Hydropower, Anti-Politics, and the Opening of New Political Spaces in the Eastern Himalayas

Huber, Amelie; Joshi, Deepa

doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.06.006

Cited by 78 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Indigenous communities are one of the most mobilized and impacted groups, due to the large amount of indigenous territories in old and new extraction frontiers of hydropower (Fearnside, 2015;Huber and Joshi, 2015). Almost all large dams in the Philippines were proposed or finally built on indigenous territory (WCD 2000).…”

Section: Groups Mobilized In Dams Conflictsmentioning

confidence: 99%

More dams, more violence? A global analysis on resistances and repression around conflictive dams through co-produced knowledge

2018

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The present article analyses a unique database of 220 dam related environmental conflicts, retrieved from the Global Atlas on Environmental Justice (EJAtlas), and based on knowledge co-production between academics and activists. Despite well-known controversial social and environmental impacts of dams, efforts to increase renewable energy generation have reinstated the interest into hydropower development globally. People affected by dams have largely denounced such 'unsustainabilities' through collective non-violent actions. Nevertheless, we found that repression, criminalization, violent targeting of activists and assassinations are recurrent features of conflictive dams. Violent repression is particularly high when indigenous people are involved. Indirect forms of violence are also analyzed through socio-economic, environmental, and health impacts. We argue that increasing repression of the opposition against unwanted energy infrastructures does not only serve to curb specific protest actions, but also aims to delegitimize and undermine differing understanding of sustainability, epistemologies, and world-views. This analysis cautions that allegedly sustainable renewables such as hydropower often replicates patterns of violence within a frame of an 'extractivism of renewables'. We finally suggest that co-production of knowledge between scientists, activists, and communities should be largely encouraged in order to investigate sensitive and contentious topics in sustainability studies.

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Section: Groups Mobilized In Dams Conflictsmentioning

confidence: 99%

More dams, more violence? A global analysis on resistances and repression around conflictive dams through co-produced knowledge

2018

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“…The push for hydropower development in the north-eastern region of India (see Figure 1) by both Central and State Governments, have made these developments highly conflict prone [1,3,4]. Several major contentious projects (such as the 520 MW Teesta Stage IV, 500 MW Teesta Stage VI and 300 MW Panam in Sikkim; the 2000 MW Subansari Lower HEP in Assam; the 1500 Tipaimukh Dam in Tripura; the 2880 MW Dibang Multipurpose Project and Tawang I & II in Arunachal Pradesh, etcetera) have been stalled, delayed or are waiting for clearance across Northeast India [5][6][7][8], often characterized by prolonged struggles between dam opponents and proponents. Yet, become highly politicized, as they are often the means to coerce divided communities into a collective front or unity, which is nonetheless "agonistic".…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Academic studies in various disciplines discuss how identity triggers collective action or vice versa [17][18][19][20][21][22]. Many scholars argue that within a maze of identity(ies) experienced by individuals and/or groups, there is a "specific" identity which is key to enabling collective action and/or that place (or territory) and identity [23,24] are closely intertwined in protecting and strengthening cultural values, norms, shared interests and traditional territories (e.g., [25][26][27], see also [8,28,29]). In other words, territories or places are key markers of identity [30][31][32].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contesting Hydropower Dams in the Eastern Himalaya: The Cultural Politics of Identity, Territory and Self-Governance Institutions in Sikkim, India

Dukpa

Joshi

Boelens

2019

Water

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In India’s Eastern Himalayan State of Sikkim, the indigenous Bhutia communities, Lachungpas and Lachenpas, successfully contested all proposed hydropower projects and have managed to sustain an anti-dam opposition in their home regions, Lachung and Lachen. In this paper, we discuss this remarkable, un-researched, effective collective action against hydropower development, examining how identity and territory influence collective action through production, creation and application of vernacular knowledge systems. The role of the Dzumsa, a prevailing traditional system of self-governance among the Lachungpas and Lachenpas, has been central in their collective resistance against large dams in Lachung and Lachen. Our findings show that contrary to popular imageries, the Dzumsa is neither an egalitarian nor a democratic institution—rather, it is an exercise of an “agonistic unity”. The Dzumsas operate as complex collectives, which serve to politicize identity, decision-making and place-based territoriality in their struggle against internal and external threats. Principles of a “vernacular statecraft” helped bringing the local communities together in imperfect unions to oppose modernist designs of hydropower development. However, while such vernacular institutions were able to construct a powerful local adversary to neoliberal agendas, they also pose high social, political and emotional risks to the few within the community, who chose not to align with the normative principles of the collective.

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“…He thinks that the village should take over the project and he would work for them instead. Fear of retribution by developers or the government was also noted in a study of HEP projects in Sikkim state in Northeast India [37].…”

Section: Impacts Observed In Chani Village Agunda-thati Hep Area Desmentioning

confidence: 82%

Re-Linking Governance of Energy with Livelihoods and Irrigation in Uttarakhand, India

Buechler

Sen²,

Khandekar

et al. 2016

Water

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Abstract:Hydropower is often termed "green energy" and proffered as an alternative to polluting coal-generated electricity for burgeoning cities and energy-insecure rural areas. India is the third largest coal producer in the world; it is projected to be the largest coal consumer by 2050. In the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, India, over 450 hydroelectric power schemes are proposed or are under development. Hydropower projects ranging from micro hydro (run-of-the-river systems with generating capacity up to 100 kW) to large reservoirs (storage systems up to 2000 MW) such as the Tehri Dam are in various stages of planning, construction or implementation. Run-of-the-river hydropower projects are being developed in Uttarakhand in order to avoid some of the costs to local communities created by large dams. Stakeholders in this rapid hydropower expansion include multiple actors with often diverging sets of interests. The resulting governance challenges are centered on tradeoffs between local electricity and revenue from the sale of hydropower, on the one hand, and the impacts on small-scale irrigation systems, riparian-corridor ecosystem services, and other natural resource-based livelihoods, on the other. We focus on the Bhilangana river basin, where water dependent livelihoods differentiated by gender include farming, fishing, livestock rearing and fodder collection. We examine the contradictions inherent in hydropower governance based on the interests of local residents and other stakeholders including hydropower developers, urban and other regional electricity users, and state-level policymakers. We use a social justice approach applied to hydropower projects to examine some of the negative impacts, especially by location and gender, of these projects on local communities and then identify strategies that can safeguard or enhance livelihoods of women, youth, and men in areas with hydropower projects, while also maintaining critical ecosystem services. By assessing the Bhilangana basin case, we also offer hydropower-livelihoods-irrigation nexus lessons for headwater regions across the Himalayas and globally.

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Hydropower, Anti-Politics, and the Opening of New Political Spaces in the Eastern Himalayas

Cited by 78 publications

References 29 publications

More dams, more violence? A global analysis on resistances and repression around conflictive dams through co-produced knowledge

More dams, more violence? A global analysis on resistances and repression around conflictive dams through co-produced knowledge

Contesting Hydropower Dams in the Eastern Himalaya: The Cultural Politics of Identity, Territory and Self-Governance Institutions in Sikkim, India

Re-Linking Governance of Energy with Livelihoods and Irrigation in Uttarakhand, India

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