaputra and the Barak (Meghna) – both transnational rivers cutting across bordering countries. The region, known for its rich water resources, has been witnessing an increasing number of conflicts related to water in recent years.This volume documents the multifaceted conflicts and contestations around water in Northeast India, analyses their causes and consequences, and includes expert recommendations. It fills a major gap in the subject by examining wide-ranging issues such as cultural and anthropological dimensions of damming rivers in the Northeast and Eastern Himalayas; seismic surveys, oil extractions, and water conflicts; discontent over water quality and drinking water; floods, river bank erosion, embankments; water policy; transboundary water conflicts; and hydropower development. It also discusses the alleged Chinese efforts to divert the Brahmaputra River.With its analytical and comprehensive coverage, 18 case studies, and suggested approaches for conflict resolution, this book will be indispensable for scholars and researchers of development studies, governance and public policy, politics and international relations, water resources, environment, geography, climate change, area studies, economics, and sociology. It will also be an important resource for policymakers, bureaucrats, development practitioners, civil society groups, the judiciary, and media.

This book engages with evolving definitions of borders and citizenship in the public discourse in the South Asia region. The traditional understanding of citizenship and belonging in the Indian context has been fraying in recent decades. The book offers an analysis of discussions on India’s contested zones, the anxieties around identity and the implications of and reactions to the National Register of Citizens and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in different regions in the country. It interrogates the concepts of belonging, ownership and dissent through an analysis of the anti-CAA protests, the Namasudra movements, the life of Tibetan refugees in India and the precarious lives of many communities in India who are identified as stateless, refugees, migrants or outsiders. Interdisciplinary and topical, this book will be of interest to students and researchers of sociology, political science, law, refugee studies, borderland studies, migration studies, public policy, social policy and development studies.

This book engages with evolving definitions of borders and citizenship in the public discourse in the South Asia region. The traditional understanding of citizenship and belonging in the Indian context has been fraying in recent decades. The book offers an analysis of discussions on India’s contested zones, the anxieties around identity and the implications of and reactions to the National Register of Citizens and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in different regions in the country. It interrogates the concepts of belonging, ownership and dissent through an analysis of the anti-CAA protests, the Namasudra movements, the life of Tibetan refugees in India and the precarious lives of many communities in India who are identified as stateless, refugees, migrants or outsiders. Interdisciplinary and topical, this book will be of interest to students and researchers of sociology, political science, law, refugee studies, borderland studies, migration studies, public policy, social policy and development studies.

What is knowledge, and ignorance? How is it decided? Do power and power relations influence this process? Does the spread of knowledge lead to more ignorance? Is ignorance socially produced? Is knowledge always socially contextualized? This book deals with these important questions on the interplay of knowledge, ignorance and power located in varied contexts in India.As systematic knowledge grows, so does the possibility of ignorance. Ignorance is a state which people attribute to others and is loaded with moral judgment. Thus, being underdeveloped often ‘implies a kind of stupidity or failure’. This volume seeks to be premised in a framework where ignorance is understood as being a socially produced and maintained phenomenon, where the ways of knowing and not knowing are interdependent. It is a novel attempt for an academic re-orientation of the Knowledge–Ignorance paradigm through a process of re-interpretation of the bounded purview attached with the existing epistemological understandings. It focuses on concrete case studies, often with an ethnographic stint. The volume critically looks at various aspects: Epistemological Issues; Understanding Community Perspectives and the State; Natural Resources, Power and Ignorance; Media and Production of Non-Knowledge; and other emerging areas. Each essay bears a striking similarity – that of understanding the complex processes and dynamics of the production of ignorance in a field of commonly held beliefs of 'knowledge' - be it scientific, societal, religious, magical or political - through the overarching realm of power.This interdisciplinary volume will be of interest to a cross-section of academics and students of sociology, social anthropology, political science, human geography, history, public policy and development studies.

This book sketches a road map of privatisation, accumulation and dispossession of communal land in the tribal areas of North East India from pre-colonial times to the neo-liberal era.Spread over five chapters, this study unfolds the privatisation of communal land in the backdrop of a larger theoretical and historical canvas. It deals with the different institutional modes of privatisation, accumulation and dispossession of communal land, the changes in land use and cropping patterns, the changes in land relations and the land-based identity of the tribal community as a result. The conclusive chapter makes a broader reflection of the grand narrative of privatisation, accumulation and dispossession of communal land in North East India.This title is co-published with Aakar Books. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)

This book sketches a road map of privatisation, accumulation and dispossession of communal land in the tribal areas of North East India from pre-colonial times to the neo-liberal era.Spread over five chapters, this study unfolds the privatisation of communal land in the backdrop of a larger theoretical and historical canvas. It deals with the different institutional modes of privatisation, accumulation and dispossession of communal land, the changes in land use and cropping patterns, the changes in land relations and the land-based identity of the tribal community as a result. The conclusive chapter makes a broader reflection of the grand narrative of privatisation, accumulation and dispossession of communal land in North East India.This title is co-published with Aakar Books. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)

What is knowledge, and ignorance? How is it decided? Do power and power relations influence this process? Does the spread of knowledge lead to more ignorance? Is ignorance socially produced? Is knowledge always socially contextualized? This book deals with these important questions on the interplay of knowledge, ignorance and power located in varied contexts in India.As systematic knowledge grows, so does the possibility of ignorance. Ignorance is a state which people attribute to others and is loaded with moral judgment. Thus, being underdeveloped often ‘implies a kind of stupidity or failure’. This volume seeks to be premised in a framework where ignorance is understood as being a socially produced and maintained phenomenon, where the ways of knowing and not knowing are interdependent. It is a novel attempt for an academic re-orientation of the Knowledge–Ignorance paradigm through a process of re-interpretation of the bounded purview attached with the existing epistemological understandings. It focuses on concrete case studies, often with an ethnographic stint. The volume critically looks at various aspects: Epistemological Issues; Understanding Community Perspectives and the State; Natural Resources, Power and Ignorance; Media and Production of Non-Knowledge; and other emerging areas. Each essay bears a striking similarity – that of understanding the complex processes and dynamics of the production of ignorance in a field of commonly held beliefs of 'knowledge' - be it scientific, societal, religious, magical or political - through the overarching realm of power.This interdisciplinary volume will be of interest to a cross-section of academics and students of sociology, social anthropology, political science, human geography, history, public policy and development studies.

Northeast India, apart from being the rainiest in India, is drained by two large river systems of the world – the Brahmaputra and the Barak (Meghna) – both transnational rivers cutting across bordering countries. The region, known for its rich water resources, has been witnessing an increasing number of conflicts related to water in recent years.This volume documents the multifaceted conflicts and contestations around water in Northeast India, analyses their causes and consequences, and includes expert recommendations. It fills a major gap in the subject by examining wide-ranging issues such as cultural and anthropological dimensions of damming rivers in the Northeast and Eastern Himalayas; seismic surveys, oil extractions, and water conflicts; discontent over water quality and drinking water; floods, river bank erosion, embankments; water policy; transboundary water conflicts; and hydropower development. It also discusses the alleged Chinese efforts to divert the Brahmaputra River.With its analytical and comprehensive coverage, 18 case studies, and suggested approaches for conflict resolution, this book will be indispensable for scholars and researchers of development studies, governance and public policy, politics and international relations, water resources, environment, geography, climate change, area studies, economics, and sociology. It will also be an important resource for policymakers, bureaucrats, development practitioners, civil society groups, the judiciary, and media.

This volume presents cutting-edge research on India's Northeast region relating to borders, material mobilities, contested identities, and economic and political dynamics.